A Christmas Carol
By Steven Moffat
“I’m the ghost of Christmas past.”
It’s
Christmas time once again and that means it’s time once again for another
Doctor Who Yuletide special. A
Christmas Carol is the sixth Doctor Who Christmas special and the first not to
be written by Russell T. Davies. This
time its Steven Moffat’s turn and you can tell the difference. A Christmas Carol starts off with a bang as
the Honeymoon ship that Amy and Rory are on is heading for a crash
landing. It’s up to the Doctor to save
them and this time it won’t be by using cheap writer’s tricks like the sonic
screwdriver or having the TARDIS put the ship in a tracker beam.
Instead
we have the Doctor trying to convince an old heartless man to do the right
thing and shut off his machine that controls the sky in order to save all the
people on the crashing ship. A task
easier said than done and here is where the story really takes off and
shines. As you probably have guessed
from the title of this episode A Christmas Carol is a take on the Charles
Dickens classic. I say a take because
the story mainly deals with the past.
The Doctor tries to convince an old Kazran to be a better person by
visiting him while he was a kid. It’s
at this point that we find out why Abigail was frozen and what she means to
Kazran. We also find out what makes
Kazran a bitter and mean old man that won’t lift one arm to help anyone. With the help of Amy and Kazrans younger
self the Doctor does pull it off and gives us a happy Christmas ending.
A
Christmas Carol is by far the best of the Christmas Specials. Steven Moffat has weaved a gem of a story
that had a lot of emotion to it. I
really enjoyed this story as it was different from the Doctor Who stories we
have seen before. Instead of fighting
aliens and monsters the Doctor goes up against a man that is Scrooge like. I liked the Dickens influence of the story. It was pretty clever to see the Doctor go
back and interact with the young Kazran and have the old Kazran watch it all on
the view screen of his digital recorder.
A
Christmas Carol was a pretty solid story that had a good conclusion. It did not have to revert to a reset button
or any of RTD’s cheap resolutions. A
Christmas Carol had a true resolution that was quite shocking in a way as I was
not expecting to see. I truly liked the
scenes with Kazran and Abigail on all the Christmas Eves that they spent with
each other and you could predict what makes Kazran an old and bitter
person. If there was one fault to this
story it was the predictability of Abigail’s fate and the effect on Kazran.
Matt
Smith has truly arrived as the Doctor as this is one of his finest
performances. You can surely tell that
he is comfortable playing the Doctor now and will solidify himself as one of
the greats to ever play the Doctor. Michael
Gambon was terrific as Kazran and the Harry Potter actor gave a performance
that made you really dislike Kazran. His
scenes with Matt Smith were very powerful and some of the best since the show
has returned. It’s too bad that Amy and
Rory were delegated to stay out of the way but this story would not have worked
if the companions had a bigger role. In
all a very entertaining Christmas Special that is so far the best in 6
Christmas’s.
Grade
A
The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe
By Steven Moffat
"Usually called the The Doctor or
The Caretaker or Get Off This Planet."
It's
Christmas Time 2011 and you know what that means. It means presents, Santa
Clause leaving something good, having Christmas Dinner with family and friends,
and of course a brand new Doctor Who Christmas Special. The Doctor, The Widow
and The Wardrobe is Matt Smith’s second Doctor Who Christmas Special and it is
not as good as his first.
Well
this is also Steven Moffat's second Christmas Special and like last year he has
borrowed from popular literature. Last
year was obviously a take on Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" and
this time it is a take on C. S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I
know what you’re saying well no duh just look at the title of this special and
you should have guessed that. Well any way, I liked the idea of incorporating
that story into Doctor Who and was pretty curious to see how they would pull it
off.
As
you can imagine 2011’s Christmas special was filled with lots of moments that
make you scratch your head and there are quite a few in this one. First off I did not particularly like how the
Doctor saved himself from the exploding spaceship. It was a bit farfetched even for Doctor Who.
I mean come on the Doctor puts on a space suit in space and it happens to be a
special space suit that survives reentry and a crash into Earth plus mends his
body. Not that well-constructed if you
ask me and since this is coming from the Moff I would have liked something
cleverer. Plus I didn't care for how
Madge was able to drive the alien vehicle over to the tower. You knew that was going to happen but for a
woman who had trouble driving a car well I know it's Doctor Who and that has
happened before.
While
those things didn't detract from my enjoyment of the Christmas Special what did
kind of detract from it was that I knew how the main story was going to end.
(I'm not talking about Amy and Rory). Well if you didn't figure it out in the
first ten minutes that the Doctor was going to somehow find a way to save
Madge's husband even if it was inadvertently then you must have had too much
egg nog. Sometimes Doctor Who could be a
tad bit predictable. This was one of
those times but since it is Christmas and it gave us a happy ending it didn't
bother me that much.
The
Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe was not a bad story at all. In fact it was a
nice Christmassy treat that had a decent story.
The Story wasn't mind blowing but for a tale at Christmas it was a
perfect non thinking to hard story that you could enjoy at any point in the
day. Nothing too complicated here. Even though it was not too complicated it
wasn't anything to write home about as it was your typical Doctor Who story.
