The main story arc for the first half of the series revolves around the Doctor and Nardole occupying themselves at a university while they guard an underground vault containing Missy.

Missy later travels with the team in the TARDIS, and eventually partners with her previous incarnation as they battle a Cyberman onslaught.

Other returning writers include Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Sarah Dollard, Jamie Mathieson, Peter Harness, Toby Whithouse, and Mark Gatiss, as well as two new writers for the revived era, Mike Bartlett and Rona Munro, the latter of whom wrote the classic-era story Survival (1989).

The sixth, seventh, and eighth episodes of the series, "Extremis", "The Pyramid at the End of the World", and "The Lie of the Land", constitute a three-part arc while remaining separate stories.

[2] From a hidden corner of a corridor inside a spaceship, the Doctor attempts to answer Bill's questions about their enemies, the Daleks.

Peter Capaldi reprised his role as the Twelfth Doctor in his third and final series; he left after the 2017 Christmas special,[5] while Pearl Mackie portrayed the newest companion Bill Potts, after the departure of Jenna Coleman.

[12] Lucas was initially contracted to appear occasionally, but was ultimately written into every episode due to the production team's positive response to the character.

[14] In July 2016, actors Mina Anwar, Ralf Little, and Kaizer Akhtar had been added to the cast and portrayed Goodthing, Steadfast, and Praiseworthy respectively in the second episode.

[19] In October 2016, it was announced that Justin Chatwin was set to appear as a superhero in the 2016 Christmas special "The Return of Doctor Mysterio".

[22] On 16 November 2016 the BBC announced the cast for the fifth episode, which included Kieran Bew, Peter Caulfield, Mimi Ndiweni and Katie Brayben, with Justin Salinger portraying "Tasker",[23] while Rebecca Benson, Daniel Kerr, Juwon Adedokun, Brian Vernel, Ben Hunter, Aaron Phagura, Sam Adewunmi and Billy Matthews were announced to be appearing in the tenth episode.

[24] Jennifer Hennessy, Nicholas Burns, Mandeep Dhillon, Mariah Gale, Corrado Invernizzi, Tim Bentinck, Joseph Long, Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo, Togo Igawa, Emma Handy, and Ferdinand Kingsley also made appearances.

[5] On 6 April 2017, the BBC announced that John Simm would be returning in his role as the Master alongside Gomez.

[14] Matt Lucas revealed that Jamie Mathieson was set to write the fifth episode for the series, having previously written "Mummy on the Orient Express" and "Flatline" and having co-written "The Girl Who Died".

As of 2023, no official soundtrack album for this series has been released, though in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, he noted: "I don't know what happened.

[68][69] Peter Capaldi took part in the filming of Class and appeared in the opening episode of the spin-off series.

[77] The full trailer for the series was premiered later the same day on BBC One, during the quarter-final half-time of the 2016–17 FA Cup,[78] along with promotional images from the first episode.

[86] On 9 April 2017 Capaldi, Mackie, Moffat, and Minchin attended a panel at the BFI & Radio Times TV Festival, featuring a sneak preview of clips from the upcoming series.

[90][91] In Australia, the tenth series was accompanied by the Whovians panel show on ABC, hosted by Rove McManus.

Series 10 holds an 88% approval rating on online review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 7.54/10.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Peter Capaldi's darkest wit shines in his final season as Doctor Who thanks to the newest foil and friend, Bill Potts.

[137] The series also introduced Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts, the Doctor's newest companion; Mackie has received consistently favorable comments, noting how she was "bringing an energy distinct from any previous new series companion", describing Bill as "a wonderful change of pace", and how her acting was "consistently honest, raw at times, and never, ever whimsy", with certain scenes being "guttural" and "heart-wrenching".

[138][139][140] Controversial topics, such as racism and capitalism, were covered during episodes in the series, and were also met with positive reactions.