The sci-fi show, which returns later this year with Russell T Davies as showrunner, aired Christmas Day specials every year from 2005 until 2017, after which Doctor Who would air on New Year\u2019s Day instead.<\/p>\n
Chibnall, who left the show with Jodie Whittaker at the end of last year, told Radio Free Skaro<\/a> that he wanted to bring back the Doctor Who Christmas special but was discouraged by BBC bosses.<\/p>\n \u201cI know some people are really like, \u2018Why is there no Christmas special with Jodie?\u2019 as if it\u2019s like a militant policy and it was like we had a conversation at the start,\u201d he said. \u201cThe BBC was saying, \u2018There\u2019s been a lot of Doctor Who Christmas specials, there\u2019s been a lot of stories with snow in.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso a lot of their big dramas were premiering on New Year\u2019s Day\u2026 Sherlock would play there, Dracula would play there, Happy Valley plays there now. So it\u2019s like, well, let\u2019s try that the first year and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n He added that Spyfall<\/a>, a festive special that aired on New Year\u2019s Day in 2020 and saw Sacha Dhawan make his debut as The Master, was due to air on Christmas Day but was considered too frightening for the slot.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like I hate the Christmas specials,\u201d Chibnall continued. \u201cI love them! I love them. And actually Spyfall was going to go out on Christmas Day, and then it was too scary. It was the editorial policy.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso it\u2019s like, where do you put the second part? So there was a moment where that was gonna be Christmas Day \u2013 Boxing Day.\u201d<\/p> The special, which starred Sir Lenny Henry, Stephen Fry and Shobna Gulati as guest stars, followed The Doctor (Whittaker) after being enlisted by MI6 to investigate extraterrestrial attacks on intelligence agents across the world.<\/p>\n While Doctor Who hasn\u2019t aired a Christmas special in six years, Russell T Davies announced last year that he is writing one for 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n Doctor Who is available to stream on\u00a0BBC iPlayer<\/a>\u00a0with episodes of the classic series also available on BritBox \u2013 you can sign up for a\u00a07-day free trial here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Sci-Fi<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only \u00a31 with delivery to your home \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0<\/strong>The Radio Times Podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Outgoing showrunner Chris Chibnall has revealed that Jodie Whittaker almost starred in a Doctor Who special on Christmas Day. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":30891,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/doctor-who-christmas-specials-nearly-returned-in-2020-but-were-too-scary.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/doctor-who-christmas-specials-nearly-returned-in-2020-but-were-too-scary-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/doctor-who-christmas-specials-nearly-returned-in-2020-but-were-too-scary-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/doctor-who-christmas-specials-nearly-returned-in-2020-but-were-too-scary-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/doctor-who-christmas-specials-nearly-returned-in-2020-but-were-too-scary-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/doctor-who-christmas-specials-nearly-returned-in-2020-but-were-too-scary-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/doctor-who-christmas-specials-nearly-returned-in-2020-but-were-too-scary-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Outgoing showrunner Chris Chibnall has revealed that Jodie Whittaker almost starred in a Doctor Who special on Christmas Day.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/30890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/03\/19594470-lowres-doctor-who-series-12-e1cc0ed-3b1930c.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"