Doctor Who: Season 11 rumors hint at format changes ahead

New rumors suggests that in addition to getting a new Doctor in Season 11, Doctor Who could see some other big changes too.

As we inch closer to Jodie Whittaker’s debut as the first female Doctor on Doctor Who, we know two things for sure. One, we will all get increasingly emotional as the time to say goodbye to outgoing Doctor Peter Capaldi nears. And, two, we will definitely hear a lot of wild rumors about what Season 11 will look like.

Technically, Whittaker will take over as the Doctor during this year’s Christmas special, entitled “Twice Upon a Time”. But her appearance will occur at the very end of the episode, comprising a handful of minutes and maybe two lines. We won’t really know what Thirteen is like until Season 11 begins at some point in (probably late) 2018. And at the moment – for obvious reasons – we don’t know much about Season 11 at all.

Production on the next season hasn’t even started yet. (I’m not even sure that we know when filming kicks off. I’ve heard rumblings of November, but rumors are just that. Rumors.) Incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall is playing things remarkably close to the vest about what his Doctor Who will look like. He’s actually said almost nothing about it thus far. This is a good thing, by the way. Capaldi still has an episode to go, and deserves the spotlight for his exit.

However, the official silence hasn’t stopped the Season 11 rumor mill from kicking into high gear. And according to a report in the Mirror, big changes are afoot for the Chibnall era. This isn’t that weird, in the larger sense. Every showrunner seeks to put his distinctive stamp on the show. But if some of these reported changes are true? Season 11 is going to look quite a bit different than its predecessors.

Per the Mirror report, Season 11 will run for ten weeks, rather than the usual 12 or 13. But, on the plus side, each installment would be an hour long, rather than its current run time of around 40-45 minutes. So, we’d get fewer episodes, but the ones we get would be longer.

Under Capaldi’s Doctor, the show ran for 12 episodes a season, plus the annual holiday installment.

On the face of things, this isn’t necessarily a terrible idea. Well, yes, the idea of an overall less amount of Doctor Who is generally terrible and not something I support. (I’m still bitter that they dropped from 13 to 12 regular season episodes for Capaldi, if I’m honest.) But. Plenty of so-so stories in recent seasons probably could have graduated to great stories if they’d had a little more room to breathe or develop. Is it worth trading a couple of filler episodes if we get a higher level of quality overall? Maybe. If it meant more “Heaven Sents” and fewer “Kill the Moons”? Yeah, you could probably talk me into that.

Other Season 11 rumors include a new TARDIS for Whittaker’s Doctor and a new sonic screwdriver. This stuff sounds a bit more plausible. The TARDIS is probably due for a refresh. It’s had the same interior since Matt Smith’s Eleven changed it in the back half of Season 7. One does feel a bit bad for Twelve’s sonic, though – he only had that new one for a season!

It is worth noting, of course, that this report comes from the Mirror, a notorious British tabloid that lies a lot. Or perhaps “bends the truth often” is a more charitable interpretation of much of their “news”. The point is, anything that’s coming from unnamed sources in a tabloid needs to be taken with a massive grain of salt. Particularly this one. Lest anyone forget, they quite confidently reported that not only was Love Actually star Kris Marshall the Thirteenth Doctor, his regeneration would occur in the Season 10 finale. Nice try, guys.

So as with so much surrounding Season 11, we’ll have to wait and see.

Next: Doctor Who: See Peter Capaldi's final episode in theaters

Doctor Who returns for Peter Capaldi’s final episode as the Doctor this Christmas on BBC One and BBC America.