Showrunner, Russell T Davies, has seemingly confirmed that there are no Daleks or Cybermen in Doctor Who Series 15, putting paid to rumours that the Daleks would face the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) in the new season.

Those rumours started as readers saw a Dalek-like ray hitting its victim in a recent teaser trailer. Alas, Davies says he’s moving away from some classic monsters… and it’s all The Power of the Doctor‘s fault! He says:

“I’m shifting it away from Daleks and Cybermen and the Master… partly because I came in off the back of a story that had literally the Daleks and the Cybermen and the Master all in one episode fighting Jodie Whittaker – which was brilliant, but once that’s happened, it’s just common sense to take a different step…

“But little moments, little nods, little references… if anyone can say, ‘Oh, you look like a Drahvin!’ then I’m happy! I love that stuff – sometimes the writers put that into scripts and we enjoy it, but they’re just nods and Easter eggs. That’s the flavour of transmission today, I think.”

To be fair, that episode was 2022, so a while ago now! And the Daleks used to return every year under his previous tenure as showrunner, so we wouldn’t entirely count them out. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a showrunner has lied about such matters.

Plus, Ncuti actively wants to battle Daleks!

Davies also enthuses about little references, as he explains:

“It’s like a living text, Doctor Who – you can’t deny the fact that it’s 62 years old now.”

Yep, the show has an amazing history, and recent episodes have seen the return of Sutekh (Pyramids of Mars) and the Toymaker (The Celestial Toymaker).

Doctor Who Series 15 starts this Saturday, 12th April 2025.