The BBC has just released a prequel video to The Impossible Astronaut, the first episode of Doctor Who Series 6. Kicking off the new series on April 23, The Impossible Astronaut is the first chapter in a two-part adventure set in the United States. In the lead up to the premiere, show runner Steven Moffat has released a short prequel teaser to give fans a taste of what we can expect. You can see the video at the bottom of this post.

The first two episodes of Doctor Who Series 6 (or Season 32 if you’re a classic fan!) feature the return of Matt Smith and his portrayal of the Eleventh Doctor. Reprising their roles as his companions are the married couple Amy Pond and Rory Williams, played by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill respectively. The enigmatic River Song also appears in these two episodes, played by Alex Kingston, who will be featuring prominently in this series and — according to Moffat — her mysteries and relation to the Doctor will be revealed during the course of the season as well.

Every year, the good Doctor and his companions drop in on BBC’s Comic Relief, an annual telethon for Red Nose Day in the UK. Traditionally, each Comic Relief sees a mini-Doctor Who episode broadcast. This year, however, we get TWO mini-episodes!

Part 1, named Space, and Part 2, named Time, are both written by Steven Moffat, and feature Matt Smith as the Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams.

Moffat’s thrown in a few great gags in there, the story is pretty impressive given how short it is, and it’s a nice little taste of Doctor Who before the new series kicks off next months.

Sit back, check it out, and enjoy.

The closest the Doctor ever got to Jack the Ripper on TV was in the Tom Baker episode of Doctor Who entitled The Talons of Wang-Chiang. The Doctor, with companion Leela, arrives in Victorian London. The Doctor wears a Sherlock Holmes-style hat during the episode and the concept of the crimes of The Ripper are vaguely hinted at through the episode.

But now, for the first time ever, Matt Smith‘s incarnation of the Doctor will pit him up in an adventure that places him in the path of Jack the Ripper, in a new comic book from IDW Publishing.

io9 got the scoop on the comic book release, where the Doctor ends up in Victorian London again, this time with companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams, in a situation that makes them discover that Jack The Ripper is on the prowl, and it may turn out that he may not necessarily be a human serial killer… in fact he may not even be human at all.