Doctor Who: Ranking The Christmas Specials

Last Christmas - Doctor Who meets Inception meets Alien. This dream-based sci-fi horror is often slept on, but it ranks among the very best base-under-siege stories the show has to offer and takes the number two spot on our list.

This one is really, really good. It's slightly darker than your average Christmas day viewing, what with the dream-inducing brain-sucking crabs, but what an episode. It keeps you guessing, looking for clues as to whether our protagonists are still dreaming, and just how many layers into the dream they might be. The crabs are pretty creepy as a concept, and are used to their full potential here - in fact, if they returned in a future episode, it wouldn't be unwelcome...

For those thinking it's not Christmassy enough, it does feature Santa Claus - though Nick Frost's show-stealing version of the iconic bearded man is far from the traditional depiction. This sassy, a***hole version of Santa is a perfect foil for Twelve, continually upstaging him and poking at his quirks and mannerisms, and the elves are a lot of fun too. Shona is a great one-time companion who was set up to join permanently had Jenna Coleman not signed on for another series and it's a shame we don't get to spend more time with her - she would have been a good fit (though some of her character traits would later be used with Bill).

This episode is also a fitting epilogue to Series 8, giving Clara some closure on Danny's death in a way that didn't undermine it, and also allowing Twelve and Clara to finally start being honest with each other, allowing them to grow as people and their friendship to truly blossom. Both the main plot and Twelve and Clara's emotional plot are balanced in equal measure, with neither suffering as a result of the threads being interwoven together. This Christmas special is amongst the more unique on this list - maybe Doctor Who should embrace its hide-behind-the-sofa roots more often for its festive episodes.