With all the chat about Christmas specials in the controversial opinion thread, I thought we’d probably better give them their own thread.
Vote for your favourites and explain your loves below 
(And yes, I’m including the New Year specials too because, why not?)
- The Feast of Steven
- The Unquiet Dead (unofficial Ninth Doctor special)
- The Christmas Invasion
- The Runaway Bride
- Voyage of the Damned
- The Next Doctor
- The End of Time
- A Christmas Carol
- The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
- The Snowmen
- The Time of the Doctor
- Last Christmas
- The Husbands of River Song
- The Return of Doctor Mysterio
- Twice Upon a Time
- Resolution
- Revolution of the Daleks
- Eve of the Daleks
- The Church on Ruby Road
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Voyage of the damned is my first, fantastic pantomime disaster movie, perfect for Christmas, and debuting the best version of the theme to boot!
A Christmas Carol, an excellent semi adaptation of the Dickens story with some very nice playing with time, with the subversion that feels so obvious in hindsight, why haven’t more adaptations done this?
Husbands of River Song, Possibly Rivers best outing? She works wonderfully together with Capaldi, and the episode is pretty funny throughout, with a quite heartfelt ending.
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Husbands of River Song is absolutely top tier, love it love it.
A Christmas Carol is great, love the use of time travel, feels like a proper version of that classic story.
Eve of the Daleks, pretty much the only proper use of time loops in the revival, which is mad because you’d think that’s a trope which would be used loads. I am such a sucker for time loops in my sci-fi.
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I hope I see Resolution get some love in this thread, it was that episode that really made Jodie click for me. I’m a little sore they didn’t explore more of that side of her character, I think there’s a LOT of simmering rage underneath Jodie’s portrayal that goes missed and is never really given the writing to shine, but it just goes to show that whenever you want to see who a Doctor is, you really need to put them up against a Dalek.
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Looking at this list I realise there’s only two that I’d go so far as to say I love - A Christmas Carol and Husbands of River Song.
Christmas Carol, well, I’ve been in love with Katherine Jenkins for as long as I can remember and I just feel such a fond warmth for this one.
Husbands is possibly one of the greatest episodes of television ever produced in the world
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Husbands is my 2nd favorite story, just behind Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hell Bent. It’s just a great mix of funny and sweet and sad plus it has one of the best songs of the show in The Singing Towers.
Eve of the Daleks is also top 5 for several reasons including that it gave us canon Thasmin.
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One that got pushed off my list, “The Next Doctor” is one I’m rather of two minds on, because the actual Cybermen plot in it is bad… but Jackson Lake was really good.
I actually think David Morrissey would’ve made a great Doctor, and I also do like the idea of someone thinking they are the Doctor…
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Through Plurality all things are possible… (I have no idea how much of basic plural stuff is widely known this may go over people’s heads)
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The Snowmen will always be my favourite. Clara is my favourite companion and Eleven in my favourite Doctor, so that’s to be expected. I also love a good historical episode, especially a Victorian one (slight tangent: the costuming in this episode is gorgeous, though all of it is slightly out of date. I’d say Clara’s governess dress is more late 1880’s than early 1890’s, but that’s getting nitpicky.)
The Runaway Bride is a classic, of course; it brought us Donna! It’s just a delightfully fun episode with a bit of dark Doctor and a very cool design for a villain.
I’ve already expressed my love for The Unquiet Dead in the TV club, so I won’t repeat myself.
I’ve actually only seen The Next Doctor this year for the first time (as well as Planet of the Dead). I never realised I haven’t seen them before! I enjoyed them both (Planet of the Dead more so), but I’d have to watch them a few more times before I can put them on my “favourites” list.
I believe I’ve only seen A Christmas Carol once or twice, which, considering my love for Eleven, is quite unusual for me. It must have been during a drop in my interest in Doctor Who; I can’t say I rewatched S7a very often, either. So many people here love it, so I guess it’s time for a rewatch!
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I went with Eve of the Daleks, Resolution and Last Christmas.
Apparently I enjoy a bit of dark, perilous storytelling at the end of the year holidays.
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I absolutely adore Last Christmas, The Runaway Bride, Eve of the Daleks, Time of the Doctor, and especially Twice Upon a Time… And an honorable mention to Ruby Road and End of Time. But A Christmas Carol, The Snowmen, and Husbands of River Song are just all too magical to not pick.
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My honorable mentions that I didn’t vote for because they’re definitely a tier below Husbands and Eve for me are A Christmas Carol and Resolution.
As others have said, A Christmas Carol is a great use of time travel and hits some wonderful emotional notes and is definitely my go-to episode if want something properly Christmas-y.
Not sure if this is a hot take or not, but I think Resolution is the first episode to make Daleks feel like a proper threat to me since like… Doomsday, probably?
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that bit where she flips the holographic projector so the Dalek can see her in the TARDIS and all the lights flash red is SO good. It really feels like the TARDIS is an extension of Jodie’s anger. “Tell me that again to my face” indeed.
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You know, I watched this one recently and it just really gets me every time. Morrissey is wonderful, Tennant is selling the confused yet excited wonder pretty much throughout, the resolution is neat and tidy. I can’t even really remember what the big issues were with it at the time apart from “New Doctor bait.”
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I liked it much more on a rewatch than first time round. Dervla Kirwan is great. The Cybershades are awful though.
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Oh I rather like their weird brassy heads and the Cyberman handles at differing angles. I even really liked the Cyberking, tbh
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Less so the ruffley coat and the dance shoes…
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I know people have their issues with it, but I absolutely adore ‘The Next Doctor’. David Morrissey was absolutely magnificent, and I’m actually quite sad he wasn’t revealed as another incarnation of the Doctor… if BigFinish wanted to do an “Unbound 11th Doctor range”… just saying.
Also, Dervla Kirwan wins the award for best outfit in the Whoniverse - that red dress in the snowy scene, just pure iconic camp!
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IIRC, the main issue was the Cybermen plot. David Morrissey was great, though, and he really would’ve worked well as the actual next Doctor.
Of course, if they wanted to make him be the next Doctor at some point, the Doctor’s already regenerated into people that were previously on the show several times now…
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