Jodie Whittaker may face more returning monsters in the Doctor Who festive special – including a Weeping Angel

That’s certainly what a few eagle-eyed Doctor Who fans think anyway, after a first-look trailer for the upcoming special appeared to show the Doctor imprisoned with a few of her old enemies, trapped alongside them in a Judoon prison after her arrest at the end of The Timeless Children.

It's a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, but we think we can see a P’Ting (from 2018 episode The Tsuranga Conundrum), a Cyberman (over to the left) and even a Weeping Angel in this wider shot (note the stone dress the Doctor is looking at), while other fans have claimed to be able to see Sontarans, Silurians, Macra and even a Varga Plant from 1965’s Mission to the Unknown serial (see the big green thing to the right).

https://twitter.com/chrysocollic/status/1333143094108282882?s=20

Of course, these monster appearances are likely to be background cameos rather than proper story-dependent roles, and it’s likely we won’t see them much in the episode – but it’s still a nice way to connect this episode with the wider Doctor Who universe, especially with baddies we haven’t seen in a while.

https://twitter.com/AMadmanNotABox/status/1333144350373539840?s=20

Obviously, the Varga plant hasn’t appeared in the modern series, and it’s been a few years since we saw Sontarans or Silurians. Even the Weeping Angels haven’t popped up in mainstream Doctor Who since 2015 (though they were in 2016 spin-off Class), and they’re often cited as the monster fans would most like to see return – so why wouldn’t the series add them in for a surprise visit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2yFgYWAEFM

Of course, it could be that we and the good people of Twitter are wrong and the monsters in jail with the Doctor are all-new creations that just look a little like classic monsters in silhouette. Maybe there are no villains in the episode (beyond the Daleks) that we’d recognise at all.

Still, we can’t help but hope there’s at least one or two quick hellos from villains past for us to look forward to. If nothing else, it might be nice for the Doctor to see some familiar faces (or masks) during her imprisonment.

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks comes to BBC One on New Year’s Day. Want something else to watch? Check out our full TV Guide.