I really hope that this year's Christmas special is over 60 minutes in length and I'd also like it to be set in the present day on Earth.

The longest Xmas episode we've had was The End of Time: Part Two which was 75 minutes.

Do we think a longer Xmas episode this year would be a good thing seeing as we have to wait until next year for a full series.

I'm hoping and praying for a 80 or 90 minute Christmas episde this year.

What would you like to see in this year's Xmas special in terms of setting, story, monsters/enemies, characters and so forth?

Not modern day earth, we are always on modern day Earth.

Since this christmas special will have a bigger budget, cash in and go to an exotic world. Something new.

The End of Time: Part One was the Christmas Special. The End of Time: Part Two was the New Year's Day Special.

A bigger budget? I mean, that's great, but I've not heard that mentioned, so wondered why.

Well i assumed because as there is no actual season in 2016, it'll allow for more of a budget.

And the christmas specials generally do have a bigger budget anyway.

Would like to see a really good story but with no reference at all to Christmas. Back in the 80s we had Christmas day specials of minder and only fools and horses and they were good solid stories without any reference at all to Christmas (jolly boys outing great example). Frankly bored to death of Christmas references in doctor who been done to death. Ok had a couple of worthy ones a Christmas carol, the snowmen but Matt smiths last episode? The doctor and Clara find a town called Christmas? Come on. The runaway bride should have just been a straightforward story. No need for references to Christmas. Made it embarrassing as it was obviously filmed in a summer heatwave with scenes of trees in full bloom.

I'm fine with the snow and the heartwarming stories and all, but the killer Christmas trees, Santa Claus as a companion, all those excessive Christmassy themes... it's a little shoehorned and over the top. It's like stepping into one of the weirdest Grant Morrison comics.

It really dampened what could have been a great story with Last Christmas for me.

If we had something a little more like A Christmas Carol every year, as that was the best Christmas special yet.

Agreed, just write the story, you don't need to shoehorn cheesy christmas stuff into it. But nothing as bad as The Doctor, Widow and the wardrobe.

Well since Bill isn't being introduced until the first episode of series 10, and as such they need a one off companion, it really would be nice if it could be Captain Jack this year. Last year saw River return, and that was great, but people have been pining for the return of Jack for much longer. Not to mention the fact that John Barrowman seems as though he desperately wants to reprise the role pretty much whenever he is asked.

Obviously like last years, it would need a valid story reason for his return, but I'm sure Moffat could think of something.


A Christmas Carol is the best story Moffat has written in his entire time as showrunner in my opinion. As you say it manages to clearly be Christmas themed, but without shoehorning in obvious Christmas elements just for the sake of it.

I also think it's great just because it is a good story in it's own right (as in against other episodes and not just against other Christmas specials) and I think it's one of those examples of an episode where if you had someone who knew the rough basics of the show (Doctor,Tardis etc) but had never really watched it, and you wanted to show them an example of a good episode that required basically no explanation of prior events to understand (except maybe saying 'the companions got married in the last episode') then this would be an ideal choice.

That's very true.

Again Christmas was shoe horned into the end of time part one when there was absolutely no need for it within the story.

Think about it in terms of that budget coming from when it's actually filmed though. Series 9 was filmed in 2015, Series 10 is being filmed in 2016, Series 11 will be filmed in 2017. It'll still be the usual annual budget. In spite of that I would have loved it if they had taken advantage of the Christmas weekend this year for a special two-part event... with Part One on Christmas Eve Saturday, and then Part Two on Christmas Day Sunday. But that was always asking a lot I think


In spite of my premature scepticism I really enjoyed Last Christmas, and felt it dealt with the inclusion of Father Christmas very well. I think it would have benefited more from not having so many other Christmas episodes that shoehorned in the Christmassy stuff before it, but then that means the problem is actually with other episodes. I'd certainly rather take Last Christmas over The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe any day.


A Christmas Carol isn't only my favourite Christmas special, it's also one of my favourite Matt Smith stories and one of the best Moffat scripts in my opinion. After the fifth series which left me cold, with companions I cared very little about, it was great to get such a great character-oriented story that also looked the part (it still does now). I think it was in the small window of time after Matt Smith had found his feet as the Doctor, but before he started getting written as a catchphrase-spouting caricature.

And whilst I didn't much rate The Husbands of River Song, it benefited from not referring heavily to Christmas throughout the story too. There's nothing wrong with some snowy scenes as this episode insisted upon, but its strengths were elsewhere.

apart, of course, from 2015 christmas special.

The husbands of River Song wasn't set on Earth......

I am talking about new who in general.

