WHO BOY! WHAT DAY IS IT TODAY?

I wasn't at all surprised that this year's Doctor Who Christmas special was going to be based on Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol.  It was inevitable that New Who would one day pay homage to such an iconic story.  What did surprise me, however, was that it didn't occur to them to do it sooner.

During the last year of David Tennant's reign - when we all knew he was on his way out, we just didn't know how and under what circumstances (and, from reading Russell T Davies' updated A Writer's Tale, neither did he) - I was convinced they were leading up to something along the lines of...

THE DOCTOR AS SCROOGE

A huge leap, sure, but if New Who has brought anything to the series, it's the idea of laying seeds to be picked up later down the line.  In this case, just look at the similarities already inherent between the Doctor and Ebenezer Scrooge...

• both old eccentrics
• hugely powerful and influential
• prone to lengthy, self-justified rants
• loners, but either in denial of this or in constant pursuit of other precious commodities (adventure in the Doctor's case, money in Scrooge's case)

And then add to this the continuing plot elements introduced towards the end of Tennant's run...

• constant reminders of his own mortality and approaching death
• lost or pushed away all those closest to him
• corrupted by power (his command over Time itself at the end of The Waters Of Mars)
• death/rebirth due to take place at Christmas

Can you see why I was led down the wrong path?

And it wasn't for the first time, either.  I was convinced they were going to do a version of A Christmas Carol in The Next Doctor Christmas special the year before, seeing as early rumours had it featuring a new Doctor and a Victorian Christmas setting.  What's more, they had already reintroduced the concept of multiple-Doctor episodes with the Time Crash Children In Need special the year before, so it seemed perfectly logical to me that they were setting up...

THE DOCTORS OF CHRISTMAS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

After all, it's not completely out of Doctor Who's remit to have a character travelling through time and being visited by otherworldly beings or people once thought dead - it's the series' bread and butter.  What's more - bringing back past Doctors is just the sort of high-concept tabloid-fodder the series has come to embrace.  In the end, the Fifth Doctor didn't reappear and Morrissey's Doctor turned out to be a bloke with amnesia, so my theory didn't exactly pan out.  However, fast-forward a year and the concept seemed to be presenting itself again.  The Tenth Doctor was all alone, soon to face his own mortality at Christmas and, with his abusing the laws of Time in TWOM, was more malevolent and dangerous than he'd ever been.

Perhaps, I thought, they were setting up a festive visit from...

THE DOCTOR OF CHRISTMAS PAST

...who would most likely be the Fifth Doctor, seeing as he had been reintroduced a couple of years earlier.  Perhaps a more fitting past Doctor would have been a reappearance from Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor - bookending Russell T Davies' time on the series with the shared screen time of both his Time Lords - but comments made in the press by Eccelston seemed to put a kibosh on this plan.  The most interesting by far - and many a fanboy's choice - would have been the return of Paul McGann's Eight Doctor.  It is generally assumed that it is this incarnation that fought in the Time War, and so any insights into this 'lost' period would be a real boon to the series.  Would any New Who viewers have cared, though?  I doubt it.

Which leads us to...

THE DOCTOR OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT

You would assume a dual role for Tennant would be the obvious choice for this character - perhaps as the Time Lord/Human hybrid last seen living happily ever after with Rose.  This would presumably have provided a bit of tension and jealousy to the emotional mix.  However, the fanboy left-field choice would surely have been the return of...

...Georgia Moffett's Jenny, technically a clone of the Doctor (although the science is all over the place) and so would fit quite nicely into the role of Doctor Of Christmas Present.  Plus, getting Peter Davison and his real-life daughter on the same bill would be a typical New Who piece of cute casting.

And finally...

THE DOCTOR OF CHRISTMAS FUTURE

...a role you assume would have been filled by Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor.  This would have either been a stroke of genius - giving the viewers a taste of the Time Lord to come - or a complete misfire - expecting a new actor to compete against his hugely-popular, four-series strong predecessor.

A more interesting, and less tricky choice would have been to have featured a possible future incarnation of the Doctor - one left twisted and corrupted by his abuse of Time.  While there's plenty of actors I've daydreamed about filling the role (David Warner for one), I cannot think of anyone more likely to have played this part than...

...the great Peter O'Toole.  Besides his obvious acting talent and gravitas, O'Toole played an older Tennant in Davies' Cassanova and so would have been perfect casting for Davies' swansong.

Finally, the other important roles.  Jacob Marley, Scrooge's former business partner who visits him as a terrifying spirit to warn him off his current path, could only be filled by...

...The Master, fellow Time Lord and a dark mirror image of our Doctor.  Why and how he would return to warn the Doctor is another matter entirely and presumably something that would be addressed in the story's main plot.  Other characters, such as Bob Cratchit and Scrooge's nephew, would presumably be filled by past companions - especially Donna Noble - left with such a downbeat fate in need of a pleasing resolution.

As for the actual plot of the special - I'm assuming it would follow its own path but utlisise elements from the Dickens classic as and when it suited.  Other incarnations of the Doctor would presumably have come together to help drive the Tenth Doctor towards his destiny.  Some sort of choice would be have had to have been made and their influence ensured he made the right one.  Doing the right thing leads to his rebirth (both physically and metaphorically) and regeneration into the Eleventh Doctor.

Call it fanboy drivel (which, in writing it down, it has pretty much become), but all of these points were taken from seeds sown in the series itself.  This is a hypothesis based on the casting history of the series and its production team (rather than my own squee-fueled wish-list - that would form an entirely different posting altogether!).  I suppose in a parallel universe somewhere - perhaps the one where Billie Piper now resides - they watched this episode last Christmas, rather than the prolonged slush-fest we were left with.