The Doctor Who Christmas special tradition is back.
Following the 60th anniversary Doctor Who specials Nov. 25, Dec. 2 and Dec. 9 starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble, the long-running British science fiction series will return to a Christmas special tradition Dec. 25 on Disney+ outside the UK with “The Church on Ruby Road.”
The three anniversary Doctor Who specials, “The Star Beast” (Nov. 25), “Wild Blue Yonder” (Dec. 2) and “The Giggle” (Dec. 9), will reunite the Fourteenth Doctor (Tennant) and Donna Temple-Noble (Tate) as they come face-to-face with their most terrifying villain yet: the Toymaker (played by Neil Patrick Harris in his Doctor Who debut).
The Christmas Day special “The Church on Ruby Road” is expected to be the first full Doctor Who episode for Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday. It’s also the first Doctor Who Christmas special since Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi’s final episode and Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker’s, “Twice Upon a Time,” in 2017.
The news of the revived Doctor Who Christmas special tradition comes on the heels of a sleigh-full of hallmark headlines surrounding the show’s 60th anniversary, including the Whoniverse iPlayer treasury of content and the colorization of the landmark 1963-64 serial “The Daleks.”
Disney+ announced the expected Fifteenth Doctor’s holiday special date along with its yuletide slate known as the Happy Holidays collection “with exclusive new Originals premiering including season two of The Santa Clauses, Dashing Through the Snow, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, and more. The collection also features your family’s annual holiday classics to stream over and over again with beloved film franchises Home Alone, the 10th anniversary celebration of Frozen, Ice Age, and The Santa Clause, alongside The Muppet Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, and Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.“
Disney+ is now the streaming home of new Doctor Who outside of the UK and Ireland.