The Eleventh Doctor (2010-2013)
Season Thirty-One (2010) Season Thirty-One (2010): Fairytales
First appearances of Amy, Rory, Winston Churchill and Dorium Maldavar.


Special (2011): Home For The Holidays
First appearance of Madge.
Special (2011)
Specials 
(2010-11) Specials (2010-11): In The Deep Midwinter
Season Thirty-Three (2012-13): The Impossible Girl
First appearances of Clara, Kate Stewart, Dr Simeon and the War Doctor.
Season Thirty-Three (2012-13)
Season Thirty-Two (2011) Season Thirty-Two (2011): Death Comes To Time
First appearances of the Silents, Madame Kovarian, Vastra, Jenny and Strax.
Specials (2013): The Golden Age
Including the fiftieth anniversary special; first appearance of Osgood.
Specials (2013)

Season Thirty-One (2010): Fairytales

The Doctor
The Eleventh Doctor

Matt Smith (bio) made his first appearance as the Doctor in The End Of Time (January 2010) and his last in Deep Breath (August 2014).

Companions and Recurring Characters

Amy Pond met the newly-regenerated Doctor when she was seven years old; he later returned to save the adult Amy from the insidious Prisoner Zero.

Karen Gillan (bio) made her first appearance as Amy in The Eleventh Hour (April 2010) and her last in The Time Of The Doctor (December 2013).

Amy Pond

Rory Williams was Amy Pond's fiance, and later her husband. He helped the Doctor and Amy defeat Prisoner Zero and subsequently accepted the Doctor's invitation to join them aboard the TARDIS.

Arthur Darvill (bio) made his first appearance as Rory in The Eleventh Hour (April 2010) and his last in The Angels Take Manhattan (September 2012).

Rory Williams

Winston Churchill was twice the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and also possessed a direct line to the TARDIS.

Ian McNeice (bio) made his first appearance as Churchill in The Beast Below (April 2010) and his last in The Wedding Of River Song (October 2011).

Winston 
Churchill

The kind of man who could acquire anything for anyone -- as long as the price was right -- Dorium Maldovar was nonetheless a reluctant ally of the Doctor.

Simon Fisher-Becker (bio) made his first appearance as Dorium in The Pandorica Opens (June 2010) and his last in The Wedding Of River Song (October 2011).

Dorium Maldovar

The Production Team

A new era for Doctor Who dawned as Russell T Davies, the man who had brought the programme back from oblivion, departed after six years. He was replaced as executive producer and showrunner by Steven Moffat (bio), who had written several popular stories starting with The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances.

