Doctor Who: The Christmas That Almost Wasn't

Hi there! There's a lot of crap going down in the world: the tragedy in Charlottesville VA in the wake of the white supremacists march there on Saturday.  (Checking calendar; yep, it's 2017.) Idiot president making nuclear threats against North Korea and  taking military action against Venezuela? 

I think more than ever, I need my weekend Doctor Who post.
Today,  we address the tragedy that almost was but wasn't because of Steven Moffat.   

MOffat and Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi aren't quite done with the show just yet. Assuming idiot Trump hasn't blown us all up by then, we have one more special coming up for Christmas 2017.   

But that special almost didn't happen.  

The original deal was that Moffat and Capaldi would be done as of the end of Series 10.  In other words, with Episode 12, The Doctor Falls. 

But incoming producer Chris Chibnall didn't want to start is time as Doctor Who's new showrunner with a Christmas Special but with episode one of Series 11.  

This meant there would not be a Christmas Special for 2017. 

Then Steven Moffat decided that couldn't happen.  

Here's what the Moff had to say about that:   

"There was one big glitch, which was Christmas. I was going to leave at the end of series 10 -- I had my finale planned and what I wanted to do with it. I had a good notion of that. Then I learned at a drinks event somewhere that Chris didn't want to start with a Christmas, so at that point they were going to skip Christmas. . . . Doctor Who would've lost that slot if we hadn't [done a special] because Christmas Day is now so rammed. So I said, probably four glasses of red wine in, 'I'll do Christmas!' and then had to persuade Peter [Capaldi] that's how we were leaving. Then I had to work out how you could get mortally injured in one episode and spend an hour regenerating on Christmas Day, which I hopefully have done!"

Called "Twice Upon a Time," the Christmas special will feature the Twelfth and First Doctor teaming up to fix a frozen timeline, while both deal with their individual upcoming regenerations. David Bradley portrays the First Doctor and Pearl Mackie returns as Bill Potts.

So thank you, Steven Moffat, for saving Christmas for all us Whovians. 

Now if the Doctor could come along as save the world, that would be nice.