Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, chris chibnall, doctor who, doctor who christmas special, russell t davies, steven moffat, william hartnell

Doctor Who Christmas Specials: Appreciating a Truly Christmassy Show

Here's a friendly reminder that BBC's Doctor Who & Christmas go hand-in-hand with a look at some of the best that the specials have to offer.

As you await patiently for Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson's first outing as the new Doctor and companion in this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special, the BBC would like you to luxuriate in four hours' worth of clips from nearly twenty years worth of Christmas specials.

Just as Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, was the one who introduced the concept of a happy, family-oriented Christmas to the world (Christmas was a lot more violent, raucous, and nasty before that), it was Russell T. Davies who brought about the Doctor Who Christmas Special every year. Before he revived the show in 2005, Doctor Who didn't have Christmas Special episodes to celebrate the holidays. The first Doctor Who Christmas Special was on Christmas Day in 1965 when the show just stopped the story of the then-ongoing serial "The Dalek's Masterplan" to have William Hartnell and the cast sit down to a Christmas dinner and raise a toast to the audience in an episode called "The Feast of Steven." That episode is lost since the BBC erased it to recycle its videotapes.

Steven Moffat continued the tradition faithfully for the next seven years, some of which featured his best writing. Every Doctor Who Christmas Special has to involve a world-threatening crisis, often a whole alien invasion. It's become the norm – you can't celebrate Christmas on Doctor Who without another global alien invasion or threat. Those mean aliens are the Scrooges of the Whoniverse, never mind the Scrooge pastiche played by Michael Gambon one year. For some reason, when Chris Chibnall took over as showrunner, they stopped doing Christmas specials and relegated the annual special to New Year's Day, which always involved a Dalek invasion. We should probably be grateful we didn't get mediocre Christmas Specials for three years.

Now that we think about it, how many times a year can the Earth keep getting invaded by aliens without the entire human race living in a state of perpetual anxiety and trauma? Yes, we know on Doctor Who, they say it's worldwide, but it's usually mainly a street in Cardiff made up to look like London, Cardiff, or occasionally New York City, or a quarry outside of the city where they can film shootouts with extras in army uniforms and CGI spaceships. Doctor Who's global alien invasions always feel terribly British, and we often assume it's global when we just see London. What if it was all just happening in London, but everyone there was manipulated to think it was worldwide? That would be a typical plot for Doctor Who.

Meanwhile, enjoy the safe scares of another Doctor Who Christmas Special!

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