It’s been confirmed that Doctor Who series 11 is a little bit longer than we thought: we were expecting ten episodes, but Chris Chibnall and his cohorts are actually making eleven. That extra instalment will be the 2018 Christmas special, which will mark Jodie Whittaker’s first full festive episode at the helm of the TARDIS.
Ahead of Doctor Who series 11’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, showrunner Chris Chibnall and executive producer Matt Strevens let this news slip during a press conference.
“We seem to be filming 11 episodes, and it’s only a series of 10,” Chibnall teased, when the topic of a Christmas special came up at the press conference.
Strevens added, “I don’t know what happened. It’s a show about space and time, so it’s all quite abstract.”
And then Chibnall said this, seemingly confirming that a Christmas special is on the way: “I would definitely think there’s another episode after the end of the series, yeah.”
The Doctor Who series 11 San Diego Comic-Con panel went on to unveil the first trailer for Doctor Who series 11. Promising new worlds, new times, new faces and new best friends, it looks set to be a complete overhaul for the BBC’s flagship sci-fi series.
Of course, we won’t really know what to expect from the 2018 Doctor Who Christmas special until we’ve seen the other ten episodes of Doctor Who series 11. But, nonetheless, it’s exciting to know that the Christmas special exists.
We’ll bring you more Doctor Who series 11 news as we hear it. The series is expected to debut on our screens in the autumn.