SPOILER WARNING…

Speaking to Doctor Who Magazine in an exclusive interview for the new issue, Moffat reveals: “Shows like Doctor Who should have big, colourful, memorable moments that make you go, ‘What the hell?’. Well this is one of them.”

He continues: “If you’re not going ‘What the hell?’ it’s business as usual, but it’s hard to create a shock in Doctor Who when we’ve already blown up the universe a couple of times! What do you do next? When I came up with this incredible, heart-wrenching twist, I thought, ‘We kill off one of the leads in the season opener! Who’s going to stop watching at that point?’ It lures you in.”

He adds: “You see those four different covers for this month’s Doctor Who Magazine? We’re not lying, we’re not cheating. One of those four people is going to die. The Doctor’s darkest hour is coming.”

The magazine then followed up the quotes on Twitter, themselves adding: “And by the way. About those words in the cover headline: WE’RE NOT LYING. One of those characters PROPERLY DIES in Episode 1. Ooh.”

Series 6 begins on Saturday 23rd April with ‘The Impossible Astronaut’. A full-length trailer for the new series was released last week.

Issue 433 of Doctor Who Magazine is available in shops from Thursday, priced £4.50, with four collectable covers.