The Stories
The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour by Steven Moffat, directed by Adam Smith
In the English village of Leadworth, a Scottish girl named Amelia Pond is frightened by a strange crack in her bedroom wall. When the newly-regenerated Doctor crashlands in her back garden, he discovers that the crack is really a fracture in space and time, through which an alien criminal has escaped. Before the Doctor can recapture Prisoner Zero, he's forced to leave to stabilise the TARDIS. When he returns, he inadvertently does so twelve years after his previous visit. Now, with the help of a grown-up Amy, the Doctor must contend not only with the shape-shifting Prisoner Zero, but with its ruthless Atraxi jailers as well.
Two years after defeating Prisoner Zero, the Doctor returns to fulfil his promise to take Amy with him.
The Beast Below
The Beast Below by Steven Moffat, directed by Andrew Gunn
Far in the future, the population of Britain has fled an Earth ravaged by solar flares. But while trying to help a young girl whose classmate has gone missing, the Doctor and Amy discover that something about the mammoth Starship UK is very wrong. The vessel moves even though its engines are idle, holes in the floor divulge enormous tentacles, and the sinister robotic Smilers punish the disobedient. The Doctor finds himself assisted by an enigmatic female vigilante called Liz 10, while Amy learns the truth at the heart of Starship UK... but it's a truth that she can't bear to remember.
Victory Of The Daleks
Victory Of The Daleks by Mark Gatiss, directed by Andrew Gunn
Prime Minister Winston Churchill summons the Doctor and Amy to Blitz-torn London. The British forces are at their lowest ebb, but a scientist named Bracewell has come to Churchill with a series of amazing ideas and inventions: hypersonic flight, gravity bubbles... and powerful miniature tanks he calls “Ironsides”. The Doctor, however, recognises the Ironsides for what they really are: Daleks. With a Nazi bombing run closing in, and Churchill convinced of the Ironsides' benevolence, the Doctor unearths a terrible scheme to initiate a new era of Dalek supremacy.
The Time Of Angels / Flesh And Stone
The Time Of Angels / Flesh And Stone by Steven Moffat, directed by Adam Smith
A message left on a museum artefact brings the Doctor to the rescue of River Song, at a point in time before his first encounter with her, but after her first meeting with him. River is helping a militant group of Clerics led by Father Octavian investigate the Byzantium, a spaceship which is smuggling a dormant Weeping Angel. By the time the Doctor, Amy and River catch up to the vessel, however, it has crashlanded atop a ruined Aplan temple. To reach it, they must traverse a mortuary labyrinth filled with crumbling statues. Too late, the Doctor realises that the Weeping Angel is not alone -- and that he has walked into a trap.
The Vampires Of Venice
The Vampires Of Venice by Toby Whithouse, directed by Jonny Campbell
The Doctor escorts Amy and Rory on a date to Venice in 1580. Soon after they arrive, they meet a disconsolate father named Guido whose daughter, Isabella, no longer recognises him. Since enrolling in a school for young women run by the powerful Rosanna Calvierri, she even shuns the sunlight. After witnessing Rosanna's son, Francesco, attack a flower girl, the time travellers become convinced that there are vampires on the loose in Venice. Amy volunteers to enter the House of Calvierri and investigate -- but could the truth be even more sinister?
Determined to prevent Amy's adventures from breaking up her engagement, the Doctor invites Rory to join them aboard the TARDIS.
Amy's Choice
Amy's Choice by Simon Nye, directed by Catherine Morshead
The Doctor, Amy and Rory are confronted by the enigmatic Dream Lord, who forces them to oscillate back and forth between two different realities. In one, they're stranded aboard a crippled TARDIS, being inexorably drawn towards a cold star. In the other, the Doctor is visiting Rory and a pregnant Amy in Leadworth when they discover that the residents of a nursing home have become the hosts of alien parasites called the Eknodines. In both cases, the trio faces a mortal peril... but they must first deduce which is the true reality, or become trapped in the dream for the little time that remains to them.
The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood
The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood by Chris Chibnall, directed by Ashley Way
In 2020, Tony Mack and Dr Nasreen Chaudhry are in charge of a drilling project in the tiny Welsh village of Cwmtaff. Their goal is to identify the source of unusual trace minerals in the local grass. But interred coffins have begun to vanish from the town cemetery, and now Tony's son-in-law has disappeared down a hole which suddenly opened in the ground. When the TARDIS arrives, Amy soon vanishes into the Earth as well. The Doctor and Rory lay a trap and snare a Silurian warrior called Alaya. They learn that a city full of her people has been reawakened by the drilling... and now they're ready to wage war against humanity.
Rory is shot saving the Doctor's life, and is then wiped from existence by the mysterious cracks in time and space.
Vincent And The Doctor
Vincent And The Doctor by Richard Curtis, directed by Jonny Campbell
At an exhibition of the works of Vincent van Gogh, the Doctor and Amy discover a disturbing image hidden in one of his final paintings. They travel back to Provence in 1890, where a penniless van Gogh is haunted by his personal demons and despised by the local townsfolk. An invisible monster called a Krafayis is roaming the streets, and the Doctor realises that the artist is the only person who can perceive it. But as the time travellers rely on van Gogh to help them stop the Krafayis' lethal rampage, they must also navigate his tortured moods -- knowing full well that, within two months, he will have taken his own life.
The Lodger
The Lodger by Gareth Roberts, directed by Catherine Morshead
No sooner has the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS into modern-day England than it dematerialises again, trapping Amy inside. A strange force is preventing the time machine from landing, and the Doctor traces it to a seemingly ordinary house in Colchester. The downstairs resident, Craig Owens, is searching for a roommate, so the Doctor moves in. Soon, he's inadvertently involved himself in every aspect of Craig's life -- including his unspoken love for his best friend, Sophie. Meanwhile, a toxic stain is forming on Craig's ceiling... and the mysterious tenant on the top floor is luring people up the stairs, never to be seen again.
The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang
The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang by Steven Moffat, directed by Toby Haynes
A message transmitted down through history draws the Doctor and Amy to England in AD 102. There they find River Song waiting for them, with a warning that a legendary prison called the Pandorica -- hidden beneath Stonehenge -- is about to open. Too late, the Doctor realises that the Pandorica is actually a trap set for him by an alliance of his enemies. They hold him responsible for the cracks in time, and want to prevent universal destruction. Meanwhile, a mysterious force has seized control of the TARDIS, setting in motion the very explosion which the Pandorica was intended to prevent. Will silence fall across all time and space?
Revived by the Doctor's reality reboot, Rory rejoins his new bride, Amy, and the Doctor in the TARDIS.

