2nd January 2012 16:55:00
The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe
Christmas Day and Doctor Who are so linked in the minds of most British people that for some (myself included) it’s hard to tell whether they’re more excited about the day itself or the new hour-long adventure with the Time Lord. To be fair to the show it’s done a lot to deserve this, with previous specials being nothing short of fantastic. After robot Santas, killer Christmas lights and a sci-fi version of A Christmas Carol, we’ve been given a Christmas-flavoured treat every year since 2005. This special, The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe, had a lot to live up to.
It started very well. The Doctor crash lands on Earth wearing a space suit, and Madge (Clare Skinner) helps him back to the TARDIS before scurrying home to her husband (Alexander Armstrong) and two children. Fast forward a few years to the war and Madge has received a telegram saying that her husband’s plane was lost. Keeping it quiet until after Christmas for the sake of the children, she arrives at her Uncle’s big house to find a bow-tie wearing caretaker bouncing around and trying to make everything as brilliantly as it possibly could be.
This was all brilliant and perfect Doctor-Who-At-Christmas fodder. Matt Smith was at his bounciest as he unveiled a house full of delights and there was a very well acted and touching moment between Madge and the Doctor that brought a tear to the eye of everyone in my living room. Nothing was really happening but that was fine; it was all just very enjoyable.
It wasn’t until Madge’s son crawled through a huge blue box under the tree into a world full of wood aliens who started chasing him up a tower in order to put a crown on his head so that they could escape the oncoming storm of acid rain that things got a bit weird. In fact, it wasn’t until Madge arrived to rescue her children and started flying the tower through the time vortex that things got a bit weird. And not just because there was a forest of trees living inside her head and not just because she was flying a tower home. It was just...weird. Rushed, badly done and a strange explanation to what was going on.
And the whole “Female is translated as strong, male is translated as weak” thing? Please, Mr. Moffat. What was that? Of all the antonyms you could have picked, strong and weak? What were you trying to do with that? It was just awkward.
Anyway, it ended nicely after that, with Madge rescuing her husband and them enjoying a lovely family Christmas. The scene with the Ponds was brilliantly done — it’s not surprising that Moff can write Amy and Rory so well when he created them, but the interaction between the Ponds and the Doctor was perfect. And we finished with a nice dose of Christmas sentimentality that would have melted even the hearts that were made out of wood.
So...was it any good? It seems this was an episode that split viewers down the middle, with half of Twitter saying they loved it and half saying it was awful. My personal opinion is that it was an extremely good episode that was ruined by ten minutes of rushed sci-fi in the middle. Maybe if they’d had a little longer it would have been a little better.
I still loved it, though. Obviously.
To learn more about Doctor Who go to the BBC page for it, and to watch the latest episode you can see it on iPlayer here.
It started very well. The Doctor crash lands on Earth wearing a space suit, and Madge (Clare Skinner) helps him back to the TARDIS before scurrying home to her husband (Alexander Armstrong) and two children. Fast forward a few years to the war and Madge has received a telegram saying that her husband’s plane was lost. Keeping it quiet until after Christmas for the sake of the children, she arrives at her Uncle’s big house to find a bow-tie wearing caretaker bouncing around and trying to make everything as brilliantly as it possibly could be.
This was all brilliant and perfect Doctor-Who-At-Christmas fodder. Matt Smith was at his bounciest as he unveiled a house full of delights and there was a very well acted and touching moment between Madge and the Doctor that brought a tear to the eye of everyone in my living room. Nothing was really happening but that was fine; it was all just very enjoyable.
It wasn’t until Madge’s son crawled through a huge blue box under the tree into a world full of wood aliens who started chasing him up a tower in order to put a crown on his head so that they could escape the oncoming storm of acid rain that things got a bit weird. In fact, it wasn’t until Madge arrived to rescue her children and started flying the tower through the time vortex that things got a bit weird. And not just because there was a forest of trees living inside her head and not just because she was flying a tower home. It was just...weird. Rushed, badly done and a strange explanation to what was going on.
And the whole “Female is translated as strong, male is translated as weak” thing? Please, Mr. Moffat. What was that? Of all the antonyms you could have picked, strong and weak? What were you trying to do with that? It was just awkward.
Anyway, it ended nicely after that, with Madge rescuing her husband and them enjoying a lovely family Christmas. The scene with the Ponds was brilliantly done — it’s not surprising that Moff can write Amy and Rory so well when he created them, but the interaction between the Ponds and the Doctor was perfect. And we finished with a nice dose of Christmas sentimentality that would have melted even the hearts that were made out of wood.
So...was it any good? It seems this was an episode that split viewers down the middle, with half of Twitter saying they loved it and half saying it was awful. My personal opinion is that it was an extremely good episode that was ruined by ten minutes of rushed sci-fi in the middle. Maybe if they’d had a little longer it would have been a little better.
I still loved it, though. Obviously.
To learn more about Doctor Who go to the BBC page for it, and to watch the latest episode you can see it on iPlayer here.
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