'Doctor Who's Season 15 Teaser Trailer Introduces Companion Varada Sethu

Our first look at Ncuti Gatwa's second season of Doctor Who is here, and with it, our introduction to the new companion who'll be doing a lot of running alongside him, Varada Sethu (Annika), who will play Belinda Chandra. The teaser was released following the conclusion of the Christmas special "Joy to the World," an hour that encouraged the Doctor to find a new friend to travel with following Ruby Sunday's decision to leave the TARDIS behind. It doesn't take him all that long to keep that promise. 

But if this clip is anything to go by, new companion Belinda Chandra seems decidedly unimpressed with the Time Lord. Taking a page from Fifth Doctor companion Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding), she demands the Doctor take her home immediately. Unlike Tegan, who was at least at Heathrow as a person who works in the traveling business, it is currently an open question of how the two cross paths in the first place; their journey together will be more challenging than expected. 

Sethu already appeared in this era of Doctor Who, playing Anglican soldier Mundy Flynn in the Steven Moffat-penned episode "Boom!" in Gatwa's first season.  Her Season 2 character is brand new and allegedly has no connection to the role she previously portrayed. I'd love to believe that's a fake-out and that there's some larger mystery at work with her character. But playing two different roles isn't as odd as it might seem. After all, Peter Capaldi portrayed two completely different characters within the larger Whoniverse before becoming the Twelfth Doctor. 

Here's the synopsis for Season 2 (or Season 15 or 43, depending on how you count). 

The Doctor meets Belinda Chandra and begins an epic quest to get her back to Earth. But a mysterious force is stopping their return and the time-traveling TARDIS team must face great dangers, bigger enemies and wider terrors than ever before.

Fifteen's former companion, Ruby, will still have a role to play this season. However, it's unclear how many episodes Millie Gibson will appear in. (She'd been announced as cast in the new Masterpiece adaptation of The Forsythe Saga during Season 2 filming, and it's unclear how much that affected her availability.) The teaser shows her at what appears to be UNIT headquarters, an organization that has become a job program for former companions and Doctor-adjacent figures this year. Is she back on Earth for good? Or is she trying to find her way back to the TARDIS?

Though only Gatwa, Sethu, and Gibson are listed on the official press release, eagle-eyed fans scouring the trailer can spot appearances by Jemma Redgrave (The War Between the Land and the Sea) as UNIT commander Kate Lethbridge Stewart, Ruth Madeley (Nightsleeper) as scientific advisor Shirley Anne Bingham, and Anita Dobson (Curfew) as the mysterious Mrs. Flood.

Russell T Davies serves as Doctor Who's showrunner and executive producer alongside Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Julie Gardner, and Jane Tranter. The series is produced by Bad Wolf, with BBC Studios for Disney Branded Television and BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Doctor Who Season 2 will premiere in 2025 on BBC and BBC iPlayer in the U.K. and Disney+ everywhere else.