The “new era” of Doctor Who for U.S. fans begins Saturday, April 17, on BBC America, nearly two weeks after the season premiere airs in its native United Kingdom on Easter.
This bucks the network’s recent trend of showing its highest-rated program just a day after its original U.K. airing.
“The Eleventh Hour” introduces Matt Smith (pictured) as the 11th and youngest iteration of the itinerant Time Lord and Karen Gillan as his new traveling companion, Amy Pond.
“Britain has a tradition of reinventing its iconic characters, like James Bond and Sherlock Holmes — and Doctor Who,” BBC America senior VP of programming Richard de Croce said in a statement. “In introducing the Eleventh Doctor, writer Steven Moffat is opening the show to a whole new audience, while serving fans with an exciting mix of inter galactic, time traveling adventures. We can’t wait to meet his new Doctor!”
This news, plus the recent announcement that sci-fi author extraordinaire Neil Gaiman would be penning an episode of the series next year, should give fans attending this weekend’s Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles plenty to chew on. (Nerdvana contributor Lee Whiteside recently previewed the convention in detail.)
Follow the jump to read a new description of the season’s first three episodes and watch the latest teaser for the series.
Traveling both through time and space, the new series has the mysterious Doctor and Amy Pond together exploring sixteenth century Venice, France during the 1890s, and the United Kingdom in the far future, now an entire nation floating in space. The first three episodes of the 13-episode series have been confirmed as “The Eleventh Hour,” written by Steven Moffat, “The Beast Below,” also by Moffat, and “Victory of the Daleks” by Mark Gatiss.
Source: BBC America’s Anglophenia blog and io9
