The New ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special Poster Really Wants Its Superhero To Be Batman

Canadian actor Justin Chatwin starring as Grant — otherwise known as the superhero “Ghost” — in the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special isn’t news. After all, the first clip from “The Return of Doctor Mysterio,” which airs Sunday, December 25 on BBC America, features Chatwin’s Ghost in action against an unnamed villain with a gun in defense of several hostages. One of whom turns out to be the titular 12th Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi.

That Chatwin’s Ghost seems an awful lot like Christian Bale’s version of Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy also isn’t too surprising. (He’s even got the deep, guttural voice down.) Hence why the first official poster for the first new Doctor Who episode in a year prominently places the superhero front and center as he breaks through a glass window.

BBC America released the image on Wednesday, along with a new official synopsis for the special:

This Christmas sees the Doctor join forces with a masked Superhero for an epic New York adventure. With brain-swapping aliens poised to attack, the Doctor and Nardole link up with an investigative reporter and a mysterious figure known only as The Ghost. Can the Doctor save Manhattan? And what will be revealed when we see behind the mask?

From the resurgence of the old “Doctor Mysterio” title — which was used as an alternative title for Doctor Who in Spanish-language television markets — to Chatwin’s super friend, there’s a lot of mysterious sh*t going on in showrunner Steven Moffat’s latest contribution to the series’ mythos. All of that seems just fine, though Ghost’s over-reliance on being just like Batman is, um, a bit much.

Compare the new poster…


…to one of the more prominent posters for The Dark Knight, in which Bale’s Batman stands before a burning building with the bat symbol etched into its side:

…or one of the first posters to promote The Dark Knight Rises, in which the upper skyline of several collapsing buildings make the shape of the bat symbol:

Notice any similar, etched-in-glass-or-rubble patterns in all three? Basically, the Christmas special is shaping up to be Batman v Doctor Who.

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