'Short Trips': 'The History of Christmas' edited by Simon Guerrier

Christmas is a time for many things. For family and old acquaintances. For giving, for receiving, for feasts and celebration. For huddling round the warmth of the fire, sheltered from the dark and the cold outside.

And the monsters.

It's also the busiest time of year for the mysterious Doctor, whether he's caught-up in the violence of ancient Rome, taking Leonardo da Vinci on a day-trip to the stars, or popping in on the very first Christmas on the moon.

Spend Christmas with the Doctor. If you dare.

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'The Lampblack Wars' by Matthew Sweet

Arriving in Victorian London on 14th December 1861 - the eve of the death of the Prince Consort - the Doctor takes Sarah to a music hall. However, their enjoyment of the various acts is soon interrupted when Sarah sees the illustration of a clown printed on the theatre’s programme suddenly come to life and ‘murder’ another character. After the Doctor resolves to investigate the firm where the programme was printed, he and Sarah learn from the owner that there has recently been a shortage of ink due to the removal of a tax levy; the two time-travellers then meet a woman named Mary Prout, who recently sold a supply of ink to the printers. A troop of travelling freaks then arrives, whose leader, Anak, the Doctor recognises as originating from the Hextacsulous Rock Belt far out in space. Anak explains that the populations of the Belt’s two neighbouring planets, Hextacsulous Blue and Hextacsulous Green, had warred for thousands of years, and eventually a weapon was used that reduced both races down to a microscopic level; when Anak’s father left the safety of his home in the Belt and discovered a pool of black liquid containing the surviving warring factions, he decided to take the liquid and keep it in a bottle as an amusement. Many years later, the bottle came into Anak’s possession, and so he decided to bring it to Earth and use it as an exhibit in his freak show; however, the bottle was stolen by Mary, who mistook it for ink and used it to make some money. When a multitude of Christmas-related ink-shapes appear and converge on the ink firm, the Doctor shows Mary that the only way to end the war and make up for her actions is to drink the ink. But instead of killing her, the two warring races resolve their conflict inside Mary’s body, leaving her with a fabulous collection of patriotic tattoos on her body; Mary decides to put her new decoration to good use, and becomes a member of the travelling freak show.

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor and Sarah

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'Home Fires' by Jonathan Blum

Christmas Eve in Australia looks to be a disaster for the citizens of Tuggeranong, as a raging bushfire threatens to burn the town to the ground. However, a mysterious man appears and instructs the residents to utilise their water supply and household electrical cabling in such as way that, combined with his strange blue hut, a localised blizzard of snow is created. This bizarre weather buys the emergency services some much-needed time, enabling them to combat the flames and save the town.

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor

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'The Feast' by Stewart Sheargold

Arriving in December in the Seventeenth-Century, the Doctor, Ben and Polly attempt to enjoy a celebratory drink in a local inn called ‘The White Rabbit’; however, they are promptly arrested by the authorities for daring to mention Christmas – a pagan festival currently banned by the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. Brought before the Lord Mayor of London, the three travellers sentenced to a term in prison, but on the way to the site of their incarceration they rescued by the pub’s landlord, who reveals himself to be the head of a druidic cult dedicated to bringing back Christmas. In the inn’s cellar, the landlord shows the Doctor the complex arrangement of mechanical devices that he and his followers have combined with alchemy and magic to summon up the spirit of Saint Nicholas; however, the Doctor realises that they have in fact called up an elemental force from another universe, which is now roaming the streets attacking the populace; it seems that by feasting on people’s belief in Christmas, the creature hopes to use the energy to return home. The Doctor offers to take the creature back to its universe in the TARDIS, but the monster refuses to trust him, and instead activates the device and proceeds to drain the druids of their faith energy. The process is interrupted by the arrival of the Mayor and his guards, who immediately beat the creature to death. The Doctor bluffs his way out of the situation, ensuring that he, his companions and the misguided druids are released.

