I want to preface this review by
stating something that I have said in a few online chats, that being that when reviewing Christmas episodes of Doctor Who Christmas Rules apply.
Christmas Rules basically mean that you cannot apply regular episode
rules, you need to REALLY suspend your disbelief and just go with it.
There's no need to get on the writers for canon mistakes, or
sappiness, or taking liberties with things, it's a bloody Christmas
episode! And for all of you Moffatt haters out there, Mr Davies
wasn't much better when it came to tear inducing Christmas episodes.
I mean not since “The Next Doctor”
have a I been driven to tears before the end, or at least not at a
point in the story where the full story had been told. Yes, I was a
bawling fool at the end of “A Christmas Carol” and
slightly before the end of “Voyage of the Damned” when
Astrid made her sacrifice to take out Max Capricorn in his effort to
destroy the Earth, so Davies got to me too.
It wasn't the appearance of what I thought to be Douglas Adams' Vogon Constructor Fleet at the beginning with their announcements to the people of 1937 Earth (not that any of them would have heard it and Arthur Dent hadn't been born yet anyway) just before The Doctor blew up their incredibly large spaceship and chased down a spacesuit in the vacuum of space (yes – Time Lords can survive short amounts of time in the vacuum of space as was shown in the Peter Davison era episode “Four to Dooms Day” where he wore nothing but a space helmet - but I am not going to get into how he survived entry into Earth's atmosphere wearing only that spacesuit – and backwards at that), I made it to the the moment when Cyril's Dad, flying his damaged Avro Lancaster heavy bomber back to England on December 20th 1940, knew he wouldn't make it, touching the photo of his soon to be widowed wife in the cockpit of the doomed plane that got me all teary eyed, and they story hadn't even properly begun.
OK, before I go and get the box of
tissues again it's time to get on with this review . . .
WHAT I LIKED
This is the first episode of Dr Who
since the end of Season 6 in October and it's Christmas! Welcome
back!
Cyril, with his red hair and big
glasses reminded me of a tiny Elton John.
The entire kids' bedroom – I want
those drop down from the ceiling hammocks, as I am sure every kid in
the UK does now. The Christmas tree was pretty cool too.
That the Christmas Gift/space/time rift
led to Androzani major, last heard of in the 5th Doctor's
final episode, “The Caves of Androzani”, and I can only
say that the harvesting crew seemed to be high on Spectrox, they were
a (comedic) mess!
The shoutout to moms being the
strongest force in the Universe! Of course they are! Where would we
be without moms. We'd be Sontarans and Daleks and Cybermen, though
The Doctor's daughter didn't have much of a mom and she turned out
pretty hot, I mean she turned out pretty well. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's the estrogen in me speaking, live with it.
The guiding light home through the Time
Vortex that brought Dad home for Christmas, as Mom promised, yeah –
it was sappy and somewhat predictable, but, as I said, Christmas
Rules apply. If that had happened in a regular episode I'd be a lot
less charitable in my view of it.
Humany Wumany – a sort of reference
to Timey Wimey – but it just showed that The Doctor, for as long as
he's know humanity, still doesn't get them at times, in this case
their shedding of tears of happiness. He understands sadness, he's
obviously experienced centuries of that, but the shedding of tears at
happy times makes no sense to him. He seemed to shed at least one
just before closing the door to the Ponds' house.
FAVORITE QUOTES
“I got dressed in a hurry.”
“Suddenly the last 900 years of
time travel seem a lot less secure.”
“Staircase . . . seems to have
broken down. . . . we'll have to walk up.”
“Time is shifting across
dimensional plains. What do they teach you in school these days?”
“This is a military engagement.
There's no crying in military engagements.” (a bit of a
paraphrase on that famous line in the movie “A League of Their
Own” (also set during World War II) - “There's no crying in baseball!”
“I have mother issues, it's all in
the file.”
“Crying when you're happy. . . .
.That's so human.”
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
The whole “sonic screwdriver
doesn't work on wood” joke is VERY tired at this point. I
almost wish the Tereliptils would show up and blast the thing out of
existence again as they did in the Davison Era episode “The
Visitation”.
Continuity
Error - Madge tells the Androzanians that she's from England in 1941 - her husband was killed over the Chanel in 1940 - she told The
Doctor that she hadn't told Lily and Cyril yet - the London Blitz
ended in May of 1941 - so she could not have been at Uncle Digby's
place at Christmas 1941. Either that or she had pulled off a rather elaborate ruse on her kids and had them believing their father was still alive even though he'd been dead for over a year. I think not!
WHAT I HATE – A Jayne Rant
Much like the birth of a child, it will
probably not be for another 9 to 10 months, some time in October,
before we see another episode. I get Mr Moffat's recent contention
that Dr Who should be watched when it's dark outside. Daleks and
Cybermen and whatever other monsters are out there are less scary
when the sun's out and the kids are still out playing, but damnit,
there are the Winter months that are just as dark and this Christmas
episode could have been the launching pad for Season 7.1 with the
Doctor's reuniting with Amy and Rory at the end of the episode.
Season 7.2 could have started in October.
Steven Moffatt and company have already
put out there that The Ponds, Amy and Rory, will be leaving the
series. Why put that out there so far in advance of their actual
leaving on the show? That's just wrong. Season 7.1 could have
started in January, run for 7 weeks and ended with the leaving of Amy
and Rory, preferably with Amy pregnant again with a normal baby that
the Universe doesn't want to kidnap and the Doctor dropping in on
Craig's son Alfie (the former Strormageddon) some 23 years down the
road and taking him with him on adventures.
I get that you want to keep interest
alive in the show, but if you're not going to come back until at
least October at the earliest, why leak that out now? It seems kind
of pointless. Season 7.2 could have started in October with the
Doctor and Alfie hopping around the Universe and starting Season 8
with a visit to Poppa Craig at Christmas.
I know the BBC is trying to stretch
things out until 2013, specifically November 23, 2013, the 50th
anniversary of the very first broadcast of Doctor Who, but they run
the risk of losing their audience. There are a ton of other shows to
get interested in to the detriment of Doctor Who, and I mean on both
sides of the Atlantic and whatever other countries the program is
shown in.
In closing, the BBC runs the risk of
losing fans who have been there since the re-launch on 2005, who
suffered through the 1996 movie (no reflection on Paul McGann - he
deserved way better), who found this crazy British show on their
local American Public Broadcasting Station and grew to love it. If
they wait and hold off without giving the addicts their hit, they may
reach the 23rd November, 2013 (as you Brits write dates)
with an all time low audience. Nuff said.
Rant Over!
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