Doctor Who: Ranking The Christmas Specials From Worst To Best

How do the Christmas specials rank since the show's 2005 revival?

By Joe Gardner /

It's the most wonderful time of the year (okay, second most wonderful this year - 50th anniversary and all that) - Doctor Who fans get an extra special, hour long episode of their favourite show, just because it's Christmas. The Doctor Who Christmas Special has been a staple of many a Whovian's festive season for nearly a decade now, with the yearly treat about to hit its 9th episode. And this one looks to be one of the most intense yet - the much-dreaded departure of Matt Smith's 11th Doctor, plus promise of the culmination of all four years of his Doctor's ongoing, open-ended plot strands neatly tied up to make way for Peter Capaldi, who will be debuting to millions of gobsmacked, slightly tipsy geeks on the 25th. We'll all likely be on the edge of our seats if the expected Christmas-dinner comas don't render us submerged into our sofas. But how do they rank thus far? Is Steven Moffat's otherworldly, Dickensian depiction of Christmas more effective than Russell T Davies' high street tinsel and turkey portrayal of the event, or vice versa? Let's have a look at every Doctor Who Christmas Special since the show's 2005 revival and find out...