According to The Sun newspaper today, fans will get a festive treat when the Time Lord is joined by his first-ever incarnation on the Christmas Special.

Current Doctor Peter Capaldi will share the TARDIS with Harry Potter actor David Bradley, who will reprise his role as the 1st Doctor, which was originally played by William Hartnell.

David previously took on the role in the BBC sci-fi show’s 50th drama-documentary, An Adventure in Space and Time, and will join the current 12th Doctor for the festive outing later this year.

The two Time Lords will join forces after the departure of the Doctor’s current companion, Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) at the end of the series.

The festive plot will see the 1st Doctor help the 12th carry out his last mission in the TARDIS.

The pair must work together to move home planet Gallifrey to another dimension and save it.

Fans will also discover that the close up of Peter’s eyes from the 50th special, The Day of the Doctor, is actually the start of his regeneration.

A source told The Mirror: “David was convincing as Hartnell, it’s exciting he’s back.

“Four years ago it took all the previous Doctors to save Gallifrey, so maybe some of the others will also pop up in Capaldi’s swansong.

“It’s great that the 1st Doctor will be there to help out during those all-important regeneration moments.”

William Hartnell, who died in 1975, played the 1st Doctor from 1963 to 1966.

Peter took over as the Time Lord in 2013 but announced his departure from the role earlier this year.

The Gallifreyan Newsroom would like to stress that this news has not as yet been officially released by the BBC and as such is unofficial and should be treated accordingly.

Doctor Who – The Pilot had an Audience Appreciation or Ai figure of 83

The Appreciation Index in an indication of how much viewers enjoyed the episode. It is based to the reactions of a selected panel of viewers, who rate the episode shortly after transmission.

83 is considered a good score, roughly similar to the scores achieved by the last series of the show,

The highest score for the evening was shared by Dad’s Army on BBC Two and the film The Imitation Game on Channel 4, both of which scored 87.

Doctor Who writer Mark Gatiss has revealed that new showrunner Chris Chibnall really will be starting with a totally clean slate next year.

Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall will take over as lead writer of Doctor Who in 2018, following current showrunner Steven Moffat’s final episode this Christmas.

Speaking at the BFI & Radio Times Television Festival, RT asked Mark Gatiss if he hopes to continue writing for Doctor Who.

The Sherlock co-creator replied: “I hope so, I’ve no idea. It’s a funny thing, an end of an era. Obviously working very closely with Steven [Moffat] I feel it more than when Russell [T Davies] left. I suppose there was more of a sense of continuity there, but I’ve no idea.”

Gatiss added: “I think Chris [Chibnall] has got an entirely new writing team. I don’t think anyone knows any details, which is kind of exciting!”

Chibnall has written several previous Doctor Who episodes, such as ’42’, ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’and ‘The Power of Three’. His other writing credits include Torchwood, The Great Train Robbery, United, Law & Order: UK and Life On Mars.

He has previously discussed the possibility of implementing an American-style ‘writers room’: “I really like that and in some ways it is less pressure than writing eight hours by yourself. It will be a very different process and experience in every way and in the end that turned out to one of the appeals of the job.”

Season 11 is not expected to air until autumn 2018, following another extended hiatus between seasons.

It was reported last November that BBC bosses apparently want Doctor Who to feel like “a brand new show” with “a return to the format from the David Tennant era”.

Season 10 continues at 7.20pm next Saturday on BBC One with ‘Smile’.

Britain’s Got Talent and Doctor Who both held steady in the Saturday night ratings as they debuted with near-identical viewing figures to those of their previous series-openers.

The 10th series of Doctor Who returned with a new companion, Bill Potts, played by Pearl Mackie, in a first episode titled The Pilot, which attracted overnight ratings of 4.6 million, the BBC said.

This figure is identical to the previous series-opener from 2015.

