Russell T. Davies has gone on record to praise the quality of the first series of the revived Doctor Who and his excitement for the debut of the new Doctor and the forthcoming special.

Speaking to the Sunday Herald, Davies says how excited he is for The Christmas Invasion:

“Nobody is more excited than me about the Christmas special. I am a fiend for Christmas television. When the Radio Times came out, I turned to December 25 and scanned down the listings and there was Doctor Who! It’s just astonishing. On a personal level, never mind professionally, I am so delighted that this has happened.”

And heaps heavy praise on the first series earlier this year:

“On the day the first episode was broadcast I was nervous, but I knew how good it was. So if we hadn’t got the viewing figures I would have been able to act like a martyr. I could have been burned at the stake with piety in my heart, saying, ‘Never mind! I know it was good! Best of all were the scripts. One two-part episode, The Empty Child, in which the gas mask-wearing ghost of a little boy killed in the Blitz haunts his gymslip mother, was among the most disturbing and moving things to appear in British television drama. It is hard to believe that it was broadcast at teatime on a Saturday.”

He gives little away on the Christmas special, but teases:

“Just wait till you see this.”

Doctor Who returns this Christmas Day on BBC One with The Christmas Invasion.