Christmas

Christmas Day, 6-7pm, BBC1

The fate of the universe hangs in the balance. And even more crucially, so does the fate of Christmas Day up and down the land. The Davies-Tennant dream team is signing off but, with ‘Doctor Who’ increasingly as fundamental to festive telly as Eric and Ern back in the '70s, this will be as close as the nation gets to a unifying yuletide experience. Obviously we’d have needed a Tardis of our own to actually review this, but if you’ve been paying attention to the pre-show hype, you’ll know that we can expect a return visit from the Doc's evil nemesis The Master (John Simm). Furthermore, the brilliant recent ‘Waters of Mars’ episode suggested that the tenth Doctor may be losing it a tad. Hence, universal jeopardy and a battle ranging from the wastelands of London to the mysterious Immortality Gate. Worse still, the alien Ood is warning of even greater danger. Way to ruin everyone’s Christmas Day, Ood. Particularly Matt Smith’s. On a brighter note, Bernard Cribbins is back, which is surely a development we can all get behind. A guaranteed family treat. Feature continues