Matt Smith’s final episode as the Doctor, ‘The Time Of The Doctor’, airs at 7.30pm on Wednesday 25 December on BBC One and sees the return of the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Silence and the Weeping Angels.

> Find out everything we know so far about the Christmas special in our news summary.

Setting the scene for the episode, Moffat teased: “It’s his final battle and he’s been fighting it for a while. The Doctor is facing the joint challenge of a mysterious event in space that has summoned lots of aliens to one place and helping Clara cook Christmas dinner. There are also elements from every series of Matt’s Doctor, which will come to a head in this special. Things that we’ve laid down for years are going to be paid off.”

Recalling the read-through, he commented: “It was emotional. I think possibly the beginning of the end is more emotional than the actual end. It was the same with ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’, when Karen [Gillan] and Arthur [Darvill] left. The read-throughs are the moments that tend to get people because obviously the shoot dissolves into what we hope will be a tremendously exciting wrap party.”

Discussing Matt Smith’s last words as the Doctor, the writer revealed: “I didn’t think I would go that way, but a couple of months before I wrote it I did say to Mark [Gatiss] that I thought I knew what his last moment would be. And indeed his last line. But if it didn’t fit the scene I wouldn’t crowbar it in.”

He added: “I’ve had the vague storyline in place for a long while.”

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

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

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