Have a Feast @ Doctor Who's Tragical History Tour...

It's a Tragical History Tour tradition (and the Matrix Mutterings before
that) that stretches all the way back to 1995.  Our annual holiday bit of
Christmas merriment heralds Doctor Who's most prominent and obvious holiday
crossover.  And therein lies a tale (some of it possibly apocryphal!)

Christmas Day in 1965 fell on a Saturday. DOCTOR WHO was well into a
successful third season in its by-now-traditional Saturday tea-time slot on
the BBC schedules with William Hartnell in the lead and was going all out to
appease the rampant Dalekmania that had taken England and the series by
storm by unleashing the massive 12-part story The Dalek Master Plan over a
three month period. Rather than take a break for more traditional
holiday-fare the powers that were in the BBC decided not to break up the
Dalek epic halfway through (at episode 7) and continue to run the series.
The Producer at the time John Wiles felt the unusual slotting on Christmas
day provided an ideal chance to break from the larger story temporarily and
try something totally different.

In England the theater tradition of Christmas pantomimes was a well
understood and accepted form of entertainment. Thus virtually all links to
the story up to that point were forgotten for a week to indulge in the
'Christmas spirit' as it were. In other words nothing less than a full-blown
pantomime and send-up as the Doctor and his companions--Steven and
Sara--ricocheted from one ridiculous situation to another.

As it was viewers at the time didn't mind the diversion--although the
episode was never sold into syndication overseas. Even so the most infamous
feature in this episode was William Hartnell's closing speech--directly to
the audience! Although this closing exists in the scripts that exist today,
both script editor Donald Tosh and director Douglas Camfield insist it was
not in the shooting script! Camfield was reportedly so incensed that,
according to Heather Hartnell, he gave Hartnell the original print shortly
after it was broadcast and in subsequent years the Hartnell family would
then gather together after Christmas dinner to watch The Feast of Steven all
over again. The following is a photonovelization taken from the Zerinza (the
Australian Doctor Who Club) adaptation of the story by Rosemary Howe back in
1987. Ho! Ho! WHO!

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