New Doctor Who Season Eight Musical Guest Star & Finale Director Announced

Source: Daily Mail

What does the Fox say? Or in this case, what do the Foxes say to the Doctor?
The BBC have this week announced a new guest star set to feature in the upcoming thirty-fourth season of their hit science-fiction drama Doctor Who. Set to broadcast later this year, the first episode of the new run will star Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald, Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra, Catrin Stewart as Jenny Flint and Dan Starkey as Commander Strax.

British music artist and songwriter Foxes, however, will not star in Season Eight's début instalment. Instead, she will appear in (aptly enough) the as-of-yet-untitled eighth episode (out of twelve, with the thirteenth episode of the run set to be shifted so as to form the 2014 Christmas Special). Written by Jamie Mathieson, the story (according to Steven Moffat) sees "the Doctor [...] finally catching up on his phone calls", and as well as featuring a guest performance from Foxes (who will even sing a musical number- here's hoping that it's of the same quality as Katherine Jenkins' tune in "A Christmas Carol"!), it will star acclaimed Brit comedian Frank Skinner in a still to be confirmed role.

As if that news weren't enough to keep Whovians satisfied for now, we've moreover learned that Tank Girl helmer Rachel Talalay will direct Season Eight's finale. Comprising Episodes 11 and 12, the two-part story will reportedly feature the return of the Master (who may be played by Game of Thrones' Charles Dance, but take that rumour with the usual pinch of Gallifreyan salt), and although Talalay didn't reveal much in the way of concrete details on the two instalments in a recent interview, she did have this to say on her contribution: "Every episode of Doctor Who is like a mini-feature and they're all completely different. [...] It fits into my kind of out-there, pushing-the-envelope, trying to give the audience something to grab onto [...] It's so big and so hard and so ambitious. When you're working with a wonderful script, you just think, "How do I tell this story beautifully and blow away the audience?""

Doctor Who will return for a new series of time-travelling voyages this August on BBC One.