When is the Doctor Who special on TV this Christmas? What's the plot and who are the guest stars?

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But when exactly will we be able to watch this new adventure? What’s going to happen in it? And why has the episode moved from Christmas in the first place?

You can find answers to some of those questions, and a few others, below...

What time is the Doctor Who New Year’s special on TV?

The BBC has now revealed that the New Year's special will air on BBC1 at 7.00pm on Tuesday 1st January, aka New Year's Day. The hour-long episode will conclude at 8.00pm, and is reportedly named Resolution.

While that timeslot is fairly average for the most recent series of the sci-fi drama (episodes tended to start between 6.25 and 7.05pm) it's a bit later than the old Doctor Who Christmas specials tended to air - last year's special, Twice Upon a Time, aired at 5.30pm on Christmas day.

Why isn’t there a Doctor Who Christmas special any more?

No official reason has yet been given for the episode moving, but it could just be that the BBC fancied a change. As noted above, there has been a Doctor Who Christmas special every year since 2005, and former showrunner Steven Moffat had suggested that he thought they were running out of ways to tie sci-fi adventures into the Yuletide spirit.

"I think it was a brilliant idea [in 2005] and it lasted a very, very long time," he told RadioTimes.com in 2017 from the set of that year’s Christmas special Twice Upon a Time.

"I sort of think we might have mined and possibly over-mined every single thing we could about Christmas in Doctor Who and the last time [in 2016’s The Curse of Doctor Mysterio] we more or less ignored it."

Perhaps a New Year’s Day special allows the Doctor Who team a fresh start, dropping the tired Christmas elements while still bringing some seasonal fun to viewers?

Alternatively, it could be that the BBC didn’t have room for Doctor Who on Christmas Day among its other shows (we won’t know what’s taking its place until the schedules are released, but it could be the remake of Watership Down), and so the move to New Year’s Day was a necessity.

What’s going to happen in the Doctor Who New Year's Day special?

While much of the story is under wraps, the BBC has released a couple of images from the episode and this official synopsis:

As the New Year begins, a terrifying evil is stirring, from across the centuries of Earth’s history. As the Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz return home, will they be able to overcome the threat to planet Earth?

(More on the precise identity of that threat below...)

However, despite the reference to it being set at New Year the story might not actually involve that time of year specifically, with a couple of the actors hinting that there were no significant New Year traditions included in the episode.

“When we were filming, we didn’t know when it was going to air,” Mandip Gill told Radio Times when asked about possible New Year references.

“We found out the same time as the rest of you!”

Series boss Chris Chibnall also revealed that the Doctor will face a “terrifying alien threat” in the special, which he described as “an action-packed, hour-long special adventure for all the family.”

Who stars in the Doctor Who New Year’s special?

It’s been confirmed that Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill, Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole will be reprising their roles as the Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan respectively.

It's also been revealed that Charlotte Ritchie, Nikesh Patel and Daniel Adegboyega will guest star in the episode as Lin, Mitch and Aaron.

What's the title of the Doctor Who New Year's Day special?

The episode is called Resolution. Given that the next series of Doctor Who is not until early 2020, that could be rather fitting, as waiting over a year for a cliffhanger to be resolved might be a bit much, and it would be nice to have a few loose ends tied up instead.

However, Resolution also has a certain ring to it, which classic Who fans in particular might find chimes quite well with the episode's central villain...

Who are the monsters in the New Year’s Day episode?

Fans have been hoping that the “terrifying evil” stirring “from across the centuries of Earth’s history,” means classic monsters the Daleks and we now know that is indeed the case, with this teaser trailer surely confirming that at least one of the tinpot terrors will be returning to face the Thirteenth Doctor and her friends...

The title, Resolution (of the Daleks) will certainly strike a chord with Doctor Who fans who remember other classic stories such as Remembrance of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks.

Has the Christmas special been scrapped for good?

Never say never. While there’ll be no Christmas special in 2018, it may be that in future years Chibnall and Whittaker fancy bringing the Thirteenth Doctor back to 25th December.

After all, they may come up with a brilliant Christmas idea for Whittaker’s incarnation, and conjuring a New Year’s-themed story every year could be even harder than keeping the Christmas theme going.

On the other hand, it might be that the BBC won’t fancy returning the series to Christmas Day after a year off – and it’s possible that coming up with New Year’s storylines won’t be an issue.

After all, most New Year’s specials don’t have particular attachment to the day itself – just look at Sherlock’s the Abominable Bride, as a random example – meaning that Doctor Who could be free to just keep coming up with hour-long standalone episodes to air on January 1st for as long as they want.

Still, we can’t help but hope that ONE day we’ll see Jodie Whittaker get a Christmas special all of her own – even if we have to wait a little longer to unwrap that particular present.

This article was originally published on 15 November 2018

Doctor Who continues on BBC1 on Sundays