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Although it is not the first time A Doctor Who The episode did not air on Christmas Day itself, Christmas 2025 will mark the first time in two decades that there will be no special at all during the festive period – a last piece of coal in the bottom for what was a very weird year for the Whouniverse. But perhaps we should take the opportunity to return to the episode that started the tradition twenty years ago because, in reality, it remains Doctor Whothe best attempt at a Christmas story.
Twenty years ago tomorrow, “The Christmas Invasion” – technically the second Doctor Who Post-1965 Christmas Broadcast “Steven’s Party” a bizarre story that isn’t really a Christmas special and is now lost to time as one of WHOthere are many remaining missing episodes– hit screens as the first full episode of David Tennant’s 10th Doctor. Seeing the Doctor bedridden in a post-regenerative coma in the midst of a Sycorax invasion of Earth, the episode is perhaps the most memorable now for The immediate charm of Tennant in taking on the Doctor, the modern era’s first chance to overcome the dramatic hurdle of a new actor taking over (and how easily he did so despite spending most of the time asleep in bed), paving the way for a cultural dominance and interpretation of the Time Lord that neither the general public nor the series itself have ever truly moved away from.
But alongside this broader importance in the series’ legacy, “The Christmas Invasion” still charms because it’s the first time Doctor Who she herself actually committed to the idea of doing a Christmas story – and she went all the way, in a way that the series never really did again after establishing this new tradition of the TARDIS appearing every holiday season. This is an episode that is unapologetically “a Christmas episode of Doctor Who“, mixing the best tropes of the series with a festive twist. Robots dressed as Santa Claus parading through the streets of London playing Christmas carols before revealing their brass as explosive weapons are reminiscent of the Autons (a fitting parallel, considering Doctor Who return to screens with the plastic automatons) and a murderous Christmas tree that was torn from the Doctor WhoThe strategy manual for transforming everyday life into something ridiculous and yet still frightening: it’s not Doctor Who with a dressing room decorated with garlands, but which is unequivocally and joyfully rooted in the spirit of the season.
And it’s not just about visual festivities. Thematically, “The Christmas Invasion” is also a wholehearted embrace of the values and ideas we cherish during the holidays: the importance of family and community (even if, as was the case with the Doctor and Jackie Tyler, you’re not really used to getting along) and faith in the hope that we can welcome others with open arms. It’s an episode about big emotions, from the Doctor grappling with his new sense of identity to Rose having to come to terms with her recovery and the looming threat of the Sycorax – the kind of recklessness for the future we often reflect on amid the more joyful elements of Christmas – things that come to a cathartic climax not really with the defeat of the aliens, but in the embrace of the new Doctor and Christmas dinner at the Tyler residence.
There are bigger Doctor Who festive specialties. There are undoubtedly stronger stories, brilliant episodes Doctor Who first and the festive specials later. There are stories that connect the holidays in more interesting ways than the admittedly cheesy bit that “Christmas Invasion” takes (but then again, isn’t a little cheese part of both the holiday season and Doctor WhoIs that charming?). But over the past 20 years, and probably for many more years after the show returns next Christmas, it’s still the Doctor Who seasonal special at the height. He set the gold standard for what WHO could do with the trappings and themes of the era, embracing them wholeheartedly instead of treating them as an afterthought demanded by a broadcast slot.
“The Christmas Invasion” is a story that can only be told at Christmas and would be toned down if taken to any other time of year – and getting married. Doctor Who with the holiday for entire generations of fans, it created a wonderful tradition that has strived to endure all these years later, even if the series itself has its own setbacks.
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