New Year’s Day is a time to look to the future, but when Earth is threatened by a terrifying enemy the Doctor and her friends learn lessons from the past…

Preview by MARK WRIGHT and MARCUS HEARN

Yaz (Mandip Gill), the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Graham (Bradley Walsh) examine some intriguing archaeological finds.

After a resoundingly successful 2018, Doctor Who enters 2019 in thrilling style as Team TARDIS head home to Sheffield. The hour-long Resolution will be a break from tradition.

“The episode is set on New Year’s Day,” says showrunner Chris Chibnall. “There’s no better way to start a new year than with Doctor Who.” Resolution marks the return of director Wayne Yip, who helmed The Lie of the Land and Empress of Mars for the 2017 series. “Series producer Nikki Wilson had loved working with Wayne on his episodes in Series 10,” says Chris. “[Executive producer] Matt Strevens had worked with him on Misfits and loved him. And I’d been especially impressed with Wayne’s episode of Class, which kept the characters mostly locked in one room. It’s not easy to direct an episode like that and make it continually visually stylish, but he pulled it off with panache.

“I’ve adored working with him,” Chris continues. “He’s got great visual flair, imagination and precision. He’s a brilliant collaborator with great ideas and he’s not afraid of big set-pieces. Which is a good job, because that’s what we threw at him.”

After directing his Series 10 episodes Wayne thought he’d ticked Doctor Who off his wish list and returned to Los Angeles, where he’s very much in demand. “I was back in Cardiff in January this year and thought I’d go to Roath Lock, just to say hi to everybody,” he recalls. “Nikki Wilson showed me a little sizzle reel of the first couple of episodes that were shooting with Jodie. It looked amazing, and Jodie’s performance was leaping off the screen.