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Doctor Who Christmas special details revealed

Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who with Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts
Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who with Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts, the Time Lord’s companion, who will return for the Christmas special. Photograph: BBC/PA

Tantalising details of the Doctor Who Christmas special have emerged to further tease fans still absorbing news that the 13th Doctor is to be a woman.

The festive special, which will be the last time Peter Capaldi will be seen on screen playing the Doctor, will see the return of the Time Lord’s companion Bill Potts, and also feature a cameo performance from Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss.

Called Twice Upon a Time, the scant details have been revealed during a cast panel at San Diego’s Comic-Con.

Gatiss will play a first world war soldier known as the Captain, but full details of Bill’s return are not revealed. During the 2017 series finale, fans were left wondering about Bill (played by Pearl Mackie) and also saw the Doctor’s regeneration process begin after he was fatally shot by a Mondasian Cyberman.

Viewers saw his flashback through previous incarnations as past sidekicks played by Billie Piper, Jenna Coleman, Catherine Tate and John Barrowman were seen calling out his name.

The biggest clue to the plot of this year’s Christmas special came in the closing moments of the episode when Capaldi’s character struggled out of the Tardis into a snowy wasteland and came face to face with the original Doctor.

Capaldi’s 12th Doctor shouted: “I don’t want to change again, never again, I can’t keep on being somebody else. I’m staying. I will not change. I am the Doctor.”

He was answered by a figure who emerged through the snow saying: “No, no, no, I am the Doctor, the original.” Played by David Bradley, the character was dressed as the late William Hartnell’s Doctor, the first incarnation of the Time Lord. It harked back to a 1966 episode, The Tenth Planet, in which the Doctor travelled to the South Pole to take on the Cybermen.

Capaldi is being replaced by Broadchurch star Jodie Whittaker, who will become the first woman to play the role.

The Christmas special is also the last for the show’s writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, who is succeeded by the creator of Broadchurch, Chris Chibnall.

Jodie Whittaker
Jodie Whittaker, who will become the first woman to play the role. Photograph: Max Nash/AFP/Getty Images

Chibnall has said he always wanted the 13th Doctor to be a woman. Following the announcement of Whittaker as the new lead, he said in a statement: “After months of lists, conversations, auditions, recalls, and a lot of secret-keeping, we’re excited to welcome Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor. I always knew I wanted the 13th Doctor to be a woman, and we’re thrilled to have secured our number-one choice. Her audition for the Doctor simply blew us all away.

To date, the trailer on the corporation’s official Facebook page of Whittaker being unveiled as the new Doctor has been viewed more than 10m times.