Just a few weeks after the season 11 finale, Doctor Who returns to our screens for a one-off hour-long special this New Year’s Day. As has become par for the course with this era of the show, details on the episode are being kept tightly under wraps, but Chris Chibnall has at least now given us a few words to tease what’s to come in the festive adventure.
To begin with, he confirmed to Doctor Who Magazine that the special – fittingly titled “Resolution” – is set on the day it’s airing. The EP thinks this should mean fans get to ring in 2019 the right way, explaining:
“The episode is set on New Year’s Day. There’s no better way to start a new year than with Doctor Who.”
He continued by promising that it’ll deliver on the hype, saying:
“You want it to feel like a treat: a big, thrilling, explosive, moving, cheeky, surprising treat. Basically, you want the Special to be epic. And I promise, it’s going to be epic.”
The season 11 finale, “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos,” received a fair amount of flak from fans for being pretty underwhelming as a grand culmination of the Thirteenth Doctor’s first year in the TARDIS, but from Chibnall’s words, it sounds like the special will act more like the wrap-up to Jodie Whittaker’s debut run. And, if the rumors are true about the villains it’s harboring, it could let season 11 go out in style.
The promo left us all thinking that the Daleks – or at least one solitary Dalek – would be returning. Something that’s been fueled by other evidence since then. This would fly in the face of what we’d heard about season 11 having no classic monsters, but the return of the Doctor’s greatest foes would definitely constitute the description “epic,” wouldn’t you say?
Be sure to catch Doctor Who “Resolution” on January 1st on BBC One/America.
