Should Doctor Who Christmas Specials focus on endings or beginnings?
BBC
The first Doctor Who Christmas Special, which aired in 2006, was The Christmas Invasion. It was David Tennant’s first episode, which marked the beginning of an era for the Tenth Doctor. Since then, the Christmas Specials have focused more on regenerations. It begs the question: should happier episodes be seen on Christmas or spectacular, yet sad, endings?
First Episodes
There’s no denying that The Christmas Invasion was a renowned success. 9.4 million people tuned in to watch the episode on Christmas Day, and David Tennant gave a superb performance. The episode also began the set up the series of Torchwood. In all, there was a lot riding on this episode, and it came through as what is one of the best Christmas episodes to date.
Part of the reason for this is that overall the episode had a happy undertone. Despite seeing Rose heartbroken over losing her Doctor, it was a lighthearted and funny episode of Doctor Who. Many iconic lines have come from the episode, like Jackie when she thinks she’s going to die via Christmas tree. Then, of course, there’s the Doctor quoting The Lion King to the Sycorax.
As big and grand the regeneration episodes have come, it does leave a fan dreading Christmas Day. We don’t want to see our Doctor leaving on a holiday! Wouldn’t we rather enjoy meeting a new Doctor in a special, rather than jumping into their adventures? We would be able to see him/her in action, and then be able to mull our feelings for a month or so!
Regenerations
On the other hand, regenerations as part of special rely on us to look back at their time. Instead of a 44-minute regeneration episode, we get an hour or even longer! If the Twelfth Doctor regenerated in The Doctor Falls rather than Twice Upon a Time, would it have the same reaction?
Either way, they give us memorable episodes to look forward too, whether happy or sad. What would you rather have? Let us know in the comments!