What do I want? Cybermen and lots of 'em! Their 50th anniversary and it would be nice to see them. The second most popular and one of the most terrifying monsters the show's ever had.

The Weeping Angels would have a fight on their hands with them! Most frightening? Nah, not with the Cybermen blasting them into atoms!

Hate to repeat myself from the other thread but the cybermen are rubbish. Weak and very very stupid.

I don't think they've been very frightening since the 60's, personally. Nothing beats those empty, blank faces.

They still get some good stories here and there, but I think they fall victim to being "silly neverending threat" almost as much as the Daleks.

I think the Cybermen have been the victim of bad storytelling time and time again, in some way or other. They were decently enough set-up in Series 2, but then having Lumic appear as an Emperor-Dalek-stand-in made them pale in comparison to the Daleks, and then by the end of the series they were directly undermined by the Daleks.

The Next Doctor got them right to start with, but then they just looked clunky and daft come the big dancing robot in the Thames. I mean, seriously?!

Moffat nailed the menace of the Cyberman in The Pandorica Opens but it wasn't a Cyberman story.

Gareth Roberts then gave us the Cybermen in Closing Time. But the threat was diminished by love saving the day, and frankly the whole thing felt like filler. Your second-most notorious alien villain after the Daleks and you reduced them to filler.

Nightmare in Silver was a chance to rejuvenate them and give them a kick up the metal backside. But it did nothing interesting with them and made them unstoppable, with no parameters as to their capabilities. One of the many problems with the story.

Dark Water did something decent with them, but the story went nowhere come Death in Heaven and the less said about their Iron Man capabilities and the CyberBrig the better.

The show seems to completely miss the opportunity to do something superb with the Cybermen time and time again. They could be the most horrifying alien in the show by far. As an idea they already are the most terrifying I think. But they're always left with shoddy writing, poor resolutions and frankly given nothing to do.

I've said before that the Cybermen are at their best at the moment of reveal or activation: punching through the cling-film, their reveal in 'Dark Water'. That's where the thrill factor is with them. After that they're just big, stompy cyborgs and when you've seen one stompy cyborg... you're bored of seeing stompy cyborgs. At least I am.

Creatively there's no reason to ever use them again. They only appear as they are part of the brand, part of the merchandising of the show. Sure, there's probably some potential to still be scraped out of them... but nowhere near the potential a new, original foe has.

They are the worst of all the recurring villains because they have no room for development. With Daleks, Silurians, Zygons, Sontarans we can always learn something new, always discover some new nuances to them. The Cybermen are defined utterly by their basic characteristics: emotionless cyborgs. If you add nuance to them you destroy the basic premise. Their mantra may as well be 'repeat' than 'Delete' as that's all we can ever get from them: the same story.

As a writer, recognizing the need to service this aspect of the brand, I would use them whenever the plot needed a generic, planet invading menace in the background of the story. I would never try and build a story around them as the main point of interest because they simply are not interesting.

The issue is the writers have missed what makes The Cybermen scary. What made them scary was there trickery, stealthy operations, and most importantly you could tell they were made from humans, and it gave it that chill when you see them.

But from RTD they changed them to emotionless robots whose aims were so basic kill and destory, they lost the stealthiness and edge they had. The Cybermen were never meant to be the strongest villain, that is why they had to resort to stealthiness like in Earthshock, Tomb of the Cyberman, Moonbase etc.

I think the next cybermen story would work well in a sort of Power of the Daleks set up. Where there are a few cybermen left, and they use their manipulation to gain power, also change their design from actual robots to what they are meant to be, part machine part man.

Spare Parts did a pretty good job with them, though.

I actually think Rise of the Cybermen started things off well. It was a long while before the Cybermen appeared en masse, or in fact at all really. The whole episode plays on the sense of menace that the Cybermen bring to the table. It focused on the horror of what the Cybermen were in theory. The Age of Steel wasn't a bad episode at all, but it does turn to the whole stompy-robot side of things and feels like a cheaper version of The Parting of the Ways by basically making the Cybermen wannabe Daleks.
The best moments of the two-parter were all the little character moments - the death of Angela Price, Jake losing Ricky, the Cyberman who was previously a bride-to-be, the horror when the converted people regain their awareness. It explores the horror of a fate worse than death, whereas the electrocuting stompy Cyber-army en-masse scenes just don't have that.

Does anyone know whether this year's Christmas special has been filmed yet? I wonder if we will get a trailer during Children in Need in November?

It hasn't.

They've started filming a few weeks ago. The Christmas special 2016 is the first thing that they are filming.