The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

In the special, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) is the caretaker of recently widowed Madge Arwell (Claire Skinner) and her children Lily (Holly Earl) and Cyril (Maurice Cole) during their holiday vacation in 1941 Britain.

"The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe" marked the end of Piers Wenger's tenure as executive producer, and the debut of Caroline Skinner in the same position.

Lewis's children's novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Moffat intended the episode to be the most "Christmassy" of the Doctor Who Christmas specials, while Blackburn felt there was "magic" in it.

"The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" was watched by 10.77 million viewers in the United Kingdom, making it the third most-watched programme on Christmas Day.

Critical reception to the episode was positive, though some felt that the high-profile comedic guest stars Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir were underused.

That night, Cyril is lured into opening a large glowing present under the Christmas tree, revealing a time portal to a snow-covered forest.

At the lighthouse, Cyril is met by a humanoid creature made of wood; it places a simple band of metal around his head like a crown.

The Doctor concludes that the life forces of the trees in the forest are trying to escape through a living creature, with the crown acting as an interface.

The wood creatures identify her as "strong", and the Doctor realises they consider her the "mothership", able to carry the life force safely.

Donning the band, Madge absorbs the life force of the forest, allowing her to direct the top of the lighthouse as an escape pod away from the acid rain and into the time vortex.

"The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" was written by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, who wanted it to be "the most Christmassy Christmas special ever".

[8] The characters of Ven-Garr and Billis are named after outgoing executive producers Piers Wenger and Beth Willis, both of whom served with Moffat.

[10] "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" marks the debut of Caroline Skinner and sees the end of Wenger as executive producers.

[8] Filming of some scenes involving Alexander Armstrong took place in and around the Lancaster bomber Just Jane at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre on 3 October 2011.

"[15] Alexander Armstrong was a regular on the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures as the voice of alien computer Mr Smith.

Noting that it featured a typical "doomed spaceship", the threat was not to the universe but one family's happiness, and the only enemies were "some misguided and underdeveloped polluters", he concluded that "Any other time of year I would gnaw holes all over this, but it's Christmas, and today it felt perfect".

[35] IGN's Matt Risley rated the episode an 8 out of 10, calling it more "classically, indulgently, infectiously Christmassy" than the previous Christmas specials.

[36] However, the next year, Risley wrote that he "got a little carried away with the festive funtimes ... On reflection, the overwhelming Christmassyness of it all was overcompensating for a pretty flimsy, frivolous plot.

However, he thought that the lack of a villain was an "interesting experiment, but maybe not ideal for Christmas Day" and Bailey and Weir's forest rangers "felt like bolt-on comic relief".

[38] Selected pieces of score from "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe" and the following Christmas special, as composed by Murray Gold, were included on a soundtrack released on 21 October 2013 by Silva Screen Records.