Notes:
*Featuring the Second Doctor, Ben and Polly

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'Rome' by Marcus Flavin

While exploring ancient Rome, Tegan and Turlough tire of the Doctor’s lectures and give him the slip, only to become lost in the city’s streets. Meanwhile, the Doctor pays a visit to a nearby caupona, where he shares a drink with the owner, an ex-slave named Felix. The bar’s only other patron is a man named Thrasyllus, who reveals that he gained his interest in astrology and magic from two mysterious men who appeared to him during his travels. Tegan and Turlough encounter a wealthy dignitary, who hints that he too is a time-traveller – and then promptly takes them both prisoner. Tegan and Turlough are taken to the caupona, where they rejoin the Doctor, who instantly recognises the stranger to be a fellow Time Lord. It transpires that after becoming stuck in this period of history, the Time Lord met Thrasyllus, and, having noted the man’s savant abilities and his friendship with Tiberius, one of Rome’s most powerful leaders, he decided to set in motion a complex plan: by manipulating Thrasyllus over the years, the Time Lord hoped to instigate a chain of events that would eventually lead to the emperor losing his throne to Tiberius in a political coup. With the aid of Felix and a young street urchin, he Doctor overpowers the Time Lord and his henchmen; seeing his master thwarted, Thrasyllus makes a hasty exit, allowing the Doctor to take the Time Lord away in the TARDIS to be left with the “proper authorities”.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough

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'Set in Stone' by Charles Auchterlonie and John Isles

Shortly after Susan has left, the Doctor proposes a holiday for himself, Ian and Barbara; together they pay a visit to the Scottish village of Kilmartin, where they rent a small cottage in which to relax. On Christmas Eve, shortly after visiting the village’s museum, the Doctor astonishes his comrades by proposing that they break into Westminster Abbey and steal the famous Stone of Scone from beneath the Coronation Throne. Coerced into agreement, Ian and Barbara help the Doctor use an anti-gravity device to move the heavy object into a van and take it back to Scotland. Over the next four months, Ian and Barbara take jobs at the local school, while the Doctor works inside the TARDIS. Eventually the Doctor announces that it is time to return the Stone, and together he, Ian and Barbara take it to nearby Arbroath Abbey; unfortunately, the anti-gravity device malfunctions, causing the Stone to drop and break in two. With chronicled historical events now realised, the Doctor takes his companions into the TARDIS’s Cloister Room, where he shows them the real Stone of Scone – in fact an alien life form from the planet Micah; having identified the Stone as a psychic rock from a photo he saw in the museum, the Doctor switched it for the fake that he has spent the last few weeks constructing. The Doctor decides to leave the Stone in the TARDIS, where he, Ian and Barbara can appreciate its calming mental waves…

Notes:
*Featuring the First Doctor, Ian and Barbara

*Time-placing: immediately after Susan's departure in 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth'

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'The Thousand Years of Christmas' by Simon Bucher-Jones

The Doctor manages to move the TARDIS through space and time, hoping to take Jo to the planet Estringokl at the time of Planetfall on Christmas Eve, the greatest festival of the Famous Rift Pioneers. However, on leaving the TARDIS and making his way through a blizzard, the Doctor realises he is actually on Ossian Minima. When he originally arrived there in his first incarnation he learned that in the centre of the town stood a tree representing the renewal of nature on the planet, which the population decorated every Christmas; when the inhabitants were forced to put themselves in stasis after their planet’s orbit was altered by the eruption of its sister world Ossian Minor, a robot carried on the traditional festivities; however, when the automaton ceased to function, the Doctor promised to return each yuletide to decorate the tree himself. Recalling that his second incarnation stopped off to decorate the tree while fleeing from the Time Lords, the Doctor realises that his people have allowed him to return to continue to fulfil his promise. Sensing that an end is near, the Doctor uses the TARDIS to take him to each of the next eleven Christmases, and on his final visit the population emerge from stasis and find the tree decorated before them. The Doctor and Jo quietly slip away in the TARDIS, and the story of the decorated tree passes into legend…

Notes:
*Featuring the First, Second and Third Doctors

*Time placing: the First Doctor is travelling alone, so this fits in with the latter part of his timeline; the Second Doctor's sequence occurs during 'The War Games' part ten; the Third Doctor is in exile on Earth and still attempting to get the TARDIS working, so placing this during Season eight seem appropriate

