Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, HBO, Preview, streaming, Trailer, TV, YouTube | Tagged: bbc, bleeding cool, cable, captain jack, daleks, doctor, doctor who, graham, jodie whittaker, Mandip Gill, preview, revolution of the daleks, Ryan, streaming, television, torchwood, tv, Yaz

Doctor Who: Mandip Gill Talks Staying with Series, Yaz's Future & More

The new year kicks off in a very deadly way, with Doctor Who Festive Special "Revolution of the Daleks" finding the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) locked away in a space prison, leaving the returning Captain Jack (John Barrowman) and the Doctor's TARDIS fam of Yaz (Mandip Gill), Graham (Bradley Walsh), and Ryan (Tosin Cole) to save the Earth from the machinations of the Daleks. But two things who know already, with the first being that these Daleks won't be like any other they've faced off against before. But perhaps more concerning is that by the time the smoke clears, "Team TARDIS" will be minus Graham and Ryan. Earlier this week, Walsh and Cole expressed their initial feelings about saying goodbye to the series. Now, Gill offers their thoughts on their castmates leaving- and why Yaz is staying around for more adventures.

Because "Revolution" was filmed at the end of production on Series 12, the special has been done for some time- which means Gill and the others have had to sit on the news for a while. Combine that with the team keeping contact via social media and lockdown making interactions near-impossible anyway, and it's understandable why it hasn't quite set in for Gill and the others yet. "I'm not really an emotional person, but even I was like 'this is really sad I'll never see you again, you're so busy Brad always filming.' But it's been too soon to miss them, we have this WhatsApp group that's pinging all the time, and obviously, because of the lockdown we wouldn't have seen each other anyway in that time, so it's too soon to realize the impact of not having them because we're constantly sending memes or a message."

But as much as Gill will miss Walsh and Cole and respects the decision, the actor doesn't believe Yaz's journey is over yet. "I just thought, 'I'm not ready for this journey to end.' Why leave something if you're enjoying it, it's working and there's development? I don't know when it will end for me because as a person and as a character, there's so much more to explore." Gill is hoping that a number of Yaz's past storyline threads are picked back up and developed further. "We started to see Yaz with her mental health storyline last series and started to see Yaz a little bit more. So that can sort of be explored a little bit further – there's room now to explore that. It never probably felt like the right time to do it before. So I'm looking forward to it."

Viewers last saw the Thirteenth Doctor at the end of season 12, where her fate was left hanging in the balance as she was locked away in a high-security alien prison with no hope of escape. In the upcoming New Year's Day special, Yaz, Ryan and Graham are far away on Earth and having to carry on with their lives without her. However, they soon discover a disturbing plan forming. A plan which involves a Dalek. How can you fight a Dalek without the Doctor? Even with Captain Jack's help, the gang are set to face one of their biggest and most frightening challenges yet.

Joining the special are Chris Noth (Sex and the City), who will be back as the disgraced Jack Robertson. Dame Harriet Walter (Killing Eve, Succession) will also be making her Doctor Who debut for the special, alongside television star Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (The Trial of Christine Keeler). "We've crammed this year's Doctor Who special with an explosion of extraordinary acting talent. Where else would you get British acting royalty, a globally renowned US screen star, an (inter)national treasure of stage and screen and one of Britain's hottest young actors — just in the guest cast," said series showrunner Chris Chibnall. "Put those together with Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole (and Daleks! Did I mention Daleks!) — and you get a cast to be exterminated for. And things will explode. Promise."

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