Doctor Who has released a brief teaser trailer for the 60th Anniversary special on BBC One full of cryptic messages, and here are the biggest teasers explained. Jodie Whittaker’s tenure as the Doctor ended with a shock reveal that the Doctor regenerates into an old face, specifically David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor. Since then, more information has slowly been released about Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary special, with Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble returning and Neil Patrick Harris joining the cast as the villain.
News about the 60th Anniversary special has been restricted since the trailer dropped at Christmas, although with Russell T Davies' return as the Doctor Who showrunner, there has been plenty of excitement among fans. It came as a shock when BBC audiences saw a “Network Error” appear on their screens during Saturday night’s BBC One schedule before a 10-second teaser trailer for the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary special followed.
The teaser was an amalgamation of distorted videos and network errors, including clips of Tennant Noble, some new characters, and indiscernible audio. At first watch, the teaser makes no sense, but it was not long before Whovians started to decipher the cryptic trailer.
Doctor Who’s Teaser Trailer Explained
Doctor Who’s teaser trailer may seem to make little sense, but a lot more is revealed once the audio is reversed. Ironically, when reversed, the Doctor can be heard saying, “Cryptic, I hate that,” giving a nod to the cryptic trailer itself, and then Donna followed up with, “Why did this face come back?”. Nothing else was spoken, but fans were quick to point out a distorted version of Doctor Who’s theme tune from seasons 1-4 is briefly used, which was RTD’s original run as Doctor Who showrunner and another nod to his return.
The 60th Anniversary special will be focused on the seemingly impossible return of Ten as the Doctor and the chaos the Doctor and Donna’s reunion will cause has been focused on. However, the cryptic trailer included some more images and messages, with different pieces of text and code appearing intermittently throughout the trailer. Also, there were quick shots of a soldier with glowing eyes, the time vortex, and the TARDIS’ windows. Plus, one image showed what looked like a hand in a tube surrounded by gold light.
What The Coding On The Doctor Who Teaser Trailer Means
Cryptic coding and messages in the teaser trailer seemed random, especially as they were almost impossible to read the first time watching, but they could be messages hinting at future Doctor Who news. The trailer showed an image of a run process titled “B1NARY2TEXTC0NV3TO,” encouraging audiences to translate the messages in the trailer. When translating the binary, keen code crackers found the words “The Star Beast” were revealed. Plus, System issues “DWW_#19_#26” were spotted, referring to the Doctor Who Weekly comic book issues 19-26 from 1980, which is coincidentally titled “Doctor Who and the Star Beast.”
This comic featured two monsters, the Meeps and the Wrath Warriors, and both are monsters shown in the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary trailer. Another of the network error messages showed a User ID of “EV1305,” hinting at the next major trailer drop. The final of the Eurovision Song Contest is on the 13th of May, or 13/05, and is being hosted by the United Kingdom. Eurovision will air on BBC One for English audiences, so with such a large viewer count expected on BBC One that night, it is highly likely the next Doctor Who trailer will air before it.
Doctor Who's Trailer Shows A Possessed UNIT Soldier
A new character was revealed during the trailer in the form of a soldier who lifted the visor of his helmet up to reveal glowing eyes. The uniform suggested the character is a UNIT soldier, and previous photos from the Doctor Who set have shown characters in UNIT gear. RTD included UNIT throughout his time at Doctor Who and even featured the military organization in the Doctor Who spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. With RTD’s return, it is not unsurprising that the wider Doctor Who universe is being re-introduced in the 60th Anniversary special. Strangely, the UNIT soldier's glowing eyes could link to UNIT soldiers who are featured in the Doctor Who and the Star Beast comics.
In these comics, the UNIT soldiers’ eyes glow due to exposure to neutron radiation. The exposure to the radiation turned them into zombies as if they were possessed and could be used by the Meep. Also, the neutron radiation was caused by the neutron pile the Meep used and was referred to as a black sun. Twitter user Agnor has pointed out that this black sun, which turned the Meep evil, could be what was featured in the trailer and was mistaken for a time vortex. All the hints to the Star Beast comic suggest this will be the story of Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary special.
Doctor Who's Teaser Trailer May Have Confirmed The Return Of Doctor Donna
A major mystery that needs to be answered by the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary special is how the Doctor and Donna can be reunited without Donna’s memories returning and her death. In the season 4 finale, “Journey’s End,” Donna absorbed the power and collective knowledge of the Time Lords through the Doctor’s chopped-off hand, which was kept in a large container, making her part-Time Lord, or Doctor Donna. The consequence of this was Donna’s mind slowly burning out and killing her. The Doctor erased all memory of himself and their adventures together to save Donna, and any reunion would reverse this.
The trailers have revealed that the Doctor and Donna have to reunite, raising the question of whether Doctor Donna will return. The new cryptic trailer showed an image of the container with the Doctor’s hand in it, an arm reaching for it, and gold light surrounding it. It was the same image as when Donna originally reached for the hand and absorbed the Time Lord’s knowledge, implying that Donna will repeat this. The trailer had other similar images to “Journey’s End,” such as the shot of the TARDIS windows, so it seems Doctor Donna may have to return to Doctor Who once again.
Source: Agnor (via Twitter)