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'Presence' by Peter Anghelides

On Christmas Day, 1975, New York is under attack by a Kellenian war fleet. Amidst the chaos of the aliens’ assault the Doctor takes time to talk to a tramp named Henry Bergson, discussing the chemistry set the man always wanted as a boy, but which his father refused to buy for him. Using this knowledge, the Doctor and his companions travel back in time to key points in Bergson’s history: the Doctor ensures the young Bergson gets his chemistry set; Ace becomes his first love, but leaves when she becomes ‘ill’; and Hex helps steer Bergson’s path into biology. Together these actions ensure that Bergson becomes the eminent scientist he was destined to become, and he and his team are able to develop a biological weapon that defeats the Kellenian menace. On Christmas Eve in 2005, the Doctor takes his friends for a meal in Times Square, and points out the benefits of their history-altering presence – before leading them off on another mission…

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex

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'Danse Macabre' by Joff Brown

Attempting to get the TARDIS working the Doctor uses an alien device to give the time / space vessel a power boost; as the ship dematerialises the Doctor sets course for the nearest massive power source – only to arrive in late-Eighteenth Century Naples. Here the Doctor attends an exclusive masked ball, where he meets an enchanting woman named Emma and her husband Lord Hamilton, before locking horns with Lord Nelson in a battle of egos. However, not everyone at the ball is in costume: several of the attendees are in fact alien creatures, and a fierce battle quickly breaks out when they reveal themselves. Realising that there a misunderstanding is occurring, the Doctor uses most of the TARDIS’s power to activate the ship’s telepathic circuits, enabling everyone in the hall to understand each other. After the fighting stops the leader of the aliens explains that they are Freemen of the House of Kark, who are searching for the source of their power, the Star of Tarris, which will return them home; it seems that this object fell through time and space, and is now being worn on a chain around Emma’s neck. The Hamiltons happily hand over the object, allowing the aliens to depart. After enjoying a drink or two with his new-found friends the Hamiltons and Nelson, the Doctor uses the last of the TARDIS’s power to return to UNIT HQ.

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor

*Time-placing: this story occurs during the Doctor's exile on Earth

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'The Church of Saint Sebastian' by Robert Smith

Arriving in Lebanon on Christmas Eve, 1199, the Doctor and Nyssa learn that buried beneath the church of St. Sebastian is an alien life form that feeds off the energy of guilt. Visiting the site they encounter a party of gypsies, who have come to the church to see the ghosts of their deceased loved ones. Realising that the alien presence is causing the congregation to see the spirits of their dearly departed, Nyssa sneaks past the guards with one of the gypsies, a young girl named Ioanna; once inside they see the spectral forms of Ioanna’s mother and Nyssa’s father Tremas. Meanwhile, the Doctor is accosted by guards and inadvertently pushed over the threshold of the church –the building immediately fills with a myriad of nightmarish apparitions, all calling out the Doctor’s name in pain and agony. Taking this to be the work of demons, the authorities burn down the church, killing the alien life form. Having escaped back to the safety of the TARDIS, a saddened Doctor tells Nyssa that whilst inside the church he foresaw the death of all the gypsies…

Notes:
*Featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa

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'The Prodigal Sun' by Matthew Griffiths

On the night before the Winter Solstice, druid Cunovellasus finds a boy from his tribe investigating the ruins of a nearby Roman temple; he is in the process of remonstrating the young Calagundus when they are interrupted by the arrival of two strangers, the Doctor and his friend Leela, who emerge from the temple just before the building collapses. The sky then lights up as bright as day, as an army of shadow men head towards them. The Doctor explains that these creatures are searching for the last surviving relic of their enemies: something called a “homing beacon”; it seems that the Doctor found the object inside the temple, but was stopped from hiding it inside his “blue hut” when the roof fell in. Luckily Calagundus is small enough to wriggle through a hole in the rubble, completing the task the Doctor began just before the army reaches them. Unable to detect the device, the shadow men depart as abruptly as they came, leaving the Doctor and Leela with the task of digging their hut free. At Leela’s suggestion Cunovellasus agrees to ask his fellow druids to help in the task – but only after the Doctor and Leela have enjoyed partaking in their Winter Solstice celebrations…