Making History

Almost everything about Doctor Who changed in 2010. A new production team was in place behind the cameras, a new regular cast appeared on television screens, and even elements such as the logo, the TARDIS console room and the police box shell were revamped. Nonetheless, Doctor Who retained much of its popularity, even as Steven Moffat pushed the programme in new directions with a story arc which stretched beyond the confines of a single season.

Specials (2010-11): In The Deep Midwinter

The Stories
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol by Steven Moffat, directed by Toby Haynes
Amy and Rory's Christmas honeymoon is interrupted when their spaceship suddenly plummets through a maelstrom of fog towards a crash landing on the planet below. Miserly Kazran Sardick possesses a machine which can control the fog, but when the Doctor implores him to save the doomed vessel, he refuses. Determined to rescue not only his friends but all four thousand people aboard the ship, the Doctor travels back in time on a mission to change Kazran's life for the better... but only if he can navigate the shoals of bitterness and heartbreak which have made Kazran the man he is today.
Space / Time
Space / Time by Steven Moffat, directed by Richard Senior
Amy distracts Rory while he's helping the Doctor repair the TARDIS, causing the time machine to materialise inside itself. Time and space start to behave in unpredictable ways, and the three travellers realise that they may be trapped within the ship for all eternity.

Making History

The tradition of the Doctor Who Christmas special continued for a sixth year despite the massive changes which the preceding twelve months had wrought to the cast and production team. Doctor Who also maintained its connection to the BBC's charity telethons, this time contributing a special two-part mini-adventure to the 2011 edition of Red Nose Day for Comic Relief. Airing in March, it offered the dual appeal of raising funds for a worthy cause and starting the countdown to Season Thirty-Two.

Season Thirty-Two (2011): Death Comes To Time

Companions and Recurring Characters

A key figure in the religious order known as the Silence, Madame Kovarian sought the Doctor's death, and chose to act against him by kidnapping the pregnant Amy Pond.

Frances Barber (bio) made her first appearance as Madame Kovarian in Day Of The Moon (April 2011) and her last in The Wedding Of River Song (October 2011).

Madame Kovarian

Madame Vastra was a Silurian who was reawakened in the 19th century and, following the Doctor's example, became a renowned private investigator known as “The Great Detective”.

Neve McIntosh (bio) made her first appearance as Vastra in A Good Man Goes To War (June 2011) and her last in Deep Breath (August 2014).

Madame Vastra

Jenny Flint was Madame Vastra's maid, as well as her partner -- both personally and professionally.

Catrin Stewart (bio) made her first appearance as Jenny in A Good Man Goes To War (June 2011) and her last in Deep Breath (August 2014).

Jenny Flint

Commander Strax was a Sontaran nurse who died fighting for the Doctor at the Battle of Demons Run. He was subsequently resurrected and joined Madame Vastra as her butler.

Dan Starkey (bio) made his first appearance as Strax in A Good Man Goes To War (June 2011) and his last in Deep Breath (August 2014).

