Doctor Who fans in the United Kingdom were alarmed by rumours that this year’s Christmas day special – Peter Capaldi’s last episode as the Twelfth Doctor – was to be shown a week earlier in the US on 18th December.
Alarmed, and none too happy… “Why, Oh, Why, Oh Why”…..
Dear @bbcdoctorwho Why oh why oh why are you giving out the #DoctorWho Christmas Special out 1 week early on @amazon ? I hope this is a mistake, regards Disgruntled of Nottingham.
Thankfully for those fans, the reports – sparked by an online article from a publication which will remain nameless – are not true, with BBC reporter Lizo Mzimba today confirming that the special is “categorically not” airing early on Amazon and will be seen by US fans, as usual, on BBC America, some hours after it premieres in the home of Who, the UK, on BBC1 on Christmas Day.
Panic over! This is 'categorically not' this year's Xmas Special says BBC Worldwide (it's probably The Return of Doctor Mysterio). As usual BBC America will have the US premiere of Twice Upon A Time. And UK viewers will see it before anywhere else on BBC One. https://t.co/rOCHZD6ifb
It’s fair to say that this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special will be a pretty momentous episode, featuring the departure of Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor, the debut of new lead Jodie Whittaker, and the return of an old character in David Bradley’s First Doctor.
So to keep you up to speed, we’ve gathered all the major facts you need to know ahead of Twice Upon a Time this December. Consider it an early Christmas present.
When is the Doctor Who Christmas special 2017 on TV?
Believe it or not, the Doctor Who Christmas special will air in the UK on Christmas Day, aka Monday 25th December, at 5.30pm on BBC1.
And while there were rumours milling around for a while that US viewers would get to see the episode a whole week earlier than those in the UK, that’s not the case – as usual, the episode is set to air on BBC America on Christmas Day a few hours after the UK broadcast.
How long is the Doctor Who Christmas special?
Twice Upon a Time is one hour long, in contrast to the usual Doctor Who run-time of 45 minutes per episode. This is in keeping with Doctor Who Christmas specials past, which have always been an hour long since 2005’s The Christmas Invasion.
What’s the plot of the Doctor Who Christmas special?
Twice Upon a Time will see Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor team up with his earlier self the First Doctor (David Bradley), as the pair both try to avoid regenerating (and therefore changing their appearance and personality).
In the course of their meeting, they discover that mysterious glass creatures have started freezing time, pursuing Mark Gatiss’ First World War Captain throughout history and somehow involving the Doctor’s departed companion Bill (Pearl Mackie) in the action.
You can also read an official synopsis for the episode below:
The magical final chapter of the Twelfth Doctor’s (Peter Capaldi) journey sees the Time Lord team up with his former self, the first ever Doctor (David Bradley – Harry Potter, Game of Thrones) and a returning Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie), for one last adventure.
Two Doctors stranded in an Arctic snowscape, refusing to face regeneration. Enchanted glass people, stealing their victims from frozen time. And a World War One captain destined to die on the battlefield, but taken from the trenches to play his part in the Doctor’s story.
An uplifting new tale about the power of hope in humanity’s darkest hours, Twice Upon A Time marks the end of an era. But as the Doctor must face his past to decide his future, his journey is only just beginning…
Twice Upon A Time is written by Steven Moffat, directed by Rachel Talalay, and executive produced by Brian Minchin. The 60 minute special guest stars Mark Gatiss as The Captain and Nikki Amuka-Bird as the voice of the glass woman, and will see Peter Capaldi’s Doctor regenerate into the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker).
Who are the Doctor Who Christmas villains?
Described as “enchanted glass people, stealing their victims from frozen time,” little is known about the new foe faced by the Doctors and Bill – but the story does at least partly take place during a Cyberman storyline from the 1960s series, suggesting that the cyborg baddies will also have a role to play.
Who stars in the Doctor Who Christmas special?
