"The one, the only, and the best!"

David Morrissey, as miffed as I am that he isn't the next Doctor...

It's been three years now since the first ever Doctor Who Christmas Special introduced us to a new Doctor, and here we are, three years on being introduced to The Next Doctor. Sort of, but more of that in a minute.

It's interesting to note that last years Christmas special; The Voyage of the Damned was the first time that Nu-Who left me cold. I just didn't get it, Kylie Minogue was nothing more than a bit of stunt casting whose character was barely fleshed out. (A quick look at RTD's brilliant book; The Writers Tale has him admit that having Kylie on the show made him lazy when it came to characterisation, surely the casting coup is enough?) I didn't really care about the plot, George Costigan was hammy in a way we hadn't seen since Paul Darrow in Timelash and the Queen! Oh the Queen.

But I rather feel that, up until this year, I forgot the point of these Christmas specials. You see, a Christmas episode of Doctor Who, more than ever, is about entertainment. Around 13 million people tuned into Voyage of the Damned and those are the sorts of figures that, in this multi channel age, are not to be sniffed at. So with the mission statement of entertaining as many people as possible for 60 minutes, let's look at this years effort.

I'm going to put my cards on the table straight off; I loved this story, absolutely loved it. But why did I love it?

Davids Tennant and Morrissey primarily, their chemistry sparkled on screen as the "Two Doctors" the scenes between them trying to figure out what was going on were a joy to behold as each man tried to suss the other one out. Was Morrissey a future incarnation? Well of course he wasn't, and I must admit the moment the infostamps were brought out, I pretty much guessed how exactly David Morrissey was the Doctor. That said, when he was playing a caracature of the Doctor, he was spot on, all heroics and bluster and when he eventually reverted back to his true self, he broke my heart. Although again, dead wife and kidnapped son a smidge obvious but hey, we're all a bit sluggish after the turkey and Quality St to quibble right?

Speaking of plot, it seemed slightly odd that once the whole next Doctor storyline settled down, the Cyberman plotline kicked into gear. Of course it had been a constant presence up to that point but there was still very much the sense that these were two plots knocking around in RTD's head that he decided to cobble together.

And actually, whilst we're on the subject of Cybermen, is it just me or would it not have been easier, script-wise to have our universe's Cybermen in Victorian London with some time travel technology? It would've saved us from the rather bizarre plot point involving Cybermen and Daleks floating around in the void nicking stuff off each other. I'd have much rather RTD did away with all that and just gave us the standard alien invasion plot that was ticking away underneath all the wonderful next Doctor stuff.

And this brings us to The Next Doctor's ace in the hole, the Cyber-King! And kudos to The Mill because it looked incredible.

That sound you hear is Character Options rubbing their hands together...

Of course, it was utterly insane, but this is what RTD era Who does so well. I would've settled for the Cybermen enlisting a bunch of workhouse children to build a giant Cyber-King to invade Victorian London without any of that holes in the universe, nicking stuff off the Daleks exposition.

In summary then, The Next Doctor not only managed to entertain as many people as possible, but it chucked in a lot of nice nods and references (I'm looking at you 10 Doctors montage!) for us diehard fanboys who haven't been won round by the Christmas episodes in the past.For my money The Next Doctor is the most exciting, most entertaining, most bloody Christmassy Christmas Special we've had yet. The only bad thing is that we've only got 4 hours of the wonderful David Tennant left....