Doctor Who Christmas special confirmed, first look at the new sonic screwdriver, and more from San Diego Comic Con

Doctor Who certainly didn't waste its Hall H panel at San Diego Comic Con 2018. It not only released a brand new trailer (which you can watch above), but also confirmed a whole host of other juicy information, from that all important Christmas episode to our first look at the new sonic screwdriver. 

As new Doctor Jodie Whittaker took to the stage, fans in Hall H struggled to contain their excitement, but that was nothing compared to the reaction to the trailer. It gave us our first proper look at the new Doctor and her companions. Promising "new faces, new worlds, new times" and more, the 40-second teaser was just the beginning of the revelations. Whittaker also revealed to fans her new-look sonic screwdriver, which you can see in more detail below:

Doctor Who sonic screwdriver

But that's not all. We now know how many episodes of the new season we're getting and whether one will have a distinctly festive feel to it... 

There'd been some doubt recently whether we'd get the traditional Doctor Who Christmas special this year, but showrunner Chris Chibnall confirmed we'd get a dose of the Doctor this December in a press conference at San Diego Comic Con - attended by our sister publication SFX magazine - before the Hall H panel. 

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Watch every San Diego Comic Con 2018 trailer - from The Walking Dead to Doctor Who

"We seem to be filming 11 episodes, and it's only a series of 10," Chibnall teased at the press conference. "I would definitely think there's another episode after the end of the series, yeah." 

Something else revealed via Comic Con is that there will be no two-parter episodes and that the focus will be on standalone stories. "It's 10 standalone episodes, there's no two-parters or anything like that," Chibnall told Digital Spy. "What we want is for people to feel like we've got the range and variety of Doctor Who this year. So if you've never seen it before, you're gonna fall in love with it, and if you have seen it, you're gonna get those things that you love about the show across the 10 episodes."

Finally, BBC One and BBC American released some new image for Doctor Who season 11, which you can feast your eyes on below:

Feeling festive? Here's every Doctor Who Christmas special ranked from worst to best, plus, the best Christmas movies of all time. 

Lauren O'Callaghan

Lauren O'Callaghan is the former Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar+. You'd typically find Lauren writing features and reviews about the latest and greatest in pop culture and entertainment, and assisting the teams at Total Film and SFX to bring their excellent content onto GamesRadar+. Lauren is now the digital marketing manager at the National Trust.

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