I
enjoyed the mad dash of showing off the house and all the cool things the
Doctor had put into it to give Madge's kids a pretty cool bedroom. I also liked the interaction between The
Doctor and Lily. That seemed to work and
it gave the Doctor someone to bounce off of and to explain what was going
on. I liked how the tree people
looked. That was a pretty neat looking
creature. It kind of reminded me of the
Ents from Lord of the Rings a little bit but a bit more like wooden chess
pieces from a Nordic area. Here is a
plus to classic Who fans. How many of you know what significance Androzani has
in who history? I did and it made me
smile.
As
Christmas Specials go this one was alright.
But it did have some pretty good moments in it though with none better
than the Doctor reuniting with Amy and Rory in the last 5 minutes. If anything Steven Moffat gave us a nice
sentimental moment. What a nice scene to
wrap up the Christmas Special with. It
was truly a heartwarming scene. In all a
nice story but a tad predictable but nonetheless enjoyable to watch.
Grade
B
The Snowmen
By Steven Moffat
“It's Smaller On The Outside."
So
here we are. It’s been months since the
Ponds have left and it’s time for annual Christmas Special. 2012’s special is
titled The Snowmen and boasts to having killer snowmen roaming around as the
main creature of the story. The Doctor
Who Christmas Specials have now become a Christmas tradition that you expect
something special to compliment the day of gift giving and enjoying the family
dinner. So was this edition of the
Doctor Who Christmas Special top notch or was it, as a certain Christmas
fixture would say, Humbug.
Well
I found The Snowmen to be absolutely entertaining and a whole lot of fun but a
bit dark for a Christmas Special. It did
have a dark feel to it as the Doctor was moping around and being negative and
not his normal self. Not really caring what was going on and not really wanting
to get involved with anyone or any situation.
Sometimes the Christmas stories can get a bit too silly but The Snowmen
wasn’t as silly as I feared it would be from the impression I got from the
trailers. In fact the comedy relief was
not overdone and I really enjoyed the scenes with Drax and The Doctor as it
brought a nice touch of lightness to a story that seemed darker than normal for
Doctor Who’s Christmas romps.
The
story itself was pretty good. I enjoyed
the way they got the Doctor off the snide and back into action. Really liked how the story moved along at a
leisurely pace and kept you thinking
what would happen next and would The Doctor recover his senses and be his old
self again and get involved and save the day.
Loved how Clara just seemed to get attached to The Doctor and persisted
on trying to get him to help. I think
the pairing of those two will work as the pairing of Matt Smith and Jenna –
Louise Coleman seems like a great fit and we should be in for a great ride with
those two in the TARDIS.
I
didn’t really mind that Madame Vastra and Jenny were in this story as they were
a nice touch. They weren’t in it all
that much and their scenes did help the story along and they weren’t overused
which is a fault of Steven Moffat sometimes overusing secondary characters but
in The Snowmen I believe he got it right this time. I do like Madame Vastra and Jenny and think
they would be good in their own spinoff.
It would be pretty interesting to see their adventures in Victorian
England.
It
was wonderful to see the Great Intelligence return to Doctor Who. Loved the two stories it was in during
Patrick Troughton’s era The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear and with the
recent recovery of The Web of Fear fans can now see what he was like back then. Loved reading about the Great Intelligence in
the Target book novelizations and am glad that new fans and I can get to see
this villain again. What a wonderful
surprise for the fans and loved the killer snowmen he controlled. Plus The
Great Intelligence was voiced by Gandalf himself Ian McKellen so how cool was
that. This brings me to Richard E. Grant
and his portrayal of Doctor Simeon. He
was really good in The Snowmen and Richard E. Grant made Doctor Simeon really
creepy. Such a wonderful performance and
one you’d expect to get for the Christmas Special and it was good to see him as
The Great Intelligence in the Series 7 finale The Name of The Doctor.
One
thing that I did not care for and which was not really explained all that well
was the rain. We see the dying Clara
crying and then it starts to rain. Not
really explained too well and I’m guessing it is just part of the mystery that
is surrounding Clara but it did seem to dampen, sorry bad pun, the story just a
bit. I mean it did seem a bit convenient and an easy way to come about the
conclusion but not all that sure how it came about. It was a pretty clever plot device though and
we do know now why the rain was like that.
What
really intrigued me about The Snowmen was Clara. Who is she?
We did find out that she is indeed Oswin Oswald from Asylum of the
Daleks or in fact some form of her. Now
this revelation I did find to be really cool and to leave off on a mystery was
awesome and did breathe some new life into the same old Doctor Companion relationship.
It was interesting watching this again knowing where Steven Moffat takes this
in the second half of Series 7.
On
a whole I really enjoyed The Snowmen. I
enjoyed it way better than 2011’s C.S Lewis homage. In fact I enjoyed it 100%
more than 2012’s. It was a wonderful
story that does a lot of things different and surprising like killing off Clara
and just making it a traditional Doctor Who story for once with monsters and
baddies to fight. It opens up a can of
mystery for the fans to ponder and that is a great thing to have happen. Plus I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on
the new theme and opening credits. I
loved it. It was good to see The Doctors face in the sequence again. Plus the theme sounded retro and harkens back
to the classic series in way while keeping it fresh. In all a wonderful story that makes it a
special Christmas day for all Whovians.
Grade
A
Picture source
©BBC
Doctor Who 1963
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