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Doctor Who - The Next Doctor, on BBC One (UK) / BBC America (USA)
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This is the fourth Christmas special of the revived Doctor Who series. It aired in the UK on Christmas 2008, but it first aired in the US in June 2009. (And I guess it must be the first Doctor Who thing that I saw on BBC America, after Sci-Fi Channel stopped airing the series. Though that wasn't the first time I actually saw this special, because the internet.) It's set after season 4, and before Planet of the Dead.

It begins with the Doctor arriving in London, on Christmas Eve, 1851. As he wanders about, he suddenly hears a woman shouting for "the Doctor," so he goes to see what's up. There's some kind of creature (called a "Cybershade"), and the Doctor is trying to catch it. But not... no, um... There is a man calling himself "the Doctor," and a Time Lord. And the woman who was shouting before, Rosita, is serving as his Companion. Anyway, the two Doctors try to capture the Cybershade, and fail. At first, our Doctor thinks this other Doctor must be a future regeneration of himself. The man has lost most of his memory, but he definitely remembers some things that one would expect the Doctor to remember. However, the real reason for this will be made clear later, and I'm not going to spoil it.

Meanwhile, the (current) Doctor tags along with him and Rosita, and he pretends to become the new Doctor's Companion. There are Cybermen on Earth, and they have some kind of plot, which involves the rising of a Cyber-King. Their plot is being aided by a woman named Mercy Hartigan. She has been promised power and respect in the new order the Cybermen will create, things she has always been denied by men, in spite of her superior mind.

Well... I'm not sure what else I can say without spoiling anything. But of course, the Doctor(s) avert the threat, in the end. And the (new) Doctor's memories eventually return. There is sadness and loss, there are twists to the story, even if few of them surprised me at all. There's a fair bit of humor, and there's some damn cool stuff. All in all, a fairly enjoyable special.


specials index
Christmas TV movies index

Doctor Who Festive Specials
BBC; Tardis Data Core; Wikipedia

10th Doctor: The Christmas Invasion * The Runaway Bride * Voyage of the Damned * The Next Doctor * The End of Time, parts 1 & 2
11th Doctor: A Christmas Carol * The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe * The Snowmen * The Time of the Doctor
12th Doctor: Last Christmas * The Husbands of River Song * The Return of Doctor Mysterio * Twice Upon a Time
13th Doctor: Resolution * Revolution of the Daleks * Eve of the Daleks
15th Doctor: The Church on Ruby Road