DOCTOR Who fans are convinced the next doctor is going to be a WOMAN after a huge hint was dropped during tonight’s series 10 finale.
Peter capaldi announced he was quitting the role in January and speculation has been rife as to who will take over as the next master of the Tardis.
The 59-year-old actor will be bowing out of the role after four years to make way for a new Doctor in the Christmas special.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kris Marshall are the current front-runners but the BBC has insisted that no cast decision has been made yet.
And viewers are convinced Capaldi’s character dropped a huge hint about who will be taking over from him during tonight’s show stopping episode.
Capaldi’s penultimate episode saw the Doctor battling both Missy and The Master as he tried to save a group of children from a Cyberman threat on a space ship trapped in the pull of a black hole.
After they call the lift, Bill Potts asks them to stand aside so she can take on whatever comes out of it prompting The Master to ask: “Will the future be all girl?”
And The Doctor replied: “We can only hope”.
Viewers took to Twitter in their droves to talk about his cryptic reply with many saying it could mean a woman Doctor while others thought it could be a red herring.
One wrote: “So many hints that the next doctor is a woman #DoctorWho.”
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Another said: “The next Doctor is a woman after that line! #DoctorWho.”
A third added: “Is the future going to be all girl?” Tell me that they’re hinting at a female 13th Doctor… #DoctorWho,” but someone replied: “Convinced they’re just teasing us!”
A third added: “Is the future going to be all girl?” Tell me that they’re hinting at a female 13th Doctor… #DoctorWho,” but someone replied: “Convinced they’re just teasing us!”
Meanwhile, the finale also saw the Doctor’s companion, Bill be converted into a Cyberman for a war against humans on the ship, which had different time zones due to the black hole, meaning a decade for her was mere moments for The Doctor.
Sadly as the episode progressed it became clear that The Doctor would not be able to save Bill and live up to his promise to not let her die, so she tearfully asked him to end her Cyberman life so she could be at peace.
Unfortunately he was blown up before he could do that, leaving her alone to carry him back to the TARDIS for his final resting place.
But as Bill’s tears fell, the water woman alien life form from her first adventure returned to save her, turning her into a time and universe travelling creature like her, and hinting that she could be human again one day.
As Bill left to travel the universe, convince the Doctor was dead, he suddenly awoke with the regeneration energy surging, but he was determined to die forever and stumbled outside in the hopes of stemming his transformation.
Outside he was found by the very first Doctor on the cusp of his own regeneration, also refusing to change.
In other shocking developments Missy killed The Master before he ended her regenerations to stop her saving The Doctor.
It comes as the BBC released the first pictures from this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special, showing not one but two Time Lords stepping into the frame.
The episode will see the outgoing Doctor joined by the series’ First Doctor, played by David Bradley.
This year’s festive episode will mark the First Doctor’s first appearance in the series since 1983, and the first multi-Doctor episode since 2013.
It will also mark Capaldi’s last ever episode in the role, ending his four-year stint as the Twelfth Doctor.
His departure will coincide with the end of head writer and executive producer Steven Moffatt’s seven-year reign at the helm, with Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall taking over the executive producer position next year.
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