Doctor Who preview: Team TARDIS takes off

The new season of Doctor Who continues Thirteen and her new companions head off for their first official adventure through time and space as a team.

We’ve reached an important moment in Doctor Who season 11. The set-up is all in place; the introductions are finished. We’ve met our new companions, gone to alien planets, and journeyed into the past together. They’ve been given the chance to go home, and have chosen to continue on this wild and crazy journey with a two-hearted time traveling alien.  Everyone’s on the same page, at last.

It is, as Ryan himself would probably say, time for “proper” Doctor Who to begin.

Team TARDIS heads off on its first official adventure as time travelers this week, in an episode called “The Tsuranga Conundrum.” What is the Tsuranga? No idea. Why is there a conundrum about them? Equally no clue. Even the photos from the episode don’t really give us much of an idea of what’s going on, other than a look at Ben Bailey-Smith and Suzanne Packer as Durkas and Eve Cicero. Showrunner Chris Chibnall declared early on that season 11 would be full of new monsters, planets, and other never-before-seen treats, so it seems likely this whole concept is one of them.

As such, we don’t have much idea about what to expect from this episode, other than that he’s also the one who wrote it.

The BBC official synopsis reads as follows:

"Injured and stranded in the wilds of a far-flung galaxy, the Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan must band together with a group of strangers to survive against one of the universe’s most deadly – and unusual – creatures."

The trailer doesn’t give us much more information about where Team TARDIS is or what kind of creature they’re facing.

Everything is also super bright, for some reason. (Does it remind anyone else of the lighting from season 10’s “Smile”? Just me?)

Thanks to some smart sleuthing by Cultbox TV, we also know that Thirteen and friends find themselves recuperating after being caught up in a “sonic mine” explosion on some manner of junk planet. How does that factor in to everything that happens here? We’ll have to tune in and find out.

Doctor Who season 11 continues Sunday, Nov. 4 at 8 EST/7 CST on BBC America.