A holiday tradition, the Doctor Who Christmas Specials actually started back in 1965 when Doctor Who took a week off from its epic Dalek Master Plan for a keystone cops caper and some light comedy. The Doctor even wished the audience a happy holiday! However, producer Russell T Davies hit upon a magical idea when he instated the yearly holiday special starting with 2005’s Christmas Invasion which also introduced viewers to the tenth incarnation of the Doctor played by David Tennant.
Six years later, fan now look forward to the special episode as a kind of Christmas gift in itself.
Guest-starring Michael Gambon, the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special looks to be something very special indeed. Written by Steven Moffat, there are very few facts known about this episode aside from it being the most ‘Christmasssy of Christmas Specials ever.’ There are rumors that it may feature the return of a classic monster called the Yeti, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Finally, a trailer has surfaced.
The new Doctor Who has been confirmed for two more series (essentially one series of 13 episodes split in half) but I have yet to hear any news of a 2012 series. There has been rumblings of Matt Smith being keen to play the Doctor for a third year, so hopefully one will lead to the other.
More as it comes…
The Daily P.O.P. 
Everything I have heard from Matt Smith (including his appearance earlier in the week on Craig Ferguson) says he is on board for several years. The question seems to be how on board the BBC is… with the split of this series into “2” series… it leads me to believe that if it doesn’t do really well, the BBC might go for less episodes in 2012. All negative speculation on my part, but the compromise for 2011 seems to point in that direction… so here’s hoping it does well!
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We’ve had a free ride for 5 years with Doctor Who being the only BBC series I know of getting 13 episodes. I’m not worried about Dr Who’s future as the Beeb have finally realized that they have a guaranteed money maker in the series. I expect it to be around for a very long time.
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Agree.. I am less worried about cancellation than in the dark days of the old series… but I am concerned that we might see less episodes per season at some point.
It would seem to me that next year is a mini-test-case for that… and as you point out, a lot of BBC shows only have 6 episode seasons… so in some ways we are spoiled with Doctor Who going for more than twice that.
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