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patentdragonDevelopment News... So that's the Christmas Special good up to and including New Year's Eve, now that Chapter 2 has been pieced together from existing material, and stuff from last night. Next up: the main event...
Review: Doctor Who - The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe... It's now tradition for the family to gather around an early evening Doctor Who special on Christmas Day, and whilst it's a noble thing to attempt, the results vary quite substantially, year by year. Last year, the first for eleventh Doctor Matt Smith, the special was so unrelentingly Christmas-themed, you'd think it would crash and burn...
...but actually, it managed to deliver a very enjoyable story, even though it was built on a substantial framework of Charles Dickens. This year, the source appears to be C. S. Lewis's Narnia, with a doorway into a snowy mystery world, at the height of World War II, but the story starts with an exploding spaceship, and the soon-to-be widow of the title coming to his unexpected rescue. We then shift forward a few years, and the pieces fall into place. The now-widow tries to give her children the best Christmas she can, before revealing the awful truth to them, but events take a turn when a mysterious caretaker at the old house they're staying in intervenes...
At their worst, the Christmas specials are little more than an extended episode of the series, sometimes only a "filler" episode between season arcs. This edition was maybe just a step up from that, with limited tension building to a mildly disappointing central theme - tree "souls" escaping industrial deforestation - and a rather predictable "twist" that should come as no surprise given that the main theme of the whole series is TIME TRAVEL. And then there's the glaring "huh?"s, such as "if the trees can 'grow' what amounts to a time machine, why do they need a human?"
I'm sorry, but this year's special just didn't work very well for me. I gave last year my best "suspension of disbelief", and was pleasantly rewarded - this time, the plot didn't grab me as firmly as it should have. As the mid-section of the episode dragged on, I kept waiting for something to "wow" me, and it just didn't happen. Maybe I need to see it again - and at the first opportunity, I will - maybe the damage is already done...
Oh, and we didn't get a teaser trailer for next season. Hopefully, for a really good reason.
The Final Verdict: Not TOO derivative of Narnia, thankfully. Festive, and not entirely drowning in sentimentality - but still lacking something... 7/10
And Finally... Bloody hell, it's warm right now. Oh, and the Redskins are now heading for a multi-way tie for the first round draft pick. To be honest, we could use it...
Review: Doctor Who - The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe... It's now tradition for the family to gather around an early evening Doctor Who special on Christmas Day, and whilst it's a noble thing to attempt, the results vary quite substantially, year by year. Last year, the first for eleventh Doctor Matt Smith, the special was so unrelentingly Christmas-themed, you'd think it would crash and burn...
...but actually, it managed to deliver a very enjoyable story, even though it was built on a substantial framework of Charles Dickens. This year, the source appears to be C. S. Lewis's Narnia, with a doorway into a snowy mystery world, at the height of World War II, but the story starts with an exploding spaceship, and the soon-to-be widow of the title coming to his unexpected rescue. We then shift forward a few years, and the pieces fall into place. The now-widow tries to give her children the best Christmas she can, before revealing the awful truth to them, but events take a turn when a mysterious caretaker at the old house they're staying in intervenes...
At their worst, the Christmas specials are little more than an extended episode of the series, sometimes only a "filler" episode between season arcs. This edition was maybe just a step up from that, with limited tension building to a mildly disappointing central theme - tree "souls" escaping industrial deforestation - and a rather predictable "twist" that should come as no surprise given that the main theme of the whole series is TIME TRAVEL. And then there's the glaring "huh?"s, such as "if the trees can 'grow' what amounts to a time machine, why do they need a human?"
I'm sorry, but this year's special just didn't work very well for me. I gave last year my best "suspension of disbelief", and was pleasantly rewarded - this time, the plot didn't grab me as firmly as it should have. As the mid-section of the episode dragged on, I kept waiting for something to "wow" me, and it just didn't happen. Maybe I need to see it again - and at the first opportunity, I will - maybe the damage is already done...
Oh, and we didn't get a teaser trailer for next season. Hopefully, for a really good reason.
The Final Verdict: Not TOO derivative of Narnia, thankfully. Festive, and not entirely drowning in sentimentality - but still lacking something... 7/10
And Finally... Bloody hell, it's warm right now. Oh, and the Redskins are now heading for a multi-way tie for the first round draft pick. To be honest, we could use it...
