10 Best Doctor Who Time Travel Stories

3. A Christmas Carol

Steven Moffat has riffed on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol one or two times, in The Snowmen and The Day of the Doctor. His most obvious retelling of the classic tale is, of course, this 2010 Christmas Special. However, it's not only Dickens that Moffat is stealing from, he's also stealing from his own back catalogue!

Many years previously, he wrote a short story about the Seventh Doctor changing the personal history of a miserable librarian so that she would eventually allow him access to an important text. Smaller scale stakes than a crashing space cruise liner but both stories tackle some incredibly deep philosophical concerns. Not least whether or not the Doctor has the right to do it in the first place.

If someone goes back and changes our personal history, introduces us to love and friendship that we didn't previously have then are we still the same person? It's the classic Ship of Theseus/Trigger's broom dilemma. And speaking of Trigger's broom, Steven Moffat also nicks the kinky roleplay gag from Only Fools and Horses!

A Christmas Carol is a fun bit of Doctor Who does Dickens and is classic Moffat; high concept sci-fi, saucy jokes and genuine heart all delivered to you whilst you're woozy from too much Quality Street.