Beginning in 2005 the runaway popularity of Doctor Who earned the program the prestigious distinction of having a special episode produced for the Christmas Season, ideally on the day itself. As an annual occurrence, at least on the west side of the Atlantic, it seems to be the most competitive day and night in British television. 2014 marks the tenth consecutive year for the Christmas Special but Doctor Who’s flirtations about Christmas total TWELVE in all, and here at THT Worldwide we’ll begin our run-up to ‘Last Christmas’ by ranking these stories in reverse order counting them up as we countdown to the 25th:
#12 – from 2007 its Voyage of the Damned. A misfire not so much for execution as for intent, as it seemed to indulge in spectacle at the expense of story. But then again since this was Titanica Galactica the betting assumption from RTD would be that everyone knew the outlines of the story already. Also the religious overtones and occasional imagery to back-it-up were a little too “on the nose” for our taste.
Spectacle has it’s place but since Voyage of the Damned was the third of the specials the thinking is that RTD felt each succeeding special had to feel not only different from the previous year but in it’s own way “bigger” than before. He would wisely reverse course in many ways the following year.
#11 coming tomorrow.
