The clock is ticking on Jodie Whittaker’s time as the Doctor — her last season wrapped with the December 5 “Flux” finale — and we now have a first look at the first of three specials in 2022 that will be part of her farewell. And what better way for Doctor Who to celebrate the new year than with the Daleks? (It’s becoming a tradition for Whittaker’s Thirteen, with 2019’s “Resolution” and 2021’s “Revolution.”)
As revealed in the “Eve of the Daleks” trailer that aired with the “Flux” finale, ELF storage owner Sarah (Aisling Bea) and customer Nick (Adjani Salmon), who visits his unit every year on New Year’s Eve, will have a different holiday than usual — and multiple attempts to survive it. A Dalek attacks, exterminating Nick, and then the Doctor and her companions, Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop), who stuck around after “Flux,” show up. As the Doctor warns, “it will kill everything not within its own image.”
“We’re stuck in a time loop with killer robots,” Sarah says. “Yeah, that makes sense,” Nick agrees. “Does it?” she asks.
Well, in at least one of the loops, it looks like a Dalek exterminates the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan. Watch the trailer below for more from the time loop, the Doctor and her companions, Sarah and Nick, and the Daleks.
What will it take for the Doctor, Yaz, Dan, Sarah, and Nick to survive the time loop and Daleks and make it to New Year’s Day?
“We all need a little romance in our lives around New Year. Less so, Daleks,” showrunner Chris Chibnall said in a statement. “But Aisling Bea and Adjani Salmon’s characters will have to deal with both in a New Year’s Eve from hell. Together with Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor, it’ll hopefully prove the perfect New Year’s Day tonic.”
In July, it was announced that Whittaker would be saying goodbye to the Doctor after a final season of six episodes (“Flux”) and three 2022 specials. After “Eve of the Daleks,” that leaves two, set for the spring and autumn. It is during that last one that the Doctor will regenerate.
Doctor Who, “Eve of the Daleks” Premiere, January 1, 2022, 8/7c, BBC America
