With Doctor Who: Flux having reached its conclusion last weekend, the attention of Whovians now turns to the upcoming New Year’s Day Special, titled Eve of the Daleks.
The episode is the first of a trilogy of specials planned for 2022 before Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall leave the show, and the outgoing showrunner has teased that the episode is an “intimate, standalone, time-loop romantic comedy”.
“The episode is basically a romantic comedy where the obstacle to the romance is not only the characters themselves, but the threat of Daleks,” he told the most recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine.
“But there’s still a big, fun, sci-fi concept at the heart of it. It’s got the range of tones, the range of scares, the range of humour, and the range of mystery that you’d want on New Year’s Day.”
The festive issue of DWM is out this week and it includes an exclusive preview of the New Year’s Day Special, Eve of the Daleks!
— Doctor Who Magazine (@DWMtweets) December 6, 2021
Plus the DWM Christmas Quiz, a giant double-sided poster and much, much more!
On sale Thursday 9 December. pic.twitter.com/GOhDCMljJ8
Chibnall added that although there have been multiple Christmas-set episodes of the show, this is only the second time Doctor Who has had a story set on New Year’s Eve – following the 1996 movie starring Paul McGann.
“Everybody wants New Year’s Eve to be the greatest night of the year, but it rarely is,” he continued. “We all feel that pressure about what you’re going to do. Will you go out? Will you meet someone?”
The special has been described by the BBC as an “action-packed spectacular”, with regular cast members Whittaker, Mandip Gill and Josh Bishop joined for the episode by guest stars Aisling Bea and Adjani Salmon.
The official synopsis for the episode reads: “Sarah (Aisling Bea) owns and runs ELF storage, and Nick (Adjani Salmon) is a customer who visits his unit every year on New Year’s Eve. This year, however, their night turns out to be a little different than planned as they find themselves joining forces with the Doctor, Dan and Yaz in a fight against the Daleks.”
Meanwhile, Gill has teased that it could be rather a confusing instalment of the show, explaining, “We did a lot of running, and it got quite confusing at times – Being trapped in a time loop, repeating the same scenes as it gets closer and closer to midnight.”
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Doctor Who returns to BBC One on 1st January. Visit our Sci-fi hub for more news and features, or find something to watch with our TV Guide.