Back in September, BBC announced that Alex Kingston is returning to reprise her role as the Time Lord's wife, River Song, in Doctor Who's highly-anticipated 2015 Christmas Special, although little was divulged about the plot. Today, BBC has released the first photo from this special, featuring the good Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi, and River Song. The network has also confirmed that beloved British actors Greg Davies and Matt Lucas have joined the cast, while releasing the first official synopsis, which you can check out below.

"It's Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from carols and comedy antlers. But when the Time Lord's help is requested he finds himself recruited into River Song's squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy! King Hydroflax (Greg Davies) is furious and his giant robot bodyguard is out-of-control and coming for them all! Will Nardole (Matt Lucas) survive? And when will River work out who the Doctor is? All will be revealed on a starliner full of galactic super-villains and at a destination the Doctor has been avoiding for a very long time..."

Alex Kingston has appeared as River Song on fifteen episodes of Doctor Who throughout the various seasons. She made her first Doctor Who appearance in 2008 in the two-part episode Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead. During a new interview with Radio Times, showrunner Steven Moffat explains that this episode takes place directly after the 2012 episode The Angels Take Manhattan.

"It doesn't really matter, but for those who care, it's immediately after The Angels Take Manhattan. River's just seen Matt Smith's Doctor lose Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), and obviously before The Name of the Doctor [2013] because she's dead in that."

With the release of this first photo, perhaps a new trailer for the Christmas Special is just around the corner. Before the special debuts, though, there are still two more Season 9 episodes left, Heaven Sent on November 28 and Henn Bent on December 5. After the recent loss of the Time Lord's latest companion Clara (Jenna Coleman), are you glad that River Song is coming back to Doctor Who? Let us know what you think, after checking out the first photo from the highly-anticipated Christmas Special.