Doctor Who To Return In September

Doctor Who is to return to BBC One on Saturday 19 September, the channel has confirmed.

It will be the ninth series of the show, which will once again see Peter Capaldi as The Doctor. He will be joined by Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald.

The pair meet new and old monsters, and go on a journey that takes them to deadly alien planets, creepy underwater bases, Viking villages, a global Zygon uprising, and leads them through hidden alien dens, to the very end of time itself.

Series nine will also see the Doctor come face to face with Missy (played by Michelle Gomez), a city of Daleks and deadly mercenaries called the Mire.

Peter Capaldi says: "Soaring through all of time and space, series nine sees the Doctor throw himself into life with a new hunger for adventure. The cosmos is there for the taking, thrilling, epic and enticing, and his to play in. But he's almost reckless in his abandon. It's almost like he's running from something, something that if it ever catches him will turn his life upside down."

Maisie Williams, who shot to fame as Arya Stark in fantasy drama series Game of Thrones, will take up a guest role in the new series, while Michelle Gomez (Missy) returns to plague the Doctor and Clara in the series opener. UNIT are also back with Jemma Redgrave and Ingrid Oliver (Osgood). Other guests to appear in the series include Rebecca Front, Rufus Hound, Paul Kaye, Joivan Wade and Sophie Stone.

Doctor Who series nine has been written by lead writer Steven Moffat, Toby Whithouse, Jamie Mathieson, Peter Harness, Mark Gatiss, and new writers to Doctor Who, Sarah Dollard and Catherine Tregenna. It has been directed by Hettie Macdonald, Daniel O'Hara, Ed Bazalgette, Daniel Nettheim, Justin Molotnikov and Rachel Talalay; and produced by Tracie Simpson, Derek Ritchie, Nikki Wilson and Peter Bennett.

Doctor Who is a BBC Cymru Wales production for BBC One.

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre

(JP)