Current Doctor Who showrunner, Chris Chibnall, described the upcoming 2022 New Year’s Day special, “Eve of the Daleks,” as a “time loop romantic comedy.” The special will star Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill, and John Bishop, who reprise their roles of the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz Khan, and Dan Lewis, with Aisling Bea, Adjani Salmon, and Pauline McGlynn guest starring. The episode is the first of three special episodes airing throughout 2022, leading to Chibnall and Whittaker’s departure from the series.
Following the universe-shattering events of season 13, Doctor Who: Flux, “Eve of the Daleks” promises to be a smaller scaled story. Taking place in the ELF Storage Facility on New Year’s Eve, owner Sarah (Bea) and regular customer Nick (Salmon) are caught up in a time loop with the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan, that resets every time they are hunted down by a squad of Daleks. The first trailer was released following “The Vanquishers“‘s airing, teasing the time loop and the cast’s unfortunate repetitive fates, and now Chibnall has offered more information on the upcoming special’s story.
Speaking to the official Doctor Who Magazine (reported via Radio Times), Chibnall called the special a “time loop romantic comedy.” Chibnall elaborated by saying not only would the characters struggle with the Daleks, but the romantic elements too. Stating that the episode had a range of tones to appeal to New Year’s Day audiences, Chibnall then discussed the importance of the holiday to the episode, talking about how important New Year’s Eve becomes for people. Check out Chibnall’s full quote below.
“The episode is basically a romantic comedy where the obstacle to the romance is not only the characters themselves, but the threat of Daleks. But there’s still a big, fun, sci-fi concept at the heart of it. It’s got the range of tones, the range of scares, the range of humour, and the range of mystery that you’d want on New Year’s Day.
Everybody wants New Year’s Eve to be the greatest night of the year, but it rarely is. We all feel that pressure about what you’re going to do. Will you go out? Will you meet someone?”
“Eve of the Daleks” is the first of three specials that will air in 2022, with the final special celebrating the centenary of the BBC and seeing the departure of Chibnall as Showrunner and Whittaker as The Doctor. Though current stars like Gill have suggested that she’d like to return beyond Chibnall’s era of the show, much of the future of the show is still a mystery. Former showrunner, Russell T Davies, has been confirmed to return, with Bad Wolf Studios producing the show, though who will be playing the fourteenth incarnation of the Time Lord has yet to be revealed.
With Doctor Who: Flux being a single larger narrative and the following special episodes of 2022 leading into Whittaker’s heartbreaking farewell, “Eve of the Daleks” seems to be a perfect, more light-hearted story to give fans a break between both narratives. While time loops are nothing new to the series, very few episodes have been marketed as a romantic comedy, and a love story would be an oddly fitting narrative to juxtapose the hate-filled Dalek foes of the episode. However, promotional material features a broken, dying TARDIS, so perhaps this New Year’s Day special will lay the groundwork for the rest of the 2022 stories.
