Step Into Christmas

“GOOD KING WENCESLAS LOOKED OUT ON THE FEAST OF STEPHEN?”

We all know that Doctor Who and Christmas are inextricably linked, probably. But here are some slight thoughts on the show’s relationship with the holiday, to noodle past with a glass while waiting for Joy to the Worlds to start.

The Feast of Steven (1965), twentieth century Doctor Who’s only Christmas episode owes its title to a misapprehension. Writer Terry Nation thought companion Steven Taylor’s name was “Stephen”. Like the Saint whose feast day is, well, the day after Christmas, actually. Near the end of this joyfully plotless comedy the Doctor meets (an actor playing) Bing Crosby. Contemporary viewers could play spot-the-difference with the real Crosby an hour later. He was the star of that night’s BBC Christmas film premiere, The Road to Bali (1952). It almost seems deliberate.

What was deliberate, and entirely baffling, was the absence of Daleks from The Feast of Steven, despite it being the seventh episode of a twelve part Dalek serial. At the height of what later dubbed Dalekmania, with many a Dalek toy already unwrapped, or waiting under the tree to be discovered, producer John Wiles took a look at the schedule and thought “Nah”.