Just as we Whovians were beginning to go through withdrawal symptoms from having no Whoniverse material on our screens, the BBC America team has come through for those of us who are Time Lord Addicts: finally, the release of the trailer for this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special, which you can view at the bottom of this post.

Rumored for a long time to be a play on a Narnia theme, the buzz has now been verified with the revelation of the special’s title – Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe. Showrunner Steven Moffat is clearly going with a formula which worked well for the previous special, a play on a classic Dickens yarn and also titled A Christmas Carol.

This year, however, the episode (directed by Farren Blackburn) will be set during the Second World War, and features Matt Smith reprising his role as the Doctor. His regular assistants are curiously absent for this adventure, but joining Smith are Claire Skinner (Bridget Jones’ Diary, Kingdom), along with a personal favorite of mine, LONG overdue for a Doctor Who appearance, Bill Bailey (Spaced, Black Books, QI).

The story outline released by the BBC states:

The caretaker, in this case, seems to be the Doctor himself, leading the family onto an intriguing and preposterous but magnificent adventure.

Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe is scheduled to air on Christmas Day on the BBC in the UK, and on BBC America in the USA. Tom Cheredar and I will record and release a TARDISblend review of the episode shortly thereafter.

Video

[Source: BBC America]