The viewing figures for the first episode may get another boost when the figures for audiences who watch the show on catch-up are added. The 2015 figure of 4.6 million rose to 6.5 million when the people who recorded the episode and watched it up to seven days later were included.

The show has been off air since December 2015, with the exception of a Christmas special, and has traditionally been aired in the autumn.

This year’s series is the final one to feature Peter Capaldi in the title role and the last to be overseen by showrunner Steven Moffat, who has been in charge since 2010.

The BBC has denied reports that Death in Paradise star Kris Marshall had been cast as Capaldi’s replacement.

A BBC spokesman said: “No casting decisions have yet been made on Series 11.”

Saturday night’s episode went up against the return of ITV’s dating show Take Me Out, which was watched by 3.1 million people.

What’s it called?

Episode 2 will be called Smile, in keeping with its antagonists the Emojibots. But will they still be smiling by the end of the adventure…?

When is it on TV?

7:20pm on Saturday 22nd April on BBC1.

What happens in it?

Doctor Who – The Pilot had an overnight viewing figure of 4.64 million viewers, a share of 24.8% of the total TV audience, according to unofficial viewing figures.

Saturday’s top show was Britain’s Got Talent on ITV which had 8.65 million watching.

Doctor Who was BBC One’s second highest rated show for the evening, just behind All Round to Mrs Brown’s which had 4.67 million. It just beat Pointless Celebrities which had 4.34 million watching. Casualtyhad 3.48 million.

Final figures, including those who time shift, will be released next Monday, which should see Doctor Who substantially increase its audience.

While there’s still a whole series of Doctor Who left to air before Peter Capaldi hangs up his sonic screwdriver, speculation has been rife as to how his incarnation of the Time Lord will be forced to regenerate in his final episode this Christmas.

And now series showrunner Steven Moffat (who is also leaving Doctor Who this December) has dropped a few tantalising hints about what to expect for the Twelfth Doctor’s final hour, which he says will be very different to previous Doctor Matt Smith’s regeneration.

“With Matt I had a sort of idea that his entire run should be in the pre-math of a battle he’s having at the end of his life,” Moffat told RadioTimes.com exclusively at the BFI and Radio Times Television Festival this weekend (see video below). “But with Peter I wasn’t quite sure. I wasn’t sure for a long time whether I’d be writing him out or whether he’d be carrying on with [new showrunner] Chris Chibnall.

“That fits his Doctor, though,” the screenwriter went on, before hinting that this less mapped-out path would be echoed in Capaldi’s regeneration.

“His Doctor feels sort of impulsive and in the moment and would do something reckless that you wouldn’t expect. That suits me.

“And I mean, you can overstate the difficulty of planning a finale for a Doctor. In the end, any Doctor Who story has such catastrophe going on in it, that he could be the one that gets the rock on his head.

“But I think I’m really happy with what we’re doing for his finale. I’m just working on it now. It’s quite early. I should be further through it, but there you go.”

Moffat went on to explain his less-than-emotional response to penning this final story, which he said was far from the misty-eyed sense of an ending most would expect.

“I know this sounds terrible, but I believe [former showrunner Russell T Davies] said the same thing, it’s not like that,” Moffat explained. “I’m just mostly worried about the script and worried about how I’m gonna make the story work.

“You don’t have time to be reflective and stare out the window and say ‘aah, days gone by.’ It just doesn’t – it’s too much work! Maybe afterwards, maybe when it’s all done I’ll sit and stare out the window. Though on past evidence of leaving things behind I haven’t. I don’t tend to really.”

“That sounds callous,” he admitted, “[but] what I mean is while this is an ending for me and Doctor Who, it feels like quite a happy ending. So that’s nice. It’s good to finish something.”

We’re sure he’s right – though at the moment, fans tearful at the very thought of Capaldi’s own departure might struggle to see his point of view…

You can watch the full interview with Steven Moffat in the video above

Doctor Who returns to BBC1 next Saturday at 7.20pm