Ever since Doctor Who returned to our screens back in 2005, it’s had a Christmas special every year, even during those times when the full seasons were on hiatus. So, it stands to reason that we should expect another one this December, right? Well, not so fast, as Metro’s reporting tonight that it’s been scrapped.
According to the outlet, the writers have simply run out of ideas for Christmas-themed episodes after so many years of doing them, which is fair enough. It’s not like we didn’t see this coming, either, as ex-showrunner Steven Moffat had expressed the problem they were having with the specials in the past, saying at one point:
“I sort of think we might have mined, and possibly over mined, every single thing we could about Christmas in Doctor Who and the last time we more or less ignored it.”
He’s not wrong about that, but according to sources close to the production, there is a silver lining here. And that’s that instead of a Christmas special, we’ll be getting a New Year’s episode. Which is to say the BBC will release a special outing of Who next year that “will have a storyline that relates to the arrival of 2019.”
Details beyond that remain scarce, but it seems that’ll be the only installment of the show that year, with season 12 not expected to premiere until 2020. It’ll be a pretty long wait for fans then, but at least we’re getting something in place of the Christmas special, which should help ease the blow a bit.
Still, this is a pretty big deal, as it’ll mark the first time Doctor Who hasn’t done the regular holiday episode after 13 years of giving us some true classics and a ton of really fantastic, Christmas-themed adventures. But, then again, this is a brand new era for the show, that much has been made clear, and it seems the Christmas specials are now yet another long tradition that we can kiss goodbye – along with fan favorite monsters like Daleks and Cybermen.
Published: Nov 1, 2018 06:19 pm