Chris Chibnall’s inaugural season of Doctor Who laid out two major rules it’d follow to differentiate itself from the previous runs. For one, there’d be no season-long arc or mystery running through the episodes, and each installment would feature an original monster rather than endlessly reworking the iconic classics of the series. They stuck to these rules and (because of them or not) were rewarded with a huge ratings boost on previous seasons and high levels of viewer satisfaction.
But now that the run’s over and done with, we can throw that rulebook out, right? Well, maybe, and that’s because we’re hearing persistent rumors that the New Year’s Day special will be all about those iconic villains the Daleks.
We already know that the episode title for the special is “Resolution,” and some fans are theorizing that it’s actually “Resolution of the Daleks.” Said theorizing then reached fever pitch with the release of the trailer, in which the Doctor explained that they’d come across “the DNA of the most dangerous creature in the universe.”
Now, a lot of people have assumed that this naturally means we’re talking Dalek DNA. Not me, though. If I know anything about Doctor Who, the most dangerous creature in the universe is the Doctor herself, so perhaps we’re going to be dealing with a clone or even a surprise appearance from one of her past regenerations (though it seems doubtful they could keep that totally under wraps).
Star Mandip Gill was quizzed about all this mystery by Entertainment Weekly recently and when asked to describe the special, she said the following:
“It’s quite dark, and scary, and eerie. It’s an explosive one [but] it’s really fun and it ties up a lot of loose ends. It’s really exciting.”
And of the return of the universe’s most deadly pepperpots?
“Well, like you say, they’re just rumours, aren’t they? We’ve managed to get this far keeping everything a secret. Now, how would we let that slip?”
Personally, I can’t wait to find out. Mind you, savor the sensation of imminent new Doctor Who while you can, because it won’t be returning to screens for season 12 until 2020. And what a shame that is, eh?
