Doctor Who returns to BBC One for a Christmas special and a brand new series, starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor alongside Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill as his companions Amy and Rory.
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Christmas 2010 Special: ‘A Christmas Carol’
Saturday 25th December 2010, 6pm
> Read our post-transmission review.
It’s the deepest part of winter, the exact midpoint, Christmas Eve – halfway out of the dark. Amy and Rory are trapped on a stricken space liner that’s plummeting through banks of thick icy fog to the surface of the planet below.
Only one man has the power to save them; only one man is in possession of a machine that can clear the fog and let them land safely. That man is Kazran Sardick, a rich but lonely old miser who rules Sardicktown with a sky-mast of iron.
The Doctor’s only chance of rescuing the ship’s four thousand passengers is to save Kazran’s soul and show him that life is worth living. For this he needs to go back, way back, to when Kazran was a boy with a life full of promise. But can the Doctor put a song in Kazran’s heart and love in his life, in time for Christmas? Can he bring him out of the dark?
Episode 1: ‘The Impossible Astronaut’
Saturday 23rd April 2011, 6pm
> Read our post-transmission review.
Four envelopes, numbered 2, 3 and 4, each containing a date, time and map reference, unsigned, but TARDIS blue. Who sent them? And who received the missing number one? This strange summons reunites the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River Song in the middle of the Utah desert and unveils a terrible secret the Doctor’s friends must never reveal to him.
Placing his life entirely in their hands, the Doctor agrees to search for the recipient of the fourth envelope – just who is Canton Everett Delaware the Third? And what is the relevance of their only other clue: ‘Space 1969’? Their quest lands them – quite literally – in the Oval Office, where they are enlisted by President Nixon himself to assist enigmatic former-FBI agent Canton, in saving a terrified little girl from a mysterious spaceman.
Episode 2: ‘Day Of The Moon’
Saturday 30th April 2011, 6pm
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> Read our post-transmission review.
The Doctor is locked in the perfect prison. Amy, Rory and River Song are being hunted down across America by the FBI. With the help of new friend and FBI-insider, Canton Everett Delaware the Third, our heroes are reunited to share their discoveries, if not their memories. For the world is occupied by an alien force who control humanity through post-hypnotic suggestion and no one can be trusted.
Aided by President Nixon and Neil Armstrong’s foot, the Doctor must mount a revolution to drive out the enemy and rescue the missing little girl. No-one knows why they took her. Or why they have kidnapped Amy Pond…
Episode 3: ‘The Curse Of The Black Spot’
Saturday 7th May 2011, 6.15pm
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The TARDIS is marooned onboard a 17th-century pirate ship whose crew is being attacked by a mysterious and beautiful sea creature. Becalmed and beset by cabin fever, the pirates have numerous superstitious explanations for the Siren’s appearance.
The Doctor has other ideas but, as his theories are disproved and every plan of escape is thwarted, he must work to win the trust of the implacable Captain Avery and uncover the truth behind the pirates’ supernatural fears – and he must work quickly, for some of his friends have already fallen under the Siren’s spell…
Episode 4: ‘The Doctor’s Wife’
Saturday 14th May 2011, 6.30pm
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> Read our post-transmission review.
The Doctor receives a distress signal from an old friend. Could there really be another living Time Lord out there? Hopes raised, he follows the signal to a junkyard planet sitting upon a mysterious asteroid in a Bubble universe, populated by a very strange family.
The Doctor, Amy and Rory are given the warmest of welcomes by Auntie, Uncle and Nephew. But the beautiful and insane Idris greets them in a more unusual fashion – what is she trying to tell the Doctor? As the Doctor investigates, he unwittingly puts his friends in the gravest danger.
Episode 5: ‘The Rebel Flesh’
Saturday 21st May 2011, 6.45pm
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A solar tsunami sends the TARDIS hurtling towards a futuristic factory on Earth, where human doppelgangers are used to mine dangerous acid. A second wave hits and the “Gangers” separate. They can remember every second of their “original’s” life and feel every emotion they’ve ever experienced. But are these memories stolen or have they been bequeathed?
