This one wears its inspirations very much on its sleeve: Doctor Who does comic book superheroes in general, and DC Comic's Superman in particular.
Steven Moffat came up with the idea as the Doctor hadn't ever met a "real" superhero before - only the fictitious Karkus in The Mind Robber. He felt the idea would be good for a festive special due to the popularity of movies of this genre, especially the blockbusters of the Marvel and DC universes.
He loved the notion that nobody recognised Clark Kent as Superman just because of a pair of glasses - mentioned by the Doctor in Grant's bedroom - and also the fact that Superman movies involved a love triangle with only two people in it.
The principal inspirations given by Moffat were Superman (1978) and the TV series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, which ran for four seasons between 1993 - 1997.
It had been hoped to film in New York City itself, as had happened back in 2012. New York City was the inspiration for both Metropolis and Gotham City.
The story starts with the Doctor in the Big Apple attempting to counter the problem which arose in The Angels Take Manhattan, where all of the temporal paradoxes generated by the Weeping Angels have resulted in it becoming a no-fly zone for the TARDIS (though how he got here now, if that's the case, is anyone's business).
His gizmo to resolve this requires an ultra-rare alien crystal, but young Grant - who is a comic book fan judging from his posters and Marvel-themed wallpaper - inadvertently swallows this, thinking it medicine.
This crystal won't pass through the body, but will instead cause the boy to develop superpowers.
He goes on to adopt a superhero alias - The Ghost - who is masked, wears a cape, and has an initial emblazoned on his chest as part of his costume.
Abilities include super-strength, X-ray vision and the power of flight.
The costume was designed to incorporate elements of both Superman and Batman.
Grant later grows up to be a mild-mannered, bespectacled young man, who works as an au pair for Lucy Fletcher, a reporter just like Superman's Lois Lane. Her surname was originally going to be the alliterative Lombard, but this became her married name which she no longer uses. Lucy is the name of Lois Lane's sister.
Clark Kent and Lois worked for the "Daily Planet" newspaper, whose building sported a huge globe on its roof. The HQ of the Harmony Shoal Corporation here has a similar globe on its roof.
During a press conference there, attended by Lucy, there's mention of individuals named Shuster and Siegal. Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegal were the creators of Superman.
The villains this time are related to characters seen in the previous Christmas Special. Then known as the Shoal of Winter Harmony, here they represent the company Harmony Shoal. Both are humanoid in form but with a scar running diagonally across the face, and can open up their heads. Here, we learn that they are human, with a parasitic brain-like creature inserted into their skull.
Also from The Husbands of River Song comes Nardole. The Doctor has fashioned an artificial body for him, after being beheaded by King Hydroflax's robot host on their first meeting. Nardole was introduced to give the Doctor someone to talk to and explain things as he didn't interact with Grant much in the second half of the episode.
At one point we see The Ghost stop a spaceship from crashing into New York, holding its nose in his hand. This same imagery appears in 2006's Superman Returns where he stops an aircraft crashing into a baseball field during a game.
When The Ghost first rescues Lucy, he tells her he hopes the experience hasn't put her off journalism - just as Superman had said to Lois in the first Christopher Reeve movie, after rescuing her from a crashing helicopter.
A roof top date is also arranged here and in Superman.
The Doctor at one point uses the phrase "With great power comes great responsibility", which is synonymous with Spider-Man.
Justin Chatwin (Grant) opted to use a deeper voice when in his Ghost guise - something he picked up from Michael Keaton's performance as Batman.
Though not mentioned on screen, Grant's surname was Gordon according to publicity materials. This is another example of the alliterative names often associated with comic book characters, and is also the name of the police commissioner who works with Batman.
When the young Grant floats up to the top of the Empire State Building, the set was actually constructed horizontally - a nod to the famous sequences, usually involving a celebrity cameo, of Batman and Robin walking up the side of a building in the 1960's series starring Adam West and Burt Ward.
The Doctor distracts the employees of Harmony Shoal in Tokyo by generating Pokémon characters in the vicinity. This obsessive virtual collection phenomenon first came to prominence in July 2016.
The title of this story came about during the world tour undertaken by Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Steven Moffat for Series 8, where they learned that the programme was titled "Doctor Misterio" in Mexico. Capaldi loved this and kept repeating it in a deep voice, impersonating the TV announcer.
The movie theatre across the road from Lucy's apartment is showing a film called "The Mind of Evil", title of a Season 8 Jon Pertwee story.
Next time: new companion Bill meets the ultimate stalker, a girl with stars in her eyes who wants to take her away from all this...
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