Ah Christmas Day again. This means only once thing: Doctor Who (those of you who said the Queen’s Speech, get iPlayer up NOW and be ashamed of yourselves, dear me). Unlike previous years though, this year we get two helpings of the good Doctor, prior to David Tennant’s much-hyped regeneration into Matt Smith. Needless to say, herein be spoilers. Read at your own risk.

When we last saw the Doctor, at the end of The Waters of Mars, he’d gone a little power-mad and that’s never good. Suddenly fearful of his impending doom, he had a vision of Ood Sigma and we were left to wonder. Until now.  In 2008, I got to chat to Julie Gardner for an interview for the now-defunct PiQ magazine (you can read it here). She’s lovely is Julie and one of the questions I asked was about the ending of Last of the Time Lords, when the Master’s body burns and his ring is picked up by an unknown woman. Who was she, I asked, and when would this loose end be tied? She was a little vague on the details but told me it wouldn’t be series four. What about series five?

Yes, that mystery is finally solved. It turns out the Master’s ring was taken by an acolyte of Harold Saxon. Somehow this mad Time Lord has gained an almost cultish following and they seek to use his imprisoned wife, Lucy, to bring him back from wherever Time Lords go after death. This in itself is a little silly, talk of ‘potions of life’ and genetic signatures push things a little far. Even more so when Lucy chucks a vial of a potion of death at and the saneish Master we know and erm … well. What comes through is a blonde, insane creature which seems more bonkers than ever before. He also seems to need to eat people and can jump as high as Superman. My gut impression is that he’s more like a cyborg than Time Lord but who cares? This is great TV.

So the people of planet Earth are having nightmares and only Wilf remembers. He visits a church and sees the Tardis in a stained glass window and a vanishing woman speaks of the Sainted Physician, Wilf knows the Doctor must return and so he engages the help of London’s elderly population to find him. It only takes a few hours which means something is happening, destiny and fate pulling the strings of the players.

This time Wilf is the companion and it’s great to see him getting more screen time. Yet Donna’s not gone though the one we meet – despite glimpses of her recent past – is not the one we know and love. Wilf is special though, just as Donna is, but perhaps not in the same way. He is haunted by a woman – the one from the church – who seems to know a lot more than she lets on. She warns him of the coming battle, that he must fight.

The Ood are, likewise, aware that something’s gone wrong, hundreds of years in the past. As the episode progresses we get frequent narration from a mysterious figure (Timothy Dalton) which makes it feel more episodic than usual. Yet the end is inevitable and so the Doctor and the Master dance around each other, players in some giant game of chess which isn’t just confined to the Earth.

Did I mention the Master is completely, utterly bonkers – plus his table manners are awful. What is with the drums anyway? Four drumbeats … no, four heartbeats – the heart beats of a Time Lord.

Thrown into the mix is the mysterious Joshua Naismith and his Immortality Gate … he also has a pair of mysterious green aliens hiding out in the basement of his lab. Naismith needs the Master to fix the gate so he can give his daughter immortality. Why? I don’t think I want to know but it feels like there’s something else we’re missing.

The thing is, part one feels way to short and also like it’s just setting things up for next week’s episode. We also get a ‘cameo’ from Barack Obama (read: behind headshot and bad accent) before everything goes to hell. Suddenly everyone remembers the dreams and the Master’s face, except the green spiky aliens, Wilf, the Doctor and, of course, Donna.  But, of course, things don’t stop there; think Agent Smith in the Matrix and it’s very creepy. Yes he’s created the Master race ….

The plot is, of course, completely nuts. It’s confusing, gripping and somewhat predictable. But who cares, it’s Christmas. Oh and the Time Lords are coming back so it will all be fixed by the end of New Year’s Day. Yeah, everything RTD’s done seems to be being rewritten in preparation for a new team, a new Doctor and a new series. The end of time really is coming and I can’t wait.