Commander Strax

The Stories
The Impossible Astronaut / Day Of The Moon
The Impossible Astronaut / Day Of The Moon by Steven Moffat, directed by Toby Haynes
Amy, Rory and River are summoned to the Utah desert, where they witness the Doctor's murder at the hands of an astronaut who rises from the waters of Lake Silencio. The Doctor's final message directs them to travel to 1969 with a slightly younger version of himself. Materialising in the White House, they meet President Richard Nixon and ex-FBI agent Canton Delaware III. Nixon wants Canton to investigate the phone calls he receives every night from a mysterious child, warning of alien invasion. But the aliens, immune to capture by human memory, arrived long ago...
The Curse Of The Black Spot
The Curse Of The Black Spot by Steve Thompson, directed by Jeremy Webb
In the seventeenth century, the Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves aboard the Fancy, a pirate ship captained by Henry Avery. The vessel has been becalmed for days, marooned in waters that seem to be haunted by a Siren: a beautiful but demonic woman who stalks the sick and injured. She sings a mournful, bewitching melody, and her arrival is foreshadowed by a livid black spot which appears on the victim's skin. Soon, both Rory and Avery's stowaway son, Toby, are marked as the Siren's next targets. It falls to the Doctor and the reluctant Captain to unearth the creature's true nature, before it's too late.
The Doctor's Wife
The Doctor's Wife by Neil Gaiman, directed by Richard Clark
The Doctor receives a distress call from an old Time Lord friend called the Corsair, summoning him to a place beyond the universe. Clinging to the hope that there may still be survivors of Gallifrey, the Doctor pilots the TARDIS through a rift, only to find his time machine suddenly lifeless. Landing on a sentient planetoid called House, the Doctor discovers that he has been lured into a trap. But as House tries to devour the TARDIS -- and Amy and Rory along with it -- the Doctor finds an ally in Idris, a woman with whom he shares a deep, personal and unexpected connection.
The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People
The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People by Matthew Graham, directed by Julian Simpson
In the twenty-second century, the TARDIS lands on a tiny Earth island during a solar storm. A factory there pumps out acid so corrosive that the work is performed by artificial humans, created from programmable matter called the Flesh. These Gangers take the form of the employees who control their duplicates remotely. They share all the memories and personalities of the real humans, but are supposed to lose their sentience once the connection is broken. When a power surge during the solar storm causes the Gangers to stabilise, however, the Doctor must avert a war between the humans and their Flesh counterparts.
A Good Man Goes To War
A Good Man Goes To War by Steven Moffat, directed by Peter Hoar
Months ago, a newly-pregnant Amy was kidnapped by the Headless Monks and their agent, the ruthless Madame Kovarian. Now, on an asteroid called Demons Run, she has given birth to her daughter, Melody, who will be taken away to be used as a weapon against the Doctor. But the Doctor and Rory have called in favours and gathered a strike force to rescue Amy and Melody. Only River Song refuses to heed the Doctor's summons. She knows that this is the day of the Doctor's greatest victory, and his greatest defeat... and the day that he will finally learn who she really is.
Let's Kill Hitler
Let's Kill Hitler by Steven Moffat, directed by Richard Senior
When the Doctor returns to Leadworth to update Amy and Rory on his search for their daughter, Melody, their friend Mels shows up too. She forces the Doctor to take them to 1938 Berlin so she can kill Adolf Hitler, but her plans go awry due to the presence of the Teselecta, a shapeshifting Justice Department Vehicle from the future. Although she's mortally wounded, Mels doesn't die. Revealing that she's really Melody Pond, she regenerates... into the woman whom the astonished time travellers know as River Song. But little do they realise, Melody has been brainwashed by the Silence -- into murdering the Doctor.
Night Terrors
Night Terrors by Mark Gatiss, directed by Richard Clark
A plea for help reaches the Doctor via his psychic paper: “Please save me from the monsters.” The TARDIS follows the distress call to a tower block on modern-day Earth. There the Doctor meets Alex, a frustrated father whose son, George, is seemingly afraid of everything -- especially the cupboard in his bedroom. When the Doctor tries to help, he realises that something strange really is lurking in George's cupboard. And this mysterious force has already trapped Amy and Rory in a macabre dollhouse, where they're stalked by sinister toys who seek to transform intruders into more of their kind.
The Girl Who Waited
The Girl Who Waited by Tom MacRae, directed by Nick Hurran
The TARDIS lands on Apalapucia, a planet ravaged by a plague which is fatal to beings with two hearts. With the Doctor consigned to the Ship, his companions become separated across two time streams which move at very different rates. Amy is forced to venture into a medical facility, where she is stalked by Handbots carrying lethal medication. Meanwhile, the Doctor manages to synchronise the time streams, enabling Rory to go in search of his wife. But when he finally finds Amy, he discovers that she has been waiting thirty-six years for rescue -- and may no longer want to be saved.
The God Complex
The God Complex by Toby Whithouse, directed by Nick Hurran
The Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves in what appears to be an Eighties-era hotel on Earth. But they quickly discover that the outer doors and windows open onto walls, while the rooms and corridors move about, separating them from the TARDIS. Soon they encounter a small band of humans and aliens, and learn that there is a room for each of them, somewhere in the hotel, containing their deepest fear. Once they find it, they will inevitably begin to worship a mysterious entity which stalks the hotel, killing those who praise it. One by one, the hotel claims its victims... and even Amy cannot resist its lure.
Closing Time
Closing Time by Gareth Roberts, directed by Steve Hughes
Having left Amy and Rory behind for their own safety, the Doctor must soon face his death at Lake Silencio -- but first, there's an old friend he wants to visit. Craig Owens is now a father, struggling to care for baby Alfie while his wife, Sophie, is away. As a result, he's oblivious to the strange events unfolding around him. People are going missing, unexplained electrical surges plague the neighbourhood, and a mysterious silver rat stalks the local shopping mall. Before long, the Doctor and Craig uncover a teleport relay which connects an out-of-order lift to a Cyberman spaceship. But is this an invasion, or something else?
The Wedding Of River Song
The Wedding Of River Song by Steven Moffat, directed by Jeremy Webb
The Doctor is destined to die on the shores of Lake Silencio, Utah, at 5.02pm on April 22nd, 2011. However, River Song refuses to let events play out as they were intended, and she inadvertently fractures time in the process. The Doctor now finds himself on an Earth where all history is happening simultaneously: Charles Dickens sits for a television interview, while Winston Churchill is the Holy Roman Emperor. Only a special few -- including Amy and River -- remember time as it was meant to be. Even as the Silence spring their final trap, the Doctor knows that he must meet his fate at Lake Silencio, or all of time will disintegrate.

