It’s the season to be jolly – oh, wait, no its not, it’s January 2016. Another Christmas has come and gone, as has the eleventh holiday special of Doctor Who. Since its revival in 2005, the Doctor has gone on an annual Christmas adventure, encountering killer Christmas trees, flying sharks, Titanic replicas, and undergone the occasional regeneration. But, with eleven specials now in the bag, which ones are the best or the worst. Let’s take a look with this list, ranking them from worst to best.
11. The Runaway Bride
At the bottom of the barrel is The Runaway Bride aired in 2006. After the loss of Rose Tyler, the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) finds his future companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) randomly appearing in the TARDIS, preparing for her wedding. What follows is a clunky, cheesy story about a giant but impressive-looking space spider who plots to use Donna as a key to free her children from the Earth’s core. Unfortunately, Tate’s performance is downright irritating in comparison to her later appearances, the sinister Santa pilot fish first introduced in The Christmas Invasion are revealed to be generic-looking robots, and the Empress of the Racnoss, which is a triumph in makeup, is sadly underused. Though Gallifrey gets named dropped for the first time. And exploding Christmas baubles? Really?
10. The Next Doctor
A story with two different ideas that really don’t match. Aired in 2008, the Doctor arrives in 1851 after another season finale of misery and woe, encountering a man claiming to be his future regeneration, played by David Morrissey, actually an amnesiac man whose memories were stolen by the Cybermen. I like Morrissey’s performance, the wacky Victorian takes on the Doctor’s TARDIS and gadgets, and the scenes where everyone cheers for the Doctor is a classic. Unfortunately, the episode is spoilt by the crumby Cybermen story, the giant Cyber-King looks ridiculous, and the Cybershades look like someone glued Cybermen masks to gorilla costumes.
09. The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe
The second Christmas special for the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith), this episode pays homage to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and offers an enchanting but underdeveloped story. After being rescued by Madge Arwell (Claire Skinner), the Doctor promises to repay her kindness, appearing three years later, whisking Claire and her children away to a house in Dorset to celebrate Christmas. This includes opening a portal to another planet resembling Narnia, but the Doctor and Madge soon learn a crashed spaceship and the forest itself faces destruction via acid rain, caused by a sadly underused Bill Bailey. The episode has its charms, some impressive visual effects and design, and the ending where the Doctor visits Amy and Rory is heartwarming.
08. The Snowmen
Do you wanna build a snowman? Well, not scary ones like these monsters. The Snowmen aired in 2012, and marked the introduction of Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) as the Doctor’s companion…sort of. Anyway, the Doctor is living with Madame Vastra and co. after the loss of Amy and Rory, and killer snowmen led by a sinister Richard E. Grant and Ian McKellen as a talking snowglobe are threatening the world. And at the centre of the freaky ice sculptures and Strax’s one-liners is Clara, who will go on to have a…colourful career as the Doctor’s companion. There are some very lovely moments in the episode, such as when Clara ventures up in the clouds to find the TARDIS, and I love the inclusion of Vastra, Jenny, and Strax as supporting characters.
07. The Husbands of River Song
The most recent addition to the Christmas specials, The Husbands of River Song is a episode that is both funny and sad at the same time. This might have been River Song’s (Alex Kingston) final appearance following her confusing timeline with the Doctor, finally reaching the last time she is with her husband and mismatched companion prior to the fateful trip to the Library during the Tenth Doctor’s visit. In this episode, the Doctor and River go through a wild goose chase as they try to steal a valued diamond from the head of River’s other husband, King Hydroflax (Greg Davies) who is a wacky head attached to what looks like Baymax’s body. There are some good laughs, though Matt Lucas’s presence is wasted, and River’s last farewell (debatable) was quite the emotional one.
06. A Christmas Carol
I wasn’t really sure where to put this episode. I only saw it once and thought it was average at best, so I put it in the middle of the list. In his first Christmas special, the Eleventh Doctor plays the role of Jacob Marley to a Scrooge-like figure played by Michael Gambon, hoping to change his views on Christmas so he can save Amy and Rory in a crashing spaceship. However, the Doctor does seem to break the rules of time travel a little too much, going back to influence Gambon’s younger self repeatedly and then even brings him to the future to scare his elderly self into changing his ways. Welsh signer Katherine Jenkins makes her acting debut, delivering a very good performance, but I think the flying sharks are both hilarious and absurd. I suppose that’s one way to jump the shark.
