It’s been a long 2019 for Doctor Who fans. Since the New Year’s special on January 1st, all we’ve had to chew on are some VR games and the usual trickle of Big Finish audiobooks. But Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor and her companions are set to return for season 12 in early 2020.
Filming for the show has been taking place in various locations for quite a while now and they’re currently in Bristol, England where some rather familiar enemies have turned up on set. The picture below comes via Instagram user Raggedywho_ and was taken on Clifton Suspension Bridge. And, well, there’s no getting around it, the Daleks are back.
See for yourself down below:
The iconic monsters were absent from season 11 of the series (with showrunner Chris Chibnall wanting to create new enemies rather than retread old ground), but eventually made an appearance in the New Year’s Day special. There, we saw a rebuilt Dalek attempting to summon the entire fleet to Earth, with the Doctor eventually casting the mutant inside into a supernova to finish it off. But, with the creatures obviously now back, could there be a chance that something’s survived?
Perhaps, and my bet is that these set photos may be from the season finale, or an episode towards the end of the run. There are theories that it could be from a Christmas or New Year’s special for this year that’s yet to be officially announced, but doing Daleks two years in a row for the special is a bit repetitive. Plus, if this is intended for broadcast over Christmas, they’re cutting it pretty fine to finish effects work and scoring. It’s far more likely then that this is for an episode that’ll eventually air at some point in the spring of 2020.
Either way, it’s been far too long since we got some new Doctor Who. C’mon BBC, at least throw us a premiere date and/or a trailer before 2019 is out.