The episodes also marked Moffat’s arrival to the series, which at the time was run by Russell T. It was the new series’ conception of the Doctor in a nutshell: traveling all of space and time to put things right, like something out of myth or legend. He’s just averted a major alien crisis and saved countless lives in the midst of World War II London, and his sheer joy at the thought that nobody had to die in order for the day to be saved marked the moment when (for me, at least) the series went from something I watched with casual interest to something I was really into. Reduce “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances,” the 2005 two-parter that marked Steven Moffat’s first contribution to the then-recently-rebooted Doctor Who, down to a single moment, and you’d almost certainly land on Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor’s wide grin as he exclaims “Just this once, everybody lives!” The episode of the week for December 24 through 30 is “Twice Upon a Time,” the 2017 Christmas special of BBC America’s Doctor Who. Every week, we pick a new episode of the week.
