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by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop), the show has formed a part of many a childhood spent growing up watching the Styrofoam aliens and men wearing ridiculous outfits that look like they've been left over in a charity shop.

Nowadays, with two successful series having been aired under the stewardship of Russell T Davies and top notch acting in the shape of Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Billie Piper having played the lead roles, Doctor Who is, once again, a global force to be reckoned with albeit marred by the recent rumour that the latest Doctor David Tennant is to quit during Series 4. Such is the turnaround that the programme won a BAFTA Award for Best Drama Series in 2006. Series 3 looks exciting with the daleks in the mix yet again and a new companion for the mercurial Time Lord to deal with. So with all this good news for the franchise, does the now established annual Christmas Special fit the spec and is it strictly necessary?

For those that can recall, the 2005 Christmas Special involved the new Doctor's prolonged recuperation having just regenerated from his last incarnation. With David Tennant flopping around in bed or stumbling about in pyjamas, the evil Santa Clauses charged around London causing chaos along with a whirling Christmas tree wrecking a perfectly good, London flat. As the plot thickened, the unsightly Sycorax appeared and threatened the planet (of course) which the Doctor fended off in a personal duel with one of the said aliens having finally regenerated after looking a bit ill for the majority of the show. It was all very contrived, barmy and completely out of context with the rest of an excellent series of Doctor Who (probably the best ever, in fact). So could the next Chrimbo Special do any better? Wellerm.

The 2006 Christmas Special was called "The Runaway Bride" and had a plotline about a bride being pulled from the altar and into the TARDIS during her wedding ceremony. With Catherine Tate playing the bride, the script was deliberately pitched full of witticisms to add a large dose of humour to the story. With observations about Donna - the bride to be- not noticing the huge alien space craft hovering over London last Christmas because she had been on holiday scuba diving, Tate got to reprise her "am I bovvered" look throughout the special. The evil Santas were back in more numbers than the previous year and with a bigger role along with yet more malevolent Christmas trees and a giant alien spider in the shape of Sarah Parish

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