First Doctor Who Season Eight Guest Stars Announced

Danny Pink joins Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Clara Oswald this Autumn!
The BBC have today revealed four performers who are set to feature in the upcoming eighth season of their acclaimed science-fiction drama Doctor Who. Starring Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman, the new run takes place after the events of The Time of the Doctor, as everyone's favourite Time Lord recovers from his latest regeneration in Victorian England before commencing his quest to find and restore his home planet Gallifrey.

While any news on the Who front is always welcome, in particular it's the casting of Samuel Anderson which has generated the most substantial discussion from fans today. Anderson has previously starred in Emmerdale (alongside Coleman, incidentally!), Gavin and Stacey, The History Boys and Casualty, but with his acquirement of the recurring of Danny Pink, a teacher at Coal Hill School who finds himself drawn into the Doctor's life in an explosive manner, he'll surely be thrust further into the limelight than ever before, just as Noel Clarke and Arthur Darvill were in recent years. The production team won't reveal as of yet whether Pink will join the TARDIS crew on a permanent basis after Season Eight, but the truth of his destiny in the Time Vortex will become apparent later this year.

Moreover, Episodes 4 and 5 are heading in front of the cameras this week, and so as to avoid filming spoilers, the show's marketing division has confirmed a couple more faces that we can expect to see within the two instalments. The former of the pair will welcome Gangs of New York's Robert Goodman into the Whoniverse, and the latter features both Broadchurch's Jonathan Bailey and Death in Paradise's Pippa Bennett-Warner. None of those actors could be classified as household names, but if and when we hear details of the famed thespians battling the Time Lord this season, no doubt the announcement(s) will come in separate press releases as 2014 progresses. In some quarters of the interweb, reports claiming that the two adventures will form a two-parter can be found, yet for now, we'll have to await confirmation or denial in the next issue of Doctor Who Magazine, due out on Thursday March 6th.

Doctor Who returns for a new season of voyages through time and space on BBC One this August.