Peter Capaldi stars as the Twelfth Doctor in his final appearance, accompanied by David Bradley as the First Doctor (a role originally played by William Hartnell in the 1960s). Jodie Whittaker will be unveiled as the Thirteenth Doctor in the final moments of the episode.
Meanwhile, longtime series writer and actor Mark Gatiss returns as a character currently known only as The Captain, with current series companion Pearl Mackie (above) making her last appearance as Bill Potts.
Regular series writer Toby Whithouse is also confirmed to have a cameo in the episode, with Nikki Amuka-Bird as the voice of the glass woman.
Will Jenna Coleman have a cameo in the Christmas special?
Rumours have abounded for a while that Peter Capaldi’s former co-star Jenna Coleman may make a cameo appearance in the Christmas special, as ex-companion Karen Gillan did when Matt Smith stepped down from the role in 2013.
So far Coleman has denied a final goodbye between the Twelfth Doctor and Clara is coming, but we wouldn’t rule anything out.
Who is the First Doctor, and who plays him?
The First Doctor (right) is the original version of Doctor Who’s titular character, created by Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman for the very first episodes of the BBC sci-fi series back in 1963.
Introduced as a mysterious figure with a time machine, this version of the Doctor was played by William Hartnell from 1963 until 1966, when ill health forced Hartnell to resign. However, the series’ producers came up with a novel idea – casting another actor to play the role, explaining away the change as a technique of the Doctor’s species to prolong life.
In years to come this practice of regeneration (not referred to as such until Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor changed into Tom Baker’s Fourth) would become part of the fabric of the show, and is a major theme of the Christmas special.
As Hartnell passed away in 1975, the role of the First Doctor will instead be played by Harry Potter and Game of Thrones star David Bradley, who previously played Hartnell the actor in 2013 Doctor Who making-of drama An Adventure in Space and Time.
What is the relevance of the Tenth Planet?
Bradley’s First Doctor storyline in Twice Upon a Time actually takes place during another episode of the series, specifically 1966 serial the Tenth Planet and even more specifically between scenes 21 and 22 of part 4 in the story.
The Tenth Planet was Hartnell’s last serial before his Doctor regenerated into Patrick Troughton’s version, and during filming the actor was so ill that his character spent a lot of time off screen – a fact used to full effect by this new episode, which seems to aim to fill in some gaps in the original story by showing what the First Doctor was actually up to when viewers weren’t watching him.
Is this Peter Capaldi’s last Doctor Who episode?
Yes – after four years at the Tardis controls, Peter Capaldi is stepping away this Christmas after announcing his departure in January 2017. His Doctor will regenerate into Jodie Whittaker’s incarnation in the closing moments of Twice Upon a Time.
When is Jodie Whittaker taking over as the Doctor?
Jodie Whittaker’s much-heralded new Doctor won’t appear in the majority of Twice Upon a Time, most of which was filmed before her casting was even announced. Instead, she’ll only appear in the episode’s final moments after Peter Capaldi’s Doctor has regenerated, in a scene written by new showrunner Chris Chibnall.
This arrangement mirrors the handover between former showrunner Russell T Davies to current boss Steven Moffat in 2010, when David Tennant’s Doctor was replaced by Matt Smith’s.
Will the new companions be in this episode too?
No – as far as we know and barring any huge surprises, we won’t be meeting the recently-announced new Tardis team Graham (Bradley Walsh), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Yasmin (Mandip Gill) in Twice Upon a Time. They’ll instead make their debut in the first episode of Jodie Whittaker’s full Doctor Who series next year.
Will there be a new series writer?
Yes – current series boss Steven Moffat is leaving along with Capaldi after showrunning Doctor Who since 2010, with Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall (who has written several modern Doctor Who episodes) taking over in 2018.
While Moffat has written the majority of Twice Upon a Time, Chibnall has written the final scene where Jodie Whittaker makes her debut.
When is Jodie Whittaker’s first Doctor Who series?
