The Doctor Who Christmas Special has become, in my house at least, a staple element of Christmas Day. After the stuffed, groggy post-dinner slump, a festive adventure with everyone’s favourite Time Lord is exactly what is needed to lift everyone’s spirits and lead into the evening, and each Special has been just that: special in its own way. In honour of the upcoming episode “The Snowmen”, as well as the big day itself, I present a retrospective of the Doctor Who Christmas Specials throughout the years.
1. The Christmas Invasion (2005)
“The Christmas Invasion” had its work cut out: not only was it the first Christmas Special, given a primetime evening slot on BBC One, but it also had to deal with the introduction of a new Doctor following Christopher Ecclestone’s departure in “The Parting of the Ways”. Admittedly, David Tennant’s fledgling Time Lord spent the majority of the episode unconscious, but he did manage to find time to blow up a destructive living Christmas tree, fight off an alien invasion with a sword, lose a hand and bring down the Prime Minister of Great Britain. 2005 was a pretty eventful Christmas for Rose too, as she had to deal with the entirely alien concept of regeneration in time to help combat the Sycorax.
While the episode was fairly manic and didn’t feature too much of the Doctor, it was still an apt introduction to the Tenth Doctor and a fun Christmas romp, although it featured rather too much attempted suicide to remain truly festive.
Best Moment: the newly-regenerated Doctor confronts the Sycorax without having any real idea who he is. As is his want, he attempts to work out ‘what kind of man’ he is in the midst of an alien invasion, and provides a rambling self-narration as he does so, quoting The Lion King and lamenting the fact that he’s not ginger among other things.
Cause of snow: Ash from the destroyed Sycorax spaceship.
2. The Runaway Bride (2006)
The Tenth Doctor had been through a lot in the revived show’s second season, and as if losing Rose wasn’t enough, he was faced with an angry, bridal Catherine Tate materialising inside his TARDIS. “The Runaway Bride” was very much an ‘odd couple’ kind of episode: Donna didn’t really want to be with the Doctor, she wanted to be at her wedding; equally, the Doctor didn’t want to be with Donna, he wanted to be on his own so he had time to mourn the loss of Rose. However, obviously it wasn’t as simple as the Doctor simply returning Donna to her wedding, and thus ensued an odd, and honestly not particularly memorable adventure.
While the Empress of the Racnoss was a satisfyingly impressive monster for the episode, her star-shaped spaceship which zapped a bunch of people felt slightly unnecessary, even though it allowed for the re-introduction of the ‘Mr Saxon’ story arc (first hinted at in series 2’s “Love and Monsters”). Plus, I seem to be among a minority in internet New Who fans, but I found Donna intensely irritating during her stint as full-time companion in series 4, and even more so during this episode: no Christmas special should end with a sighed lament of “I really wish the companion had died…”
Best moment: The demonstration of what losing Rose has done to the Doctor as he mercilessly drowns a clutch of evil spider-babies, and the simultaneous demonstration of how much he needs a companion as Donna talks him down. It was a perfect microcosm of the Doctor-companion relationship, and showed that even though Rose had quelled the Doctor’s dark side, it was still very much there.
Cause of snow: Atmospheric excitation induced by TARDIS-based trickery.
David Tennant’s Doctor and Kylie Minogue’s Astrid Peth in ‘Voyage of the Damned’
3. Voyage of the Damned (2007)
Again, the Doctor had been through a tough year by the time Christmas 2007 rolled around: he’d reunited with and then buried his old frenemy the Master, inadvertently forced his friend Martha Jones into a year of hell, and subsequently left her behind on Earth. Then, to add a cherry to the crap sundae that was the Doctor’s 2007, the Titanic crashed through the wall of the TARDIS while he was repairing it (after a visit from the Fifth Doctor, as documented in the wonderful Children In Need minisode “Time Crash”).
Of course, being Doctor Who, it was a space-liner made in homage to the original Titanic, and a full-blown disaster movie ensues as the ship is sabotaged and begins its thundering descent towards Earth. Of course the Doctor is joined by a ragtag bunch of misfits, all of whom made it onto the cruise by different means, and helps them to escape the wreck, all while trying to stop the ship from crashing into, and therefore completely destroying, the planet Earth.
Some daftness involving the Queen and some over-the-top melodrama involving the Doctor being raised to the heavens (or Deck 31, but that’s just splitting hairs) by a host of angels (or robots styled to look like angels, but again, splitting hairs) aside, “Voyage of the Damned” was a fun and a satisfyingly epic adventure, filling not only the Christmas special slot on the big day, but also the blockbuster slot.
Best moment: “I’m the Doctor. I’m a Time Lord. I’m from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I’m 903 years old, and I’m the man who’s gonna save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?”. Enough said.
Cause of snow: Ash again, this time caused by ballast from the Titanic’s salvage entering the atmosphere.
4. The Next Doctor (2008)
Once the title of the 2008 special was revealed along with the fact that it would be one of David Tennant’s last as the Doctor, the internet nearly imploded with speculation about David Morrissey’s ‘Doctor’. Of course, the truth behind the character and the episode’s title were never going to be as simple or as clear-cut as they seemed, and in fact we were offered an odd little bundle of mistaken identities, bizarre hybrid ‘Cybershades’ and a giant steampunk robot rising out of the Thames.
