Doctor Who #1067: The Doctor and the Reindeer

"I love getting Christmas presents, although I'm always slightly disappointed when they're not bigger on the inside."

TECHNICAL SPECS: First aired Dec.4 2009. Available on YouTube.

IN THIS ONE...
The Tenth Doctor gets reindeer to free his TARDIS from a snowbank.

REVIEW: Despite my synopsis, he really does the work himself (see Versions). This is just a fun BBC1 Christmas ident (or 6) that has Ten find his TARDIS half-buried in snow, and decides to press-gang nearby reindeer so he can turn the time machine into Santa's sleigh. It's quick, it's bright, and it doesn't even need dialog. Tennant just arches an eyebrow, cracks a grin, and we're off to the races. We should imagine the TARDIS' field is allowing the animals to run on air, and that the Doctor can "speak reindeer" and gotten their consent.

Doc11 would steal the schtick in A Christmas Carol (no TARDIS and a shark), but it would get any more Christmassy than this very short story.

VERSIONS: In reality, the campaign also had five extra 5-second "stings". Three teased the main action (the Doctor shovelling, a reindeer snuffling the camera, his coat on the shovel), and two were quick Merry Christmas messages with TARDIS/time travel jokes. This is where the "story" almost loses canonicity, until you remember a similar message in-canon in "The Feast of Steven".

REWATCHABILITY: Medium -
Amusing fluff, but it was great that BBC1 celebrated Doctor Who like this at NuWho's peak of popularity.

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