Making History

Season Thirty-Two saw a wholesale change to the Doctor Who broadcast schedule, which was split into two halves to avoid the summer months, when ratings traditionally dropped due to the warmer weather. This was not a novel decision: in the past, some seasons had taken a break across the Christmas period. But the length of the hiatus -- twelve weeks -- was unique for Doctor Who to that point. Also unprecedented was the integration of the gap into the year-long story arc, with the mid-season finale, A Good Man Goes To War, ending on a major cliffhanger.

Special (2011): Home For The Holidays

Companions and Recurring Characters

Madge Arwell once rescued a gravely-injured Doctor. Several years later, he attempted to return the favour by visiting Madge and her children during a time of great personal crisis.

Claire Skinner (bio) played Madge in The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe (December 2011).

Madge Arwell

The Story
The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe
The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe by Steven Moffat, directed by Farren Blackburn
Just days before Christmas 1941, Madge Arwell's airman husband is lost over the English Channel. Madge dreads telling the terrible news to their children, Lily and Cyril, so instead she takes them out of London to an old mansion house owned by a distant relative. The caretaker of the estate turns out to be the Doctor, whom Madge rescued from a crisis years earlier. He plans to ease Madge's heartbreak by giving Lily and Cyril the merriest Christmas ever. But when the Doctor opens a portal to a wintry alien wonderland in the far future, he inadvertently places all of them in terrible danger.

Season Thirty-Three (2012-13): The Impossible Girl

Companions and Recurring Characters

A nanny from modern-day London -- and later an English teacher at Coal Hill School -- Clara Oswald was brought into the Doctor's life as part of Missy's schemes, and later found herself scattered throughout the Doctor's timestream as a result of the machinations of the Great Intelligence.

Jenna Coleman (bio) made her first appearance as Clara in The Snowmen (December 2012) and her last in Twice Upon A Time (December 2017).

Clara Oswald

The daughter of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Kate Stewart became UNIT's head of scientific research, and renewed her family's close bond with the Doctor.

Jemma Redgrave (bio) made her first appearance as Kate in The Power Of Three (September 2012) and her last in The Giggle (December 2023).

Kate Stewart

Corrupted by the Great Intelligence as a child, Dr Walter Simeon spent half a century in its service before dying and becoming a vessel for its evil.

Richard E Grant (bio) made his first appearance as Dr Simeon / the Great Intelligence in The Snowmen (December 2012) and his last in The Name Of The Doctor (May 2013).

