The opening episode will premiere at a special screening in Sheffield next week, with the BBC having offered fans the chance to win tickets to the red carpet event.

Sharon D Clarke, Johnny Dixon and Samuel Oatley are the guest stars for the opening episode, set in Sheffield. The second episode, The Ghost Monument, will feature Shaun Dooley, Susan Lynch and Art Malik as guests.

The new trailer hints at the monsters that will feature across the 10 episodes – with no sign of famous adversaries such as the Daleks or Cybermen. Chibnall has promised all-new monsters for Whittaker’s debut season.

He said he hoped the new series would draw in new fans. “It doesn’t need an encyclopaedic knowledge of Doctor Who to get into it. The wonderful thing about this is every time there’s new cast members, the show is regenerated in a literal sense with the character. New energy is brought into it.

“If you’re a fan of the show already, it’s got everything you expect. It’s got fantastic new worlds. It’s also got worlds that we’re familiar with, but are maybe seen from different points of view. It honours everything that has gone before.”

Whittaker has said: “It’s a great time for a new generation of children and families to start the habit of gathering around the television together to watch this funny, scary, extraordinary show.”

Details of the remaining episodes are scant, but one storyline is thought to centre around Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement in the US, and Alan Cumming has revealed he will be playing King James I at some point in the series. Malorie Blackman, Ed Hime, Joy Wilkinson, Vinay Patel and Pete McTighe have previously been announced as writers for the series.

A vocal minority of Doctor Who fans have remained opposed to the casting of a woman in the lead role. Recently, Whittaker was filmed for Stylist magazine reacting with humour to people criticising her casting.

Whittaker revealed she was being paid the same as her predecessor Peter Capaldi, following close scrutiny of the BBC’s gender pay gap. “I was never going to accept less, I am equal to everyone else and have never thought of myself as anything other than that,” she told Stylist.

“I don’t enjoy being thought of as less … for doing the same job, no woman does. But in this particular job I didn’t need to demand it because it was already in place.”

The series will premiere in the US on BBC America at the same time as the first UK showing. The exact time slot is yet to be confirmed.

Whittaker said: “You can expect emotion, you can expect action and adventure. You can expect a lot of humour, a lot of warmth and some great characters. More than anything, it’s hopefully incredibly entertaining and I think this series has something for absolutely everyone. I think you’re in for a rollicking ride.”