Ever since it was announced that Pearl Mackie and Mark Gatiss were returning to Doctor Who for Peter Capaldi’s final episode this Christmas, many fans have wondered if we’ll be seeing other familiar faces join the Twelfth Doctor for his last journey.

Most specifically, Whovians have mused about whether Capaldi’s former companion Jenna Coleman could be making an appearance, with rumours swirling for months that the Clara Oswald star could be popping into the series for a last goodbye.

Well now it looks like there is a chance her character could make a comeback.

RadioTimes.com understands that Coleman has been asked to appear in the festive special, and while there’s no official word on whether she has taken up the offer there’s certainly a decent possibility that she’d be up for one last Yuletide adventure.

After all, the appearance wouldn’t necessarily have to be a long one – her predecessor as companion, Karen Gillan, came back for a one-line cameo in Matt Smith’s last story as the Doctor in 2013, so perhaps Coleman could have a similarly brief role. And given her character’s importance to Capaldi’s years on the show, it would be a fitting send-off for the Twelfth Doctor.

On the other hand, there’s her commitment to ITV’s Victoria, which will also air a special on Christmas Day after a full series begins this autumn. While an appearance in both shows is eminently possible, it might be that Coleman will choose not to compete with a series in which she plays the lead role.

As usual, only time (and relative dimension in space) will tell.

Doctor Who returns to BBC1 this Christmas 

But for showrunner Stephen Moffat and retiring Doctor Peter Capaldi, the responsibilities that come with playing the role of the time travelling doctor will stay with the actor forever.

Because once you’ve played the Doctor, you need to make sure his image isn’t tarnished.

In a recent interview with Digital Spy, Moffatt told of how former Doctors have an ’emphatic’ responsibility that stays with the actors for the rest of their lives.

He said: ‘You will always be an ambassador for the show. I remember us saying that when Matt Smith took over – “You have been rude to your last taxi driver… and we don’t mean for the next three years, we mean for the rest of your life!”

‘And I remember Matt himself saying, “Imagine how awful it would be if somebody had to carry the memory that Doctor Who was rude to them. You would remember it on your deathbed, you’d still be thinking about that!”

‘So you have to be Doctor Who forever… and nobody who’s played the Doctor has ever thought, “Am I contractually obliged to do this?” – no, it’s a role for life,’ he continued.

Writer and actor Mark Gatiss also confirmed the sheer gravitas of the former Doctors, retelling a story from another previous incarnation of the famed Time Lord.

‘I remember distinctly reading that Tom Baker had given up smoking in the street, because he couldn’t bear the idea of children seeing him like that. Things have slightly changed, but it’s the same principle, isn’t it? It’s an ambassadorial role.’

Finally, the current Doctor Capaldi – who will reappear on our screens this Christmas in a festive special featuring the First Doctor, insisted that the extra-curricular activities and pressure that fall on Doctor Who alumni are of no hassle to him, but rather a part and parcel of the honour that comes with the role.

‘As a kid, I liked Doctor Who, so I wouldn’t have liked to have met Doctor Who and found them to be rather unpleasant, or preoccupied with other things. And it doesn’t take much to be friendly. So I just try to be friendly to them, that’s all.’

The first, female doctor! Ladies, your modern day hero is here #jodiewhittaker pic.twitter.com/zpv3eLKY96

— fallon (@jennalcslove) August 7, 2017

And in case you haven’t heard, Jodie Whittaker will be piloting the TARDIS from next year as the first ever female incarnation of the Doctor.

And judging from her meetings with fans, she’s already taken to the responsibilities of playing the world’s most famous Doctor.

In the run-up to the announcement of Jodie Whittaker’s casting in Doctor Who, it’s fair to say that pretty much the whole world was desperate to find out the identity of the Thirteenth Doctor.

And now it’s emerged that one particularly determined fan was none other than Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith, who apparently called up every useful number in his phonebook to try and find out the truth before Whittaker was revealed.