Are the Gangers merely faulty machinery that must be shut down or are they living, breathing, sentient beings? Can the Doctor convince the terrified humans to accept these “almost people” and prevent an all-out civil war before the factory explodes?
Episode 6: ‘The Almost People’
Saturday 28th May 2011, 6.45pm
> Read our post-transmission review.
As the solar storm rages, Jennifer, a Ganger driven mad by the memories of being “decommissioned”, is seeking revenge. She can remember every excruciating second of every “execution” and is determined that the humans will pay. And she isn’t just talking war; she’s talking revolution.
As the crumbling factory fills with toxic fumes and drips lethal acid, the “Originals” wait desperately for the shuttle from the Mainland to rescue them. But Jennifer has other ideas. Can the Doctor convince the terrified factory workers to embrace their own humanity and work together with their Gangers to overcome a monster of their own making?
Episode 7: ‘A Good Man Goes To War’
Saturday 4th June 2011, 6.40pm
> Read our post-transmission review.
Amy Pond has been kidnapped and the Doctor is raising an army to rescue her. But as he and Rory race across galaxies, calling in long-held debts and solemnly given promises, his enemies are laying a carefully concealed trap.
In her cell in Stormcage, River Song sadly acknowledges that the time has come at last – today will mark the Battle of Demons Run and the Doctor’s darkest hour. Both sides will make their sacrifices and River Song must finally reveal her most closely guarded secret to the Doctor.
Episode 8: ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’
Saturday 27th August 2011, 7.10pm
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> Read our post-transmission review.
In the desperate search for Melody Pond, the TARDIS crash lands in Thirties Berlin. The Doctor comes face to face with the greatest war criminal in the Universe. And Hitler.
Old friendships are tested to their limits as the Doctor suffers the ultimate betrayal and learns a harsh lesson in the cruellest warfare of all. As precious time ebbs away, the Doctor must teach his adversaries that time travel has responsibilities. And he must succeed before an almighty price is paid.
Episode 9: ‘Night Terrors’
Saturday 3rd September 2011, 7pm
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> Read our post-transmission review.
The Doctor receives a distress call from the scariest place in the Universe: a child’s bedroom. Every night George lies awake, terrorised by every fear you can possibly imagine – fears that live in his bedroom cupboard. His parents are getting desperate – George needs a doctor.
Fortunately for George, his desperate pleas for help break through the barriers of all time and space and the Doctor makes a house call. But allaying his fears won’t be easy; because George’s monsters are real.
Episode 10: ‘The Girl Who Waited’
Saturday 10th September 2011, 7.15pm
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Amy is trapped in a quarantine facility for victims of an alien plague – a plague that will kill the Doctor in a day. The Doctor can use the TARDIS to smash through time and break in, but then Rory is on his own.
He must find Amy and bring her back to the TARDIS before the alien doctors can administer their medicine. Rory is about to encounter a very different side to his wife. Can he rescue Amy before she is killed by kindness?
Episode 11: ‘The God Complex’
Saturday 17th September 2011, 7.10pm
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The TARDIS lands in what looks like an ordinary hotel. But the walls move, corridors twist and rooms vanish.
There is a room for every visitor that contains their deepest, darkest fears. Fears that will kill them. What lies in the Doctor’s room? And when his turn comes, will he welcome death like all the rest?
Episode 12: ‘Closing Time’
Saturday 24th September 2011, 7.10pm
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In the last few days of his life, the Doctor pays a farewell visit to his old friend Craig, and encounters a mystery.
People are going missing, a silver rat scuttles in the shadows of a department store, and somewhere close by the Cybermen are waiting…
Episode 13: ‘The Wedding of River Song’
Saturday 1st October 2011, 7.05pm
> Read our post-transmission review.
As the Doctor makes his final journey to the shores of Lake Silencio in Utah, he knows only one thing can keep the universe safe – his own death. But has he reckoned without the love of a good woman?