Showrunner Chris Chibnall Talks Doctor Who: Revolution Of The Daleks

The Doctor Returns For 2021

Doctor Who: Revolution Of The Daleks is a New Year’s Day special featuring the return of the Doctor and here’s showrunner Chris Chibnall talking about the special. Warning: potential spoilers here…

The last season ended on such a cliffhanger, fans are desperate to know what’s going on. Tell us a little about where we’re going to pick up?

Chris Chibnall: “We pick up with the Doctor in prison. She’s been taken by the Judoon at the end of the last series and we’ll be picking up with her there. Some time has passed, she has been in prison for a very long time. She’s struggling. Back on Earth Yaz, Graham and Ryan are struggling to figure out their lives without the Doctor. It’s been ten months for them since they’ve seen the Doctor and at the beginning of this they discover the presence of a Dalek.”

Let’s talk a little bit about Captain Jack, we saw him briefly in series 12 and he’s coming back for the festive special. How long have you been planning that?

CC: “Ooh a long time, it’s been cooked up for a long time. We knew he’d be coming back for this special so we back-laid him into the previous series and the Judoon episode in the middle there. It’s been cooked up over lots of phone calls and secret meetings, and not so secret meetings, at John Barrowman concerts and things like that! He smuggled me backstage and we had a secret conversation. I knew that I really wanted Captain Jack to meet the Thirteenth Doctor and it had been a long time since he’d been on screen in Doctor Who so well overdue, and with festive specials you want them to feel like a treat, and there’s no bigger treat than John Barrowman’s Captain Jack.”

Can you tell us a bit about the storyline and how they come to leave?

CC: “I can tell you that it’s very emotional, I think we’ve all been in tears watching it. It’s a really important part of the mix of the special, where you get lots of thrills, lots of spills, lots of humour, lots of Daleks, and lots of emotion. It’s hard, but we don’t shy away from what it means for this family to have its final moments together. And it was emotional off screen, it’s emotional on screen, and it’s an incredible thing. Because it’s like you said Jodie, you all clicked, and you just never know if that’s going to happen. You could never have known that you would all get on and have such a great time, and I think we all feel very lucky that that happened. And that’s reflected on and off screen, but I hope it feels like a good send off for those two characters whatever happens to them.”

And will the door be left open for them?

CC: “You’ll have to wait and see, won’t you.”

We do have some exciting guest appearances in this episode. Can you talk about Chris Noth coming back?

CC: “Well I loved his character, it’s a fabulous performance by Chris. He loved being in the show and was very keen to come back. And his character story didn’t feel like it was at an end. He was disgraced at the end of the previous episode where we met him. And the story of his recovery and how he claws his way back into the world is seen in this story.”