Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (spoilers)

[Dartzap]

Anyone else catch this yesterday? Quite a decent chrismas special, I thought! Had the odd rough section, but nothing that ruined it for me.

Cant be bothered to add a poll at the moment, but if a mod wants one, so be it

[Crazedwraith]

Recorded it, but haven't seen it yet.

[El Moose Monstero]

Enjoyed it a lot. No real complaints. I actually really enjoyed the Christmas Carol idea and Gambon's acting. The fish were a fun idea, though they made the mistake of trying to explain it - clouds made of ice crystals? My god... surely such a thing is impossible? As an idea, it did really seem to be a lot more of a Christmas special than the last few, actually relating to Christmas than just being things that just happened to occur on Christmas day. Definitely a good thing.

I'm wondering whether the fish biting him in the ice chamber when there didn't seem to be any fish near him at that point was some more foreshadowing type stuff.

As with the finale of last season, I have the sneaking suspicion that if you actually stopped and thought about it, the plot wouldn't stand up particularly well to scrutiny - we were wondering, for example, why the Doctor didn't simply just park the tardis on the ship, open the doors and load everyone on board. We assumed in the end it would have taken too long, but it was a minor niggle. And to be honest, I'm prepared to give a lot more slack to this series when it comes to writing than Ecclestone/Tenant because I enjoy the character / acting / writing package a lot more. Issues in the overall plot are less irritating because the people are done well. In the last few RTD series, the character / acting / writing was poor for me, even Tenant becoming irritating in the end, and so I had less tolerance for plot issues.

Also, the teaser for next series looked like a lot of fun. Spoiler

pirates (?), nazis, cowboys, sadly River turns up, the fez. It does look like a lot more Earth-based stuff again, but come on, it all sounds like it has potential, anyway! Plus, no appearance of old villains in the teaser, which I think is a good thing given that last time round we had both daleks and silurians revealed at this point.

Was that alright? I can do it again with at least three adjectives per sentence if anyone is feeling nostalgic.

[Bounty]

we were wondering, for example, why the Doctor didn't simply just park the tardis on the ship, open the doors and load everyone on board.

There's a throwaway line about the TARDIS not being able to "lock on" to the ship.

I really enjoyed the episode. It was a really good update of the original story. It's also nice to see the various throwaway bits from the episode coming together at later points, Moffat's good at that. It may not hold up to scrutiny but it feels tight.

[DarkSilver]

I loved it.

I was more hoping for "an Egyptian Goddess on the Orient Express.....in Space" bit we got left with at the end of last season, but this...

This was much better. It actually had to do with Christmas, and while it cribbed mercilessly from A Christmas Carole, it was a excellent Who-verse version of it. Gambon's acting was, as always, spot on, and I got a delight out of his lines as Old Kazran at the begining, and seeing him play out the memories being rewritten...was just great.

Smith maintained the Doctor's insanity level, and the humor rolled in at the begining "I was on a roof, it's Christmas Eve, there's a Chimney, and my brain went 'what the hell!' ", and I loved the bit with the Psychic Paper "It's shorted out...finally a lie to big."

While it may not hold up to scrutiny very well, the story flowed excellently, the characters and characterization were excellent, and we get a Flying Shark.

One of the better Christmas Specials of the past five years - I'd rank this one above Tenant's first Xmas Special, and about even with the Xmas Special with the crashing Titanic on my personal list.

4.5/5

[TC Pilot]

The premise itself was fairly weak, but one doesn't go into a Christmas special expecting that. Despite that, I thought they pulled it off very well. No "alien threat of the week comes to stomp on London," new settings, and a plot that actually relies on time travel as an integral part of the story rather than just a mechanism for moving from one story to the next.

I think this episode also has the lowest body count of any Doctor Who x-mas special to date.

[Shroom Man 777]

It was beautiful. The bit where Kazran was almost about to hit his younger self before finally realizing what he's become, that was just amazing. It nearly made me cry.

[andrewgpaul]

As befits Steven Moffat, Nightmare Lord , the shark in the bedroom was one of his childhood nightmares, and then there were the face-spiders hiding in cupboards and under pillows.

[Drooling Iguana]

"Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever for one moment, accepts it."

Okay, technically all the skies of all the worlds did turn dark during this Doctor's run, but that's no excuse.

[mr friendly guy]

Not too bad. I loved the variation of the Ghost of Christmas future thing. When Kazron sarcastically remarks that the Doctor will show him the future of him dying alone and isn't afraid, challenging the Doctor to show him his future. Then the Doctor replies I already am and he turns around to see a younger version of himself. That was a kickass moment.

[LadyTevar]

Not too bad. I loved the variation of the Ghost of Christmas future thing. When Kazron sarcastically remarks that the Doctor will show him the future of him dying alone and isn't afraid, challenging the Doctor to show him his future. Then the Doctor replies I already am and he turns around to see a younger version of himself. That was a kickass moment.

I had noticed the TARDIS there with the door cracked, but even then I was surprised by the 10yr old Kazron. That was just fantastic.

[Soontir C'boath]

While it may not hold up to scrutiny very well, the story flowed excellently, the characters and characterization were excellent, and we get a Flying Shark.

I don't think it would hold up either but given the things it had, it definitely felt it was one of the better ones done.

I laughed, smiled, and almost cried.

[jollyreaper]

For a Who xmas special it was very good. It's sort of a Who tradition these days for the plots to not entirely make sense and not hold up under reflection. The thing I didn't grasp was why the woman had to die. The Doctor has access to the best medicine ever invented in the universe. Why not save her? The whole bit about people having their time to die is a bit silly. I mean yes, we do, but it's not like there's destiny and fate. The Doctor saves people from unnecessary deaths all the time. Loses quite a few of them, too, possibly causing them by his presence in the timeline. Arbitrary morality is always tough to deal with.