Dr Walter Simeon

One of the children for whom Clara was caring when she met the Doctor, Angie Maitland discovered the truth about her nanny's time-travelling adventures. But when she blackmailed the Doctor into an invitation aboard the TARDIS, she was inadvertently thrust into a confrontation with the Cybermen.

Eve De Leon Allen (bio) made their first appearance as Angie in The Bells Of St John (March 2013) and their last in The Name Of The Doctor (May 2013).

Angie Mailand

Angie's younger brother was Artie Maitland, who accompanied his sister, Clara, and the Doctor on their journey to Hedgewick's World of Wonders in the distant future.

Kassius Carey Johnson (bio) made his first appearance as Artie in The Bells Of St John (March 2013) and his last in The Name Of The Doctor (May 2013).

Artie Maitland

The Stories
Asylum Of The Daleks
Asylum Of The Daleks by Steven Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran
Their relationship in tatters, Amy and Rory find themselves kidnapped by the Daleks and reunited with the Doctor. They have been brought together by the Dalek Prime Minister, who requires them to infiltrate a prison planet called the Asylum which houses the insane outcasts of the Dalek race. A spaceship has crashed there, offering a means of escape for the millions of inmates. Now the Daleks wish to destroy the Asylum, and need the Doctor to deactivate its force field. Furthermore, one passenger survived the accident: a junior entertainment officer named Oswin, for whom the Doctor may be her only salvation.
Dinosaurs On A Spaceship
Dinosaurs On A Spaceship by Chris Chibnall, directed by Saul Metzstein
In 2367, Earth's security forces are on high alert as an unidentified spaceship hurtles towards the planet. The Doctor assembles a team to investigate, including the legendary Queen Nefertiti, a big game hunter named Riddell, Amy, Rory... and, inadvertently, Rory's father Brian. Materialising aboard the mystery ship, they're surprised to find it populated by dinosaurs. It turns out to be a Silurian ark, launched from Earth millions of years ago and now hijacked by a vicious criminal named Solomon. With time running out before the vessel is annihilated, the Doctor may be forced to extreme measures to save both the dinosaurs and his friends.
A Town Called Mercy
A Town Called Mercy by Toby Whithouse, directed by Saul Metzstein
The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in Mercy, a frontier town in the Old West which boasts electricity a decade too early. Mercy is being terrorised by a murderous cyborg in his search for Kahler-Jex, an alien surgeon who took refuge there after his spaceship crashed in the nearby desert. The townsfolk -- led by their marshal, Isaac -- are determined to safeguard Kahler-Jex, but supplies and morale are beginning to run low. As the Doctor uncovers the sordid history between Kahler-Jex and the cyborg, he begins to realise that, sometimes, the line between victim and monster is very blurry indeed.
The Power Of Three
The Power Of Three by Chris Chibnall, directed by Douglas Mackinnon
Amy and Rory wake up one morning to find that the entire Earth is overrun with little black cubes. The Doctor is already investigating, suspicious that an alien invasion is in progress, but the cubes are featureless and inert. Even the assistance of both Brian Williams and Kate Stewart -- UNIT's head of scientific research and the daughter of the Doctor's old friend, the Brigadier -- brings him no closer to solving the mystery. As the Doctor's stay in their home stretches into weeks and then months, Amy and Rory are forced to confront their own future as adventurers in time and space. And then, one day, the cubes activate...
The Angels Take Manhattan
The Angels Take Manhattan by Steven Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran
A tranquil stop for the TARDIS crew in modern-day Central Park becomes a crisis when the Weeping Angels send Rory back to 1938. A pulp detective novel suddenly begins narrating his fate, providing clues that allow the Doctor and Amy to come to his rescue. The book's main character, private investigator Melody Malone, turns out to be River Song. She's become embroiled with Julius Grayle, a mob boss fascinated with the Angels, who has learned that they occupy a New York apartment building called Winter Quay. But when the Doctor sets out to learn why, he puts in motion a tragedy that even he can't avert...
The Weeping Angels send Amy and Rory back in time, beyond the reach of the TARDIS.
The Great Detective
The Great Detective by Steven Moffat, directed by Marcus Wilson
London in 1892 is protected by Madame Vastra, the so-called “Lizard Woman of Paternoster Row”, her wife Jenny, and the dimwitted Sontaran Strax. It's also home to a fourth enigma: a former traveller in space and time. Unlike Vastra and her associates, however, the Doctor is no longer interested in defending the Earth...
The Snowmen
The Snowmen by Steven Moffat, directed by Saul Metzstein
The Doctor has retired to 1892 London. Despite the protests of former allies such as Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax, he is determined to keep out of humanity's affairs. But one day, almost in spite of himself, the Doctor saves a barmaid named Clara from monstrous Snowmen made of sentient snow. Clara also works as a governess at the Latimer household, where the sinister Dr Simeon is abnormally interested in the frozen pond which was the scene of her predecessor's death. And there is another mystery afoot: Clara is the spitting image of Oswin Oswald, whom the Doctor saw perish in the Dalek asylum...
