Russell T Davies has revealed that he has seen Jodie Whittaker’s last episode as the Thirteenth Doctor and promises that it is “gorgeous” and “full of surprises”.

In the same interview, he also reasserted that the story will be 90 minutes — which would make it the longest 21st Century Doctor Who, beating the 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, and Peter Capaldi’s debut, Deep Breath.

Davies was asked about Doctor Who while appearing on The One Show, and said:

“What’s coming up in October is Jodie Whittaker’s farewell, so I feel like I’m upstaging her slightly. I just saw the finished version of that two days ago. It’s a 90-minute epic. It’s fantastic. That is gorgeous, with lots of surprises.”

The Thirteenth Doctor’s finale sounds like it packs a lot in, namely the returns of Sophie Aldred as Ace and Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka, two former companions, as announced at the end of the previous episode, Legend of the Sea Devils.

And in that quote, Davies once again highlighted that the story is set to air in October.

Some fans took to Twitter to complain that Davies’ era is already taking all the attention away from the end of Chris Chibnall’s tenure as showrunner. But it should be pointed out how appalling it is that we’re finding out about Jodie’s last story from the next showrunner, not from Chibnall or the BBC. Before Russell returned to Doctor Who, we didn’t know the very next story will be 90 minutes long, or that it will air in October. We still don’t know its title. It’s all a bit ridiculous.

Still, it’s good to hear it has the approval of Davies and that it should be on TV in around three months’ time.