There’s no official release for Doctor Who series 11, which will be Jodie Whittaker’s first full series as the Doctor. However, the BBC has confirmed the 10-part series will be shown on BBC1 in autumn 2018. It is expected that the series will begin in September or October next year.
Production on Doctor Who series 11 continues, and after a stint back in the studios at Roath Lock, the show has been back out in the open. Night shooting for the new series has now been taking place at Barry train station in Wales last night, following a stint of filming in the area over the weekend.
Twitter, as you might expect, was awash with sightings of the Doctor Who team, including that Bradley Walsh, for one, was filming overnight…
Production is expected to continue on Doctor Who series 11, headlined by Jodie Whittaker, until the early summer. Which, given the cold, seems a long, long way off…
To celebrate the release of Shada the BBC speaks with Tom Baker about his memories of the story, why he thinks the Fourth Doctor is so popular and why he has come back to the show.
Steven Moffat unveils his final Doctor Who episode – and reveals why Carey Mulligan said no to the Tardis
In a special souvenir issue of Radio Times magazine, Steven Moffat previews his final Doctor Who episode – Christmas special Twice upon a Time, starring departing 12th Doctor Peter Capaldi and David Bradley as the first Doctor. He considers the future of Doctor Who and his own career and reveals some juicy nuggets of information from his eight years on the show.
Below are some excerpts from the interview – to read the whole thing, including Steven’s thoughts on more Sherlock and his upcoming new series Dracula, get the new issue of Radio Times, on sale from Saturday 2nd December.
Patrick Mulkern: Let’s kick off with Twice upon a Time, your final Christmas special. How would you set it?
Steven Moffat: We ended the last series with Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor about to regenerate and refusing. He’s had enough of becoming other people. A subject he expands on in the special. He’s having a strop. In a wintry landscape he meets the first Doctor [David Bradley taking on the role from William Hartnell, who died in 1975], who is also refusing to change.
But how can the Doctor put his regeneration on hold? We’re going with the idea that it is at some level voluntary. Remember the John Simm Master refused to regenerate at the end of The Last of the Time Lords [in 2007]. So you have to commit and choose to change rather than die. In the bonkers science of regeneration, gender doesn’t seem to be a problem, but what has always puzzled me is: how does he change height? That means between Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy a hell of a lot of matter goes missing from the universe. Where is it?
Indeed! OK, back to the special… It starts with a reprise of The Tenth Planet [the first Doctor’s finale from 1966]. We do the “Previously on Doctor Who…” and follow the first Doctor out of that adventure, having left his companions Ben and Polly behind. So then it’s the 12th Doctor telling the first that he has to regenerate, and realising he must as well. This is the moment where he decides whether or not to go on. And it will mark the only time that David Bradley has played a younger version of Jodie Whittaker.
But it’s not just about two old men dying. You’re making this one more comedic and fun. Yes, we got to a very dark and angst-y place at the end of the last series. This is Christmas Day so we’re not going to have an hour of two suicidal Doctors. That’s not appropriate for Christmas Day or Doctor Who. There’s a tradition of the Doctors being funny when they get together. When Doctors meet, it’s a laugh. And I suppose at the back of my mind I’ve known for ages the next Doctor was going to be a woman – although I didn’t know which woman – so I was thinking, “Why does he subconsciously make that choice?” Maybe seeing the whole span of his life as a man, seeing himself as the Hartnell Doctor, might make him think maybe it’s time to be a bit more progressive. Looking at how the first Doctor was, he’s hilariously not progressive.
Without being too outrageous I think we have re-created that version of Hartnell’s Doctor, with all the 1960s political incorrectness in place. At the same time the original Doctor has a lot of fun at the expense of the modern one’s sonic glasses and electric guitar. There’s something funny about the 12th Doctor realising that he came from this politically incorrect, funny old man. This is who he was.
