With a show as ambitious as Doctor Who, it needs a talented special effects team behind it in order to bring its mad ideas – including aliens, spaceships and entire planets – to life. Since the series returned to our screens in 2005, VFX company Milk have handled things in that area and have done an incredible job, especially considering the show operates on a limited TV budget.
That said, fans might need to be prepared for an increase in quality starting with season 11. As part of the show-wide revamp, the Doctor Who production team will bring in a new VFX company – and they’re one of the biggest in the business. Double Negative has worked on a huge range of blockbusters in recent years, including everything from James Bond movies to the Dark Knight trilogy to Marvel’s current smash-hit Black Panther.
The credits of their TV division aren’t quite so illustrious yet, but they have worked on a few Netflix shows including Altered Carbon and Black Mirror. Speaking of the latter, season 4’s opening hour “U.S.S. Callister” (the one that spoofed Star Trek) was a very VFX-heavy episode that displayed just what the studio can do.
This news come to us from Louise Hastings, a VFX producer for Milk, who chatted to Radio Times and also revealed that the BBC told employees the Thirteenth Doctor would be a man in order to keep Jodie Whittaker’s casting a secret.
“The decision was made that when Steven Moffat and the rest of his team stood down from Doctor Who and the new team came in, that they would also mix up the vendors as well. So we’ve handed the baton over to our friends at DNEG for the next series.”
The VFX studio is far from the only thing to change behind the scenes, of course. Showrunner Chris Chibnall is coming in to replace Steven Moffat and longtime composer Murray Gold has also left the show, though his successor has yet to be revealed. Not to mention that Jodie Whittaker has now taken over the titular role from Peter Capaldi. Suffice it to say, there’s much to look forward to.
Doctor Who season 11 airs on the BBC sometime this autumn.