RTD Reveals Cancelled Christmas Special Had “Lots and Lots of Daleks” and a Hidden Surprise

Russell T Davies has revealed that his axed Doctor Who special would have featured “lots and lots of Daleks”, an outer-space festival called Winternox and a mysterious spaceship.

The details come from an edited extract from Davies’ new memoir, The Queerest of Folk: A Life in Television, published by The Guardian ahead of the book’s release on 8 October.

Davies says he had developed a story involving “an olde-worlde English village” intercut with “a huge, mysterious spaceship”.

There would also have been “an outer-space festival called Winternox” and “lots and lots of Daleks”, with Davies teasing “something very unexpected hidden away”.

“Oh, yes, I liked it!” he writes.

The revelation adds some interesting context to Davies’ comments when the special was officially cancelled in June.

At the time, Davies was emphatic that the planned episode had never reached script stage, writing: “For the record: there was no script, I never wrote it.”

His memoir now makes clear, however, that a fairly developed story did exist.

“But I did have a story,” Davies writes. “I pitched it to the BBC, and they loved it.”

That does not necessarily contradict his claim that no actual script was written, with a story pitch existing before a screenplay. Davies also reveals he did not receive a contract to write the Christmas special until the end of March 2026.

However, there had previously been indications that the episode was further along.

In Doctor Who Magazine 624, Davies teased that the special contained the words “Bafflers”, “Winternox” and “village”.

And in February, composer Murray Gold said: “I know that Russell’s written, I think, multiple versions depending on certain outcomes.” Gold did qualify the claim with “I think”, and it remains unclear whether he was referring to completed scripts or different versions of the developing story.

The special itself continued to shift as production stalled.

Davies says scheduling difficulties even led to discussions about moving it from Christmas 2026 to Easter 2027.

For a time, he became “obsessed” with making the strange scheduling part of the story itself, with time being out of joint and the Doctor running around shouting: “It’s not really Christmas!”

Eventually, Davies decided the one-off no longer made sense as the BBC accelerated plans for Doctor Who’s next era.

On 6 May 2026, he went to the BBC and said: “I don’t think we should be making this.”

Instead, he urged the corporation to “put your energy and imagination into the future”, clearing the way for a new production team to take over Doctor Who.

That means Davies’ Winternox story, its mysterious spaceship, its hidden surprise and its promised “lots and lots of Daleks” will remain one of Doctor Who’s unmade adventures.