05. Last Christmas
Another Christmas special I’m not particularly fond of, but I won’t pretend it isn’t pretty good. The Twelfth Doctor, Clara, and a group of scientists try to salvage a North Pole research base under attack from creepy Dream Crabs that throw their victims into dream states to devour their brains. Combining elements of Inception and Alien is a nice idea, and the Dream Crabs are definitely more convincing as aliens than that stupid reality-warping plastic beetle Donna Noble encountered in Turn Left. Nick Frost shows up as Santa Claus, acting as both a deus ex machina and a plot device, but still gives a lovable performance. However, I admit that for me, the story was quite predictable, and I would’ve preferred Clara to have left the series on a high note rather than turning her into an aimless Mary Sue as seen during the previous season.
04. The Time of the Doctor
Matt Smith’s departure from the series was a bittersweet one in deed and it is only through numerous replays of his episodes that I realised how much I missed him. However, his last hurrah is a bit of a mixed bag. Steven Moffat tried to wrap up the big storylines established through Smith’s tenure – the cracks in reality, the death knell for someone asking what the Doctor’s name was, the battle on Trenzalore, etc. Well, that all happens, and while the stakes are present, the episode drags out the final battle, with the Doctor growing older and older to fend off his numerous enemies who are there to kill him for some reason. We also learn the origin of the Silence, which disappointingly, are just revealed to be an extreme bunch of religious nutters, though I do like it when their signature alien minions team up with the Doctor to take on the Daleks. Overall, it is a decent episode, and the Eleventh Doctor’s last five minutes are a real tearjerker.
03. Voyage of the Damned
A personal favourite, this episode does its own take on Poseidon, though the ship is a nuclear-powered space cruiser named after the most famous doomed ship in history. You know the one. Though the true villain is a little cheesy, I do enjoy this episode. You learn a lot about the culture of another planet we don’t even see, some great acting, particularly from Clive Swift, and I really like the supporting characters in this. Maybe I just like the disaster genre a lot. The killer angel robots are quite threatening and there is some lovely music. On the negative side, Kylie Minogue, who started off as an actress, somehow gives a weak performance and Geoffrey Palmer was wasted.
02. The End of the Time
This was going to be number one, but I decided to change my mind. The Tenth Doctor’s last episode is long, drawn out, and worth every moment for the sheer raw emotion that David Tennant brings to his beloved version of the Doctor. The story isn’t all that thrilling on paper, but the acting makes it worth while – the Master (John Simms) makes a comeback, much more likeable after Simms’ over-hammy performance in the character’s appearance, and formulates a sinister plot to find the origin of the tormenting drumbeat in his head.
Accompanied by Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins), Donna’s granddad, the Doctor has to stop his old enemy, particularly when the Time Lords make their fantastic comeback led by President Rassilon (played by an outstanding Timothy Dalton).
I admit the Tenth Doctor’s goodbye is dragged out, but I don’t care, since this did count as a goodbye to then-showrunner Russell T. Davies and the characters he had created. At times, it does feel there was a limited budget, since it comes with choppy special effects, boring aliens, and a lot of time running around quarries and a spaceship’s underbelly. Cribbins, Simms, and Tennant are all just brilliant, it is sad saying farewell to the Davies-era cast (who I still long to see again), and the musical use during Tennant’s regeneration is some of the show’s most iconic. I didn’t want you to go either, Doctor.
01. The Christmas Invasion
The first Christmas special and definitely the best, mainly because it was my first, and the story is pretty awesome. The newly regenerated Doctor and Rose (Billie Piper) crashland in London, but the Doctor has to spend most of the episode in bed. This doesn’t help when a giant island-shaped spaceship appears over London and the evil Sycorax hypnotise a third of mankind to stand on roofs. Believe me, it was quite disturbing seeing imagery of all those people looking ready to jump at the age of fourteen. David Tennant and Billie Piper give great performances, and I love the sense of despair and betrayal Rose goes through following the Doctor’s regeneration. The creepy Santa pilot fish with their weaponised instruments and the killer Christmas tree are great monsters. Definitely a winner!
What is your favourite Doctor Who Christmas special? Have they improved or worsened in quality? Leave a comment below or on our Twitter feed.