The Doctor Who Review S10 Christmas Special

Last updated on 27 December 2024

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When you feel like you’ve been waiting an age…

And finally it’s Christmas day…

And Doctor Who is back…from outer space, literally.

And you try and play it cool…

But in all honesty, you can’t contain your excitement.

That was me. That is me.

We’ve been waiting a long while now, because, like they did a couple of seasons ago, rather than ending the season with the Christmas special, Season 10 begins with the Christmas Special. That means we’ve been waiting over a year for the Doctor. That’s a long time.

But we’re back now and what a way to start the show!

A young boy awakes one night to an older man hanging upside down outside his high rise apartment bedroom. After letting him in, the boy follows the mysterious man up the roof of the apartment block, where he watches him put the final touches on a ‘trap’. The man hands the boy a gem stone, and the boy, thinking because the man was a Doctor, swallows the gem hoping it will cure his cough. It doesn’t. Instead, it gives him powers which don’t go away but rather seep into his DNA. Years later, the Doctor is in town looking into a brain-in-a-jar organisation and they meet again.

Older, but not perhaps wiser, the boy, Grant, is now a young man. He’s a nanny by day and The Ghost by night. That’s right friends, it’s a super hero episode. While the Doctor and Nardole (Matt Lucus, back again) try and stop an alien invasion (of course), The Ghost is not only trying to fight crime, but he’s in love with Lucy, who is the mother of the child he looks after.

After kicing some alien butt (or in this case, brains), like good ol’ Clark Kent, Grant’s glasses finally come on and Lucy sees him for who he really is. It’s like any superhero story, but of course, the Doctor is a major part.

I really liked this episode.After the year we had, The Return of Doctor Mysterio was a light-hearted Christmas episode that I feel we all needed. It was a fun episode, and while it wasn’t high on things like science fiction or even intense alien destruction, it was about finding love, being brave, being human. It was a nice way to end the year, and begin another DW season.

While there was no Pearl Mackie as Bill in it, it was a great beginning/filler between seasons. I really like Matt Lucas as Nardole once again. He was in the previous season in The Husbands of River Song, and if IMDB is correct then it looks like he’s going to be in a lot of this coming season. I’m totally fine with this.

While Peter Capaldi still isn’t a favourite of mine, I am looking forward to this new season. It doesn’t begin, however, until April.

Ah well. Until then, maybe I’ll rewatch season 9.

What did you think of the Christmas special?