Following on from the dramatic climax to Series 10, the BBC has confirmed that Peter Capaldi will be hanging up his TARDIS reigns in the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas Special. For anyone that hasn’t seen the last few episodes to the latest series in the sci-fi show, you should probably catch up before reading any more of this as spoilers are sort of inevitable.
Now that we’ve got the warnings out of the way, we can move on to the details for the as-yet-unnamed 2017 Christmas Special, which will once again air on Christmas Day with a 60-minute episode. It will also see the doctor regenerate once again, so it’s going to be one of the must-see TV shows over the holidays. He’d been threatening to make the change throughout Series 10, but it all came to a head in the final episode of the series, The Doctor Falls, where he managed to get shot by a Mondasian Cyberman.
However, he just about manages to hold off the regeneration at the end of the episode, stepping out of the TARDIS in a frozen tundra, plunging his hands into the snow and freezing the regeneration in its tracks. While we all know that he can’t hold it off forever, the move does free up just enough time for Capaldi to have one last adventure in the Christmas Special.
With the preview of the First Doctor, played by David Bradley, at the end of the final episode of Series 10, it’s clear that there’s going to be a complex timy wimy thing going on. He seemed pretty indignant at the current Doctor’s attempt to stop the regeneration, coming onto the scene pronouncing it “ridiculous”. He was also fractious at the 12th Doctor‘s claim that he’s The Doctor, trumping him by saying “no, no, no, I’m The Doctor! The original, you might say”.
If we’re being completely honest, it seemed a bit of a selfish response to the genius regeneration from the 12th Doctor, so hopefully the First Doctor’s brisk manner and no-nonsense attitude will sort him out in the Christmas Special. It just didn’t seem much in character, but then he had just dealt with what he thought was the tragic loss of Bill, so maybe he just needs a few wise words before he’s ready for the big transformation.
The special episode will introduce us to the 13th Doctor, and there’s a lot of speculation online about who its going to be, including the potential of either the first woman or the first black Doctor. However, the bookies’ favourite is Kris Marshall, who quit Death In Paradise around the same time that Peter Capaldi announced his plan to step down.
The second favourite is Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who was brilliant in Fleabag, although the fact that she’s due to star in the Han Solo movie means that there could well be a scheduling conflict. Next on the list is Natalie Dormer (Game Of Thrones, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I and II), and she looks like she’d make a great Doctor, a bit like the female equivalent of David Tennant. Other names in contention include Tilda Swinton (Doctor Strange (2016)), David Harewood (The Flash) and Olivia Colman (The Lobster).
We’ll have to wait for the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas Special to find out, unless there’s a monumental leak ahead of the Christmas Day air date. We’d be pretty happy with any of the top three contenders, but it would be cool to see a big shake-up, so Phoebe Waller-Bridge or Natalie Dormer are our favourites.
