There are certain rhythms in ‘Doctor Who’ fandom, and they emerge most clearly when a new actor takes on the mantle of the titular Time Lord. First, fans mourn the previous incarnation – no Doctor can ever seem to stay “long enough.” Then, excitement begins to build, and eventually we meet the new Doctor. Once that happens, we begin to make up our minds about the new incarnation. Are they a good fit? Where do they rank in the pantheon? And so on. Simultaneously though, we also start to wonder how the new Doctor will deal with the old villains. And in ‘Doctor Who’, there are no villains bigger (or older – save for cavemen) than the Daleks.

Though showrunner Chris Chibnall famously declared that the eleventh season would feature naught but new villains, we all knew the familiar would creep back in sooner or later. And with the season set to conclude this Sunday, the answer, it seems, is sooner. The Mirror is now claiming that the forthcoming New Year’s Day special will pit the Thirteenth Doctor against her first familiar foe – the Daleks.

Of course, this is the Mirror, and no sources are cited, so perhaps take the news with a grain of salt. They noted simply that the BBC had “declined to comment.” Though it’s not surprising that they’d be tight-lipped about it, as according to the Mirror, the showdown is set to be teased in the customary trailer at the end of Sunday’s season finale

Also of note is that the tabloid further claims that the tyrannical pepper pots will have a new look when they return. No word on what, exactly, that redesign will entail other than “losing the bronze look.” If true, this would mark the second redesign the Daleks have received since the modern series debuted in 2005. Former showrunner Steven Moffat infamously introduced the so-called “Skittles Daleks” (the brightly colored variants) in the fifth season episode ‘Victory of the Daleks’. That look was so widely derided that Moffat himself soon walked back the change, restoring the primacy of the earlier bronze Daleks in the seventh season’s ‘Asylum of the Daleks’.

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