Like many Whovians, I have been going
through withdrawal since October and waiting for the annual Christmas
special. On Thursday the BBC released the preview of this year's
Christmas offering during the annual Children in Need fundraiser and,
to be honest, it looks like “the . . . best . . . . .Christmas. . .
. ever.”
What follows is based solely on what I
saw in the preview, there are no spoilers here, unless you haven't
seen the preview and I know you have. If you're reading this, you as
much in withdrawal as I am.
It appears that this Christmas Special
will be The Doctor's fourth broadcast story taking place during World
WarII (the others being “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances”,
“Victory of the Daleks” and “Let's Kill Hitler”).
There have been many ancillary written and audio stories having him
popping in here and there during Mr. Churchill's time leading the
British Empire, but we're just dealing with the broadcast stories
here.
This is also the 11th
Doctor's second Christmas Special and the second of Mr Smith's tenure
that takes its name from a famous piece of literature, though this
year's plays with the title a by, paraphrasing the famous C S Lewis
title swapping it out for “The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe”.
My guess is that the Lion and The Witch are a bit miffed to have
been left out.
Anyway, on to the preview review.
Once again, The Doctor is flying solo
at Christmas, having left Amy and Rory at their new home. I wonder
what the deal is with the Doctor Who crew and their not wanting a
companion (or companions) to travel with the Doctor during the
holidays. I mean we met the 10th Doctor on Christmas Day
and he hung out for dinner with Rose, her mum and Mickey, but since
then, the Doctor does Christmas solo? Hmmmmm.
WHAT I LIKED
It appears that The Doctor is having
some sort of a problem with the Tardis – based on all of the fire
and general mayhem with his running and flames behind him –
probably something he does that makes a mess of things that Idris
will have to fix . . .. . . or has tied the Tardis to a certain point
and time that is connected to a wormhole through which weird space
marines and woody tree people come through.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
I didn't like that I am in withdrawal
and have to wait for Christmas evening to see the latest of the
Doctor's Christmas adventures. I do hope they learned their lesson
after last year's “Christmas Carol” and they don't have
The Doctor marrying “The Widow”. The whole marrying
Marylin Monroe thing was silly, though the (implied and not seen)
duet with Frank Sinatra was kind of cool.
It also looks like maybe they used the
same house that they filmed “Night Terrors” in and those creepy
dolls still scare me.
FAVORITE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
I have to admit that so far, my
favorite Christmas special was “The Next Doctor”, maybe because
of it's “Oliver” like Victorian workhouse set, maybe because
there was a hot air ballon Tardis, but mostly I think it was because
of the story of Jackson Lake, the poor fellow whose wife was killed
and child abducted by the Cybermen. His travels from being
infostamped into thinking he was the last of the Time Lords to
realizing he was a Mathematics teacher whose life had been destroyed
by alien creature and then finally getting his son back just tore at
me.
Let me know what your favorite
Christmas special was.
Until some time during the week between
Christmas and New Year's Day with my Christmas Review – this is
Jayne signing off – except for seeing your faves for Christmas :)
Jayne
