London Science Museum, December 13, 2017

Christmas came early for a group of journalists and special guests as the BBC treated them to a preview screening of the new Doctor Who Christmas Special, together with thoughts and insight from some of the cast and departing showrunner Steven Moffat. Greg D Smith donned his sonic sunglasses and tagged along for the ride.

There was very much a festive, end of term feeling to proceedings at the Science Museum last night, and it wasn’t entirely down to the time of year or the fact that we were there to see the Doctor Who Christmas special. There was a sense of the end of an era, as the episode itself represents the last time Moffat and Capaldi would work on Who. This was emphasised by an obviously relaxed and playful Moffat, as he stood up to begin with telling the assembled audience that there were only two rules: that they must lie to friends and family about where they were tonight and not give anything away, and that being there did not excuse us from watching the episode on Christmas Day itself (and to make sure, they wouldn’t be showing us everything, the last few minutes of the episode with Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteen being cut from this showing).

Following the IMAX screening of the episode, there was a Q&A session run by Jo Whiley and involving Moffat, Pearl Mackie, Mark Gatiss and David Bradley. Moffat remained playful, but his clear love for the show still remained undimmed, even after all this time as showrunner. Whether in his descriptions of filming, his loud declamation to a young lady in the audience that she should ‘get rid of’ a friend who didn’t watch Doctor Who (‘that friendship has no future!’) or his closing remarks, in which he ‘proved’ that Doctor Who ‘is the greatest television show of all time’, one thing remains clear – the man is still deeply in love with Who.

Bradley was charmingly overwhelmed by the whole experience, apparently chuffed at the fact that he now has a figurine coming out, but mainly happy that he can now finally say he’s played the Doctor, rather than he’s played the man who played the Doctor. It was touching to hear him recount the impact that Doctor Who had on his life – looking back at the calendar of his life, he said, he would have been in his twenties when Doctor Who began, and it must have been pretty special to have kept a young man such as himself in the house on a Saturday evening watching it, delaying him hitting the town with his mates. The great respect he demonstrated for Hartnell and the role in Adventure in Space and Time was evident again, and his almost childlike declaration that as he’d sat there watching the night’s screening he kept thinking ‘I’m in this!’ was lovely to see.

Mackie is as naturally charming as her character, and her cheeky declaration that she had a TARDIS key when Bradley was being asked by Whiley if he had any souvenirs from the set (only the Hat, the one part of his costume not specially made for this episode and saved by him from Adventure in Space and Time) might have been Bill herself. Her recounting of the ‘Companion Support Network’ reaffirmed what has been said by others before (the most common question being ‘are the delights of the BBC canteen still the same?’). Asked what she felt the impact of the show on her had been, her answer was disarmingly straightforward – she’s still a part of it, and too young to know exactly what the impact on her life and career has been – she leaves her future in Chibnall’s hands, and is open to a call, should the mood take him. Regardless, she’s a natural, and seemed as endlessly pleased to speak to young fans as they were to meet her all night long.

Mark Gatiss is as much of a Doctor Who diehard as Moffat, and his contributions reflected this. From ‘geeking out’ with the showrunner about the provenance of the glass jar used in the First Doctor’s TARDIS console’s Time Rotor to talking about his involvement in the show as a writer and actor over more than a decade, his emotional attachment to the whole thing couldn’t be clearer. The Christmas episode itself was quite the tear jerker, and Gatiss confessed that he’d cried a lot reading the script, as well as acting it out. Like Moffat, there was a sense that Gatiss has now closed the book on his involvement with Doctor Who, but you can’t help but wonder if a call from Chibnall in the future might change that – his enthusiasm for the property is clearly as strong as ever, after all.

Questions from the audience were restricted to the children (‘we don’t want to hear from the adults, this isn’t about you!’) and many focused on specific (and spoilery) details of the episode itself as one might expect, so I will not recount them in full here. Moffat was quite happy to pass off responsibility to his successor (‘Our new overlord, Chris Chibnall’, as he playfully called him) on questions about the decision to cast a female Doctor, the return/ultimate fate of certain characters and villains and so on. Possibly the best question related to Capaldi’s final monologue, which it turned out had been inspired by an answer Capaldi himself gave to a young fan at The Pilot screening. It just went to reiterate the love that Capaldi (sadly absent from proceedings last night, though sending a message of warmth to all and apparently still texting Steven Moffat with pictures of random Police Boxes from all over Glasgow) has and has always had for the show and the role.

Overall, the feeling was one of bittersweet joy. It’s the ending of an era and the episode itself is, as mentioned, emotionally charged, but it was also notable how much everyone present who had been involved had obviously enjoyed themselves.

Following the Q&A, there was a reception downstairs featuring a snowy wonderland and the two TARDIS’ from the episode as well as the chance for the audience to get up close and personal with the star guests. Aside from the above mentioned, such luminaries as Waris Hussein, Nicholas Briggs and Katy Manning were in attendance, all happy to chat about their own experiences with the show. A real Who’s Who of Who, if you will. There was also demonstration of the new Doctor Who Time Vortex VR game, in which players pilot the TARDIS in a virtual reality setting.

All in all, surrounded by luminaries and props, and with fake snow and fog blowing throughout the place, it felt as close to being in a Doctor Who Christmas as you can get without actually being there.