December On Earth , December was the twelfth month of the year . ( TV : " The End of Time " ) It contained the holiday of Christmas ( TV : " Children in Need Special " ) and the phenomenon known as the winter solstice , the moment where daylight would reach its lowest amount and increase afterward . As a consequence , it contained the exact midpoint of winter and therefore the instant when people were , in the words of Kazran Sardick and the Eleventh Doctor , " halfway out of the dark " . ( TV : " A Christmas Carol " ) During the early 21st century , the time around Christmas was often subject to alien invasions . ( TV : " The Christmas Invasion " , " The Runaway Bride " et al . ) In 1965 , the First Doctor ' s TARDIS materialised in the yard of a police station in Liverpool , its scanner malfunctioning . After some initial fears the polluted atmosphere of the 20th century might harm his companions Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom ( who had grown up in the clean air of the future ) and some trouble with the local police , the First Doctor repaired the scanner and the TARDIS departed . ( TV : " The Feast of Steven " ) While travelling with Rose Tyler , the Ninth Doctor took a quick break to deliver a red bicycle to an 11 - year old Rose in 1998 . ( PROSE : " The Red Bicycle " ) In 1999 , the Seventh Doctor landed in San Francisco trying to stop the Master but was gunned down by a teenage gang . After minor surgery went wrong , due to the doctors not realising his Time Lord origins , he died and later regenerated in the hospital morgue . ( TV : " Doctor Who " ) In 2006 , the Tenth Doctor recovered from his regeneration at the Powell Estate . Sycorax intercepted Guinevere One and sent a threatening message to Earth . The Sycorax ship ' s pilot fish landed . The Doctor stopped them from taking his regeneration energy . Prime Minister Harriet Jones sought help from UNIT as the Doctor was still in bed . ( TV : " The Christmas Invasion " ) During the alien encounter , the Third Doctor briefly arrived to try to help , but he eventually left ; realising that he has arrived to late to be anything of meaningful assistance . ( PROSE : " The Christmas Inversion " ) In 2007 , Donna Noble ' s wedding to Lance Bennett was interrupted by the Huon particles inside her system ( put there by Lance ) dragging her into the Doctor ' s TARDIS . After being attacked by Roboform s at the wedding reception , the Tenth Doctor , Donna and Lance went to H . C . Clements ' basement . There , they travelled to a Torchwood base on the Thames Flood Barrier . The Empress of the Racnoss force fed Lance Huon energy to awaken her children , killing him . She also sent her Webstar to attack London , but the Doctor killed the children by draining the Thames into them and the British military , ordered by Minister of Defence , blew up the webstar . ( TV : " The Runaway Bride " ) In 2008 , the Tenth Doctor , after repairing a hole in space - time with the help of his fifth incarnation , ( TV : " Time Crash " ) found himself aboard a space - faring replica of the " Titanic " in orbit around Earth . Some of the passengers ( including the waitress Astrid Peth ) briefly landed in the middle of London . As the two previous Christmases had been disrupted by the arrival of alien spacecraft over London , most residents of the city had left for the season . Those choosing to remain in the city included Queen Elizabeth II and Wilfred Mott . A series of meteorites were deliberately allowed to collide with the deshielded " Titanic " , causing the ship and its nuclear storm drive to hurtle towards Earth . Most of the survivors of this collision were killed by the Heavenly Host . After the Doctor used the Host ' s security protocol to find the man in charge , Max Capricorn , Astrid followed , killing Capicorn but dying with him . The Doctor piloted the " Titanic " to safety , just missing Buckingham Palace . The only survivors were Midshipman Alonso Frame , Rickston Slade , the Doctor and Mr Copper . Astrid Peth was partially revived as starlight . Mr Copper , having money for the first time in his life , retire d to Earth . ( TV : " Voyage of the Damned " )