The Doctor’s only been off our screens for a couple of weeks, following the end of season 13, aka Flux, earlier this month, but the TARDIS will return in the annual Doctor Who winter special. Once again airing on New Year’s Day, “Eve of the Daleks” will feature the return of the Time Lord’s most iconic foes in what promises to be a time loop-themed episode.
We’ve already had a trailer for it, but these four new promo images offer a further look at the special. As shared by the series’ Twitter account, the photos showcase the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her friends, Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop), as well as guest stars Aisling Bea (Home Alone Sweet Home) and Adjani Salmon. And not forgetting a lone Dalek looking sinister in the shadows. Check them out in the gallery below:
“Eve” takes place on New Year’s Eve with Bea playing Sarah, the owner of ELF Storage, and Salmon as Nick, a customer who always visits his unit at the facility every NYE. This time things will go differently, though, when the Doctor shows up, and the whole place gets trapped in a time loop with a Dalek execution squad. Though it’s hard to tell in the image above, this episode will mark a return to the classic bronze Dalek design, doing away with the revamped look featured in the last two, also Dalek-centric specials.
After the serialized Flux, this special will mark a return to standalone storytelling. That said, we’d expect it to establish a few plot threads that will extend throughout the two specials that are set to follow it throughout 2022. These will be the final episodes to star Whittaker before she regenerates into the currently unknown Fourteenth Doctor, whose era will then begin in 2023, the series’ 60th anniversary year.
Catch Doctor Who: “Eve of the Daleks” when it airs Jan. 1, 2022 on BBC America.