Also playing a major recurring role in the series is Samuel Anderson as Danny Pink, Clara's boyfriend. It also stars Jenna Coleman as his companion, Clara Oswald. The series is the first to star Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his TARDIS, which appears to be a British police box on the outside. The series is the eighth to air following the programme's revival in 2005, the thirty-fourth season overall, and the first series since series five not to be split into two parts. Nikki Wilson, Peter Bennett and Paul Frift served as producers. The series was officially ordered in May 2013, and led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, alongside executive producer Brian Minchin. The eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who began on 23 August 2014 with ' Deep Breath' and ended with ' Death in Heaven' on 8 November 2014.
