Doctor Who season 13 has been given an official title and a premiere date on a major holiday. Season 13 of the series will be the final traditional season for star Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor and the final for showrunner Chris Chibnall. The series will lead into a series of specials before Whittaker’s last episode before she regenerates into a new Doctor, who has yet to be cast.
Whittaker’s final season of Doctor Who has been teased over the past year. Two of her previous companions left at the end of her New Year’s Day special and various plotlines have been introduced in her tenure, including the Timeless Child and the destruction of the Time Lords once more. Unlike previous seasons, this one season will tell one over-arcing story more akin to a mini-series. Various villains are set to return including the Weeping Angels and the Sontarans, yet no word on iconic villains like the Dalek, The Cybermen, or the Master who have all battled Whittaker’s Doctor previously.
According to Collider, Doctor Who season 13 will be titled Doctor Who: Flux and will premiere on October 31, 2021. This will mark the first time the series has premiered on Halloween day. With six episodes confirmed for the upcoming season, it means the final episode of Doctor Who: Flux is likely to air on December 5, 2021, if there are no delays in the schedule.
While no Doctor Who season of the new era has premiered on Halloween day, Whittaker’s first season as the title character did premiere on October 7, 2018. Doctor Who has been known for its holiday specials around Christmas and New Year’s Day, and the following specials for Whittaker will premiere around major holidays. Doctor Who: Flux will not only be competing with people’s normal holiday plans but also high profile releases from various streaming services around the time like Star Trek: Prodigy, which premieres on Paramount+ on October 28, 2021, and is going for a similar family audience that Doctor Who is aiming for.
The title of the series, Flux, also seems to speak to the larger Doctor Who franchise. It was recently announced that Russell T. Davies, who revived Doctor Who in 2005 and was the showrunner until 2010, will be returning to the series. 2022 will be Whitaker’s last year as the Doctor, meaning that the next Doctor actor will be entering the series most likely in 2023, which will mark the 60th anniversary of the franchise. The franchise is in a major state of transition on the cusp of a major anniversary, with old talent returning and new faces stepping in front. Whittaker’s Doctor has had an interesting couple of years, and her Doctor Who saga will hopefully go out on a high note.
