List of Doctor Who Christmas and New Year's specials


Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The show has been a large influence in the media since its inception in 1963. Along with the regular series, special Christmas episodes were broadcast every year between 2005, the year of the programme's revival, and 2017's "Twice Upon a Time". 2018 did not include such a special although one was produced for New Year's Day.

Episodes

Classic era

During the first run of the programme, special episodes were not a frequent occurrence. During the third season, the twelve-part serial The Daleks' Master Plan was broadcast weekly over the 1965-66 Christmas period, with its seventh and eighth episodes scheduled for Christmas and New Year's Day respectively. The former, The Feast of Steven, was scripted as a comic interlude in the style of a pantomime, in the middle of an otherwise epic adventure. In its final scene, as the Doctor and his companions celebrate Christmas with a toast, the Doctor turns to the camera and breaks the fourth wall by saying "Incidentally, a happy Christmas to all of you at home." The following episode, "Volcano", returns to the main narrative of The Daleks' Masterplan, although its ending briefly features a contemporary New Year's Eve. No subsequent episodes of the series' original run were broadcast on Christmas Day; the first episodes of Day of the Daleks and The Face of Evil were first shown on New Year's Day, but make no reference to the holiday season.

Revived era

Home media release

The Christmas specials between "The Christmas Invasion" and "Last Christmas", inclusive, were released as a DVD and Blu-ray boxset titled Doctor Who – The 10 Christmas Specials on 19 October 2015.