‘Doctor Who’ Holiday Episode With the Daleks Has Already Been Shot

Meredith Jacobs June 9, 2020, 1:15 pm

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Doctor Who Holiday Special 2020 Filmed — Giles Keyte/BBC America

Much of Hollywood continues to be on pause due to the coronavirus pandemic, with air dates for upcoming seasons of TV shows unknown, but Doctor Who fans will still get their annual treat this winter.

The 2020 holiday episode of the sci-fi series was filmed prior to the pandemic shutting down production on TV shows and movies. “There is a festive episode,” Mandip Gill, who stars as one of the companions, Yaz, of the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), told Entertainment Weekly. “We happened to be quite lucky and fit it in, so that will be exciting.”

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The one-off episode, “Revolution of the Daleks,” will see Whittaker and Gill’s characters, along with companions Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Graham (), involved in a story that brings back the Doctor’s biggest enemies.

“There will be Daleks. There will be exterminations. Thrills, laughter, tears. You know. The usual,” showrunner Chris Chibnall teased in March. “See you at the end of the year.” An exact air date has yet to be announced. Previous holiday specials have aired on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, with both of Whittaker’s full episodes premiering on the latter.

(Sophie Mutevelian/BBC America)

The Season 12 finale did end with a major cliffhanger: as the Doctor was dealing with the fact that she was the first Time Lord, the alien Judoon Cold Case Unit arrested her and transported her to a “maximum-security facility” in space. She was sentenced to “whole of life imprisonment.”

We’ll have to wait to find out when the Doctor and her companions will be back to traveling through space and time—after resolving that cliffhanger and getting Whittaker’s character out of prison, of course—in Season 13.