I’ll admit, while a lot of people criticised the episode for being too bombastic, and the ‘Cyberking’ being a terrible idea, I have a soft spot for the sheer ridiculousness that ended this episode. Yes, the Cybershades were a bit rubbish, and the ‘Next Doctor’ idea was stamped out well before the climax, but “The Next Doctor” was enjoyable, if lightweight festive fluff, and after a series where the Doctor said goodbye to every single one of his (revived series) friends, that felt like something that was needed. Plus, there was a freaking giant steampunk robot: what’s not to like?
Best moment: The clever re-interpretation of the TARDIS acronym: Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style!
Cause of snow: Finally the Doctor encounters some real snow on Christmas Day!
5. The End of Time Part One (2009)
It’s difficult to think about this episode without your judgment being clouded by what you thought of “The End of Time” as a whole, but I’ll give it a go: honestly, this episode wasn’t all that Christmassy, with the return of the Master and his confrontations with the Doctor being fairly dark and brooding, and the impending death of the Tenth Doctor weighing heavily on the storyline, there wasn’t all that much time for festivities. Sure, the Noble household are celebrating with a present exchange, and the Master displays some really awful table manners while tearing into a Christmas dinner, but there was a dark cloud over proceedings for the entire episode.
The story was also much less cohesive than other Christmas specials, due to the fact that there was another episode set up to complete the story, and thus at the close of the episode the usual feeling of satisfaction that came with previous specials. However, the double cliffhanger of the human race becoming the ‘Master race’, and the Time Lords (led by Timothy Dalton’s Lord President Rassilon) returning to the universe went some way to making up for the episode not really feeling like a Christmas special.
Best moment: The confrontation between the Doctor and the Master, in which the latter discovered the drumming in his head was real, and not just a manifestation of his insanity. Yes, the Master’s newly-developed electricity powers were slightly lame, but the reunion between the two Time Lords was nicely scripted and well-acted, not to mention highly anticipated since the end of “The Last of the Time Lords” in series 3.
Cause of snow: There isn’t any, really: the snow appears towards the end of Part Two, which aired on New Years’ Day and therefore doesn’t count as a Christmas Special.
Michael Gambon’s Kazran Sardick, Matt Smith as the Doctor and Katherine Jenkins as Abigail in ‘A Christmas Carol’
6. A Christmas Carol (2010)
After triggering a second Big Bang, being written out of existence and subsequently brought back, you’d think the Doctor would have some time off for Christmas. But no, he not only has to rescue his friends and the other passengers of a space liner, but he also has to change the entire life and outlook of an old miser by repeated trips through time and space. So, pretty standard for the Doctor at Christmas, really.
There’s some extreme oddness in this episode involving a flying shark (which, as far as I’m aware, didn’t appear in Dickens’ original “Christmas Carol”), but with a firm scientific explanation of how the flying shark and floating fish are possible, it almost makes sense in this context. It’s also satisfying to see Moffat leaving behind the arc-heavy style he utilised in series 5 (and then overused in series 6), and just create a contained, standalone episode.
The look of “A Christmas Carol” is also outstanding: the set and costume designers outdid themselves in creating a really effective steampunk aesthetic to the episode, lots of Victorian frock coats and goggles which I loved. In fact, in retrospect I think “A Christmas Carol” gets the coveted title of my “Favourite Doctor Who Christmas Special”.
Best moment: A lie too big for the Doctor’s psychic paper: “I think you’ll find I’m universally recognised as a mature and responsible adult”.
Cause of snow: Natural, albeit on a different planet.
7. The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (2011)
I reviewed this episode in detail on Squarise last year, so I’m not going to cover this one in too much depth. So a short recap: the Doctor is rescued by Madge Arwell, so to repay the favour he decides to give her children the best Christmas ever the year that their father went missing in the war, they end up on an alien planet full of Christmas trees and some creepy wooden people, Madge saves the day and gets her husband back, the Doctor reunites with Amy and Rory and discovers the ‘humany-wumany’ feat of crying from happiness.
Best moment: The reveal of the power-armoured ‘space marine’ types being none other than Bill Bailey, Arabella Weird and Paul Bazely, playing inept ‘space gardeners’. For me, they were the highlight of the episode.
Cause of snow: As above: natural, but on a different planet.
8. The Snowmen (2012)
This episode really has no place in a recap, mostly because it hasn’t happened yet, but I feel I can cover some of the things we do know about it: we have evil living snowmen controlled (to some extent) by Richard E Grant’s Dr Simeon, and voiced by none other than Sir Ian McKellan. We also have the Doctor in full Ebenezar Scrooge mode, having stepped back from his old life following the loss of Amy and Rory, and a new(ish) companion in Clara Oswin. Madame Vastra and Jenny, the inter-species same-sex couple first seen in “A Good Man Goes To War”, make an appearance, along with Commander Strax, the Sontaran forced by the Doctor to repent and killed in the same episode. Early reviews of the episode also suggest a twist ending, presumably leading into series 7 part 2 in April, and a newly-redesigned TARDIS interior.
Best moment: This is yet to be seen, but once the episode has aired I will let you know my favourite moment in the comments section below.
Cause of snow: I’m not sure, but by the sounds of it something eeeeevil.
While it’s not a concrete theory, I believe that the Christmas Special is designed to give the Doctor exactly what he needs after season’s close; whether that is a new identity, a chance to move on after a significant loss, or just an opportunity to spread some festive cheer where there is none.
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