The first proper trailer for Doctor Who season eight premiered over the weekend, and it was chock full of monsters, robots, and a Time Lord identity crisis. We pored over every frame, and here's what we learned! Warning: Spoilers and speculation ahead..


So as you can see in the image up top, the TARDIS is on fire, exploding and generally going nuts. We also see some shots of the TARDIS flying through an unusually dark vortex — so dark I couldn't even get a proper screencap of it. This may relate to the Doctor's announcement that he's made many mistakes in his 2000 year life, and he intends to do something about that — by going into darkness.

Also, it seems like Steven Moffat's fascination with eyes and vision hasn't changed at all — the trailer contains a closeup of a Dalek eyepiece, plus Clara with her eyes closed and then open in shock, and an extreme closeup of someone's eye (the Doctor's?), with the pupil dilated:


There's a lot of Dalek action happening in this trailer, including a Dalek ship firing upon a small scoutship:


And a whole army of Daleks — notice that the super-tall revamped Daleks from Matt Smith's first season have apparently been phased out for good:


One Dalek announces somewhat oddly that life returns and life prevails. Which doesn't seem like a very Dalek-y sentiment.

Also, here's Clara, going down a hallway and toting the sonic screwdriver. Set photos from episode 9 showed her wielding the sonic screwdriver inside some kind of tunnel where people have been disappearing.


The Doctor's intense stare is in full effect. Note the Victorian collar:


Who is this android with the half-uncovered face and the flamethrower hand? I'm guessing it's from the first episode, which takes place in Victorian London and supposedly includes robots. Including one character named "Half-Face."


This guy sort of looks like a robot Silurian:


And here's the monster that we saw in set photos a while back, with the two eyestalks. It's apparently wearing a spacesuit, and is tied up. Note that it's in some kind of vault full of safety deposit boxes, which made me think of the episode called "Time Heist" (which is rumored to involve a bank robbery of some sort.)


Clara is thrown by some kind of explosion — and this looks to me like a chemistry lab. Maybe at Coal Hill School, where Clara is working as a teacher?


Some kind of pitched battle taking place in a big modern facility, with a logo on the back wall that looks like a "T."


Madame Vastra isn't too surprised to meet another version of the Doctor. "Here we go again," she says.


Clara is falling into some kind of bottomless pit thingy:


A dinosaur stalks Victorian London!


A medieval robot — probably from the "Robots of Sherwood Forest" episode featuring Robin Hood. And robots.


The Doctor rides a horse through the streets in his nightgown. Probably also from the Victorian season opener.


Clara confronts someone wearing a red hood. Wonder if there's any significance to that brooch she's wearing?


The Doctor on some kind of spaceship, being caught in some kind of artificial gravity failure and possibly sucked out an airlock...


The TARDIS is flying past what looks like a nasty tear in the fabric of reality.


And here's the bit where the Doctor asks Clara if he's a good man... and separately, in a voiceover on the scene where she's holding the sonic screwdriver, she confesses she doesn't know who the Doctor is any more.


And if you want more analysis of this trailer, check out this post by Ursus-Veritas, which I only noticed after I'd already finished doing my own!