Doctor Who: Ranking Each NuWho Christmas Special

A Christmas Carol is pretty much everything you could want in a Doctor Who Christmas special. Taking the classic Dickens tale and recasting it with a science fiction edge and The Doctor, this is a perfectly executed episode that hits all the right emotions you need to hit for Christmas Day viewing.

Our Scrooge here is Kazran Sardick, played by Michael Gambon. Kazran is a very rich businessman who owns a machine that is able to control the cloud layer around a human-inhabited planet in the future. Amy and Rory, on their space-faring honeymoon, are aboard a luxury space-liner which is going to crash unless Kazran agrees to clear the cloud layer to allow them to guide the ship to safety. Kazran, being the bitter and mean old man that he is, refuses. So The Doctor decides to recreate the famous Dickens novel by using the TARDIS to give Kazran the three ghosts and attempt to change his ways.

For a show about time travel, Doctor Who rarely actually explored the effects of time travel in previous eras. One thing that became very clear during season 5 however was the Steven Moffat was very interested in writing stories that explored the effects and uses of time travel and this episode is a perfect example. We watch as The Doctor interferes in Kazran’s past, altering old home movies “in action” as old Kazran is watching them. New memories begin to form in Kazran’s mind and we watch as he slowly battles with his newly emerging conscience.

There’s plenty of levity to be had as well, as there always is with Matt Smith’s bouncy and wild Doctor. There are flying fish, the sonic screwdriver is eaten by a giant shark, and there’s a surprisingly good performance by Katherine Jenkins. It’s always dubious when singers try to act but Jenkins is suitably believable in her role. It wouldn’t be Doctor Who without a dose of tragedy though and that is present too, in the form of Jenkins’ dying character. She is held in cryogenic storage and can only be released so many times before she will die. Towards the end we come to realise it isn’t money that the Scrooge of this story has been hoarding, it’s time. Her time. Unable to make the decision as to when her last day should be, he has kept her frozen away for decades. Although she does eventually wake, we are left with the knowledge that the two have only a single brief day together.