Review: Doctor Who - "A Christmas Carol"

[patentdragon]

In Today's Episode... "Mane-of-Night: Flight 102 Is Overdue" continues: The Traveller investigates, The Wraiths advance, Lisa and Corinne find a new ally, and Aestrauv... well, Aestrauv has a lot to think about...

Development News... None to report - maybe tomorrow. After a decent, proper lie-in.

In the meantime... there's today's TV highlight...

TV Review: Doctor Who - A Christmas Carol



New Doctor, new series boss - maybe a new style of Christmas special... or just another invasion, with something crashing into or blasting away at "London"? Answer: the former - a much more "personal" story, built on characters and not special effects tour des forces (although there are effect-intensive sequences) as The Doctor faces a quite different opponent, with his companions' lives in the balance. The opponent is a thoroughly unpleasant character, played splendidly by Sir Michael Gambon - and two younger actors as earlier incarnations, as The Doctor tries some unusual tactics to quite literally change his adversary. It may not be the most ethical approach - and it does come with some very unfortunate circumstances, as the story reveals as it comes together.

This is a Matt Smith-centric episode, with only brief companion appearances, but that's not a bad thing, as it allows The Doctor to properly get his teeth into his predicament. This isn't just some thinly-veiled Dickens knock-off, dressed up as an original story, for it's made quite clear early on that The Doctor directly uses the story as the basis for his plan, in which the one hour to disaster is stretched into a tale of many Christmas Eves... nah, I'll let the program tell its story, and it's a story that brings me to the conclusion that I've just seen the very best of the Christmas specials. No forced invasion, or kitschy "Christmas monsters" - The "angelic" Host, the robot Santas, remote-controlled killer Christmas trees - but oh yes, you'll believe a shark can fly...

Oh, and look out for the new season teaser - I saw an Ood in there, and River Song, but I'm buggered if I knew what was going on, and in the words of Owen Wilson in Armageddon: "...that's what makes it so intense...!" Now, was that the mystery space craft (I hesitate to call it a TARDIS) from "The Lodger"...?



The Verdict: Personal in scale, but big in entertainment, kinda like "The Girl In The Fireplace". More like this PLEASE! 9/10