Doctor Who series 8: date set for return

The first teaser trailer for the forthcoming series has been released

Peter Capaldi as the twelfth Doctor (BBC/Steve Brown)

Doctor Who will be back on our screens this August when Peter Capaldi will be making his first full appearance as the twelfth Time Lord.

The news was announced in a teaser trailer uploaded by the BBC to the official Doctor Who website yesterday.

The 16-second teaser trailer features a silhouette of the new Time Lord with his Tardis console ablaze in the background, a reference to the cliff hanger at the end of ‘The Time of the Doctor’, last year’s Christmas special.

Audience first met Capaldi’s incarnation back in December, when Matt Smith eleventh Doctor was given a new lease of life by the Time Lords and regenerated.

The episode ended with Capaldi’s Doctor asking his companion Clara Oswald if she knew how to fly the Tardis as they are about to crash.

Although fans were given the briefest of glimpses of Capaldi’s Doctor in the 50 anniversary special, with a fleeting shot of his eyes and the dogged determination in them to save Gallifrey from destruction.

Fans have been fed titbits over the last several months, Keeley Hawes, Ben Miller, Tom Riley and Frank Skinner will be guest starring in the new series.

Samuel Anderson has also joined the cast as Danny Pink, a recurring character, who teaches at Coal Hill School with Jenna Coleman’s Clara.

Sherlock writer Steve Thompson has written an episode, which will star Hawes as Ms Delphox, a character with a dark secret. While comedian Miller will be playing a villain, his comedy partner Alexander Armstrong has previously starred in the long-running science fiction series.

Showrunner Steven Moffat has said that the Doctor will be heading to Lanzarote, the last time the Time Lord was there was back in 1984.

While there was no exact date, the new trailer is likely to be the first of many in the run up to series 8.

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