

Pictured: The first Doctor Who season 7 set photo. The first Doctor Who season 7 set photo. Click here to enlarge.

Shooting for Doctor Who’s seventh season began in Cardiff on Monday morning, as we’ve already reported, but today the first backstage image from the set has become available, showing Matt Smith posing with co-stars Arthur Davill and Karen Gillan in front of the iconic TARDIS. The season will boast fourteen episodes, with the show creeps towards what is being described as “its enormouse, climatic 50th anniversary year”.

“It’s thrilling and exciting to be back and working with two of my closest friends,” said Smith, taking the role of the Eleventh Doctor for the third year in a row alongside Gillan as Amy Pond and Davill as Rory Williams. “It’s just brililant to be back on the TARDIS with Matt and Arthur for our craziest adventures yet,” added Gillan. Amy and Rory will be leaving the show this season in what is being called a “heartbreaking departure”.

So far, the season’s contents have not yet been divulged, but we know that the Doctor will meet “a new friend”, and there will be guest appearances by David Bradley, Rupert Graves, and Mark Williams, among others. The show will return to BBC One sometime this Autumn. Cardiff’s Millennium Centre will also play host to the first official Doctor Who Convention since the reboot next month, details of which can be found on our dedicated event page here.