Doctor Who: Ranking Each NuWho Christmas Special
For 13 consecutive years, Christmas meant one thing - new episodes of Doctor Who!
Since its triumphant return in 2005, the Doctor Who Christmas Special was an annual tradition. For thirteen consecutive years families across the country would sit down on Christmas Day to enjoy adventures in space and time. From evil Santa Claus robots, to giant arachnids, to retellings of Christmas classics, we’ve seen it all over the years.
In 2019, new showrunner Chris Chibnall decided to axe the tradition, after all, how many tales can you tell involving a single holiday? Instead opting for a New Year’s Day special with “Resolution” which saw the return of The Doctor’s greatest enemy, The Daleks. Because of this decision and because Christopher Eccleston regenerated at the end of his debut season, only three of the five New Who Doctors have actually taken part in Christmas specials, with David Tennant taking the top spot with 5 appearances.
Christmas 2020 is rapidly approaching and, after the year we’ve all had, a bit of escapism into a good old Doctor Who adventure might be just what you need on Christmas Day. To help you in choosing where to start, we’ve ranked all 13 New Who Christmas Specials!
13. The End Of Time Part I
It’s easy to forget that part one of David Tennant’s closing story actually aired as a Christmas special, but it did, airing on Christmas Day in 2009. It’s a bit unfair to include this episode in the list as, unlike every other Christmas special that aired before or since, it isn’t a complete story. Unfortunately, even if we were to include part two of The End of Time, it wouldn’t bump the rating much higher.
Unfortunately the close to the RTD and David Tennant eras is among the shows weakest, with a heavily convoluted story that somehow manages to feel both too full of ideas, and yet also very empty.
In this first part, not all that much happens. The Master (played once again by John Simm) is resurrected in some sort of nonsense ritual but isn’t returned fully. Instead, his flesh seems to fade periodically, exposing an electric blue skeleton. He is forced to seek out food and shovel it down his throat leading to multiple close up shots of John Simm enthusiastically shoving cheeseburgers and chips and masticating loudly. It’s just a bit gross.
Beyond that, not much happens at all. There’s a tearful conversation with Wilf (Bernard Cribbins), a junkyard conversation with The Master, and then The Master is kidnapped and taken to the home of a super rich business magnate, intent on trialling his latest machine. Obviously The Master interferes with the machine and uses it to turn every single person on earth into…well, into himself. It’s all a bit silly (even for Doctor Who) and even the closing revelation of Timothy Dalton as the returning classic series character Rassilon cannot save this episode.