| The War Between the Land and the Sea | |
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 Promotional logo used on social media channels | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Russell T Davies |
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| Directed by | Dylan Holmes Williams |
| Starring |
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| Composer | Lorne Balfe |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
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| Producer | Edoardo Ferretti |
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| Doctor Who | |
The War Between the Land and the Sea is an upcoming Britishscience fiction televisionminiseries created byRussell T Davies forBBC One andDisney+ as part of theWhoniverse franchise. StarringRussell Tovey,Gugu Mbatha-Raw,Jemma Redgrave and Alexander Devrient, the series featuresUNIT in their attempt to prevent a global war caused by the return of theSea Devils.
The War Between the Land and the Sea was filmed from August to December 2024. It consists of five episodes and is expected to premiere on BBC One on 7 December 2025, and on Disney+ in 2026.
UNIT must take action to prevent a global war once an ancient species, theSea Devils, comes out from the sea, revealing itself to humanity.[1]
Adrian Lukis,Patrick Baladi,Vincent Franklin, Francesca Corney,Mei Mac,[3] Waleed Hammad, Iestyn Arwel, Hannah Donaldson,Manpreet Bachu and Ann Akinjirin have been cast in undisclosed roles.[4]
| No. | Episode [5] | Directed by [6] | Written by [7] | Original release date [8] | UK viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Episode 1 | Dylan Holmes Williams | Russell T Davies | 7 December 2025 (2025-12-07) | TBD |
| 2 | Episode 2 | Dylan Holmes Williams | Pete McTighe | 7 December 2025 (2025-12-07) | TBD |
| 3 | Episode 3 | Dylan Holmes Williams | Pete McTighe | 14 December 2025 (2025-12-14) | TBD |
| 4 | Episode 4 | Dylan Holmes Williams | Russell T Davies and Pete McTighe | 14 December 2025 (2025-12-14) | TBD |
| 5 | Episode 5 | Dylan Holmes Williams | Russell T Davies | 21 December 2025 (2025-12-21) | TBD |
In July 2024,Deadline Hollywood reported a newDoctor Who spin-off titledThe War Between the Land and the Sea was set to begin filming in September.[9]Russell T Davies confirmed later that month atSan Diego Comic Con that production would begin in August.[10] Produced byBad Wolf andBBC Studios, Davies is anexecutive producer along withPhil Collinson, Joel Collins,Julie Gardner, andJane Tranter.[6][11] Edoardo Ferretti took on the role oftelevision producer withpre-production underway by July 2024.[12]
Russell Tovey andGugu Mbatha-Raw lead the series withJemma Redgrave and Alexander Devrient. Redgrave and Devrient are reprising their roles fromDoctor Who asKate Lethbridge-Stewart and Colonel Ibrahim, respectively.[13][1] Tovey and Mbatha-Raw previously played Alonso Frame andTish Jones inDoctor Who, but are set to take on new characters in the spin-off.[14]Ruth Madeley also returns fromDoctor Who, playing Shirley Anne Bingham.Colin McFarlane reprises his role as General Austin Pierce, a character first introduced and last seen fifteen years prior in thethird series ofTorchwood, anotherDoctor Who spin-off.[15]Adrian Lukis,Patrick Baladi,Vincent Franklin, Francesca Corney andMei Mac were announced as additional cast members in October 2024.[3]
The five-part series was written by Davies andPete McTighe.[16] Davies is the currentshowrunner ofDoctor Who while McTighe also previously wrote for the parent series.[17] The two split writing duties across the programme, with Davies writing the premiere and finale episodes, McTighe writing the second and third episodes, and the two co-writing episode four together.[7] The first read-through for all five episodes occurred on 19 August.[12] The series sees the return of theSea Devils.[1]
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Location scouting took place in July 2024. Some filming took place internationally. All episodes are being produced in one block, compared to the two to three blocks that would usually be used for five episodes.[7]Location shooting began on 29 August 2024 inBarry andAtlantic Wharf, both insouth Wales. Filming continued into September in various locations across Wales, including at the Welsh Government Building, City Arms pub, Hodge House, andMerthyr Mawr. In October, the series was spotted filming atCardiff City Hall andNational Museum Cardiff. Further recording was set to take place inMallorca, Spain in October 2024. November filming occurred atTown Bridge inNewport, Wales. Filming concluded on 10 December 2024.[18]
On 30 May 2025, it was announced thatLorne Balfe had been hired as the show's composer. In addition to the news, Balfe also announced that there would be an upcoming opportunity for some people to be audience members at a recording session for the show the following month.[19]
The series is set to air onBBC One and stream onBBC iPlayer in the United Kingdom on 7 December 2025, and will stream onDisney+ internationally in 2026.[8]
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