Doctor Who Season 2 episode titles, writers, and directors announced!

The minds behind Doctor Who have been incredibly tight-lipped about what's coming up for us in Season 2, with almost no information available before the last month. We know that Varada Sethu will be returning to the show as Belinda Chandra, a new companion, and that Millie Gibson will be back at least part-time as Ruby Sunday. But the episodes themselves were still virtual unknowns.

However, the official Doctor Who X page just announced all eight upcoming episodes' titles, writers, and directors. Combining those with the scraps of information we've received elsewhere, here is all we know about Season 2's episodes!

The Robot Revolution

Assuming that the episodes will air in the order they were posted, the season opener is going to be "The Robot Revolution." This episode is written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Peter Hoar, who will also be directing Episode 4. The teaser clip above includes an Electrocardiography Machine, which depicts the episode information and a small description of "Planet Belinda", and a few other medical supplies such as Paxoll, a medication used for treating breast cancer, and a syringe.

The details here seem pretty clear. The Doctor will be arriving on the home planet of new companion Belinda Chandra, who may well be a nurse, given the medical equipment in the image. There are laser beams shooting in the background, so she'll likely either be a combat medic or in for a shock when the fighting starts! Either way, the clues seem to indicate that she will be our first non-human companion in a very long time—or at least, the first companion not from Earth.

According to IMDb, this is also the episode featuring Rose Ayling-Ellis. If that is true, then "The Robot Revolution" has also been given the title of "one of the most frightening episodes we’ve ever made."

Lux

Episode 2 is titled "Lux" and is written by Davies, directed by Amanda Brotchie. The teaser doesn't give us much information, but the old-style camera in both the sign and the caption's emoji suggests that this will be the episode where a cartoon character climbs out of a movie screen, as seen in the trailer. The cartoon (Mr. Ring-a-Ding) will be played by Alan Cumming and has been described as:

"He’s a happy, funny, singalong cartoon, who lives in Sunny Town with his friend Sunshine Sally. However, in 1952, after years of repeats in cinemas across the land, Mr Ring-a-Ding suddenly looks beyond the screen and sees the real world outside - and the consequences are terrifying."

Beyond the idea of the cartoon coming to life, however, we know very little about this episode. It's definitely unlikely, but there is a chance that the title is somehow connected to the Lux family and/or the Felman Lux Corporation, first mentioned in "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead."

The Well

Episode 3 is called "The Well," and it is the first co-written episode of the season, with both Russell T. Davies and Sharma Angel Walfall writing and Amanda Brotchie directing. The clip features alarms going off as the door attempts to close off a potentially-underground living area. There is a clock shifting from 23:59 to midnight, and the overall feel makes it seem likely that this will be a horror episode.

Beyond that, this might be the episode we have the least information about. The teaser does include a logo that resembles a triangle made out of the letter G, which some fans have recognized as the logo for the UK series Gladiators, but what that means and why it has been used is still unknown.

Episode 4 is titled "Lucky Day" and is the first episode of the season to not be written (at least in part) by Russell T. Davies. Instead, it is written by Pete McTighe and directed by Peter Hoar. The preview shows a poster for "Lucky Day," a podcast hosted by Conrad Clark that will feature Ruby Sunday. There are also a series of news articles talking about things like "Extraterrestrial Highway" and what happened to UNIT's new headquarters. At the end of the clip, the camera shifts to show the reflection of an alien or robot, which is presumably the episode's antagonist.

As far as we can tell, this creature is the one Ruby warns about in the trailer, explaining that it scares people because it likes the taste. Writer Pete McTighe has a history with Doctor Who, previously writing "Kerblam!" and co-writing "Praxeus." He is also an executive producer and writer for the spin-off The War Between The Land And The Sea, so fans may see a few seeds of that series laid in this episode.

Episode 5 is called "The Story & The Engine," written by Inua Ellams and directed by Makalla McPherson. The preview features a Missing Persons poster, with four individuals identified: Tunde Adebayo, Obioma Okoli, Rashid Abubakar, and Omo Esosa. Other key elements include a spider crawling over the missing poster and a barber shop setting.

This episode is almost certainly going to involve the African diaspora and elements of African mythology. Writer Inua Ellams is from Nigeria, and the names on the missing poster are primarily West African and Arabic. Given the spider in the teaser, the episode title, and the style of the spider in the trailer, it seems likely that this episode will have the Doctor come face-to-face with Anansi, an arachnid trickster often associated with storytelling.

Episode 6 will include the much-anticipated Eurovision episode, titled "The Interstellar Song Contest." The episode is written by Juno Dawson and directed by Ben A. Williams. The teaser doesn't give much away, other than the fact that it will probably be in the far future, as it is the 803rd iteration of the musical contest.

Thanks to recent casting announcements, we do know a bit about this episode. Rylan Clark will be in a prominent role, as one of the hosts for the Interstellar Song Contest, and Kadiff Kirwan will be in a currently unknown role. Kirwan's casting announcement included his description of the episode as "an intergalactic gargantuan extravaganza."

Episode 7 is called "Wish World," written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai. The teaser shows a clock hand spinning rapidly in what appears to be a cathedral of bones. The image also includes a possible android on the left side and a glowing white-and-blue ball above the clock.

This will be the first part of the Season 2 finale, but the details of that finale are currently unknown. If we had to guess, this episode will probably dive deep into the multiverse, possibly even playing with different versions of the Doctor and his companions. It is likely to end with a big reveal like last season, probably involving the mysterious Mrs. Flood.

The final episode of the season is "The Reality War," also written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai. The teaser shows a brick wall cracking open as the world shakes, with a prominent sign for the London Borough of Hackney in the middle. While that name is not particularly well-known in Doctor Who in its own right, the borough is where Coal Hill School is located, which Classic fans know for being the Doctor's granddaughter's school and New Who fans will remember as being where Clara Oswald taught (and where the spin-off Class was set).

This episode probably features the clip from the trailer where buildings are falling away around Mel, but we don't know for sure where it's going to go. While it wouldn't be unreasonable to imagine it will at least mention the Reality Bomb from the Series 4 finale, it's likely to go much further than that, toying with the very nature of what Doctor Who is. Fans have speculated that at least part of Doctor Who will be revealed to be fake, concocted by a god of stories, and this episode will likely reckon with that idea and try to lock down a new, more comprehensive understanding of Doctor Who canon moving forward.