The BBC has just announced that The Ice Warriors will return in Series 10, a story written by Mark Gattis.

Mark Gatiss announces the return of some old friends, but with a new twist…

One of Doctor Who‘s most enduring monsters will be returning to face Peter Capaldi’s Time Lord in the next series.

The Ice Warriors – first introduced to the show in 1967 – will reappear in a new episode written by Mark Gatiss.

Gatiss previously reintroduced the Martian villains in the 2013 episode ‘Cold War’ – their first outing in modern Who.

His new adventure, to air tenth in the series run, will be set on the Ice Warriors’ home planet Mars, and is a “kind of Jules Verne / Edgar Rice Burroughs story of derring-do”.

In an official announcement video teasing their return, Gatiss also revealed that his episode – as yet untitled – will introduce “a new kind of Ice Warrior”.

Colour us intrigued about this resurgence of the green meanies, who battled the second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and the third (Jon Pertwee) throughout the ’60s and ’70s.

Gatiss’s latest episode will be one of the last for current Who lead Capaldi, who’s announced he’ll be retiring from the show this Christmas.

“This’ll be the end for me,” he confirmed last night (January 30). “I feel sad. I love Doctor Who. It’s a fantastic programme to work on. It’s been a huge pleasure to work with… a family. I can’t praise the people I work with more highly.

“I’ve never worked the same job for three years, and I feel like now is the right time to move on. I’ll still be the Doctor for a while.”

Doctor Who will return to BBC One – with Capaldi, Matt Lucas and new companion actress Pearl Mackie – on April 15.