Doctor Who: Every Christmas Special Ranked From Worst To Best

11. The End Of Time (Part One)

Tinsel Factor 1

Star Quality: 10

Laughter Lines: 1

Thrill Meter: 8

Christmas Spirit: 1

Soapy Spoilers: 2

Total Score: 23

On the day when children finally get to open the presents under the tree, ending a Doctor Who Christmas special on a cliffhanger hardly seems festive. But nonetheless this was the brave decision taken in 2009.

This is the least Christmassy of all the specials, and the early reference to the holiday season as a “pagan rite to banish the cold and the dark,” sets the ominous and serious tone that follows.

Even the playful excesses of Christmas are given nasty twists, with Naismith trying to build the ultimate gift for his daughter – the Immortality Gate - and the Master getting quite a kick from all the seasonal feasting.

Christmas is supposed to be the season of peace and goodwill, yet Wilf is reminded of his days as a soldier and drawn to his revolver, with the promise that the time is coming when he will have to take up arms again.

There is one present the viewers are teased with – the chance for the Doctor to be reunited with Donna Noble, undoing the terrible consequences of Journey’s End. But when Donna’s memories are restored, all hell breaks loose and we realise it’s a gift that was never meant to happen.

On a positive note, a Christmas special wouldn’t be a Christmas special without a stellar supporting cast, and as names go you can’t get much bigger a than former James Bond, with Timothy Dalton hamming it up as Rassilon.