Were the Tenth Planet scripts I gave you useful? Yes they were. We don’t use all that much in the finished show and the trouble is most of those actors didn’t stick rigidly to the script anyway. Michael Craze and Anneke Wills [companions Ben and Polly] improvised a lot of it and it’s better. As you know in the original script there’s a line they dropped where the Doctor is resisting his regeneration. It’s currently in the special but we might drop it because it makes it slightly different from the scene at the end of The Doctor Falls as it was shown.
Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor
The sets from The Tenth Planet – the Snowcap polar base and the Cybership – have been impressively re-created [above]. In the finished cut you only glimpse the polar base. The only thing that we do more or less in its entirety is when Ben and Polly get the Doctor out of his cage on the Cyberman spaceship and he says, “It’s far from being all over.”
So you’ve cast Mark Gatiss in it and Toby Whithouse [Doctor Who and Being Human writer] as First World War soldiers. I asked Mark a long time ago to make sure he’d be available and then I needed another actor to lie in a bomb crater and talk in German. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if we got Toby?” who is also a very fine actor. So we have the two principals of my writing room sitting with guns drawn on each other.
Were you tempted to plonk Chris Chibnall in there as well? He and I are not actors so we shouldn’t be in it. There’s a possible world where we could’ve been corpses if only we had the time. And those two are terrific actors.
Why does the first Doctor lend himself to being played by other actors more than any other Doctor? A weird thing happened with the first Doctor. In The Five Doctors [1993], which I love, we didn’t really remember what Hartnell was like. Somebody else turned up who didn’t look like him or behave like him, and wore a strikingly different costume but was close enough to the general silhouette. Richard Hurndall was rather good and very engaging, but the fact is he was not the Hartnell Doctor.
William Hartnell, Richard Hurndall and David Bradley as versions of the first Doctor
But even before that during the mid 60s, when Hartnell was still the Doctor on TV, we had Peter Cushing in the two Dalek feature films playing a version of that grandfatherly Doctor. That’s different. I adore Peter Cushing but I think, outside the charmed circle of the insane – and I mean US and those like us – people don’t know that he was the Doctor. They know he was Sherlock Holmes, they know he was Van Helsing. They don’t know he was Doctor Who.
I’m sure at the time they did. They were very popular films in their day. So it was acceptable even in the 60s that you could do that with the character. Yeah but that happened with Quatermass too. And when something jumps medium, you’re more likely to accept a recast. And they rebooted it and made Cushing’s Doctor human. By the time they made The Five Doctors, enough time had passed and we weren’t so aware of him. I have to say they made an incredibly classy decision to have a clip of William Hartnell introducing it. It weirdly sanctified Richard Hurndall taking on the role. As if to say: “We’re not kidding you on, we’re not pretending it’s the same man. We acknowledge the original.”
So much so that in this Christmas special when it starts we have Hartnell and the original companions and then it becomes David Bradley. So we say, “Here’s the real original one. Here is our one and, oddly enough, don’t they look similar?” Anneke’s character Polly is in it and Anneke herself is in it with the line, “Have you got no feelings?”
How far back did you plan to bring back the first Doctor? In the last series there seemed to be lots of references. For a start you named the companion Bill and her girlfriend was Heather like Bill Hartnell and his wife Heather. Oh, that was a happy accident. Absolutely accidental.
So you didn’t name Bill after Hartnell – or even after your father, Bill? No, if she’s named after anyone it’s that I liked the fact that, when we were doing The Day of the Doctor [2013], David Tennant called Billie [Piper] Bill. I thought that was a good name for somebody so I logged it then.
I wasn’t especially building towards the return of the first Doctor. Available on videotape is the exact moment where it became possible. At the New York ComicCon last year someone was asking me about which Doctors I wanted to be in The Day of the Doctor. And the Doctor you’d really like to meet the modern Doctor is the William Hartnell Doctor because he’s moved on so much, because that would be the entire span of the character’s life. The first Doctor would be so shocked that he is going to become this strutting megalomaniac. And so I said, “But we can’t do it,” and then Peter said, “We could get David Bradley.” “Oh yeah…!”
