In just one month, the yearly tradition of gathering with your loved ones and waiting for that special someone to come into your home and make your Christmas day special will occur. Yes, I’m talking about this year’s visit from the Doctor and his yearly Christmas episode. Last week, the title and trailer for the Christmas special was revealed in a memorable segment from the ‘Children in Need’ telethon. Now BBC has released 3 official photos and a synopsis for ‘The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe.’

Here’s what the official synopsis says:

“It’s Christmas Eve, 1938, when Madge Arwell comes to the aid of an injured Spaceman Angel as she cycles home, in this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special, starring Matt Smith as the Doctor.

He promises to repay her kindness – all she has to do is make a wish.

Three years later, a devastated Madge escapes war-torn London with her two children for a dilapidated house in Dorset. She is crippled with grief at the news her husband has been lost over the channel, but determined to give Lily and Cyril the best Christmas ever.

The Arwells are surprised to be greeted by a madcap caretaker whose mysterious Christmas gift leads them into a magical wintry world. Here, Madge will learn how to be braver than she ever thought possible. And that wishes can come true…”

In an interview in ‘The Brilliant Boy of Doctor Who 2011’, show runner and executive producer Steven Moffat had said of this episode which he wrote:

“This one’s incredibly Christmassy. That’s true of the previous ones but I wanted to go for broke. It’s easily the most Christmassy thing you’ll ever see. It’s a huge, sentimental, lovely, jeopardy-driven story. It’s the Christmas special I’d like to see. It’s like a compilation of every Christmas movie. A big Christmas treat. But that doesn’t mean it’s without scares, and that doesn’t mean it’s without heartbreak. It has genuine tragedy in it.”

One tragedy is that this episode will be “companion light” meaning that we really won’t be seeing much of Amy and Rory. Karen Gillan did comment about this by saying, “Amy is in the Christmas special, with her husband Rory. It’s a cameo appearance but we’re in there.” I’m thinking their cameo will be akin to what we saw in the episode ‘Doctor Who: Closing Time.’

The Christmas special is listed as 60 minutes long so I’m hoping that BBC America will air the full 60 minutes as oftentimes they cut the episode to fit in commercial breaks in the 60 minute time frame. That means US Whovians would only see about 44 minutes of the actual episode.

‘The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe’ will air on Christmas Day on BBC1 in the UK and BBC America in the US and stars Matt Smith (The Doctor), Claire Skinner (Madge Arwell), Holly Earl (Lily Arwell), Maurice Cole (Cyril Arwell), Alexander Armstrong, Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir.

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