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Bar a fourth-wall shattering “Happy Christmas” from the First Doctor in 1965, and a Chrimbo-tinged episode of K9 & Company in 1981, Christmas barely registered in the world of Doctor Who before 2005. It’s all so different now. Doctor Who is just as embedded in the Christmas telly schedules as The Morecambe and Wise Show once was.
So, 10 years of Doctor Who and 10 Christmas Specials. What’s interesting looking at these as a whole, now bundled together for the first time, is how strikingly different Russell T Davies’ and Steven Moffat’s ideas of Christmas are. From The Christmas Invasion through The Runaway Bride to Voyage of the Damned, Russell’s Christmas ideal seems festooned with tinsel, pop music and gluttonous bonhomie. Steven Moffat’s concept of Chrimbo, meanwhile, is insular and wintery – more Charles Dickens than Noddy Holder.