Doctor Who: Peter Capaldi’s 12 Best Performances As The Twelfth Doctor
2. The Husbands Of River Song
Although the novelty reindeer antlers fail to give the Doctor any festive cheer (oh TARDIS, what are you like?) Capaldi delivers us a Christmas cracker of a performance. At one point, the Doctor says to River about not "laughing in a long time". And we certainly laughed along with Capaldi thanks to Moffat's quickfire script, which gives Capaldi the opportunity to showcase his comedic repertoire.
The Doctor is a dab hand at emotionally-charged speeches, but the one where he inveighs at King Hydroflax's oppressive rule doesn't have the usually desired effect and instead falls, hilariously, flat. We get to see the Doctor exhibit his newfound cross arms, making a lovely addition to his cross eyebrows.
The funniest moment has to be when the Doctor finally gets his go at the whole "it's bigger on the inside" trope. This is Capaldi playing his 15-year-old self: the lifelong fan who wrote that letter in 1974 now having all of his wildest dreams come true in entering the TARDIS.
You could turn this episode into a drinking game given the amount of times the Doctor heavily infers to River of who he actually is.
The comedy is allied to poignancy as we become aware that River's story is about to come full circle (sonic screwdriver, spoilers an’ all). Capaldi and Alex Kingston radiate instant and more natural chemistry in a single hour than any of River's interactions with the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors combined. That new suit and haircut clearly worked wonders too.