Study links Doctor Who Christmas episodes with lower death rates in UK

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If statistics are anything to go by, Britain should experience a slight dip in its mortality rate this year, thanks to a time-travelling alien who calls himself The Doctor.

The science-fiction series Doctor Who was first broadcast in the U.K. in 1963, and in the 60 years since it has aired a new episode during the holiday season 31 times, including 14 on Christmas Day.

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Curious to see if the fictional doctor had any real-world effects on health, Richard Riley, a biostatistician at the University of Birmingham, looked at annual mortality rates in the nation as compared against years preceded by a holiday season episode.

He discovered a slight but measurable correlation. In years following those with a Dr. Who seasonal episode, the U.K. experienced 0.4 fewer deaths per 1,000 person-years compared to those without such an episode.

The difference was even more notable in the years since 2005 (following a 16 year gap in production), with a mean 0.62 fewer deaths per thousand person-years in years following a Christmas Day episode – which is to say all of them since then.

Riley, a self-professed fan of Doctor Who and of health care, describes a personal connection to his study. “The lead researcher experienced the benefit of such healthcare around Christmas 2020 when his son was admitted to hospital with a burst appendix and sepsis,” he writes. “The fantastic surgery and care received saved his life, and thankfully he was discharged in time to watch that year’s festive episode of Doctor Who.”

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Riley signalled the tongue-in-cheek nature of his work with its title: “Televised festive broadcasts and Association with Rates of Death In Sixty years of Doctor Who” or TARDIS, which in the show stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space.

The TARDIS, the Doctor’s preferred method of transportation, looks like a British police call box (for reasons too convoluted to go into here) but is, crucially, much bigger on the inside. Similarly, Riley’s paper is grander on the inside, and the researcher has been at pains to explain that he doesn’t really think Doctor Who has had any appreciable effect on the length of Britons’ lives.

Even so, he’s not prepared to give up completely on the notion of causality. “A plausible causal explanation for the findings is that viewers of Doctor Who over the festive period are vicariously watching (consulting with) a doctor who is caring for people, which could then encourage health seeking behaviour.”

That said, he gives the last word to The Doctor himself, who in a 1996 TV movie remarked: “I love humans. Always seeing patterns in things that aren’t there.”

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