Pearl Mackie is back as Bill – are you surprised how popular she’s been? No, you know a star when you see one. She’s great. People responded strongly to her and they like the contrast between her and Peter. They liked Nardole and the little family unit together in the university. You could have watched them for five years in that set-up. And seen more of his lectures and the scenes in my head I never got to write, which were the Doctor taking his role in university very seriously and going to budget meetings and arguing for a new science block. He’s not a pretend professor; he’s a real one and he’s got serious views about his job.
Is that your early years as a teacher coming to the surface? No, not really. I was a very indifferent teacher and would have run away as soon as I could in my time machine. That was a lifetime ago anyway. I left in the late 80s.
Have any of your students ever got in touch with you? Rarely. I’ve met a couple. Of course they seem about the same age as me because I was a young teacher in my early 20s and a lot of the ones I’d remember were then in their late teens.
Doctor Who has a knack of spotting talent, actors who are just starting out, like Andrew Garfield who was in Daleks in Manhattan [2007] and now has a huge Hollywood career and was in Angels in America. Our casting director Andy Pryor is so assiduous on who’s coming up. We’d never have seen Matt Smith but for him. We had Olivia Colman [in 2010] a heartbeat before she became a goddess. She was already regarded as a genuinely great actress but within a year of that she was the darling of the nation.
It was the same with Carey Mulligan as Sally Sparrow in Blink (the Weeping Angels’ debut and Radio Times readers’ favourite episode). Oh my God, Carey Mulligan! It’s funny but Blink, I say immodestly, is a very famous episode of television and yet Carey Mulligan, who was the star of it, I’m almost certain wouldn’t even remember being in Doctor Who. I don’t think she was much of a fan, or anything. They liked her so much, they said, “Do you want to be the next companion?” but she said no. God, she was amazing.
Carey Mulligan as Sally Sparrow in Blink
So you’ve never tried to get her back in any capacity? No. I know it’s a no.
What a shame! I agree. But then does that character become more special because you never see her again? She just passes through the Doctor’s life. It’s surprising the people who do love being part of it. John Hurt loved being the Doctor and was quite insistent, asking, “Am I a real Doctor? Do I really count?” And we said, “Yes, you count. You’re on the poster. It is definitely you.” David Bradley is so thrilled that he is really the Doctor now. Because obviously he was sort of the Doctor in An Adventure in Space and Time [2013]. He’s been a star for ever, but being the Doctor is special, somehow. He’s a bit like Hartnell in a way. He’s got a mean face but he’s the nicest man alive, so sweet and generous.
Doctor Who: Twice upon a Time will air on BBC1 on Christmas Day
Doctor Who: special The Peter Capaldi Years boxset on the way
Once this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special, Twice Upon A Time, is done and dusted, it’ll bring down the curtain on Peter Capaldi’s era as the much-loved Time Lord. Since his first appearance – briefly – in Day Of The Doctor, he’s recorded three series as the Doctor. And those adventures are now set to be collected together in a special Blu-ray release.
It’s only been announced in the US so far, but there’s a listing now on Amazon US for a 16-disc boxset entitled The Complete Peter Capaldi Years. A release date of February 13th 2018 has been listed too. That, and a running time of a whopping 2355 minutes.
It’s unclear yet if there’s going to be anything extra in the box to make it ultra-collectable. When we find out more about that, and a UK release, we’ll let you know. For now, here’s the listing at Amazon US:
Series 11 of Doctor Who is being shot using Cooke and Angenieux anamorphic lenses for the first time as the show’s production team move to make the show look more filmic.
Bristol’s Films at 59, the company that supplies equipment to BBC Studios for production of the sci-fi drama, is making available Cooke anamorphic Prime lenses and Angenieux Optimo anamorphic zooms that will be used with Arri Alexa XT and Alex Mini cameras.
According to Films at 59, director Jamie Childs and director of photography Dennis Crossan want the lenses to bring an increased cinematic look to the show which went into production at the end of October.
