Christmas TV specials are a holiday season staple, but Doctor Who just crowned itself the definitive festive show.
Now, Doctor Who’s no stranger to the Yuletide. There have been 16 Doctor Who Christmas specials (and three New Year episodes, which I don’t count), and each is beloved in the fandom – ok, maybe not The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe. So why did we label this the “ultimate Christmas show”? Was it the best special we’ve ever gotten?
No. While Joy to the World was a fun, festive adventure (Read our full Joy to the World review here), it was, for the most part, a pretty standard Xmas adventure for our favorite Time Lord. He bumbled his way into a dangerous plot, made a new friend, and saved the day (or his new friend, Joy, did, at least).
What makes this the ultimate Christmas show is that writer Steven Moffat had the temerity, the gall, and the sheer brass bollocks to make The Doctor sort of responsible for the birth of Christ. Ok, technically, he’s responsible for the star that led everyone to the manger where Jesus was born, but that’s a technicality, and it’s more fun to print the legend.
Merry Christmas!
You see, while bumbling and stumbling his way through the Time Hotel, the Doctor uncovered a plot to create a new star. He and Joy managed to save the day, but this involved Joy sacrificing herself to become a bright new light in the night sky.
It just so happens that the villainous briefcase behind the new star (we’ve no time to explain that; this is Doctor Who. If you can’t accept evil briefcases, then you’ve not been paying attention) needed 65 million years for his star to bake. This means Joy transformed into the new sun on Christmas Eve in the year 001AD, and she just so happened to be in Bethlehem when she did.
As she flies into the air and lights up the night sky, the camera pans back to reveal the little town of Bethlehem, and the Doctor realizes what he’s witnessing. So, while there might be other Christmas specials, you can keep your Gavin and Stacey, Charlie Brown Christmases, and Frosty the Snowmen because they might be Christmas specials, but without the Doctor and Joy, there’d be no holiday to celebrate.
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In all seriousness, though, Doctor Who does have something rather unique about it, and that is something the writer of Joy to the World, Steven Moffat, was very clear about.
“A Doctor Who Christmas special is just Doctor Who, but more so really,” he told a panel of Dexerto and other journalists at a Q&A following the Joy to the World press screening. “Doctor Who’s a very Christmasy kind of show, I mean, and the Doctor is alarmingly close to Santa Claus, as I think Matt Smith said he basically is Father Christmas, but without the presents, not fat, and an alien.”
“Christmas stories also have to be, as Mark Gatiss will tell you, sad and scary as well, but they have to be fun and exciting,” he continued. “There’s a whole range of emotions. Doctor Who is a highly colored emotional show, and frankly, I don’t know why people bother watching other stuff on Christmas Day. I mean, there are a whole lot of previous Doctor Who Christmas specials that you could start and avoid wasting your time with the other ones. Just watch our show!”
Now, we’re not quite sure we’re ready to drop all other shows from our Christmas TV schedule, but Moffat and the TARDIS crew can now claim one thing: the Doctor and Christmas have been together from the very start.
Love The Doctor? Then you need to check out our list of the best Doctor Who episodes ever made as well as our guide to the 30 best Doctor Who villains.