Doctor Who Christmas specials to return
It had become a modern tradition in the world of Doctor Who for fans to huddle around their television sets at Christmas to enjoy a festive adventure with their favourite Time Lord. However, since 2018, Doctor Who has moved to New Year’s Day, which although still a welcome dose of Who during the holiday season, isn’t quite as Christmassy.
Well fans of Yuletide Time Lords can rejoice because the Christmas specials are on their way back under Russell T Davies, and what is more it sounds like there’s more than one already being written.
“For the first time ever, I’m writing a Christmas Special… at Christmas!” wrote Davies in his showrunner column in Doctor Who Magazine.
And it sounds like his promise to ensure there is lots of content and no big gaps in the Doctor Who schedule going forward is being honoured as he’s already writing the 2024 special, with 2023 already signed off.
Added Davies: “And this isn’t for next year, no, the 2023 script has been long since signed-off. The new one is for end-of-year 2024!”
We know the first full episode for Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday will be around the festive season of 2023, so could it be a Christmas special?
Before season 14, which began filming on Monday 5th December with the new stars gets going in earnest in 2024, there’s the small matter of the 60th anniversary episodes for fans to look forward to.
The three hour-long shows will star David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor and see the return of Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, plus star Neil Patrick Harris and feature Heartstopper star Yasmin Finney as a character called Rose. It is expected that a number of other returning characters will feature in the episodes as well as a host of guest stars.
The 60th anniversary shows will be the first to be aired since it was announced that the BBC and Disney had struck a partnership with a “shared creative vision” for the show going forward which means that Disney+ will be the international home of Doctor Who, with BBC remaining the place to see first-run Who in the UK.
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