A Ghost Story for Christmas

"They need a medium."

Writer: Alan Barnes

Format: Comic Strip

Released: December 2025

Printed in: DWM 624

Featuring: Fifteenth Doctor

Synopsis

The Fifteenth Doctor arrives at the BBC in the 1970s amidst a walkout in the wake of something paranormal at TV Centre. 

Verdict

A Ghost Story for Christmas was a good little story to serve as the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip Christmas special! I think it's a very good move to go festive with this one and not just have one part of a much bigger adventure. It feels Christmassy and that's good despite it being more of a ghost story which is something I personally associate more with Halloween. It only feels like yesterday since it was Halloween so to now be right into the festive season has been sprung upon me! I'm writing this blog entry nearly a month prior to the published date which is a little funky but it's good to get ahead. I do find the continuity for the Fifteenth Doctor comics to be a little all over the place at the moment as we're jumping around from a companion to no companion which means the timeline is constantly shifting either side of Joy to the World. It's not the biggest issue in the world but I just think the comic strip format is being a little wasted and to be honest that's felt like the case for a number of years now with the exception being Liberation of the Daleks. That showed what the format and placement can be used for in carrying the current adventures of the Doctor for over a year! Now, after the events of The Reality War we don't really have a current Doctor which is strange but I don't see why we wouldn't stick with Belinda as the latest companion? She could certainly do with some more stories off screen and the Vindicator would definitely need the extra readings! I thought the characterisation of the Fifteenth Doctor here was strong and that's actually quite difficult to achieve without a companion in my opinion. His enthusiastic and bubbly nature means he's best when bouncing off somebody else in discussion. His dubbing of the paranormal investigators here as Fred and Daphne was great because who doesn't love a Scooby Doo reference? I thought the story had strong Hide vibes which is a big compliment and I absolutely adored the reference to Shada with the strike at the BBC and the Doctor landing in something looking very much like Professor Chronotis's room. That was magnificent and really niche which I appreciated an awful lot. That's where this format is wonderful and that was also seen with the flashback to the Eighth Doctor and Izzy. A little more on that would have been welcomed. At its heart, the story is a pretty simple one really and I think that's why it doesn't quite get a higher rating from me because it was almost too simple! That's certainly the case when it comes to the resolution as I thought that was far too quick and I was flicking through the pages I was almost getting excited that we may have a much needed two extra pages for the story as I was thinking there's no way the adventure can conclude in one page from the fifth onwards! But alas it did with the Hunter being returned to the mirror with the Doctor simply recapturing it within at the push of a button. That made sense but it was just very quick. Something alluding to that being the way to defeat it earlier on would have been beneficial. The Doctor taking the mirror image away was fun and I loved the legend behind it of the creature coming out at moonlight, but with it now in the Time Lord's hands I don't think it'll be seeing moonlight again anytime soon! Overall, a good little comic strip adventure for sure that would have benefited from a few more pages to add depth to the resolution. 

Rating: 7/10