Peter Capaldi's final Doctor Who season premiere soon

By Chris Burns/Jan. 30, 2017 4:34 pm EST

The release of the final season of Doctor Who with the Doctor played by Peter Capaldi will start this Spring. According to Doctor Who Magazine, Capaldi's final episode will be the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas Special. They add, "but there's a whole series to enjoy before that!" And, of course, there's plenty of time to start speculating on who the Thirteenth Doctor will be before the end of the year!

"Profoundly sad that the wonderful Peter Capaldi is leaving at the end of the year," said Mark Gatiss on Twitter. "But he is – and always will be – a great Doctor Who." Below you'll hear the audio of the announcement made for the first time on BBC Radio 2.

Of special note – since we've seen some confusion on social networking comments this afternoon already – nobody has died. Peter Capaldi is still very much alive. He's just decided to stop being the Doctor on the TV show Dr Who – that's all.

Speaking about the newest season of Doctor Who that's about to begin, Capaldi said, "It will be my last ... I feel it's time to move on." The official Doctor Who representation on Twitter shared the following video to celebrate Capaldi's "best moments so far."

"I've always loved Doctor Who," said Capaldi on BBC Radio 2 this afternoon (or night, if you're actually in the UK). "[But] I'm still Doctor Who! We're doing epic stuff! I'm not done yet!"

The final season of the 12th Doctor's adventures will premiere on the 15th of April, 2017. "I wasn't expecting to regenerate a Doctor this evening!" So said BBC Radio 2's Jo Whiley, "Peter Capaldi announc[ed] he's to leave Doctor Who Xmas 2017 – Sobs 😭😭"

• 1st William Hartnell (1963–66)

• 2nd Patrick Troughton (1966–69)

• 3rd Jon Pertwee (1970–74)

• 4th Tom Baker (1974–81)

• 5th Peter Davison (1982–84)

• 6th Colin Baker (1984–86)

• 7th Sylvester McCoy (1987–89)

• 8th Paul McGann (1996)

• 9th Christopher Eccleston (2005)

• 10th David Tennant (2005-2010)

• 11th Matt Smith (2010-2013)

• 12th Peter Capaldi (2013-2017)

Above you'll see the rest of the list of Doctors, each since the first back in 1963. BBC has shared no information to lead us to believe that Doctor Who will be over after this season. We can safely assume the series will be played with new actors and/or actresses until the end of real time.