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Leela

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'Be Good For Goodness Sake' by Samantha Baker

Having kept watch on the neighbourhood for the last few weeks, burglar David Gilligan learns that one particular family will be away visiting relatives for Christmas. After they have left he breaks into their house and begins helping himself to their possessions, but is soon interrupted by the return of the family, now accompanied by a stranger named the Doctor. It seems that they found the man wandering alone at Christmas, while his friend Charley goes to a disco; the family took pity on him, and cancelled their plans in favour of offering him a place at their table. When David is spotted by one of the children he tries to make a break for the front door, but is stopped by the Doctor; however, instead of giving him away, the Doctor explains that the intruder is actually his friend “Charlie”. As the generous family set another place at the table, the Doctor surreptitiously tells David to play along with him and not to ruin the family’s Christmas; appreciating what the Doctor has done, David promises to return what he has stolen, and settles back to actually enjoy the festivities…

Notes:
*Featuring the Eighth Doctor (and Charley)

*Seeing as the Doctor and Charley are not spending Christmas together, it seems likely that this story is set early on in their travels, when their relationship is not as close as it later becomes

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'Ode to Joy' by Jonathan Clements

The Doctor arrives in the Emperor’s Garden in Tokyo, on Christmas Eve 1990. Here he meets one of the Divine, an ancient shape-shifting creature wearing first the form of a fox, and then that of an attractive young girl. Together they share a bag of jelly babies, watch a young lover propose to his girlfriend, and then listen to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony played by a nearby orchestra. The ‘fox’ is delighted to learn that through the TARDIS’ telepathic circuits she can finally understand the words of the song – as the lyrics of ‘Ode to Joy’ fill the air, the Doctor and the ‘fox’ settle back and enjoy the evening…

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor

*Time-placing: the Doctor is travelling alone and still coming to terms with Sarah's departure, so this would take place just after 'The Deadly Assassin'

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'Nobody's Gift' by Kate Orman

Thirty years ago, the Doctor thwarted an attempt by alien bonepuppets to overrun the Aztec city of Tenochtillan using a prolifically-growing weed. He was helped by a young pregnant woman, whose husband was killed in the fight; as a result, the woman gave birth prematurely, and she asked the Doctor to bond himself with the child, a boy named Tochtli – meaning ‘Nobody’ – by burying the umbilical cord on a far-distant battlefield. Some time later, the bonepuppets contact the Doctor’s Seventh incarnation and inform him that they want peace, giving him one of their seeds as a gift. Knowing that Tochtli is blessed with the gift of psychometry, the Doctor returns to Tenochtillan to ask the Aztec to ‘read’ the seed; Tochtli, now an intelligence agent for the Emperor, but posing as a merchant, is initially suspicious of the Doctor; however, after he realises that he can trust the Time Lord, he tells him that the seed indicates that the bonepuppets are lying. After thanking Tochtli, the Doctor leaves to put a stop to the aliens’ plans…

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor, and an unconfirmed previous incarnation

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'The Innocents' by Marc Platt

Looking for an intellectual equal to share his and Susan’s travels, the Doctor chooses the young Leonardo da Vinci. After many travels across time and space the three travellers arrive in ancient Bethlehem, where they save a family from a squad of soldiers, who have been ordered to kill all the first born children in the city. With the family and their donkey safely aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor and his companions then travel to London in 1961; here Leonardo takes the opportunity to learn as much as possible about the miraculous machines that he sees, but he soon becomes angry at the blasphemous way that Christmas is celebrated in this time. Leonardo takes off on a bicycle and ends up at the National Gallery, where he finds an exhibition devoted to his future work – and finally comes to realise his own mortality. The Doctor leads Leonardo back to the TARDIS, where Susan surreptitiously steals the great man’s notebook and feeds it to the donkey. Back in the bosom of his friends, Leonardo joins the Doctor, Susan and the family as they enjoy the TARDIS food machine’s equivalent of some mince pies.

