| Doctor Who | |
|---|---|
| Series 12 | |
 DVD box set cover art | |
| Showrunner | Chris Chibnall |
| Starring | |
| No. of stories | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 10 (+1 special) |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Original release | 1 January – 1 March 2020 |
| Series chronology | |
The twelfth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who premiered on 1 January 2020 and aired until 1 March 2020. It is the second series to be led by Chris Chibnall as head writer and executive producer, alongside executive producer Matt Strevens, the twelfth to air after the programme's revival in 2005, and the thirty-eighth season overall. The twelfth series was broadcast on Sundays, except for the premiere episode, continuing the trend from the eleventh series. Prior to the eleventh series, regular episodes of the revived era were commonly broadcast on Saturdays. The series was followed by the 2021 New Year's Day special, "Revolution of the Daleks".
Jodie Whittaker returns for her second series as the Thirteenth Doctor, an incarnation of the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in her TARDIS, which appears from the outside to be an old fashioned British police box. It also stars Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill as the Doctor's travelling companions, playing Graham O'Brien, Ryan Sinclair and Yasmin Khan, respectively. The series follows the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions, who meet a new incarnation of the Master, the destruction of Gallifrey, the return of Jack Harkness, the appearance of an unknown incarnation of the Doctor, the Cybermen, and the secret of the "Timeless Child".
The ten episodes were directed by Jamie Magnus Stone, Lee Haven Jones, Nida Manzoor and Emma Sullivan. Alongside Chibnall, who wrote four of the scripts and co-wrote a further three, the writers include Ed Hime, Pete McTighe and Vinay Patel, who return from writing the previous series, as well as new contributors Nina Metivier, Maxine Alderton and Charlene James. Filming commenced in January 2019 and had concluded by November 2019.