

Merry Christmas, BBC! Seriously, merry Christmas! Because once again, “Doctor Who” delivered you an amazing present.

“A Christmas Carol,” featuring a special guest appearance from Harry Potter’s Michael Gambon, cheered in 10.3 million viewers Saturday in the United Kingdom. That’s slightly better, actually, than “The End of Time, Part 1” that aired last year to 10 million viewers, and was the penultimate episode for David Tennant.

While the numbers were definitely better than “Christmas Invasion” and “Runaway Bride,” which hovered around 9.4 million viewers, the audience for “A Christmas Carol” were behind “Voyage of the Damned,” which attracted 13.3 million viewers, and “The Next Doctor,” that snagged 11.7 million viewers.

To help curb piracy in the United States and Australia, BBC made a bold move to air the Christmas special on the same day in both countries, to strong results. BBC America reported 727,000 viewers watched the show in the United States on Christmas Day, better than the 671,000 who watched “The End of Time,” according to ATV Network.

In Australia, the show attracted 880,000 viewers, finishing in eighth place for the week.

The big difference between the two, however, is the date. “A Christmas Carol” aired just hours after its premiere in the United Kingdom. “The End of Time,” however, aired a couple days later, which still encouraged some piracy to take place.

Overall, however, these are strong numbers for “Doctor Who,” which shows that it quite easily survived the transition from Tennant to Matt Smith, as well as transition from Russell T. Davies — who revived the series in 2005 — to Steven Moffat, a fan-favorite writer under Davies.

“Doctor Who” returns with regular episodes in the spring on both BBC and BBC America — including a trip to the United States to kick off the season. The sixth season, unlike previous seasons, will be split, meaning some episodes will air in the spring, and others will air in the fall, leading to the 2011 Christmas special.