Notes:
*Featuring the First Doctor and Susan

*For the first time, we learn that Susan has grandchildren of her own...

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'Comforts of Home' by Pete Kempshall

Arriving on 23rd December 1861 – during the American Civil War – the Doctor and Turlough encounter a dying man named Samuel. Elsewhere, Samuel’s wife, Charlotte, is busy defedning their house from the soldiers responsible for killing her husband. The Doctor decides to use the TARDIS to take Samuel out of his own timeline, enabling the man to be in two places at once so that he can deal with the soldiers’ unscrupulous leader. With their leader dead, the rest of the soldiers flee; choosing to ignore Turlough’s protests, the Doctor allows Samuel to stay long enough to spend one final Christmas with his wife…

Notes:
*Featuring the Fifth Doctor and Turlough

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'Christmas on the Moon' by Simon Guerrier

In the far future, the Doctor and Evelyn attend an auction of memorabilia from mankind’s history of space travel. One of the lots, a photograph of a three-man crew of astronauts, piques the Doctor’s curiosity after he notices the presence of an unidentified fourth person, and notes that it was taken with someone else holding the camera. Hoping to solve the mystery, the Doctor takes Evelyn back in time to the moonbase where the three astronauts were stationed; here they find the base under attack from a creature composed of pure thought, which manifests itself as a violent dust storm. The Doctor is able to frighten the creature off for a short time, enabling him to win over the astronauts’ trust with the help of some Christmassy food obtained using the TARDIS. When the creature then returns and begins throwing remnants from previous moon missions at the base the astronauts believe they are under siege; however, the Doctor goes outside and converses with the entity, and learns that the creature is merely lonely and looking for someone to play with. After the dust creature takes on a vaguely human shape, the Doctor persuades the astronauts to allow it into their base to share their Christmas meal; the astronauts agree, dubbing their strange new friend “Dusty”. During the ensuing drunken celebrations, the Doctor himself takes the photo of the three astronauts and their alien guest. On Boxing Day the next morning, the astronauts – now slightly the worse for wear – find that the Doctor, Evelyn and Dusty have slipped quietly away…

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn

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'The Anchorite's Echo' by Scott Andrews

In the village of Little Brockton, the superstitious parishioners wall up a young man named Paul inside their church so that he can act as their anchorite, a good luck talisman. However, not long afterwards all the villagers die of plague, leaving Paul to feel guilt at his failure to protect them. Paul eventually dies, but his spirit continues to inhabit the church for the next three hundred years. Then, one Christmas, a Demon in armour appears, kills the priest and then threatens the congregation, but is promptly stopped by the arrival of a small man who identifies himself as the Doctor. Paul speaks out, distracting the Demon and enabling the Doctor’s friend Ace to render it unconscious using a heavy incense burner. As the Doctor takes the Demon away, he tells Paul that now he has atoned for his ‘failure’, the spirit can finally be laid to rest…

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace

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'The Revolutionaries' by John S. Drew

When the TARDIS takes the Doctor and Jamie to Trenton, New Jersey, on Christmas night in 1776, the Doctor decides to pay a visit to the local garrison. However, he and Jamie are immediately taken prisoner by Hessian troops and thrown into a holding cell, where they encounter Edward and Stephanie, a married couple from the Thirtieth Century who have booked a journey back in time to help with their vocation as history teachers. Another prisoner is then brought back from interrogation and placed in the cell along with them – none other than George Washington, captured after his troops’ recent attack on the garrison went disastrously wrong. Realising that the course of history is at risk, the Doctor tricks the Hessian soldiers into believing that their prisoners are not a threat, and encourages them to relax their guard and partake of some festive cheer. When the soldiers have drunk their fill, the Doctor frees his fellow prisoners, and together with the teachers Washington liberates his troops and takes over the garrison. With history back on course, Edward and Stephanie return to their own time, while the Doctor and Jamie join the British soldiers’ in their celebrations.