Films at 59 hire client manager Dave Wride said: “The BBC have made a monumental leap here to enhance the look of Doctor Who and I’m sure the fans will not be disappointed with the distinctly cinematic results that this lens and camera combo will afford them.”
Series 11 of Doctor Who will be the first to feature Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor and will also star Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill.
Whittaker will be the Thirteenth Time Lord, taking over from Peter Capaldi who leaves the show at Christmas.
Series 11 will also be the first for new head writer and executive producer Chris Chibnall, who takes over as show runner from Steven Moffat.
The 10-part series will air in Autumn 2018, kicking off with an hour-long special followed by nine 50-min episodes.
Doctor Who is a BBC Studios production for BBC One and a BBC America co-production.
This year’s annual Doctor Who cover for the Radio Times appears on the issue covering 9th-15th December, and features an image of Peter Capaldi in an ‘exclusive souvenir issue’.
Inside the magazine there is a six page feature on the show, including interviews with the show’s outgoing lead writer Steven Moffat, alternative first Doctor David Bradley, plus an item on Radio Times coverage of the twelfth Doctor’s era over the last few years.
Speaking about the arrival of the new Doctor in the form of Jodie Whitaker, Moffat explained why casting a woman hadn’t occured when he first took over, even though he had previously introduced a female Doctor in the form of Joanna Lumley in The Curse of Fatal Death:
If we’d replaced David Tennant with a woman it wouldn’t have worked. It was too early. We could have replaced Matt Smith with a woman, given that his Doctor was more sexless and less of a lad, but then I got obsessed with seeing Peter in the Tardis.
Bradley thinks she is a good casting choice:
When I heard it was Jodie I thought, “Well, that’s perfect” – because she’s got the range and she’s funny. They just need to keep that sense of fun and not forget the comic energy. You can read the full interviews in the Radio Times, on general release in the United Kingdom tomorrow, 2nd December.
The ‘legendary’ Christmas edition of the Radio Times (23rd December – 5th January) will of course feature Twice Upon A Time, and will be on sale from Saturday 9th December in London and the South East, and nationwide by Tuesday 12th December.
35,000 people have already applied for Doctor Who Christmas special screening tickets
Almost 35,000 people have applied to see the Doctor Who festive episode BEFORE Christmas as part of the BBC’s special North of England screenings – and the ballot hasn’t even closed yet.
Advance previews of the Doctor Who Christmas episode will be shown in eight towns and cities in northern England, alongside the first two episodes of The League of Gentlemen’s 20th anniversary specials and children’s animation The Highway Rat.
Each location will be treated to at least one screening of the Doctor Who special, which will see Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor go on his last adventure in the Tardis. Titled Twice Upon a Time, this episode also stars Yorkshireman David Bradley who reprises his role as the First Doctor.
But even if you get a golden ticket to one of the screenings, you WON’T see the final scene of the episode – expected to be Jodie Whittaker’s regeneration as the Thirteenth Doctor – which will be saved for the big day.
The tour kicks off in Hartlepool on 14th December and speeds through York, Hull, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Salford and Durham, finishing in Bradford on 22nd December. Ticket holders will have access to the BBC red carpet and will be able to pose with props from the show – including the Daleks and the Tardis.
Tickets for the screenings will be allocated by a random draw of those who apply, with 45 per cent going to local postcodes, 45 per cent going to the surrounding county and 10 per cent available to the rest of the UK.
Fans who lose out in the ballot will have to wait impatiently until the episode airs on BBC1.
Bradley said: “It’s really exciting that Doctor Who fans in the north of England have the opportunity to see the Christmas special first. I really enjoyed playing the First Doctor and as I’m from Yorkshire, it’s extra special to me that the screenings are taking place in the north.”
Hartlepool and York will be treated to a dose of The League of Gentlemen straight after the Doctor Who episode, while in Hull and Newcastle there will also be daytime screenings of The Highway vat – starring the voices of David Tennant and Rob Brydon.
