Source: BBC America Official Sites: Doctor Who (BBC), Doctor Who (BBC America)
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains minor plot details from the upcoming series.
BBC and BBC America announced today that DOCTOR WHO will return to television screens with five blockbuster episodes beginning September 1, as the first block of the new Series 7. The Doctor (Matt Smith), his companions Amy and Rory (aka the Ponds, actors Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill) and numerous friends will continue their escapades through space and time where they will puzzle an unexpected invasion of Earth, save a spaceship full of dinosaurs, don Stetsons in a Wild Wild West adventure and find themselves kidnapped by the Doctor’s oldest foe. The explosive series concludes with Amy and Rory’s heart-breaking farewell –- a race against time through the streets of Manhattan. Will the Doctor really lose the Ponds forever? The new series of Doctor Who will premiere on Saturday 1st September, on BBC One in the UK at 7:20pm, and on BBC America in the USA and SPACE in Canada at 9:00pm ET. “We have, I think, our biggest range of stories EVER," said executive producer Steven Moffat. "We’ve got the return of the Daleks AND the Weeping Angels -- both of them poll-topping “Doctor Who” adversaries -- in cracking new stories, we’ve got Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (it’s what you’ve always wanted), we’ve got a glorious western with a Cyborg Gunslinger, the most unusual invasion Earth story EVER, and location shooting in New York for the Pond finale.” In the season opener, “Asylum of the Daleks,” the Doctor is forced on an impossible mission after being kidnapped by his oldest foe -- to a place even the Daleks are too terrified to enter... the Asylum. A planetary prison confining the most terrifying and insane of their kind, the Doctor and the Ponds must find an escape route. But with Amy and Rory’s relationship in meltdown, and an army of mad Daleks closing in, it is up to the Doctor to save their lives, as well as the Pond’s marriage. "Asylum of the Daleks" by Steven Moffat will be followed in the weeks ahead by "Dinosaurs On A Spaceship" by Chris Chibnall, Toby Whithouse’s "A Town Called Mercy", "The Power Of Three" also by Chris Chibnall, and the block will come to an end with Moffat`s "The Angels Take Manhattan" featuring another old enemy and the return of River Song (Alex Kingston). The series will pause, then return for the annual Christmas special which will introduce a mysterious new companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman. Plans for the airing of the remaining 7 episodes of Series 7 next year have yet to be announced, but Moffat has promised a full year of celebration leading up to Doctor Who`s 50th Anniversary in November of 2013.