Well, I'm a big comic book fan myself, so this 2016 Doctor Who Christmas Special was right down my street. No doubt it was show-runner Stephen Moffat's response to the Doc's army of super-heroic rivals on TV from Marvel & DC but either way, it was a win-win for me.
The only real concession to the season itself was the Doctor's initial Christmas Eve meeting with young Grant, effectively the latter's origin story for his super-powered adult alter-ego The Ghost, the comedic nature of which immediately tells you this isn't going to be one of the Doc's more serious adventures.
Fast forward to the future as the Doctor and now fully-grown Grant are pitched against an alien race out to replace all the world leader's brains with their own. Given recent events across the water, one has to wonder if they succeeded in their aim at least in America. There's an engaging sub-plot with the jaw-jutting super-hero moonlighting as the meek-mannered nanny of his schoolboy-crush-now-grown-up crime reporter Lucy with the three of them coming together to save the world leaving the youngsters to fall in love, naturally at the very end (well Superman married Lois in the end, didn't he?).
Along the way, for comic-fans there was a nod to Superman's creators Siegel and Shuster, elsewhere there were lots of humour, nice New York motifs and better-than-expected special effects. I'm not keen on Matt Lucas so his dimwitted character grated on me somewhat but Capaldi is on good form, plus I liked the actors who played the young couple in best Superman and Lois style.
A really fun, light-hearted one-off episode, with nary a Christmas tree in sight.