Wednesday 16 March 2022

The Doctor Who Christmas Special 2021

As you well know, each year since Doctor Who lost the Christmas Day slot, I've had a go at creating my own Christmas-themed episode. I've done three so far and the running gag sadly shows no sign of flagging.

2021 posed a little bit of a problem as it was post-Flux and would've been one of the final episodes for Jodie Whittaker. In the end, I put something to together that featured the thirteen Doctor teaming up with the fugitive Doctor for a 'What If?' style tale. 

'Whatever Became of Christmas?' sees the Doctor returning to Earth to celebrate the festive season with her friends. However, when she exits the TARDIS she discovers that despite it being Saturday 25 December 2021, the shops are open, there's no decorations up and nobody has heard of Christmas. As stumbles around Sheffield, her actions are being watched... But by who? 

Here's a Radio Times cover previewing the episode. The series also used to have an RT cover in the run-up to the double issue and heralded their preview of the rest of the festive telly delights and Mrs Brown's Boys. Folks seem to have been fascinated by my choice of colour for Jodie's T-shirt. I put her in a green one for the second special simply to differentiate her from earlier choices and it seems to have stuck for the following specials. This time I've paired it with a deep red coat to contrast with it. This allowed the Doctor to have a Christmassy colour scheme to her look (red and green) to contrast against the lack of colour in the Xmas-less Sheffield. 



Here's the RT billing for Christmas Day. Again the running gag of the special preceding Call the Midwife is played out again. This time it's a football version of the popular family drama. The synopsis is a bit long-winded for the Radio Times but it gets across the plot. 









And finally the Blu ray cover which for some reason I always seem to complete first.







As a bonus, I've also done textless versions of both pieces of art. 












Heaven only knows what I'm to do for the 2022 Christmas special. It will be post-regeneration and chances are the Doctor will still be faceless before their debut in 2023... Ho, hum! It keeps you on your toes does Doctor Who!


If you've enjoyed the images in this post* then you might like to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee via my Ko-fi page. The link is here!


* I say "images" as my writing seems to be long-winded and rambling again. And it trickles off towards the end. Buy a coffee for the pretty pictures but not the writing bit. Hate writing... and it shows.