No Daleks or Cybermen in new Doctor Who, says Chris Chibnall

They have been a fixture of Doctor Who for more than 50 years, but the Daleks will be nowhere to be seen when the show returns in October.

The aliens have been banished from the new series of the family sci-fi drama, and the Doctor's other old enemies the Cybermen and more recent villains the Weeping Angels have also been given the boot.

Broadchurch writer Chris Chibnall, who has taken the reins of the BBC One show, said he was keen to break from the past in his first series as a way of attracting new viewers.

“I want this to be a recruiting year for Doctor Who to bring in that next generation of audiences," he said.

Speaking to the Times, Chibnall also confirmed that fans had seen the last of recurring characters introduced by the previous showrunner, Steven Moffat. 

There will be no comeback for Missy (a female version of the Doctor's arch-nemesis The Master), the Doctor's wife River Song, or the gang of Victorian detectives led by the alien Madame Vastra.

Since the show returned in 2005 after a 16-year hiatus, it has often featured season-long plot arcs that develop the story each week, such as the "Bad Wolf" mystery faced by Christopher Eccleston's Doctor and Billie Piper's Rose in the first series of the revived show.

But Chibnall has said there will be no such ongoing narrative this year. Instead, there will be a series of 10 stand-alone episodes. According to the Times, the showrunner promised even viewers who only tune in from episode nine will still be able to follow the story.

Jodie Whittaker is taking on the lead role, replacing Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor. Whittaker, who previously worked with Chibnall on Broadchurch, is the first woman to play the titular time-travelling alien. 

"Jodie’s Doctor is definitely more outward-looking," Chibnall said. “We are in very divided times. I think this Doctor is a beacon of hope and unity and inclusion.”

The programme will return on October 7, with each episode of the series airing on a Sunday for the first time in the show's history. In recent years, Doctor Who had jostled for position with Strictly Come Dancing's Saturday live shows, with its broadcast time changing from week to week.

The frequent scheduling changes prompted Capaldi to complain in 2016 that the show was "not being looked after" and "was seen as a thing they could just push around".

Explaining the move to Sunday nights, BBC director of content Charlotte Moore said: "With Chris Chibnall at the helm and Jodie Whittaker’s arrival as the new Doctor we are heralding a brand new era for the show and so it feels only right to give it a new home on Sunday nights at  the heart of BBC One’s Autumn schedule.”