Doctor Who: 10 Worst Things That Have Happened To The Doctor At Christmas

8. Suffering From Post-Companion Depression

Doctor Who The Snowmen Clara Ice Governess
BBC

Many of the Christmas specials we've had over the years have followed on from an episode in which the Doctor loses a companion, and so, quite a few of these specials have found the Doctor suffering from post-companion depression.

For example, The Runaway Bride came directly after Rose's departure in Doomsday, The Snowmen caught up with the Doctor after his loss of Amy and Rory in The Angels Take Manhattan, and The Return Of Doctor Mysterio followed on from the Doctor's final night with his wife, River Song, in The Husbands Of River Song.

In these three Christmas specials, the Doctor is shown to be quite miserable, often being more angry and reckless due to the emotional pain he feels after recently losing his companions. Hell, the Doctor is so sad in The Snowmen that he's cut himself off from the adventuring lifestyle altogether, and is reluctant to return to his old ways.

On the plus side, he usually snaps out of this apathy by the end of the episode, or at the very least, he's had a rollicking adventure that reminds him how important it is that he carries on being the Doctor.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.