Might be time to get your calculators out, as a new Doctor Who brand and licensing update seems to suggest we’re going to get a little more Who than we thought later this year.

The latest issue of Toy World magazine – as spotted by Girly Letters on Twitter, and the Doctor Who Site – has outlined the BBC’s merchandising plans for the year, and specifically says of Doctor Who that there will be “more than 11 hours of new content in Autumn 2018”.

Let’s do some maths, then.

Thus far, we’ve been told that we’re getting ten episodes of Doctor Who series 11, starring Jodie Whittaker. The first, we’ve been told, will be an hour long, and the other episodes will be 50 minutes apiece. By our calculations, that adds up to eight and a half hours.

Where, then, is the other two and a half hours coming from? A Christmas special would be a safe bet, and could eat up an hour. But might there be something else, or might some episodes actually be longer than first billed? Or is this a case of the licensing department and the people making Doctor Who having some kind of disconnect?

The same article also says that the BBC has a “five year evergreen strategy” for Doctor Who. Which suggests that there’s a lot more Doctor Who ahead. Here’s hoping…

Doctor Who series 11 is introducing another new director to the show, with the third block of episodes for Jodie Whittaker’s first run set to be steered by Sallie Aprahamian.

Aprahamian has directed shows such as Teachers, This Life, Extremely Dangerous, The Sins and The Lakes in the past. She’s got a strong background in theatre direction on top of her sizeable television CV. And as per her agent’s webpage, she’s now been revealed to be directing two episodes of Doctor Who series 11.

She’s directing block three of episodes, the next to film once director Mark Tonderai has wrapped up work on the second block. The identity of those episodes remains a mystery, as you might expect.

The news of Aprahamian’s appointment was spotted by @Ruther2 on Twitter, here…

#DoctorWho Block 3 will be directed by @SallieAp pic.twitter.com/aCRCK26qib

— Ruther (@Ruther2) December 23, 2017

The directors of block four and five of episodes are also unknown – at least to us! – at this stage.

This story contains spoilers for the Doctor Who Christmas special, Twice Upon A Time.

An odd story yesterday popped up in The Mirror, that suggested last month’s Doctor Who Christmas special, Twice Upon A Time, was set to be the subject of legal action. In an article entitled ‘Row breaks out over Doctor Who Christmas episode’, it reckoned that the necessary people at the BBC didn’t seek the permission apparently required to reuse the character of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

As you may recall, Mark Gatiss’ character, The Captain, is revealed to be a Lethbridge-Stewart at the end of the episode, and at the Q&A following the first screening of Twice Upon A Time he confirmed that his character was the beloved Brigadier’s grandfather.

Which is where the apparent problem kicked in. Because the character of the Brigadier was in part created by Mervyn Haisman, and the Haisman Estate, the article argued, wasn’t happy. Andy Frankham-Allen, creative director of said estate, was quoted in The Mirror as saying “characters are considered creative works and are protected by copyright law”.

“As such, we reserve the right to determine what is officially part of our intellectual property. If derivative works are created without our permission, then we will determine if/how they fit into our IP”.

The BBC, though, was quick to play things down.

And so, as it happened, was Andy Frankham-Allen. He took to Twitter to confirm that he hadn’t actually spoken to The Mirror at all, and that it was all a non-issue. Here are his key Tweets on the matter…

https://twitter.com/GirlyLetters/status/951098094657114113

https://twitter.com/FrankhamAllen/status/951107963355324417

He also clarified that there’s no row at all, and no threats were made. Understandably, he seems really quite frustrated that a fuss is being made over a threat that he never made and a fuss that he didn’t incite.

Jodie Whittaker hadn’t read the whole of the script for the Doctor Who Christmas special and claims she was just as surprised as the viewers when watching the episode. The 35-year-old made her debut on the sci-fi series last month when The Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, regenerated and transformed into her. She told Doctor Who magazine: ‘I didn’t read the rest of the episode because I was only given a page to go from, which was the moment that I become the Doctor’.

The former Broadchurch star – who will appear later this year for the full series alongside Hollyoaks‘ Mandip Gill, Tosin Cole and funnyman Bradley Walsh – also revealed that the colour of her trousers were chosen by herself after she suggested them to costume maker Ray Holman. She said: ‘The first meeting I had about the costume was all very secret. As we were talking, I was distracted by the colour of the wallpaper behind us. ‘I told Ray I loved it – and that’s the colour of the trousers.’ She has taken over the role from Peter Capaldi – who played the Doctor for four years – while Chris Chibnall has become the new show runner following Steven Moffat’s exit.

Jodie previously said she thinks it’s ‘f***ing brilliant’ she’s able to create a milestone for Doctor Who, by becoming the first ever female to play the time-travelling alien, and has admitted it’s become a ‘defining moment’ of her life because she wants to prove to the younger generation that role models come in ‘different forms’. She said: ‘This is the defining moment of my life. I feel old enough for it. And I feel like I understand how important it is, and I’m so excited that the role models for young children, boys or girls… or teenagers, or adults, come in different forms.

‘There’s nothing unattainable about me. I don’t look like I’ve been carved out of rock. I don’t sound like I’ve had the extraordinary glamour. For me, knowing what I thought were my limitations as a person and an actor, because this industry is about, ‘You sound like this, you look like this’… but I’m normal.’

Doctor Who series 11, headlined by Jodie Whittaker of course, is currently filming an episode in South Africa as part of the second block of episodes for the new series. And thanks to the sleuthing work of the excellent Ruther2 on Twitter, it looks as if we know who’s directing that block.

Mark Tonderai, director of films such as Hush and House At The End Of The Street, is reckoned to be directing the second block of episodes. The discovery was made thanks, in time honoured fashion, to an actor’s agent listing. In this case, Gareth Marks, who’s playing ‘The Police Officer’ in the new series…

It's tempting to conclude these are episodes 3 & 4 which also (according to IMDB) feature @markwilliams_22 as a bus driver pic.twitter.com/HEl8tvpeWc

— Ruther (@Ruther2) January 6, 2018

Tonderai, whilst not officially announced, has fine form in television too, with shows such as Gotham, Lucifer and The Five to his name.

Filming continues on the new series.