This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Baby Awakes

This is probably the most festive story out of the bunch, the first time I've been able to really picture Christmas throughout this anthology. Joe is also an actual character here, he finally has some semblance of depth. His arguement with Peri was especially good. Luke Allen-Gale and Nicola Bryant's performances here are fantastic. This story is a very interesting character-piece for Peri, though the main goal seems to be set up for the next and final one. The Doctor is very much the side character here, he's just solving a mystery completely unrelated to what's going on with Peri. Speaking of the mystery, I do like the idea of a never-ending Christmas party and it was quite a fun setting for the story. The cliffhanger ending was not how I expected this to go, werewolves on Christmas?

Next Story: Brightly Shone The Moon That Night

Blood on Santa's Claw & Other Stories is quite a baffling listen. On balance, I think this is my favourite story of the set, even if it definitely works largely as set-up for part four, at least the set-up is compelling. It's also Christmas themed, which feels appropriate given the theme and nature of the story. I like the use of music and special effects in I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, they nicely match the holiday themes, and give life to the idea of this being a perpetual Christmas party.

After Joe comes across as an absolute dud of a companion that appeared out of nowhere, we get a much better sense of him here and I started to really enjoy his big confrontation with Peri. They have a pretty tense conversation I found really interesting that challenged her character in a pretty intense way. My particular favourite of this is just the Doctor being the Doctor, puzzling his way through the story and having some great banter with what turns out to be the villain of the next chapter. The ending was fun even if it was equally goofy.