SAN DIEGO -- The JapanDoctor is refusing to regenerate into what we know to be his upcoming female form, and Time itself is not happy with him.
That's the premise behind "Twice Upon a Time," the official title for Peter Capaldi's final episode of Doctor Who, revealed in an emotional panel at Comic-Con on Sunday that marked a changing of the guard.
And the reason the First Doctor (originally played by William Hartnell, now David Bradley) is showing up at this exact moment, as revealed in the cliffhanger of "The Doctor Falls"? "He's refusing to regenerate too," revealed showrunner Steven Moffat.
In other words, the TARDIS has landed in Antarctica at the very end of Hartnell's last story from 1966, "The Tenth Planet." But it soon moves location to a frozen-in-time World War I battlefield, where Mark Gatiss plays a character known only as The Captain.
And if the idea of twoDoctors saying "I don't want to go" at once is giving you the feels, then prepare to collapse in a blubbering wreck -- because Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) is back, but only for one episode.
The beloved companion, last seen being rescued by her alien girlfriend for a trip across the stars, will return to give the Doctor at least one last hug.
Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker didn't show up in San Diego to step on Capaldi's farewell, but the outgoing actor revealed he'd recently spoken to her.
"She's so full of excitement and passion about the show," Capaldi said of Whittaker. "It's in great hands."
Moffat was wistful about his own departure from the snow, saying he would miss Comic-Con the most and taking what he called his last opportunity to "faintly annoy 7,000 people at once."
But he was full of outrage at the notion that that there had been any sort of "backlash" against the casting of a female Doctor. Repeating a speech he's delivered to several people at Comic-Con, he insisted that real fans were 100 percent behind her, and wishes "the media would stop writing stories that say otherwise."
For more on that particular theme, check out Moffat and Capaldi's interview with Kevin Smith on Saturday.
Topics Comic-Con Doctor Who
Staff Picks: ‘Modern Love’, Lee Krasner, C.E. MorganRevisited: On Anselm Kiefer’s “Velimir Chlebnikov”Anelise Chen: Delighting in the Mollusks of Art HistorySteve Wozniak, coOf Opium, Spying, and Secret Silk SquaresFive Short Stories from “The Teeth of the Comb”Hinge adds monogamy and nonThe Lingering Anxieties of Growing Up UndocumentedElias Sime’s Art Repurposes Electronic Waste from Abbis AbabaThe Art of Deodorant DesignHinge adds monogamy and nonI tried out Facebook's adRevisited: Robert Lowell’s “Beyond the Alps”Anelise Chen: Delighting in the Mollusks of Art HistoryTech workers turned sex workers: why they changed careersBlack Friday gaming laptop deals 2023: Acer, MSI, moreElias Sime’s Art Repurposes Electronic Waste from Abbis AbabaBest headphones deals: Sony headphones on sale at WalmartBob Mankoff’s Art of Cartooning“Between Blossoms”: Elusive Photographs by Shen Wei This giraffe birth livestream is driving the internet insane Jenna Fischer explains why Pam and Roy were engaged for so long on 'The Office' 'The Mandalorian' episode 2 is a perfect Star Wars tone poem Apple launches 16 Who is this random guy Fox News had on to talk about Swedish security? Halle Berry apparently relaxed after the Oscars with a quick skinny dip Colbert skewers Trump with a parody of that New York Times ad Lily Allen quits Twitter after trolls attack her over son's death What the type of steak you eat says about you 'Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order' review: A terrific and welcome surprise 'Joker' is the first R Disney+'s 'The Mandalorian': What happened at the end of episode one? Chrissy Teigen was definitely asleep during the Oscars Disney XD sprinkles a same 14 dynamite gifts for the Guy Fieri fans of the world Gary from Chicago deserves a lifetime achievement Oscar Move over TikTok: Disney+ is #1 in the App Store Steve Harvey just woke up and he wants to know what happened during the Oscars The Oscars red carpet was its own live action 'Beauty and the Beast' People want to #DeleteUber after its last tweet in the Philippines