Notes:
*Featuring the Second Doctor and Jamie

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'The Gift' by Robert Dick

While his wife Doris does some last minute Christmas shopping, retired General Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart decides to ‘open’ his present of a speedboat early. However, while sailing the vessel on a nearby lake Alistair discovers a young girl lying unconscious in the water; he brings her aboard and takes her home, where Doris is about to call the emergency services when an old man appears at their door asking for his granddaughter Susan. Alistair instantly recognises the man as his old friend the Doctor - although an earlier incarnation that has not yet met him in his timeline. Alistair takes him to Susan, reassuring the old man that she has recovered from her ordeal and is now asleep. As he Doctor shares the Lethbridge-Stewarts’ hospitality Alistair carefully avoids any references to the old man’s future; at one point in the conversation Doris reveals that she is frightened of her husband’s natural tendency to look for action and adventure; the Doctor urges Alistair to sell the boat, but the general objects to being told what to do, and indignantly storms out. The Doctor reveals to Doris that he knows who her husband really is, and hints that the boat has something to do with his death; although he refuses to go into further detail, the old man reassures her that when the time comes, he and his other selves attend Alistair’s funeral, taking care of the proceedings and even acting as pallbearers. Doris is comforted by this knowledge, although she suspects that she will not be there for the ceremony. Some time later, after the Doctor has left with Susan and returned to the TARDIS, Alistair returns home, where he and his wife contentedly see in Christmas Day together…

Notes:
*Featuring the First Doctor and Susan

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'Callahuanca' by Richard Salter

When her father passes away, nine year-old Ana Maria Carla Perez de Clalixtro promises to visit his grave in Callahuanca every Christmas Day. In 1958, on her latest visit to the cliff-side cemetery, Ana encounters a strange man called “el Médico” and a woman who appears to be her grandmother; the two of them exchange pleasantries with the young girl, and then disappear in a mysterious blue tomb. Every year Ana meets the duo at her father’s grave on each Christmas morning; however, on the eleventh such occasion Ana finds only el Médico, who denies ever having met her grandmother. A sudden earthquake interrupts them: as the graveyard crashes down into the sea, el Médico manages to avoid the same fate by holding onto the cliff edge, and he is saved by Ana and her donkey. When Ana sadly observes that she will no longer be able to keep her promise, the Doctor offers to help by returning for her in forty years’ time, when Ana will look much different; Ana is puzzled – until she realises that it wasn’t her grandmother that she has been seeing all these years…

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor

*Time-placing: the Doctor is travelling alone, so this takes place between 'The Deadly Assassin' and 'The Face of Evil'

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'Not in My Back Yard' by Eddie Robson

Having rescued political dissident Ayfai from execution, the Doctor takes her to the haven of Cheldon Bonniface, where he believes she will be able to live in safety. Arriving on Christmas Eve in 2017, they learn from Goilin the postman – in fact a renowned Raltean soldier now in exile on Earth – that the public now sees aliens as a nuisance, and the outcry against extraterrestrials staying on Earth has resulted in the imminent closure of the nearby Offworld Asylum and Settlement Centre. Reunited with many of his old friends, including General Lethbridge-Stewart, Ishtar and the Reverend Annie Trelaw, the Doctor attempts to show Ajfai a traditional Christmas celebration and church service – held inside Saul, the village’s sentient church. However, things soon turn into a debacle when Goilin gets into a drunken brawl in front of a visiting reporter, something that will not help human-alien relations. Not long after, a fleet of Chelbil scavenger spaceships appears over England; when the fleet homes in on the TARDIS Ishtar manages to hold them at bay with her powers; meanwhile, the Doctor rigs up a communication system and instructs Goilin to speak with the Chelbils. After the postman’s prior reputation as a great warrior sends the alien fleet running, the Doctor uses humanity’s new-found gratitude as a means of ensuring that the Centre stays open. He then meets his Seventh incarnation who reveals that he was also about to deal with the alien fleet; as his previous incarnation departs, the Doctor rejoins his friends in their Christmas celebrations…

Notes:
*Featuring the Eighth and Seventh Doctors and Ayfai

*Time-placing: the Doctor mentions that his hair has gone a little grey, so I'm choosing to place this towards the end of his timeline

