Doctor Who fans prepare to be bitterly disappointed. You won't be getting your timey-wimey fix this year, because season 10 won't hit our screens until 2017, the BBC has confirmed.

The reason? Long-running showrunner Steven Moffat has run out of puff. He will pass the baton (OK, Sonic Screwdriver) to Chris Chibnall—the creator of ITV's gripping whodunnit, Broadchurch—who will take over the iconic British sci-fi drama at the start of season 11.

The BBC, which fiendishly buried this news late on Friday night in the hope that no-one would notice, has promised a Christmas Day special, but that will be the first and only time a new episode of the much-loved show will appear on the TV this year.

Whovians may recall that the last time we saw the Doctor was on a date with his wife, River Song. The Time Lord explained that a night on Darillium lasted 24 years. Who knew that this translated as an entire year on planet Earth though, eh?

Moffat—who replaced Russell T. Davies in 2010—will leave Doctor Who after six years heading up the production. He oversaw Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi as the 11th and 12th Doctors and led the sci-fi's 50th anniversary special in 2013 (it starred John Hurt).

"At the start of season 11, Chris Chibnall will become the new showrunner of Doctor Who. And I will be thrown in a skip," Moffat jovially said.

Chibnall, as tends to be the tradition on Doctor Who, won't be stepping on to the TARDIS cold-footed, however. To date, he has written five episodes of the drama. His first—42—was penned during Davies' reign. Additionally, Chibnall wrote seven episodes of Torchwood. Could we at last see the return of Captain Jack Harkness?

Meanwhile, will Moffat's final series—set to air in Spring 2017—go out with a bang? Chibnall says it will. One can't help but wonder, then, if a new showrunner will bring with it a new Doctor. Or, might Capaldi's Doctor regenerate much sooner than that?

One thing is clear in answer to all of these questions: we'll have a long wait to find out.