“I was literally – I was phoning people high up at the BBC going, ‘You have to tell me who it is. There’s a week to go, I want to know,” Smith told the crowd at Boston Comic-Con.

And apparently his diligence paid off, with Smith learning the identity of Doctor 13 a full three days before the big announcement. The perks of being in the Doctor Who family, eh?

“[They told me] eventually, yeah, but only like three days before,” Smith said. “And [by that point] I was like ‘You have to tell me – who is it? I have a right to know, it’s essentially me!’”

He added: “It still generates that excitement because it can reinvent itself. And that’s what it’s done again – it’s gone ‘take that!’”

You heard it here first, folks – going forward, our first port of call for any and all Doctor Who spoilers should be the supremely well-connected Matt Smith, keeper of secrets and knower of Whittakers. Truly, the Doctor can do anything.

Doctor Who returns to BBC1 this Christmas

Writer and actor Victor Pemberton has passed away, aged 85.

Pemberton was one of a select few to have written for and appeared in Doctor Who.

In 1967, he appeared in Patrick Troughton story ‘The Moonbase’ as the scientist Jules Faure, who ended up being converted into a Cyberman.

Shortly afterward, Pemberton was hired as assistant to Doctor Who‘s story editor Peter Bryant, script-editing classic serial, ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’.

He was responsible for writing one of the story’s most famous scenes, in which the Doctor (Troughton) comforts his companion Victoria (Deborah Watling).

Pemberton would later return to the series as a freelancer writer, scripting the 1968 story, ‘Fury from the Deep’.

Now lost save for a few film clips and audio recordings, ‘Fury’ is famous for Pemberton’s invention of the sonic screwdriver, with the gadget remaining a part of Doctor Who to this day.

Outside of Doctor Who, Pemberton wrote for such series as Timeslip in 1971 and Ace of Wands in 1972. He returned to Who in 1976 to pen the audio adventure Doctor Who and the Pescatons, starring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen.

Pemberton grew up in Islington, London, and lived for many years in Essex. In later life, he lived in Spain, where he wrote a number of novels.

His life partner was the British actor, producer and writer David Spenser, who himself died in 2013.

Ever since Jodie Whittaker was announced as the thirteenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, former Time Lords all over the shop have been offering kind words and support, from David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston to Colin Baker.

But Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith’s words of encouragement might be our favourite yet – because upon finding out that Whittaker was to be the first female incarnation of the Doctor, he elected to sing to her instead.

“When I found out about Jodie, I rang her and she didn’t pick up the phone. Because it was like, before the announcement,” Smith told the crowd at Boston Comic-Con.

“So I just left a message, just going: ‘duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh’” Smith began, before performing an a capella rendition of Doctor Who’s iconic theme song, just as he apparently did to Whittaker (and which you can hear for yourself in the video below).

#jodiewhittaker check those voicemails!!! #MattSmith #FXB17 #bostoncomicon pic.twitter.com/Fjo3fes2Gu

— Nikki (@impossiblynikki) August 14, 2017

And I just did the whole song, so she must have been thinking ‘what the hell is going on?’” he recalled. “And then I said ‘it’s Matt, call me.’”

More generally, Smith said he could sympathise with Whittaker’s position as a new Doctor who won’t be seen onscreen for some months, likening it to his own experience when he followed David Tennant’s popular Doctor onto the series in 2010.

“People did just sort of shout ‘Don’t break it!’ And I thought ‘Oh God,’” Smith said.

“And in England particularly there’s a lot of weird…there’s a lot of hysteria that surrounds it. Like, it makes the 6 o’clock news, all the big news shows. It’s a very strange feeling.

“I remember that feeling of being…I dunno, judged before you’d done anything. And only in the world of Doctor Who does that happen.

“Once you’re part of the family you’re in. But until then it’s like you’re an alien.”

And then, of course, you’re an alien again – a double-hearted Time Lord one – but at least people have stopped shouting at you in the street quite as much.

Doctor Who returns to BBC1 this Christmas