Doctor Who: 10 New Pictures From The Christmas Special

7. Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

Joining the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald for this year's festive escapade will be Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz's very own Nick Frost, seen here in a new candid shot of him in role - beard and all - as Father Christmas himself. And there's that bloody tangerine again. Seriously, what is it with that tangerine!? Fans of cult favourite Nick Frost have been vying for him to land a part in Doctor Who for years and it's particularly overdue seeing as his comedy partner Simon Pegg managed to bag himself a guest stint, as the evil Editor of Satellite 5, in Series 1's The Long Game back in 2005. This season will be Nick's time to shine, though, and with a name like Nick Frost, it's almost as if he was born to take on the coveted role of Jolly Old Saint Nicholas. Coincidence? Probably, yes. Naturally, Steven Moffat's decision to bring Santa Claus into the Doctor Who universe has raised some rather important questions regarding the show's inclusion of mythical figures. The Moff has done some pretty daring things throughout his time as showrunner but it's highly unlikely that he's about to ruin Christmas for the show's legion of younger fans by giving them a story in which their present-delivering hero is proven to be nothing more than a childhood fantasy. Sorry if you're hearing this for the first time, but it's true. The majority of the audience sitting down to watch the episode on Christmas Day won't care that the Doctor's having a casual chinwag with Santa Claus, of course. "Don't worry any parents who are concerned that we're about to make Santa fake and evil," Steven reassured doubters in a recent interview. "He is presented, as he is in real life, as a great Christmas hero." Phew! For a minority of the show's more pedantic devotees, though, the fact the Time Lord is about to encounter someone who doesn't actually exist within the real world, in which the events of Doctor Who are happening, presents itself as somewhat of a problem. Earlier this year the Doctor met Robin Hood, and now he's about to meet Father Christmas, too. Don't be surprised if Frodo Baggins joins him for an adventure in Series 9. You heard it here first.