Doctor Who: Every Christmas Special Ranked From Worst To Best
1. Voyage Of The Damned
Tinsel Factor: 6
Star Quality: 11
Laughter Lines: 4
Thrill Meter: 11
Christmas Spirit: 4
Soapy Spoilers: 11
Total Score: 47
It might not be the strongest story on our list, but Voyage of the Damned, as the ultimate ‘event’ episode best fits our blueprint for the successful Christmas special. Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first - the casting of global superstar Kylie Minogue as one-off companion, Astrid.
Unsurprisingly the newspapers had a field day when the news was leaked, and her appearance helped to make Voyage of the Damned the most watched Christmas special to date.
The fact that nearly as many came back again next Christmas, despite the lack of another global superstar, suggests that the episode was popular for other reasons too. It’s not high on Christmas spirit or tinsel, with its inspiration coming instead from disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure, but this is Doctor Who at its most ambitious, trying to be a blockbuster movie in 60 minutes.
In UK soap-land, characters often meet untimely ends on Christmas Day, but rarely has Doctor Who followed suit. This time however, we had not one, but two heroic sacrifices. After the red, spikey alien, Bannakaffalatta sacrifices himself, we assume that Kylie's character will be the only one left standing with the Doctor at the end. But the queen of pop is killed off in heartbreaking fashion.
The 2007 special ends on a more positive note, with a surprise extra Christmas message from the Queen, after the Doctor has saved the Titanic from crashing into Buckingham Palace, and in so dealing seals its status as the best of the Christmas specials:
“Thank you Doctor. Thank you. Happy Christmas.”
How would you rank the Doctor Who Christmas Specials? Let us know down in the comments.