The Bells Of Saint John
The Bells Of Saint John by Steven Moffat, directed by Colm McCarthy
All over the world, people are found dead, slumped next to their computers. What no one realises is that the victims' minds are being harvested, uploaded through an insidious new wi-fi network run by Miss Kizlet on behalf of an enigmatic client. Using robotic servers called Spoonheads, Miss Kizlet's reach extends virtually everywhere -- and to almost everyone. But her latest victim, a young nanny named Clara Oswald, has already made contact with the Doctor under mysterious circumstances. Having realised that Clara is the same woman he has already seen die twice, the Doctor is determined not to lose her for a third time.
Eager to unravel the mystery surrounding Clara, the Doctor invites her aboard the TARDIS.
The Rings Of Akhaten
The Rings Of Akhaten by Neil Cross, directed by Farren Blackburn
The Doctor takes Clara to a market in the system of rings which surround the planet Akhaten. It is the gathering place for the people of many worlds, all of whom harbour a belief in the Grandfather, a godlike entity who must be appeased with song and story. Central to these rites is the Queen of Years, a role currently filled by a frightened young girl named Merry Gejelh whom Clara befriends. But when the Queen of Years' ceremony goes wrong, the Doctor's intervention reawakens an ancient power -- forcing both time travellers to risk the things they treasure most.
Cold War
Cold War by Mark Gatiss, directed by Douglas Mackinnon
The year is 1983, in the midst of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The TARDIS materialises aboard a Russian submarine which is transporting Professor Grisenko to Moscow. He is escorting a block of ice, discovered during drilling operations, in which something is entombed. Against Grisenko's wishes, the creature is freed... and turns out to be Grand Marshal Skaldak, an Ice Warrior who has lain frozen for five thousand years. When the Soviets react with fear and hostility, Skaldak declares war on the human race -- and the Doctor must stop him from taking control of the submarine's nuclear arsenal.
Hide
Hide by Neil Cross, directed by Jamie Payne
The Doctor and Clara travel to Caliburn House in 1974. The owner of the estate, Alec Palmer, is investigating the Witch of the Well, a ghost which has stalked the halls of Caliburn House for centuries -- and whose legend even predates the mansion's construction. To assist him, he has recruited an empathic telepath named Emma Grayling, who can sense the ghost's immense loneliness. The Doctor discovers that the Witch of the Well is a mystery which transcends time and space -- and that the ghost is not the only thing haunting Caliburn House.
Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS
Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS by Stephen Thompson, directed by Mat King
Aware that his companion is uncomfortable around the TARDIS, the Doctor shifts the time machine into a low-power mode to help Clara get accustomed to her new home. In the process, however, he inadvertently leaves the TARDIS vulnerable to an intergalactic salvage vessel run by the van Baalen brothers, whose attempts at seizure critically damage the interior. With time and space running amok, Clara is trapped in the Ship's expanse while strangely burned monsters prowl the corridors. To rescue her, the Doctor is forced into an uneasy alliance with the van Baalens and their android, Tricky.
The Crimson Horror
The Crimson Horror by Mark Gatiss, directed by Saul Metzstein
In 1893 Yorkshire, Mrs Winifred Gillyflower warns that humanity's moral depredations are sure to bring about an imminent doomsday. She and her disfigured daughter, Ada, recruit followers for a community they have established called Sweetville. But something strange is afoot: no one who moves to Sweetville ever returns, and corpses have been found floating downriver, their skin turned a lurid red. With the body count rising, Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax are asked to investigate Mrs Gillyflower's activities. But they soon discover that the latest victim of the so-called “Crimson Horror” is none other than the Doctor himself.
Nightmare In Silver
Nightmare In Silver by Neil Gaiman, directed by Stephen Woolfenden
When she isn't adventuring in the TARDIS, Clara is a nanny to Angie and Artie. And when her two charges discover that Clara is a time traveller, they convince the Doctor to take them to Hedgewick's World of Wonders in the far future. Unfortunately, when the TARDIS lands, they discover that the legendary theme park has been abandoned by imperial decree. The only people left are a platoon of half-hearted soldiers, an impresario named Webley, and his assistant, the diminutive Porridge. But lurking in the shadows are the universe's last Cybermen, who believe the Doctor to be the final hope for the survival of the Cyber race.
The Name Of The Doctor
The Name Of The Doctor by Steven Moffat, directed by Saul Metzstein
An enigmatic warning from a serial killer leads Madame Vastra to initiate a psychic conference with Jenny, Strax, Clara and River Song. But the Paternoster Gang has fallen into a trap set by the Great Intelligence, who despatches his monstrous Whisper Men to kidnap them. He plans to lure the Doctor to Trenzalore -- the planet which, at some point in his future, will become the Time Lord's last resting place. There, the Great Intelligence will take his ultimate revenge, while the mystery of Clara Oswald, the Impossible Girl, will finally be unravelled. But not before the Doctor's darkest secret is laid bare...

