Peter Capaldi’s final ‘Doctor Who’ episode will be a "fanboy’s dream".
The 59-year-old actor will bow out of his titular role in the BBC One sci-fi series in the Christmas special, and director Rachel Talalay – who recently helmed two-part finale ‘World Enough and Time’ and ‘The Doctor Falls’ – insisted the special episode will be full of surprises.
Speaking to TV & Satellite magazine, she said: "It’s a tour de force. It’s a fanboy’s dream, it’s also a beautiful and joyous script."
It is known that David Bradley, who played The First Doctor William Hartnell in the BBC drama ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’ – which was part of the show’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2013 – will reprise his role for Peter’s swansong.
What’s more, Peter’s Twelfth Doctor will regenerate like no other Time Lord has before.
Showrunner Steven Moffat previously said: "The one thing I have to say is, it’s Christmas Day, we’re gonna keep it funny, and we’re gonna keep it lively, as well as sad.
"If we cry, [the audience] won’t. We want them to cry. So Doctor Who will laugh bravely into that good night."
It will also be the first multi-Doctor episode since 2013.
The series 10 finale concluded with a cliff-hanger ending when the Doctor was fatally shot by a Mondasian Cyberman and started to regenerate.
Stepping out of the TARDIS into an arctic landscape, he fought off the glowing regeneration energy and fell to his knees, vowing that this time he would not live on and change into a new Doctor.
However, an approaching figure declared this statement "ridiculous" and stepped forward through the snow to reveal himself as the very first incarnation of the Time Lord.
He said: "The Doctor? Oh, I don’t think so. No, dear me, no. You may be a Doctor, but I am the Doctor. The original, you might say."
Hartnell played the first incarnation of the Doctor from 1963 to 1966 but passed away in 1975.