Calling all Doctor Who fans! The wait is almost over with season 2 finally set to premiere on Saturday, April 12 at 6:50 PM BST (1:50 PM ET). The second series to feature Ncuti Gatwa as the eponymous protagonist, it will once again consist of 8 episodes with the final episode of season 2 coming on May 31.
Below, we’ll explain where you can watch every episode live. It’s important to note that we’ll only be recommending official sources. Doctor Who is a sci-fi phenomenon, and as a result, there are sure to be unlicensed streams. However, these are often low-quality and prone to mid-broadcast takedowns. As anyone with a UK TV License can watch Doctor Who for free, there’s really no reason to use unofficial streams.
Best VPN for Doctor Who: NordVPN
Apps Available:
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Website: www.NordVPN.com
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VPNs are among the easiest ways to protect your online activities from prying eyes. As well as encrypting your traffic, they allow you to connect to servers all over the world. This means you can use a VPN to get an IP address in Britain from abroad. Perfect if you want to stream BBC iPlayer on vacation.
If you want to watch Doctor Who season 2 from outside of the UK, we strongly recommend NordVPN. It is a high-speed VPN with more than 7,000 servers spanning 100+ countries. Best of all, it can reliably unblock platforms like BBC iPlayer, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.
Signing up is easy and only takes a few minutes. Simply choose your desired subscription length (one month, one year, or two years) and make a payment. This starts a 30-day trial period, meaning you can enjoy watching Doctor Who for free for a month and then get your money back if you want to.
Read our full review of NordVPN to find out more.
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How to unblock Doctor Who abroad with a VPN
Never used a VPN before? There’s no need to panic – unblocking geo-restricted services is easy. Here’s how to watch Doctor Who season 2 abroad with a VPN:
- First, register with a reputable VPN provider. We recommend NordVPN, but ExpressVPN and IPVanish are both excellent alternatives, that offer excellent performance for streaming British TV abroad.
- Install the VPN software. There’s a different version for most popular operating systems so be sure to download the right one.
- Choose a suitable source from the list below.
- Connect to one of your VPN’s servers in the appropriate country. For instance, you’ll need a British server to unblock BBC iPlayer or a US one to unblock Disney+.
- Try loading a video from the site. Once you reload the page, it should begin playing almost instantly, and any errors should disappear.
It’s a good idea to run through the steps above before Doctor Who season 2 actually starts. This way, if you run into difficulty, there’ll still be plenty of time to contact your VPN’s customer support.
The BBC employs particularly strict geo-restriction measures, and as such, your VPN may not work occasionally. In these cases, customer support can often point you to a server that works to watch BBC services. If your VPN can’t help you, that means you need to cancel your subscription and subscribe to one of our recommendations instead.
Read more BBC iPlayer articles here:
Where to watch Doctor Who online
Doctor Who is a hugely popular series, and as a result, it’s broadcast simultaneously in several countries around the world. Below, we’ll let you know how to tune in no matter which country you live in.
USA
This is the second consecutive season that Disney+ holds the international streaming rights for Doctor Who. Episodes will be uploaded to Disney+ USA a few hours after they finish airing on UK television. Disney+ starts at $9.99 per month, so if you want to stream the show in the US you will need to purchase a subscription.
Remember that Disney+ is region-locked, so if you go on vacation abroad, you will need to use a VPN to regain access to your US Disney account. All the VPNs recommended in this guide have servers in the US that work to watch Disney+.
If you don’t have a subscription to Disney+ and want to stream Doctor Who season 2 while in the US, you could, of course, use a VPN to get a valid IP address in the UK and watch the new episodes for free on BBC iPlayer.
Canada
In Canada, Doctor Who can be streamed live on Disney+. To watch live streams, you’ll need a subscription to Disney+ Canada. The deal with the BBC means that new episodes will be added to the on-demand library a few hours after they finish airing on British TV.
