IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Photos and text from wire services of a show that survived early years of wobbly production values and a 16-year absence from screens between 1989 and 2005 to become a childhood touchstone, an emblem of British culture, and a money-making export for the BBC.

Partly, he says, it’s due to the Doctor, an eccentric and “slightly off-kilter” hero. Partly it’s “the randomness of the adventures,” which have sent the Doctor to ancient Rome and the Stone Age, distant galaxies and the end of time.

And partly it’s the show’s “slightly ramshackle Britishness, in the very idea of an amazing space-time machine which looks like a beaten up old box.”

“And somewhere deep down in its absolute essentials, something genuinely magical,” he added.

The episode is also the swansong of Steven Moffat, who has been the show’s executive producer and chief writer since 2009.

Moffat, who also co-created detective series “Sherlock” with Gatiss, has no doubt about the show’s place in television history. He told audience members at a recent preview screening that “Doctor Who” is “the greatest television show ever made.”

“People change their view of the world and what they are capable of because of a silly show about a man who travels around in time and space in a police box,” Moffat said.

In this undated handout photo, actors David Bradley and Peter Capaldi in a scene from the Christmas episode of the show “Doctor Who.”