Actually, this is one of the Who questions that really never gets addressed. We can assume that there are probably anti-aging treatments in the future, ways to extend human life. Of course the Doctor can't travel back in time and bring this sort of thing to the Romans but why does he never do it for his Companions, people he loves? I can understand immortality being too much, love the old Vorlon line about us younger races not being ready for immortality, but come on. It might seem like magic to us but so's fixing a cleft palate to a third world mother and it's an incredibly simple procedure here in the west.

[PREDATOR490]

Good Christmas episode but the ending seems exceptionally pointless and really callous.

Doctor is willing to literally re-write the course of history to meet his own ends in the guise of saving lives but saving ONE life is beyond him ?
It would have been much better for the Doctor to save her as well rather than the seemingly 'Ha, I got what I wanted, fuck everyone else'

Incidentally, I thought different versions of someone touching caused bad things to happen.
When Rose touched herself it caused Gremlins to appear and the Old series had a similar situation with Lethbridge-Stewart.

[DaveJB]

I assumed that whatever disease she was suffering from had already reached an incurable point by the time she was frozen. In fact, it makes sense if you assume that she knew she was done for, so agreed to put herself up as security for the loan so that she could at least do something with the little time she had left.

Anyway, even if the Doctor could somehow cure her, that would have just flipped the situation on its head - rather than Kazran having to watch her die, she would have been the one having to watch him die.

[andrewgpaul]

Actually, this is one of the Who questions that really never gets addressed. We can assume that there are probably anti-aging treatments in the future, ways to extend human life. Of course the Doctor can't travel back in time and bring this sort of thing to the Romans but why does he never do it for his Companions, people he loves? I can understand immortality being too much, love the old Vorlon line about us younger races not being ready for immortality, but come on. It might seem like magic to us but so's fixing a cleft palate to a third world mother and it's an incredibly simple procedure here in the west.

The Sarah Jane Smith Adventures episode Death of the Doctor has a throwaway line at the end about Ian and Barbara Chesterton - who apparently haven't aged since the sixties. Perhaps only maths teachers are allowed to be immortal.

[andrewgpaul]

I'm wondering whether the fish biting him in the ice chamber when there didn't seem to be any fish near him at that point was some more foreshadowing type stuff.

The TV Tropes recap page suggests that the fish bite him when he attempts technobabble.

[DarkSilver]

I'm wondering whether the fish biting him in the ice chamber when there didn't seem to be any fish near him at that point was some more foreshadowing type stuff.

The TV Tropes recap page suggests that the fish bite him when he attempts technobabble.

There was no fish, I just thought of it as some portion of himself telling him to just shut up, instead of rambling on and ruining a beautiful moment.

[Serafina]

Definetly my favorite christmas special so far - because it actually told a christmas story.

Oh, and on the fish: Whether there were any fish or not, whether it was the Doctors own mind or some sinister outside force:
I think it's clearly about ruining the moment/not shutting up, not about the technobabble itself.

[Serafina]

It just occured to me that the end of this episode is the exact opposite to the arc-words of the last season (Silence will fall) - because silence didn't fall at all, and music saved the day It even get's mentioned in the song a couple of times.

By the way, i love Katherine Jenkins work in this episode - and from what i've seen, in general as well

[Ryushikaze]

You know, the end of the episode, though it doesn't outright say it, suggests to me that the Doctor did cure the girl so they could have more time together.

In a bizarre way it felt like the Doctor was apologizing for asking him to make the Ultimate Sacrifice by having it turn out he wasn't in the end.

I have nothing to prove this, of course, but that's the gist I got.

[Gurachn]

Some really lovely moments in this one, and a much clearer tie-in to the Christmas theme than in most of the prior specials. Nice acting from all, especially from Jenkins, who I thought fitted the part beautifully.
That being said, there were definitely a few plot holes, most of which are noted above. I found that on the whole, these didn't detract from my enjoyment too much, except for one thing - the damn fish!
Don't get me wrong, the idea of schools of piscine life inhabiting the clouds is creatively quirky and fits the tone of the episode to a tee. However, the fact that they were so obviously familiar terrestrial fish took a bit of the edge off the 'believability' of the premise for me.
If they had just looked a bit alien, and showed some even a minimal attempt at adapting familiar archetypical forms to something that looked like it might be capable of propulsion through sonically charged ice particles, I would have been better able to maintain a suspension of disbelief.

I fully admit to a very selective 'disbelief organ', but such is the nature of personal taste.
Still, a very enjoyable episode.

[jollyreaper]

I would put money on the fish models being something built for a different project that the Who team just borrowed, the same way you'd see ships from other scifi movies reused in even cheaper b-movies. So either they didn't have a budget to alien up the fishies or they tried and it looked worse than leaving them the same.

[andrewgpaul]

From the Confidential episode, the shark in a bedroom was one of Stephen Moffat's childhood nightmares. From that image, how did the shark get into the bedroom? Clearly, it must swim through the air. Then, if sharks can swim in the air, why not other fish too?

Also, using a mundane creature like a fish in such an outlandish place makes it seem more odd, to me. Some random scaly flying thing? Meh, it's some sort of space alien. A shoal of goldfish swimming round a streetlamp? That's delightfully weird and Doctor Who-like. More, please.

[Patrick Degan]

To sum up: Doctor Who on LSD.