It’s nearly that time again! The presents have been opened, Grandad has complained at the noise from Top of the Pops, everybody’s had too much chocolate and we’ve all pretended to listen to the Queen… it’s Doctor Who Christmas special time!
Neatly squeezed in before Strictly Come Dancing and the annual blood-letting on Albert Square, Doctor Who is usually the most Christmassy effort from the Beeb on Christmas Day itself. Taking the place of the old Only Fools and Horses Christmas Specials, Doctor Who has become something of a holiday tradition.
But what’s been the show’s best Christmas adventure? Personally, we’re all for The Feast of Steven, but we’ll restrict this list to the “official” Christmas specials from 2005 to present.
And a very merry Christmas to all of you at home!
10: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
A Christmas Carol was an unquantified success (more of that one later) but Steven Moffat’s second attempt at rehashing a tried and tested story fell somewhat short.
Possibly the peak of the Moff’s homages to the magic of fairytales, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe pales in comparison to the magic of Narnia and with a somewhat threadbare plot, the ents tree creatures being somewhat unmemorable and an ending that just takes Christmas schmaltz too far, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe takes last place in our festive top 10.
Bah humbug!
9: The Next Doctor
Like all the lower placed entires on this list, there’s little wrong with the episode in question. As part of a regular series, The Next Doctor would have been a solid 45 minutes… but maybe we expect something a little more memorable for the Christmas special.
While the initial conceit of Jackson Lake was intriguing on first broadcast, it loses something with repeat watching and the Cyber-King may have been a little too much of a spectacular even for RTD. Dickensian London is always welcome at Christmas however and there’s still much to enjoy in the episode.
Lets just not mention the Cybershades.
8: The Time of the Doctor
Anticipation was high for The Time of the Doctor, coming off the back of the 50th anniversary and the concluding part of “the Doctor’ trilogy, but in many respects the final episode of the Smith era wasn’t the send-off he deserved.
Smith himself was a revelation, putting in one of his finest performances in the role and there is something poetic about the Doctor spending his final days defending a single town against all the horrors of the universe, fixing children’s broken toys.
Yet the episode becomes bogged down with it’s own weight, erratically paced and with too many cameos, The Time of the Doctor ended up being largely confusing and at times even uninteresting, what casual viewers thought we can only imagine. Moffat’s strength is in emotional investment and delivery and despite it’s flaws however, Time certainly delivers a punch or two, particularly in it’s closing moments and Matt Smith’s final speech.
7: The End of Time: Part One
The End of Time doesn’t feel like a Christmas special at all, rather the big season finale we were accustomed to. With very little Christmas spirit, The End of Time instead can only be judged in storyline and acting terms.. and what acting it is.
Tennant saves possibly his best for last but with much of the meat (not a reference to the ravenous Master) of the story not taking place until the second part at New Year, The End of Time: Part One doesn’t really stand up on it’s own.
The Master’s plan of turning everyone into himself is a little “out there” even for him… luckily however it has Bernard Cribbins in it. And that counts for a couple of places in anybody’s ranking!
6: The Runaway Bride
After the success of the previous years Christmas Invasion, you can forgive Russell T. Davies for rehashing elements of the previous years story, but twice isn’t the charm and the likes of the robot Santas and Christmas tree don’t pay off as well the second time around.
Catherine Tate has an instant rapport with Tennant however, yet her debut isn’t her best, mellowing into the character so beloved by fans throughout Series 4, but the contrast with both Rose and Martha was a welcome one.
5: The Christmas Invasion
Controversy! Many fans still regard the first Christmas special as the epitome of the Doctor Who Christmas special. The episode certainly paved the way for every special that followed, acting as a brilliant debut for David Tennant, settling the nerves of those nervous of things to come following the departure of Christopher Eccleston.
