Twice Upon a Time (Doctor Who)

276 – "Twice Upon a Time"
Doctor Who episode
Promotional poster
Cast
Doctors Peter Capaldi – Twelfth Doctor David Bradley – First Doctor
Companions Mark Gatiss – The Captain Pearl Mackie – Bill Potts
Guest Nikki Amuka-Bird – Helen Clay Toby Whithouse – German Soldier Matt Lucas – Nardole Jenna Coleman – Clara Oswald Lily Travers – Polly Jared Garfield – Ben Jackson Nicholas Briggs – Voice of the Daleks Jodie Whittaker – Thirteenth Doctor
Production
Directed by	Rachel Talalay
Written by	Steven Moffat[a]
Produced by	Peter Bennett
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Brian Minchin
Music by	Murray Gold
Running time	60 minutes
First broadcast	25 December 2017 (2017-12-25)
Chronology
← Preceded by "The Doctor Falls" Followed by → "The Woman Who Fell to Earth"
List of episodes (2005–present)

"Twice Upon a Time" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, written by Steven Moffat, directed by Rachel Talalay, and was broadcast as the thirteenth Christmas special on 25 December 2017 on BBC One. It features the final regular appearance of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, the first official appearance of Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, and guest-stars David Bradley as the First Doctor, having previously portrayed original First Doctor actor William Hartnell in the 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time. Pearl Mackie guest stars as the Twelfth Doctor's former companion Bill Potts, while his other companions make guest appearances – Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald and Matt Lucas as Nardole. Mark Gatiss plays a British army captain taken from the First World War.

This episode is a continuation of events after The Doctor Falls, addressing the cliffhanger that it ended on, and takes place during the final serial of the First Doctor, The Tenth Planet (1966), which ended with the First Doctor regenerating; footage from The Tenth Planet is used in the special. Twice Upon a Time is Capaldi's fourth and final Christmas special as the Twelfth Doctor, and at the time was the last Doctor Who story to be written and produced by Moffat, who served as the show's executive producer and chief writer since taking over from Russell T Davies in 2010. Moffat would later return to Doctor Who in 2024 to write an episode for Series 14.^[1] After the special's broadcast, Moffat was succeeded as executive producer and showrunner by Chris Chibnall. It is also the last episode until the 2023 specials to have music composed by Murray Gold, who had composed music since the series' revival in 2005 and was succeeded by Segun Akinola in Series 11. The show had an annual run of Christmas specials from 2005's "The Christmas Invasion" to 2017's "Twice Upon a Time"; the next Christmas special made was not until 2023's "The Church on Ruby Road". During the period from 2018–2022, post-series episodes aired on New Year's Day.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).