The Next Doctor
"The Next Doctor" is a special episode of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, broadcast on 25 December 2008 as the fourth Doctor Who Christmas special of the revived series.[3] During its original airing, the episode had an audience of 13.1 million viewers[4] and was the second-most-watched programme of Christmas Day 2008.[5] It was the final Doctor Who episode to be filmed in standard definition.
199 – "The Next Doctor"
David Tennant stars as the Tenth Doctor with one-off companions Jackson Lake (David Morrissey) and Rosita Farisi (Velile Tshabalala).[6][7] The episode is set in London during the Christmas period of 1851. In the episode, the Doctor teams up with a man who appears to be another incarnation of himself; in their quest to foil a plot by the Cybermen to create a giant Cyberman called a CyberKing under the control of workhouse matron Miss Hartigan (Dervla Kirwan), the two inadvertently discover that the "new" Doctor is actually Jackson Lake, a regular human who began suffering from amnesia and believing himself to be the Doctor after interacting with Cyberman technology.
Broadcast[edit]
Preliminary figures show that the episode had a viewing audience of 11.71 million during its original airing, with a peak at 12.58 million viewers, and a 50.5% share of the 18:00 timeslot it was shown. It was the second most watched programme of Christmas Day 2008, behind Wallace and Gromit's A Matter of Loaf and Death.[5] Final viewing figures show an audience of 13.1 million viewers.[4]
The episode had an Appreciation Index figure of 86 (considered Excellent), making it the second most-enjoyed programme on mainstream television on Christmas Day. The only programme to score higher was A Matter of Loaf and Death, which scored 88.[17]
In Australia, the ABC aired the episode on 25 January 2009 from 7:30pm.[18] In Canada, Space aired the special instead of CBC on 14 March 2009.[19] BBC America aired the special in United States on 27 June 2009.[20]
Although The Next Doctor was not filmed in HD, the BBC aired it on BBC One HD Thursday 30 December 2010. They up-scaled the program to HD, and it also included Dolby Surround sound. This is the third Doctor Who episode that has been up-scaled in the United Kingdom.[21]