Doctor Who – Richard E. Grant and Tom Ward in Christmas Special

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Casting news for this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special has already begun to creep out, doing its job of eliciting excitement for the holiday event. Already we’ve heard the special would be the episode the Doctor is introduced to his new companion, played by the adorable Jenna-Louise Coleman, but there will of course be other guest stars. Richard E. Grant and Tom Ward have both been cast, which means we can begin the speculation as to who will be playing who, what kind of hijinks we can expect, and just how Christmasy can we expect this to be.

As reported by EW.com, you can expect to see Grant – interestingly, he played the Doctor once in a 2003 animated special, “Scream of the Shalka” – as the new villain in the special. Just look at that face of his. He doesn’t look like he would do well playing a good guy. He’s too vile looking. As for Ward, no information of whom he would be playing was given, which is perfectly acceptable. We don’t need to know everything just yet, what with Christmas still a good four months away. It’s much more fun to wonder than to know straight out how things are going to be. But one thing is for sure, this is going to be vey festive.

Writing the special is the series’ current head writer, Steven Moffat, and directing is Saul Metzstein, who has already tackled several of the upcoming season’s episodes. The first episode of Season 7, “Asylum of the Daleks,” is set to air later this month and run for five more weekly episodes before taking a bit of a break. The season will return after the New Year and air the remaining eight episodes. Moffat has said this season will be much more stand-alone, featuring episodes with big, action-type plots, designed to feel like a “movie poster.” It’ll be a slightly different Doctor Who than we’re used to, but it should be just as awesome all the same.