The Man Who (Nearly) Killed Christmas (short story)

The Man Who (Nearly) Killed Christmas was the ninth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury. It was written by Mark Michalowski. It featured the Second Doctor.

Summary
One Christmas Eve, as Santa is flying through the air, he sees a large blue box in his path. Instead of colliding with it, he and his sleigh end up inside it.

The man inside the box, who introduces himself as the Doctor and reminds Santa that they've met before, explains that Santa has to stop what he's doing. He cannot continue to use his temporal wormhole generator and his Santa clones to deliver toys. When Santa wonders why the Doctor explains that in the future, humanity will expand throughout the galaxy, and Santa will need more generators and more clones. He shows Santa a future where his toy shop is a mechanical factory. In addition, there are huge holes in space caused by the wormhole generators.

The Doctor explains that he will have to take over for Santa. However, it doesn't go well, and Santa has to rescue the situation. Santa suggests robots instead of clones, and says the Doctor can help him construct safe wormholes.

Characters

 * Second Doctor
 * Santa Claus

Continuity

 * The Doctor reminds Santa Claus of their previous meeting, when his first incarnation visited him with John and Gillian. (COMIC: A Christmas Story)