We end Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary year with a fresh new Doctor – albeit one we already briefly met in previous special, The Giggle – a new companion and a great cast of supporting characters.

Oh, and some new villains in the form of the baby eating Goblins too.

Ncuti Gatwa is immediately The Doctor in his first solo outing; still finding his feet, the newly regenerated Time Lord has happened upon an unusually unlucky person, in the form of young Ruby Sunday.

Abandoned outside a church as a baby, Ruby has grown up in a loving household, adopted by her foster carer – who she still lives with, along with her bedridden adoptive grandmother.

She’s suddenly become even more clumsy than usual, however – so much so that the Doctor himself notices the unlikely amount of misfortune that’s following Ruby around – and discovers that there’s much more going on than anyone initially suspects.

Gatwa and Millie Gibson (playing Ruby) have immediate, winning chemistry and a wonderful sense of enthusiasm and general joie de vivre.

Together and apart, they light up the screen with a range of amusing, daft and even emotional scenes; though, as befits the Christmas Special tradition, it’s a fairly lightweight story in terms of the villains – there’s nothing that fancy or complicated going on here, barring one fab piece of timey wimeyness – they eat babies and sing about it, there’s not much more to these mischievous little gits.

That said, there’s a surprising number of seeds planted for the new series if you’re paying attention, including one mid-credits fourth wall break that everyone is talking about.

Russell T Davies works his usual magic in introducing an extended cast and makes them immediately captivating, with Ruby’s family particularly brilliant. I can’t wait to see them again!

It’s a fresh new start not just for the Doctor, but for the show itself – with a more fantastical feel and the sense that nothing is off limits in terms of what the Fifteenth Doctor will do to help (even singing isn’t off the table for this Doctor, if it gets them out of a pickle!).

It’s certain to turn off a certain section of more casual fans, of course – and for depressingly obvious reasons, as much as they may claim otherwise and look for less offensive excuses to declare their distaste for this new era.

I’ve always found that old school (which surely now includes fans who hopped aboard when the 2005 reboot launched) Whovians are an accepting, inclusive and diverse bunch, who understand that one of the primary attractions of Doctor Who in the first place is that its premise allows it to be and do just about anything.

So who needs those detractors anyway, eh?

My only complaint? That it’s a very long wait until the new season starts in May 2024.

If only I had a TARDIS, eh?