OK, so they sort of cheated a bit with this one, didn't they? Calling an episode 'The Next Doctor' was always going to create an unprecedented stir so it's no surprise that this has become one of the most watched episodes of the revived series to date. It was a publicity stunt, if anything, but it's one that certainly paid off. Russell T Davies was probably spinning in a chair, stroking a cat and cackling menacingly as the end credits rolled... Speaking of Russell, he seemingly wasn't content with duping the entire nation with one fake regeneration (as it turns out, the Tenth Doctor wasn't really regenerating at the end of The Stolen Earth after all...) so he decided to throw another one in our unsuspecting direction a mere few months later (and at Christmas, too, of all days - for shame!). Not that everybody was completely unsuspecting by this point, of course. If Doctor Who has taught us anything over the years then it's to always expect the unexpected (oh, and that bow ties are cool!), so most people had already sussed that there was to be some sort of timey-wimey twist surrounding David Morrissey's involvement in the 2008 festive special. It was enough to convince 13.1 million people to tune in for the truth as it was eventually revealed that his character, Jackson Lake, had taken on the guise of our beloved Time Lord after having his memories corrupted by a Cyberman's infostamp. So there you go. Speaking of Christmas classics...
Dan Butler is the Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture.com. When he isn't writing his own articles or editing other people's, he can be found trawling the internet for gifs of Steven Moffat laughing. Contact him via dan.butler@whatculture.co.uk.
