Doctor Who Christmas special will feature Jodie Whittaker facing off against the daleks

Finishing on a nail-biting cliffhanger, Doctor Who’s eagerly-awaited return will be for a festive special, it has been announced.

With the fate of the Doctor hanging in the balance amid the Great CyberWar and return of The Master at the end of Series 12, fans will have to wait until December to see how the action unfolds.   

The identity of the Timeless Child was finally revealed, throwing everything fans know about the Doctor into question.

Jodie Whittaker will be back as the near-immortal Time Lord in the upcoming festive episode curiously titled Revolution of the Daleks.

This can only mean that the Doctor’s biggest and most feared enemies, the Daleks, will be front and centre in shaping the next series, set to be Jodie’s last.

Showrunner Chris Chibnall said: ‘We can’t leave the Doctor there! On that cliffhanger! Well, we did.

‘But rest assured, the Doctor and her friends will be back for a one-off extended Special around Christmas and New Year. (I don’t know when they’re going to put it on yet, otherwise we’d tell you!).

‘There will be Daleks. There will be exterminations. Thrills, laughter, tears. You know. The usual. See you at the end of the year.’ 

Producers also confirmed Tosin Cole, who plays Ryan, Bradley Walsh’s Graham, and Yaz played by Mandip Gill will all be returning for the festive episode.

The group previously faced a diminished form of the Skaro-native creature in last year’s New Year’s Day episode, but were able to defeat the single Dalek involved.

The eleventh series of the long-running sci-fi adventure has thrown up more questions than you could shake a stick at, with the most shocking being the introduction of a new (or old?) version of the Time Lord.

In January, Jodie’s incarnation of The Doctor came face to face with a previously-unknown past version of the character, in the form of actress Jo Martin.

This marked two major milestones for the series: the second time a female has played the time travelling extraterrestrial and the first time the character has been black.

Some fans weren’t sure whether or not Martin’s appearance meant what it implied – but show boss Chris Chibnall has confirmed that this isn’t ‘a trick’.

He told The Mirror: ‘The important thing to say is – she is definitively The Doctor. There’s not a sort of parallel universe going on, there’s no tricks. Jo Martin is The Doctor.’

Chibnall noted that the Top Boy star was credited in the same way John Hurt was credited when he appeared as another previously-unseen incarnation, who cropped up during the 50th anniversary special The Day Of The Doctor in 2013. 

‘That’s why we gave her the credit at the end which all new Doctors have the first time you see them. John Hurt got that credit,’ Chibnall explained.

The character was introduced initially as a tour guide called Ruth Clayton, who pressed an In Case Of Emergency button as the Judoon invaded her hometown.

It’s unclear where she fits in the mythology of previous Doctors – with many noting she did not recognise Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver, suggesting she came between Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor and Jon Pertwee’s Third.

‘There will be answers to some of these mysteries this series. But as ever with Doctor Who, answers often reveal new questions. It’s all very deliberate,’ Chibnall has assured.

He also revealed Martin wasn’t aware she was auditioning to play The Doctor when she met the producers to read for them.