Never mind a white Christmas, it's going to be a Doctor Who Christmas, as it's just been confirmed that the latest episode will be screened at 6pm on Christmas Day.
But how does a Who fan fill their time till then? Good news for game players, as a duet of Doctor Who Nintendo video games have just been released. We tried them both out - which one was worth regenerating for, and which one should be exterminated?
Both games feature music and voices from the original cast, and original dialogue written for the games and voiced by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. Classic villains including the Daleks, Cybermen and Silurians also appear.
Doctor Who Evacuation Earth
We started with the Nintendo DS. There was a lot of jostling between the seven year old and his dad to get to play this, and much wistful moaning from the adults about how much they would have loved this game as a child. It's basically a puzzle game, with over 100 puzzles, various mini games and over 60 locations to explore. As player, your mission is to recover the Tardis without being exterminated.
Suitable from age 3, older players may find some of these games a little simple, but they're still compelling and a good immersion into the Doctor's world. We all enjoyed playing this, the only problem came when deciding whose turn it was to play. Great fun, highly recommended.
Doctor Who Evacuation Earth is out now for Nintendo DS, RRP £34.99. Current best price on this is £24.91 from Amazon.
Doctor Who Return to Earth
The first thing to note about this Wii game is that it is rated suitable for age 12+, with a warning of violence because of the battle scenes. But I wouldn't call it enormously violent, as the Doctor never carries a gun. What makes this game less suitable for younger players is the fiddliness of the games - there's lots of firing beams at small targets, which needs quite a high degree of hand eye coordination. And then there's a lot of crouching and creeping round corners, which just isn't much fun to do.
The game starts fantastically, with the original title sequence. At first it seems like you are off and away into an interactive Doctor Who episode, playing along as the Doctor and Amy Pond. However, we quickly found this game to be a bit of a let down. This is a single player game, unusually for the Wii where games are normally aimed at groups. It would have been so much more fun to let players play as Amy and the Doctor together. Looking at reviews on Amazon, reaction to this one is split between people who love it and those who would happily see it blasted off into space. We wanted to love it, but didn't.
Doctor Who return to Earth is out now for Nintendo Wii, RRP £34.99. Best price right now is £24.73 from The Hut
So if you're looking for a game for the timelord in your family, we found the DS option to be much more fun than the Wii one.
And for an accessory that will put a little slice of Gallifrey in all your gaming action, check out this fantastic Wii controller in the shape of a sonic screwdriver. RRP £34.99, currently reduced to £29.79 at Amazon. You can use this to play any Wii games, and unlike the regular controllers which seem to eat batteries, this comes with a charger to power it up. Like the Doctor, it just keeps on regenerating.