The Official Teaser Holds a Plea to End 'The War Between the Land & the Sea'

For Doctor Who fans, 2025 is proving to be a bittersweet one. In the U.S., the show's longest-running convention, Gallifrey One, announced it would be shutting down before the end of the decade. On TV, Disney seems to be on the fence about making the marriage official after the contract for the current two-season engagement ends. With Disney unsure if it will seal the deal, it's unclear if, when, and who the Doctor will regenerate into, as the character who emerged at the finale's conclusion was not introduced as "The Doctor."

 (The BBC will renew the show regardless of Disney's decision; it's just a matter of the show moving house in the U.S, again.)

However, Disney's fence-sitting will continue for at least a bit longer, and it's due to the good part of 2025: the first Doctor Who spinoff in almost a decade. Titled the horrendously overlong and deeply search engine-unfriendly The War Between the Land & the Sea, the UNIT-focused series dropped its first teaser after Doctor Who's finale, promising it will be next up to stream on both Disney+ and the BBC.

The teaser also reveals the roles that the two topline stars in the series will play. Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw were announced initially to star when the series was first revealed, but their roles were kept under wraps, partly because both had previously appeared in the Whoniverse. (Tovey played Midshipman Frame, and Mbatha-Raw was Martha’s sister, Tish Jones). However, the two are not playing those characters here, not unless Tish had a major secret she was keeping, since Mbatha-Raw has been revealed as playing a Silurian named Salt. Tovey is her human counterpart, Barclay.

Here's the series logline:

When a fearsome and ancient species emerges from the ocean, dramatically revealing themselves to humanity, an international crisis is triggered. With the entire population at risk, UNIT step into action as the land and sea wage war.

The War Between the Land & the Sea will star Whoniverse regulars (or semi-regulars) Jemma Redgrave (Silent Witness) as Commander Kate Lethbridge Stewart, Ruth Madeley (The Long Shadow) as scientific advisor Shirley Anne Bingham, Alexander Devrient (Ted Lasso) as Colonel Christofer Ibrahim, and Colin MacFarlane (The Larkins) as General Austin Pierce. 

Along with Tovey and Mbatha-Raw, the new cast for the spinoff series also features Adrian Lukis (The Bombing of Pan Am 103), Patrick Baladi (Line of Duty), Francesca Corney (The Buccaneers), Mei Mac (Call the Midwife), Vincent Franklin (Happy Valley), Waleed Hammad (Industry), Iestyn Arwel (Death Valley), Hannah Donaldson (Granite Harbour), Manpreet Bachu (D.I. Ray), and Ann Akinjirin (C.B. Strike).

Davies wrote all five episodes with Pete McTighe (A Discovery of Witches). Director Dylan Holmes Williams (Servant) will helm all installments. Davies and McTighe are also executive producers for Bad Wolf, alongside Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Julie Gardner, and Jane Tranter. 

The War Between the Land & the Sea is expected to premiere on BBC One and Disney+ in the latter half of 2025.