Five days until the premiere of “Deep Breath,” the first episode of Doctor Who‘s 8th series, on BBC America Saturday, August 23rd, at 8/7c. That’s something we’ve known for quite a while; and we’ve found out fairly recently that the second episode is entitled “Into the Dalek,” however we haven’t known the rest of the episode titles for the twelve-week series… until they were announced today by the BBC. Oh, these titles, you all; very intriguing. Below, we’ll give you the title, writer, and director so you can update your spreadsheets accordingly.

Episode 1: Deep Breath
Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Ben Wheatley

Episode 2: Into the Dalek
Written by Phil Ford and Steven Moffat
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Episode introduces Samuel Anderson as Danny Pink

Episode 3: Robot of Sherwood
Written by Mark Gatiss
Directed by Paul Murphy

Episode 4: Listen
Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Douglas Mackinnon

Episode 5: Time Heist
Written by Stephen Thompson and Steven Moffat
Directed by Douglas Mackinnon

Episode 6: The Caretaker
Written by Gareth Roberts and Steven Moffat
Directed by Paul Murphy

Episode 7: Kill the Moon
Written by Peter Harness
Directed by Paul Wilmshurst

Episode 8: Mummy on the Orient Express
Written by Jamie Mathieson
Directed by Paul Wilmshurst

Episode 9: Flatline
Written by Jamie Mathieson
Directed by Douglas Mackinnon

Episode 10: In the Forest of the Night
Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Directed by Sheree Folkson

Episodes 11/12: Dark Water/Death in Heaven
Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Rachel Talalay

Source: BBC

Some really evocative episode titles. “Robot of Sherwood,” “Time Heist,” and “Mummy on the Orient Express” are the ones that have me most excited, just by name only. That’s never any indication on if the episodes will be any good, of course, but the first and third I mentioned are fun and clever re-toolings of popular titles and I love a good pastiche, me.

A lot of this we kind of knew, but a lot of this is also very intriguing. For instance, the first half of the series are episodes written by people who have written for the show in the past several times, while the end of the series, Moffat’s two-part finale excluded, are written by newcomers. Speaking of Moffat, it seems he’s co-written three different episodes with people who have written for the show before; wouldn’t it make sense for him to help out the new people and not the people who should, by rights, have this down pat by now?

On the directing front, veteran Who director Douglas Mackinnon is getting three episodes this year, up from the two he did (brilliantly) last series. Aside from Mackinnon, all of the other directors are new to the show and have a long history of work in various fields. Ben Wheatley, of course, is the director of such horrifying features as Kill List and A Field in England, while the two-part finale is directed by American-born, Canadian-working director Rachel Talalay who broke into the business working on the Nightmare on Elm Street films and directing Freddy’s Dead in 1991.

What are you all thinking about this development? No female writers, which is a shame, but two female directors taking us out of the series with the three final episodes; that’s pretty great, I think. Let us know what you think below!