Doctor Who names three new companions to join the Thirteenth Doctor

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Looks like the TARDIS will get a little more crowded on Doctor Who next season! Three new cast members will join Jodie Whittaker for season 11.

It’s official: Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor won’t travel through all of time and space alone.

The BBC officially announced that Thirteen will be joined by not one, not two, but three major new characters during her inaugural season. Bradley Walsh will play Graham, Tosin Cole will play Ryan, and Mandip Gill will round out the trio as Yasmin. And other than their names, that’s pretty much it for everything we know about these characters. Are they friends? Total strangers? Do they all come from the same place or time period? Are they all even from Earth?

It’s a good thing we have the better part of a year to speculate, I guess.

It turns out that we actually knew some of this news already. That long running rumor that frequent host and game show presenter Walsh would join Team TARDIS? Yeah, that’s actually happening. (In the spirit of full disclosure: I can’t believe that particular rumor came true!)

Also joining Doctor Who for the new series is actress Sharon D. Clarke, previously best known for her role on medical drama Holby City. Her role is listed as “returning”, but we don’t know exactly what that means, as yet. (However, she’s not listed along with the three main new cast members. So I think we have to assume that she’s something other than a companion.)

The BBC released a photo of the new Team TARDIS on Twitter, and they really do look great:

All this casting news is very exciting, for obvious reasons, but particularly since Doctor Who hasn’t really run a true three-companion set up in many years. Sure, there was Jack, Rose and Mickey back during Nine’s run, but since Mickey only ever came along on a couple of adventures did he really count? This seems as though it will likely be a permanent thing. Which, on some level, actually makes a lot of sense.

Why? Well, we know that Twelve’s Christmas adventure — and eventual regeneration — will somehow include his original incarnation, the First Doctor. So it’s probably in no way an accident that Thirteen’s first group of companions will come in a set that recalls the First Doctor’s trio of friends. Maybe it means something significant. Or perhaps it’s just a nice callback to the show’s origin. But either way — it definitely seems on purpose. (And honestly, it’s probably overdue.)

The casting announcement also confirmed another recent rumor. It turns out that Season 11 will clock in at just ten episodes, though the season premiere will apparently be “feature length”. (The rest appear to be 50-minute installments.)

Season 11 will officially premiere in the fall of 2018.

Next: Doctor Who: Could Matt Lucas return as Nardole?

Doctor Who will return at Christmas for Peter Capaldi’s final episode, “Twice Upon a Time”.