The writer told Doctor Who Magazine in the latest issue: “Whatever anyone thinks of the Special, and God knows what they’ll think of it, no-one will miss the fact that it’s quite an extraordinary television production. It is what we can do when pushed – everybody working under extraordinary pressure, and with limited time, doing new, exciting and brilliant things. It has nearly killed us.”

Moffat teased: “This feels like a worthy, important, different thing to do for an anniversary. The way that introducing the Time Lords was in 1969, or exiling the Doctor… Something like that makes it a landmark episode.”

He added: “You can either throw a party within the show, like ‘The Five Doctors’ did, or you can start a big old unique new chapter of the show. A paradigm-shifting episode.”

‘The Day of the Doctor’ airs at 7.50pm on Saturday on BBC One.

> Find out all the latest info on ‘The Day of the Doctor’ in our news summary.

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> Order the 50th anniversary special on DVD on Amazon.

> Order the 50th anniversary special on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Watch the 50th anniversary trailer…