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Airdate: Doctor Who 2008 Xmas Special

It's almost a fastrack. ABC will screen the 2008 Xmas special of Doctor Who a month after it airs in the UK.

In a break with their usual programming, ABC will screen the 2008 xmas special of Doctor Who just one month after it airs in the UK.

Previously the specials have taken up to nine months to screen, frequently as a lead in the the next series.

In “The Next Doctor”, the Doctor meets a fellow time traveller played by actor David Morrissey (pictured).

While it still won’t be fast enough for diehard Who fans, the special which airs next week in the UK will screen at 7:30pm Sunday January 25 on ABC1.

Press Release:
In the highly anticipated 2008 Christmas special Doctor Who: The Next Doctor, it’s Christmas Eve, 1851, and Cybermen stalk the snow of Victorian London.

When the Doctor (David Tennant) arrives and starts to investigate a spate of mysterious deaths, he’s surprised to meet another Doctor (David Morrissey) – and soon, the two must combine forces to defeat the ruthless Miss Hartigan. But are two Doctors enough to stop the rise of the CyberKing?

24 Responses

  1. Maybe ABC online will have to Audio in a month.

    I just watch it and while not the best xMas special I liked it, now we have a 3 month wait for the Easter special, this year is going to be hard of Doc Who and David T fans.

  2. For those who chooses not to wait for the ABC broadcast of the upcoming Christmas special, the online audio commentary for it will be on BBC7 on December 28 (UK time).

    Just go to the BBC7 site and go to the Programmes tab to look for Doctor Who: The Commentaries that is if it isn’t displayed on its home page.

    It is available for one week after its initial broadcast which means it will already be gone from there by the time the Christmas special comes on ABC1.

  3. As was shown with the recent Wallace and Gromit short film, having The Next Doctor scheduled a month after its first broadcast is perhaps not quick enough to stop a lot of people from watching by a method other than broadcast television.

    Perhaps it would have been more feasible for it to be shown a week or two after the UK broadcast.

  4. It’s about time the ABC finally fasttracked Doctor Who.

    It is too bad Nickelodean isn’t doing the same with The Sarah Jane Adventures season 2 as they are only spin-off episodes not to have been shown yet on Australian TV which had their original airings in the UK prior to the upcoming Doctor Who special.

  5. Yay we win .. almost!
    That is very good news … definitely not fast enough for the fans but a very smart move by the ABC which will hopefully mean that it will only be a small delay between the other four “specials” for 2009 being aired here after their UK screenings throught the year!

    It looks like a great episode and the previews have been very positive …

    There will of course be reviews and spoilers in the next edition of Sonic Screwdriver magazine from the Dr Who Club of Vic due out second week of Jan … (thanks to UK members) …
    Jack!

  6. Woo hoo! Thank you David K for giving me this early Christmas present! As a devoted fan of the Doctor Who franchise I was worrying we would have to wait that lengthy 6-9 month time period that we usually get. Now I just have to avoid spoiler articles for 25 days, easy! Can’t wait to see it, I love both Davids having watched them together in Blackpool and I’m sure it will be a cracker of an episode!

  7. Good they’ve brought the Oz screening of the Xmas Special forward from the end of June however I’m sure that plenty will have seen it beforehand somehoww….

    But thanks for the early Xmas present!

  8. Just… one month!! A Christmas special at the end of January! Awesome! That should stop the fans from downloading it!

    They may as well have waited until July as usual. I mean… it’s Doctor Who for hell’s sake. 90% of its audience will download it if it’s not on air the next day. Not just the die-hards, either. I’m trying to think of a single one of my many friends who are fans of the show that’d be happy to wait a month rather than just grab a CD-Rom from a mate. Hmm. No. Not one.

    I know this gets asked every year but… why can’t the ABC just put this on on Boxing Day? It’s not like they have anything better on, after all!

  9. 1 month is better than showing it in June but it’s still a month, many local fans will not be waiting around while their friends online talk about the latest special.

    I wonder if it will be the same for the other specials in 2009?

  10. It’s probably because there isn’t an official *series* next year, just 4 more specials featuring David Tennant. I suspect that due to this, the ABC will be showing the specials fairly shortly after their UK airings. That is, no point waiting until mid year when the series has nearly finished airing in the UK, because in 2009, there is no actual series.

    Bring on 2010 with a new series and a new Doctor!

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