Prolific Dalek operator, Barnaby Edwards, has said that the next season of Doctor Who would’ve been filled with Daleks — that is, if Ncuti Gatwa hadn’t have moved on, and if Russell T Davies, now former showrunner, had stayed in the position.

Appearing at the Utopia convention this last weekend, Edward claimed that Gatwa’s next series as the Fifteenth Doctor would’ve been a “Dalek spectacular”. Sadly, Ncuti decided to leave the franchise after The Reality War, meaning a hasty regeneration scene, likely as Disney dragged its heels so long in its decision over whether to recommission or not. Ultimately, the House of Mouse pulled out, so the BBC needs to find a new partner to help fund and produce the series. In the midst of all this uncertainty, the BBC and Davies apparently reached the decision for the latter to step away too, alongside Bad Wolf, the production team.

But it does mean that the Fifteenth Doctor is a rare incarnation that never met the Daleks, despite Gatwa’s frequent call to meet the Doctor’s most famous foe.

Edwards has been a Dalek operator since 2005’s Dalek, and has been in serials such as Daleks in Manhattan/ Evolution of the Daleks, The Stolen Earth/ Journey’s End, Victory of the Daleks, and Revolution of the Daleks. His last on-screen credit to date, as a Dalek operator, was in The Power of the Doctor, Jodie Whittaker’s swansong episode as the Thirteenth Doctor.

It makes perfect sense for the Fifteenth Doctor to have met the Daleks in his third season; Davies seemed to have planned for his tenure to be longer than the reality, and building up to that meeting, considering the first two series with Gatwa featured returning foes like Sutekh and the Rani, would’ve worked.

There are also rumours that a new Dalek had been designed, before the show was shelved for the foreseeable future.

Yes, Edwards might have been speaking with tongue in cheek, but we doubt it; given reports from people who were at Utopia, it sounds like he was being very up-front and truthful.