Been a busy day for BBC America news, first with the announcement that Idris Elba will be back for another season of “Luther,” and now with a premiere date for the new season of “Doctor Who.”
As first reported by Entertainment Weekly, the new batch of episodes – starring Matt Smith as the time-traveling Doctor and Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill as his newlywed sidekicks – will debut on this side of the Atlantic on Saturday, April 23 at 9 p.m.
Interestingly, the news comes before BBC One in the UK has announced its own “Doctor Who” premiere date; all they’ve said so far is that it will be back in April, and that the season will be split in two because of a plot development producer Steven Moffat wants to introduce halfway through. In seasons past, episodes debuted in England weeks or even months before they came to the States, leading many American fans to just illegally download the episodes. But the most recent Christmas special aired in both the US and the UK on the same day, and it’s in BBC America’s best interest (if not in its sister channel across the pond) for that kind of scheduling to continue so they don’t lose viewers to BitTorrent.