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'She Won't Be Home' by Joseph Lidster

Sad at the departure of another of his companions, the Doctor arrives on a Festulasion ship on Christmas Day; here he decides to seek solace in a festive drink and some nibbles, only to discover that the bar snacks are human toes! The Doctor immediately decides to put a stop to this Festulasion fancy, and he takes the TARDIS to the aliens’ base on Earth, located at a taxi rank. Amongst the people waiting here for a cab is Linda Grainger, a young woman also having a bad Christmas after being dumped by her boyfriend and abducted by a toe-fancying taxi-driver; as the Doctor arrives the cabbie and the woman in charge of the rank reveal themselves to be Festulasions in disguise; they lock the door and then heard the terrified humans into the back room, where they prepare to cut off everyone’s toes. The Doctor creates a distraction, allowing some of the people to escape, but leaving himself and Linda at the mercy of the Festulasions; however, when one of the creatures inadvertently steps on some broken glass and cuts off its own toe, the Doctor and Linda look on as another toe grows take its place. When the Doctor and Linda point out to the aliens that humans do not share this ability, the Festulasions are horrified to learn the implications of their actions. Having returned the aliens to their ship, the Doctor offers Linda the chance to join him in his travels; with her appreciation for life now restored, Linda instead chooses to spend Christmas with her family.

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor

*Time-placing: the companion who has just left the Doctor is most likely to be Evelyn, so I'm placing this immediately after her Big Finish stories

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'Saint Nicholas's Bones' by Xanna Eve Chown

While Jamie sleeps in the TARDIS, the Doctor takes Victoria on some unfinished business in Myra. Arriving at Christmas time, in the year 1087, the two of them wait in a pub near Saint Nicholas’s church; the Doctor tells Victoria that seven hundred years ago, his friend the Bishop of Myra – who later became the legendary figure of Santa Claus – was buried at the church, and the resting place of his bones has been a site for pilgrims ever since. Meanwhile, a gang of Italian sailors arrives at the church, demanding that the bones be removed from their heathen location and taken back to Bari for a Christian burial; as the helpless monks look on, the men smash open the tomb and make off with the holy relics. Back at the pub, the Doctor meets some of the sailors’ comrades and manages to learn where their ship is docked; making his way there, the Doctor creates a distraction that enables Victoria to swap Saint Nicholas’s bones for plastic ones taken from a medical skeleton. With the holy relics now safely back in the TARDIS, the Doctor decides to bury his old friend at the apt location of the North Pole…

Notes:
*Featuring the Second Doctor and Victoria

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'The Long Midwinter' by Philip Purser-Hallard

The TARDIS takes the Doctor, Gemma and Samson millions of years into the future to Yesod, a brown-dwarf star that shares its binary system with the sun Tiphereth. Donning protective spacesuits, the Doctor and his companions encounter Yesod’s inhabitants, multi-limbed creatures that exist in the planet’s inhospitable atmosphere in a gigantic organic structure known as the World Tree; the Yesodians welcome the travellers, and invite them to join them in celebrating the Midwinter Festival – their equivalent of Christmas. While Gemma and Samson enjoy the aliens’ hospitality, the Doctor meets the oldest Yesodian, Heskiu, and learns that the aliens are descended from the original human settlers; it seems that Yesod is slowly cooling, and although its heat would instantly vaporise the Doctor and his friends, the Yesodians find it unbearably cold, and have therefore adapted to their situation by changing themselves into the components of a giant solar conductor – the World Tree itself, which is used to channel heat from the second star, Tiphereth. Heskiu fears that his race will eventually die, but the Doctor observes that as they continue to join the Tree, the structure will ultimately grow to reach the surface of Tiphereth, enabling the Yesodians to live on by settling there.

Notes:
*Featuring the Eighth Doctor, Gemma and Samson

*Time-Placing: The Doctor is travelling with Gemma and Samson, the two companions referred to in Terror Firma, which places this at the start of his Eighth incarnation’s travels

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Publication Date:
December 2005


Notes:
*Published by Big Finish