Disney+ region locks its content, meaning you’ll need a VPN to watch if you’re outside Canada. It shows foreign visitors a browser error (“This content is not available for viewing in your browser”) rather than a geo-restriction one, but this disappears when connected to a Canadian server.
UK
Streaming Doctor Who season 2 in the UK is very simple: you can watch it live on BBC iPlayer. You will have to create an account beforehand, but this is free and only takes a minute. You should note that legally, you’re required to have a valid UK TV License to watch. However, there’s no actual verification process in place, so this service essentially relies on an honor system.
As with the services above, episodes are made available on-demand shortly after airing. BBC iPlayer offers one feature most streaming platforms don’t, however: the ability to watch with audio descriptions if you’re visually-impaired.
See also: Best VPNs for BBC iPlayer
Australia
As is the case elsewhere, Disney+ is the official broadcaster of Doctor Who in Australia. Free episodes are no longer available on ABC, so you will need to pay for a Disney+ subscription to watch Doctor Who season 2 in Australia.
If you are on vacation outside of Australia but want to log in and stream your Disney+ account, you can use any of the VPNs in this guide. Our recommendations have servers in Australia that work to stream Disney+ abroad.
If you don’t have a subscription to Disney+ you can opt to connect to a server in the UK to watch Doctor Who season 2 on BBC iPlayer instead.
Other locations
If you live in a non-English-speaking country, you now have a lot more accessibility to Doctor Who thanks to the BBC’s deal with Disney+. Disney has acquired the rights to the show internationally, so you should be able to stream it in most countries where Disney+ is available.
If there’s no local broadcast of Doctor Who, and it’s not included in your country’s Netflix library, you may be able to purchase episodes individually on platforms like Google Play, iTunes, or Amazon.
If you want to watch Doctor Who for free but you’re currently outside of the UK, you can still tune in by connecting to a VPN server in Britain to watch BBC iPlayer.
Can I stream Doctor Who with a free VPN?
Free VPNs might appear to be an easy way to protect yourself online, but they have several disadvantages that premium services don’t. For instance, free services have more users, yet fewer servers to spread the load. This results in long loading times, stuttering video, and potentially even sporadic disconnections. These factors make free VPNs a poor choice for streaming live HD video. Further, these services are often the first to be blacklisted by streaming services, so they’re not reliable in the long-term.
How can a free VPN afford to operate? Although you don’t pay in cash, you still help the company make a profit. By harvesting information about your activity using tracking cookies, these companies can compile a highly-detailed dossier of your browsing habits. This is invasive enough already, but some even sell this information to third parties without your knowledge. As a result, you could find that using a free VPN actually diminishes your online security instead of enhancing it.
Finally, there’s no guarantee that the VPN you’re using is safe. At least one major app store has been found to host dozens of purported free VPNs that actually include malware, or in some cases, don’t actually encrypt your traffic. Even well-known free VPNs have been caught abusing their users’ trust, with one found to be selling idle user bandwidth for profit.
The best way to stay safe online is to use a reputable VPN with a proven track record of protecting its users’ privacy.
Doctor Who season 2: FAQ
Who is in the cast of Doctor Who season 2?
Ncuti Gatwa is back for his second season as the Fifteenth Doctor. Millie Gibson also reprises her role as Ruby Sunday, the doctor’s companion. They’re joined by new companion, Belinda Chandra, played by Varadu Sethu.
Also returning is Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood, Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, and Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham. There are a few new faces to look forward to as well. Most notably, Rose Ayling-Ellis takes on the role of Aliss and Alan Cumming will voice cartoon character and Mr Ring-a-Ding.
What can we expect from Doctor Who season 2?
We’ve already seen the official Doctor Who season 2 trailer and it’s no surprise to see that we can expect no shortage of new friends, new enemies, and a few monsters to boot! More specifically, the trailer features flying saucers and even a cartoon character climbing out of a cinema screen. Perhaps most interesting is the introduction of a new companion, Belinda Chandra. She’s played by Varadu Sethu who actually appeared in season 14’s “Boom” as Mundy Flynn.