All I want for Christmas is some new 'Doctor Who'

When Doctor Who lands in the nation's living rooms on Christmas Day it is traditional for a succession of baddies to follow. This year, however, his foe won't be Daleks and Cybermen – but an extremely hungry, flying shark.

And if that isn't unlikely enough, the shark features in an adventure that takes Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol for its inspiration and involves the Doctor trying to save a ship of 4,000 passengers from certain death.

"If you're going to do a Christmas Day episode, which is based on the principle that the audience have had a selection box for breakfast and are probably drunk, then you have to move it on a bit – because a normal episode of Doctor Who wouldn't be enough," joked lead writer Steven Moffat after a special preview screening last night.

The show marks Matt Smith's first Christmas Day special as Doctor Who. "I've always wanted to do a Doctor Who Christmas special. It's wonderful, It's been wonderful," he told fans. The episode also stars Michael Gambon as the scrooge-like Kazran Sardick, the singer Katherine Jenkins – and of course the Doctor's companion Amy Pond.

via guardian.co.uk