It's a Tragical History Tour tradition (and the Matrix Mutterings before that) that stretches all the way back to 1995. Our annual holiday bit of Christmas merriment heralds Doctor Who's most prominent (at least until 2005) and obvious holiday crossover. And therein lies a tale (some of it possibly apocryphal!) Christmas Day in 1965 fell on a Saturday. DOCTOR WHO was well into a successful third season in its by-now-traditional Saturday tea-time slot on the BBC schedules with William Hartnell in the lead and was going all out to appease the rampant Dalekmania that had taken England and the series by storm by unleashing the massive 12-part story The Dalek Master Plan over a three month period. Rather than take a break for more traditional holiday-fare the powers that were in the BBC decided not to break up the Dalek epic halfway through (at episode 7) and continue to run the series. The Producer at the time John Wiles felt the unusual slotting on Christmas day provided an ideal chance to break from the larger story temporarily and try something totally different.
In England the theater tradition of Christmas pantomimes was a well understood and accepted form of entertainment. Thus virtually all links to the story up to that point were forgotten for a week to indulge in the 'Christmas spirit' as it were. In other words nothing less than a full-blown pantomime and send-up as the Doctor and his companions–Steven and Sara–ricocheted from one ridiculous situation to another. 
As it was viewers at the time didn't mind the diversion–although the episode was never sold into syndication overseas. Even so the most infamous feature in this episode was William Hartnell's closing speech–directly to the audience! Although this closing exists in the scripts that exist today, both script editor Donald Tosh and director Douglas Camfield insisted it was not in the shooting script! Camfield was reportedly so incensed that, according to Heather Hartnell, he gave Hartnell the original print shortly after it was broadcast and in subsequent years the Hartnell family would then gather together after Christmas dinner to watch The Feast of Steven all over again. Ho! Ho! WHO!
Read more about Doctor Who's original Christmas Celebration, The Feast of Steven here.
Tidying up after a very busy holiday week here at THT Worldwide. This should have gone out on the 23rd but (insane work schedule + family obligations = who knew?) we'll celebrate the re-airing of the first episode of 
It's the beginning of the end for the Tennant Doctor. After a 7-month break in this season-o-specials we're presented with a story which is both very strange and yet all-too-familiar at the same time. Despite the trappings of the "base under siege" motif that has been a staple of both new and classic Doctor Who, the real conflict is the internal struggle between the Doctor's interventionist nature and knowing that this one time, his saving of one very important future-historical person would have consequences. When the turn came, the mercurial qualities glimpsed throughout the reign of the 10th Doctor came to the fore, and the (presumed) coda scene back on Earth had all the more impact for it. A couple of small points however…
When this fan was of an age to appreciate such things, there were three main pillars of British television which formed the basis for life-long Anglophilia, namely Doctor Who, The Prisoner, and The Avengers. The first two were helpfully served up by PBS back when these stations took an interest in such fare, The Avengers was a show obtained, at least in the 80's, by tape-trading. The Avengers was fun and stylish, The Prisoner subversive and strange, and Doctor Who… well it was all of that and more. And there was so much of it.! In any event these three formed the bedrock. Other shows followed (Secret Agent, The Saint, Department S, Man in a Suitcase and so on) but now and again–certainly not as often as this fan would like as the years pass, it good to go back and re-watch these series as a touchstone.