Steven Moffat has said that there will be more deaths in the upcoming series and that there are “dark times ahead.”

Speaking in the new issue of DWM he says: “It’s a bizarre thing that I always find myself accused of killing off characters, and I think, ‘What on Earth are you talking about? I don’t kill nearly enough people in my fiction!’

He adds: “I’m aware that I have a sentimental tendency to whack people back on their feet again – you can have several deaths in one lifetime, apparently – and I’m aware that that’s a weakness, so I thought in our new, scary universe we’d make sure we off some people, and that would make it more exciting and more visceral. The word I keep using is ‘visceral’.

“For our new Doctor, there are dark times ahead.”