Day 97: The Feast of Steven

Annoyingly, the way that this blog is written means that, on the 27th of February, we look at Doctor Who's first Christmas special. Because this episode deserves to be seen at Christmas. It's unlike anything that we've had before, it is Doctor Who doing a full comedy episode. Previous comedy episodes have had some degree of dramatic tension, here every other moment is either a joke or a build up to something funny happening later on. And, oddly, it works. You might think that putting the Daleks away for an episode to have some fun might not be in the series' best interests, but, sometimes we just want to have fun, a breath of fresh air after the epic nature of the past moments.

And more than that, this episode is genuinely funny. It helps that the writer of this was Terry Nation, a former writer for Tony Hancock, because he brings an excellent knowledge of how to write comedy. Take, for instance, the sketch which is set on a film set. Each character is based on recognisable stereotypes, such as the emotional actress or the obsessive director, and they, whilst being not in the best of working relationships, can still work together. We then put three time travellers into the mix, and watch as things get completely out of hand. We are used to seeing the TARDIS crew land and then the surroundings changing because of their interference. Here, their interference, however unintentional, leads to farce, and creates a good deal of comedy. So, whilst others may dismiss this for being silly, it's actually rather fun, and something to be celebrated. And incidentally, a happy 27th of February to all of you at home!