The conceit of having the Doctor incapacitated for large parts of the action is a masterstroke, building anticipation for the entrance of the Doctor into the fray throughout the episode. And when he does… Tennant makes you forget anyone else had been the Doctor before him, stealing the show and simply being everything you wanted in the leading man.
4: Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned better than The Christmas Invasion? why yes.
We’re unashamedly fans of The Poseidon Adventure here at DWW, there never seemed to be a holiday it wasn’t on ITV back in the day, but Voyage of the Damned is far more than a cheap pastiche in space. With camp absurdity and drama in equal measure, Voyage of the Damned looked and sounded magnificent, completely encapsulating the Tennant era.
Despite all the positives, the villain Max Capricorn is something of a letdown and the sooner the Doctor’s “angel ascent” is forgotten the better.
All-in-all however, a throughly enjoyable Christmas romp, with action, danger, comedy and a dose of the RTD spectacular, all with that heartbreaking ending.
3: The Snowmen
The Snowmen is unusual in that it stood mid-season and didn’t have the benefit of being “free” from containing arcs, meaning that the fallout from the departures of Amy and Rory had to be felt within the episode. The result was a more somber and dark episode than many other years.
Jenna Coleman had immediate chemistry with Matt Smith’s Doctor, maybe thanks in part to having already worked together during Asylum of the Daleks, and the Paternoster Gang are on fine form, Strax in particular adding Christmas cheer amongst the gloom.
Richard E. Grant made for an effective villain, yet was possibly underused, an accusation that could be levelled at each of the Great Intelligence’s appearances in the ongoing series. For all it’s glories, the ending is poorly done and brings down the episode as a result.
2: Last Christmas
We said in our original review:
Compared to the run-around, family entertainment epics of Russell T Davies’ first Christmas specials, Last Christmas requires a great deal of concentration to fully appreciate its richness and complexity… But as the drama unfolds, those willing to invest in the episode will no doubt have discovered that once again Steven Moffat has come up trumps with another unique and mad concept.
As always in the tradition of Christmas Specials there are many visual gags right from the opening Christmas card shot of a Christmas Tree in front of a window pane complete with snow outside, the flying reindeer and Santa’s bigger on the inside sleigh are highlights of some effective CGI. Camera work, direction and music combine throughout to disoriente the viewer and remind us that what we are watching is a dream, from the moving walls in Clara’s house to the blurring of the alien faces.
Series Eight provided the Doctor Who canon with so many excellent speeches, but in this action packed, dreamy-weamy, drama it was the one liners that triumphed over longer speeches, with almost all of them reserved for the Doctor. From “Fantasy and reality… they are both ridiculous” to “”some things we should never be ok with” his economical words are frequently pointing to deep truths. Why others around him see him as a magician is not immediately obvious from this story and it is likely more a lead up to the next episode, but he certainly has a magical way with words.
And yet it is Danny Pink, the one character who wasn’t living the dream, who provides the words for the episode’s title. Last Christmas. Not quite strong enough to excise Wham’s song from my mind when hearing those two words side by side, but certainly a strong episode. There is unlikely to be anything better to grace our screens this Christmas.
1: A Christmas Carol
“What’s so special about Christmas?”
With everything else on this list, there was always a box left unticked. Maybe it wasn’t Christmassy enough, maybe the story wasn’t all that, maybe it was overhyped and a letdown, or maybe it even had everything.. but not quite enough magic… not so here. A Christmas Carol ticks all the boxes for what you want in the Christmas special.. and then some.
The Who take on Dicken’s classic doesn’t simply rehash the book and add sci-fi trimmings, it fleshes out a magical mythological morality tale (try saying that after a Christmas sherry!). Moffat’s “time-wimey” plotting is used to excellent effect with the perfect balance between drama and humour and not too much schmaltz.
Matt Smith is at his young/old best here, both wise and zany and the great Michael Gambon gives the performance you’d expect from an actor of his calibre. Catherine Jenkins’ singing doesn’t feel shoehorned into the episode and the whole special is a triumph on every front.
