The title of the opening episode of Series 9 has already been revealed at the premiere of Last Christmas.
The episode will be called The Magician’s Apprentice, a possible reference to the new companion that will be joining the show for the series.
Steven Moffat commented on tomorrow’s Last Christmas in the ever essential festive edition of the Radio Times. The Moff, seemingly allaying fears over the inclusion of “Santa Claus” in the episode, said:
“It’s The Thing meets Miracle on 34th Street – the movie we’ve all been waiting for. It’s certainly the strangest bloody thing I’ve ever written. Despite worries some may have, it’s “actually a scary, tense and claustrophobic adventure… the very people who think they might hate this, won’t hate it at all. Of all the Christmas specials I’ve done, it’s the one most like the paradigm Doctor Who episode. It does look like the most insane moment when Santa turns up, but we haven’t gone off our rockers. No, Santa is written in properly, in a science fiction way, into Doctor Who. I’ve always had a very clear impression of Santa, but when we got Nick Frost, well, first of all how perfect is his name! Nicholas Frost. It’s the nom de plume that Santa Claus would use, isn’t it? Nick is ideal. He’s what Santa should be in Doctor Who land.”
And Nick Frost hinted at a prior meeting between the Doctor and Santa!
“My Santa is cross, mean and curt as well as cheery and funny. He’s got a little bit of Robert De Niro in Mean Streets. And he has history with the Doctor: it’s not talked about explicitly but they have a beef with each other from way back… Steven Moffat is a very clever man - taking Doctor Who somewhere completely different isn’t easy. And he was happy to allow me to improvise on set and push things out a bit.”
Last Christmas airs tomorrow at 6:15pm on BBC One and BBC HD.
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