Making History

Like Season Thirty-Two, Doctor Who's thirty-third season saw its broadcast split in two halves, with five episodes airing in the autumn of 2012 and eight in the spring of 2013. As a result, the 2012 Christmas special, The Snowmen, fell in the middle of the season, as did The Great Detective, a prequel story transmitted as part of the BBC's Children In Need charity appeal. Season Thirty-Three also marked the first season of Doctor Who to be comprised entirely of single-episode stories. Nonetheless, some plot threads continued to bind the individual stories together, especially as the production team sought to lay the groundwork for Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary.

Specials (2013): The Golden Age

Companions and Recurring Characters

A UNIT scientist who harboured a degree of infatuation with the Doctor, Petronella Osgood became the pivotal figure in a tenuous peace with Zygon refugees on Earth.

Ingrid Oliver (bio) made her first appearance as Osgood in The Day Of The Doctor (November 2013) and her last in The Zygon Inversion (November 2015).

Petronella 
Osgood

The Stories
The Day Of The Doctor
The Day Of The Doctor by Steven Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran
On the last day of the Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords, a man who refuses to call himself “the Doctor” is faced with an appalling choice. In order to end the bloodshed, he must use the Moment -- an ancient Gallifreyan weapon -- to slaughter billions. Elsewhere, the Tenth Doctor becomes entangled with Queen Elizabeth I while hunting Zygons in sixteenth-century England. In the present day, UNIT summons the Eleventh Doctor and Clara to investigate a mystery at an art gallery. These events become intertwined, leading three incarnations of the same Time Lord to confront the most terrible decision of their lives.
The Time Of The Doctor
The Time Of The Doctor by Steven Moffat, directed by Jamie Payne
A message echoing through all of time and space emanates from the farming village of Christmas on the planet Trenzalore. With the assistance of Clara and Tasha Lem, pontiff of a mysterious religious order, the Doctor discovers that the signal is a message from Gallifrey, coming through a crack in time from another universe. Soon Trenzalore is under siege from massed hordes of the Doctor's worst enemies, as the spectre of the Time War is raised anew. Years give way to centuries, and it seems that the last days of the Doctor's final life are destined to be spent saving Christmas...
As the Doctor's last seconds tick away, the lost Time Lords bequeath him a new cycle of regenerations.

Making History

To mark Doctor Who's fiftieth birthday, a special episode was filmed in 3-D and simulcast in more than seventy-five countries around the world, as well as various movie theatres. The Day Of The Doctor focussed on Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, and John Hurt as the War Doctor, but it also featured cameo appearances by Tom Baker, who had played the Fourth Doctor, and Peter Capaldi, who was newly cast as the Twelfth Doctor. Archival footage was used to represent the remaining Doctors. A month later, The Time Of The Doctor drew the curtains on both the golden anniversary celebrations and Smith's tenure as the Eleventh Doctor.