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“So, that ship needs to land, but it can’t land unless a very bad man suddenly decides to turn nice just in time for Christmas Day.”
As Christmas approaches, Amy and Rory are continuing the most elaborate honeymoon ever – this stage is on some sort of spaceship, which is unfortunately crashing. The Doctor has to save them by persuading a very miserly old man to perform an uncharacteristic act of kindness and let them land. The similarities to a certain seasonal novel are just too delicious for the Doctor to resist.
The festive Doctor Who special has been an odd beast in the revived series. They’ve had moments of supreme brilliance (the newly regenerated tenth Doctor challenging the Sycorax to a sword fight wearing pyjamas and a dressing gown, and then winning) and moments of supreme ridiculousness (the spaceship Titanic nearly crashing into Buckingham Palace). More than that, though, they have to fulfil a strange function: be enjoyable to fans, but also people who only watch Doctor Who once a year and so know none of the back story.
Which is why, I suspect, the traditional format of creating a standalone episode by not having a regular companion in the special was essentially followed here by sidelining the newlyweds, and making a new companion in the form of the many ages of Kazran Sardick. It was a pity that we didn’t see more of the wonderful Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, but they made the most of their small moments – I particularly loved the running gag of their, ahem, interesting costumes, and Amy turning up as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and I can’t wait to see what opportunities having two companions in the TARDIS presents in the next series.
But what a temporary companion Kazran Sardick was. The younger versions of his character were perfectly fine, but it was Michael Gambon as the crotchety older version that stole the show. The crux of the episode essentially rested on him sitting alone and reacting to things that were playing out on a screen or in his new memories, and, thanks to Gambon, it worked astonishingly well. Katherine Jenkins was fairly colourless as his love interest, but then she was essentially playing all that’s good about the world, so it’s difficult to do much with that.
The idea of the episode – Scrooge in space – could have been absolutely awful, but in Steven Moffat’s safe hands it worked marvellously. There were more great one-liners than you could shake a stick at (I especially enjoyed that the idea that he was “recognised as a mature and responsible adult” was the too-big lie that “shorted out” his psychic paper.) The whole episode was full of lovely touches – Kazran’s cravat turning to a bowtie, the “surplus population” line – but it also hung together. And the fact that the episode wore its inspiration proudly, that the Doctor was actually taking inspiration from A Christmas Carol, worked in its favour. As established back in ‘The Unquiet Dead’, the Doctor is a massive fan of Dickens, so the sense that he just couldn’t pass this opportunity up was a brilliant take on the whole concept.
And it was just wonderful to have Matt Smith’s Doctor back on our screens again. The delight with which the Doctor tackled this Christmassy problem, the lighting of his suddenly ghostly face, how well he bounced off Gambon and just how believably awful his Doctor is with women – all of these things reminded me just why I love him, and why I can’t wait for series 6. He wears a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool.
Loved it! I can't wait for series 6 too.
Series 6 looks FANTASTIC.
So many great quotes in this episode:
"Kazran, look - it's either this or go to your room and design a new kind of screwdriver. Don't make my mistakes."
"I am a mature, responsible adult. Damn, it's shorted the circuits... finally a lie too big."
"Marilyn, get your coat!"
"And I bet I get some very interesting readings from my screwdriver when I get it back from the shark in your bedroom."
"There’s a shark in my bedroom?"
"Oh fine! Focus on that part!"
"How do you keep going like that? Do you breath out your ears? Hello, sorry, hello? Guys! She’s phoned a chapel, there’s a car outside! This is happening now! Yoo-hoo!"
"Big flashy lighty things have gotten me written all over them. Well, not actually. Give me time. And a crayon."
"Got any more honeymoon ideas?"
"Well there's a moon that's made of actual honey, well, it's not actual honey, and it's not actually a moon and technically it's alive and a _bit_ carniverous but there are some lovely views...."
Matt Smith is fantastically insane and out-of-touch.
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