The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is set to trial artificial intelligence (AI) within the world of its flagship icon Doctor Who.

The publicly funded broadcaster will be using generative AI to promote the ‘Whoniverse’ collection on the company’s streaming platform iPlayer.

Head of Media Inventory at the BBC, Dan Houston told the Radio Times that “experimentation is at the heart of how we approach marketing at the BBC. Testing and learning on how we let audiences know what BBC content is most relevant to them and we know they might love underpins our digital marketing strategy.”

The senior BBC executive would continue that there is “a rich variety of content in the Whoniverse collection on iPlayer to test and learn with, and Doctor Who thematically lends itself to AI, which is a bonus.”

With a new season of Doctor Who on the way this tech driven test will be used as a benchmark for future instalments of the Tardis travelling doctor.

Houston said “We’re going to take it one step at a time, starting simple and learning as we go. We have chosen to start with Doctor Who, as it is a joint content priority for both BBC Public Service UK and BBC Studios marketing teams.”

This AI-first will also be taking place at the same time a new pair debuts as the sonic screwdriver-wielding Time Lord is now played by Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday will be on hand to help as they get into scrapes across time and space.

Showrunner Russel T Davis has told fans that this season will be a “slow burner” and that some of the scenes that introduced Gatwa’s Doctor and Gibson’s Ruby characters to the audience will be revisited.

Gatwa has taken on the mantle of the 15th Doctor from his introduction in the 60th anniversary special and the time-honoured tradition of the Time Lord’s Christmas Special, which was titled ‘The Church on Ruby Road’.

Doctor Who returns to BBC One and BBC iPlayer in May 2024 for the UK and Disney+ for the rest of the world.

As we reported earlier this year, Doctor Who will also be making a debut in the world of Fortnite to possibly coincide with this new series of science fiction adventures, according to well established gaming leakers.

Image: BBC.