I must confess I am not the biggest Fan of the festive specials, that being said I greatly enjoyed Eve of the Daleks, probably my favorite use of the Daleks in the Chibnall Era overall. Time of the Doctor is pretty great in my eyes too, shame that opening moment was just… no. I do think overall in the Capaldi Era there was the most amount of Christmas Specials that I enjoyed. Husbands of River Songs lives from the great chemistry between capaldi and kingston. Last christmas is a pretty great story about Dreams and Santa Claus. And Twice Upon a Time for all its flaws had some great 12th Doctor Moment. (I still very much hate most of the 1st Doctors line in it.)
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Last Christmas and The Return of Doctor Mysterio are always my picks for the best. I also love The End of Time but i forget it’s a holiday special a lot of the time lol.
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Unquiet Dead? More like Underated-quiet Dead. Huh… what? Never Mind.
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- A Christmas Carol
- Last Christmas
- The Next Doctor
I think The Next Doctor doesn’t get enough praise
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Love a Christmas special. I really enjoyed the New Year specials too, but having DW back on Christmas day with Ncuti just felt soooo right. Didn’t realise just how much I’d missed the Christmas Day episodes.
As for favourites?
1st: Voyage of the Damned. Just love the whole lavish Christmassy disaster movie aesthetic and plot.
2nd: Last Christmas. Alien/The Thing/Santa Claus. Christmas joy and tea time terror. Now you’re talking!
3rd: The Church on Ruby Road. It’s so different, weird and beautiful at times. I still wax lyrical about that stunning pivot scene in the episode. Just… wow!
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- The Husbands of River Song: hilarious romp that pivots deftly to tragedy, played expertly by both leads.l throughout.
- The Runaway Bride: I wasn’t sure what I was going to make of this one when it aired but I got whisked away by the energy and quotable lines - “Santa’s a ROBOT!”; “Pockets!”; “…because I think sometimes you need somebody to stop you”.
- Resolution: The start of this is truly epic, it’s shot like a lavish film, and then it gets really intimate. The Dalek feels actually scary for the first time in a while. And I love that the security guy has a male partner but it’s a throw away comment, not a big deal, he just is, which shows the progress we have made for this to be on prime time peak holiday viewing. Now if we can achieve the same in all parts of the world and for all identity choices, that would truly be a Christmas present to remember.
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Think I need to rewatch A Christmas Carol because it don’t remember it fondly.
Haven’t seen it since broadcast. Maybe I didn’t get what I wanted from Santa that year and it coloured my opinion.
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I’m the same, although I have rewatched it.
With so many loving it, I feel like I’m missing something?
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A Christmas Carol is amazing! Definitely rewatch it this year!
It’s a brilliant timey-wimey take on a classic story, loads of heart, a sweet message, and there’s a flying shark what more do you want?
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The way the Eleventh Doctor gets the idea of what to do because he is shouting to Amy about the noise in the background (“It’s a Christmas Carol!”) is so brilliant too, the face he makes when his plan comes together 
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