Black Mirror: White Christmas
by Charlie Brooker; dir. Carl Tibbetts (BBC, 2014)
The grimmest of Christmas specials, leavened only by Jon Hamm’s used-car salesman vibe as three flashback stories twist into barbed wire. Oona Chaplin conveys the potential horror of relative time in a virtual environment, paving the way for Rafe Spall’s unravelling denouement.
Doctor Who: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
by Steven Moffat; dir. Farren Blackburn (BBC, 2011)
“This hammock has developed a fault.” With his childlike enthusiasms and underlying vulnerability, the Eleventh Doctor is tailor-made for holiday specials. This one is a near-perfect concoction of whimsy, adventure and rousing Christmas miracle. Holly Earl and Matt Smith are both brilliant.
Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road
by Russell T. Davies; dir. Mark Tonderai (BBC, 2023)
Davies scripts a bonhomous if heavy-handed, found-family Christmas special that rattles along while re-treading old ground (his own Whoeuvre plus a sing-and-dance tribute to Labyrinth). Ncuti Gatwa takes the Doctor’s zest for life and channels it into a more tactile, people-friendly persona.
Eureka: O Little Town
Eureka: O Little Town
A relatively sedate and sentimental episode, more festive than frenetic. In this instance the threat to Eureka is due to the unfortunate concatenation of Taggart’s designing technology to validate Santa and Vincent’s trying on-the-sly to restore the good name of Christmas fruitcake.
Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor
by Steven Moffat; dir. Jamie Payne (BBC, 2013)
Ending Matt Smith’s tenure with a Christmas special was a brave choice, but one that pays off. The story is chaotic and full of holes, yet Smith himself is quite brilliant as the ancient but ever-young-at-heart friend of children. A fitting farewell.
Warehouse 13: Secret Santa
by Bob Goodman; dir. Jack Kenny (Syfy, 2010)
A nicely sentimental Christmas special, light-hearted but with stirring undertones. Myka and Pete must save an absent father whose right to exist is being judged by Santa. Claudia reunites Artie with his estranged dad… by telling each that the other is dying!
Warehouse 13: The Greatest Gift
(Syfy, 2011)
Warehouse 13 pays Christmas homage to Philip Van Doren Stern’s short story ‘The Greatest Gift’ (adapted in film as It’s a Wonderful Life). The character reset allows for humorous reintroductions and contrast nostalgia, lending this deadly serious adventure a fun, festive feel.
Danger Mouse: Merry Christmouse
(CBBC, 2015-2016)
Seven episodes from the 2015 reboot, headed by the double-length Christmas Special ‘The Snowman Cometh’. Nostalgia aside, Danger Mouse remains a relentlessly fast-moving and funny, self-aware cartoon comedy. Clever, well-layered SF action scripts often lurk amidst the throwaway jokes and visual humour.
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries: Murder Under the Mistletoe
(ABC, 2013)
It’s hard to imagine this Christmas special—broadcast only a month after series two ended—warranted a separate DVD release. Though themed around Christmas (in July), its only real point of departure is to embroil Miss Fisher in a closed circle mystery.
Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time
by Steven Moffat; dir. Rachel Talalay (BBC, 2017)
The Christmas special has some touching performances (Mark Gatiss) and ends on a high with Jodie Whittaker’s first scene, yet for the most part spends too much time prepping the audience for the handover and trying—quite shamelessly—to manipulate our emotions.