DOCTOR Who returns to the Skipton Plaza this week, the Tardis landing in cinemas nationwide for the first time since Peter Capaldi made his debut in 2014.

There is, however, a catch. If you want to watch The Empire of Death, grand finale to Ncuti Gatwa’s first series at the helm, you’d best caffeinate and cat nap. It’s a midnight screening.

For the hardest of hardcore fans, such will be par for the course. All this year, new episodes of the popular sci-fi series have aired first on BBC iPlayer, dropped overnight, ahead of terrestrial scheduling. Bleary eyes are, now, all too familiar for Whovians.

Much as the move has been sold as eventism, the reality is a forced hand. Doctor Who has this year been part-funded by Disney - a sizeable part no less. Midnight in the UK is prime time across the Atlantic and that’s precisely what the Americans paid for. Doctor Who lands on Disney+ not a minute behind the UK and at exactly the time most streamers are tuning in.

Cynicism aside, a big screen, midnight showing of the series’ cliff-hanger-resolving finale sounds an exciting prospect. Fans among fans in the epicentre of a global moment. Questions to be answered, mysteries to be solved. If you can stay awake.

Until that moment, there can be no review. Few know what lies ahead. Spoilers are forbidden.

We know this, at least: the Doctor has lost. His ageless enemy reigns supreme and a shadow is falling over creation. Nothing can stop the devastation... except, perhaps, one woman.

The screening will be preceded by last Saturday’s episode - The Legend of Ruby Sunday - the two parts sandwiching promised ‘exclusive material’ at 11.45pm. All together, it’s a feature length outing.

Gatwa is no stranger to such, having featured as Artist Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie last Summer, a role he reprised for Ryan Gosling’s Oscars performance earlier in the year. The young Scot has proven a smash hit with critics in his first series as the Doctor, exceeding high expectations. His youth, exuberance and emotional vulnerability all praised.

Millie Gibson too has been a revelation as his companion, Ruby Sunday. Jemma Redgrave, Anita Dobson and Bonnie Langford all return for the final, with voice actor Gabriel Woolf reprising a villainous turn he first played way back in 1975. What a tease!

Doctor Who - The Legend of Ruby Sunday & Empire of Death, is at Skipton Plaza on Friday(June 21) at 11pm.