And so it came to pass in these days, that a decree went out from BBC America that American fans of Doctor Who should not be kept waiting to see the annual Christmas episode until Easter, as they had been in days of old.This was the first Christmas special with Steven Moffat as executive producer and Matt Smith as the Doctor: it was quite a pop cultural mashup.
The most obvious riff is the permutation on Dickens A Christmas Carol. Moffat added a twist of more far-reaching time travel, as the Doctor tries to change Scrooge/ Kazran by being his Ghost of Christmas Past and giving him a better past so that he will be a better person in the present and help a ship that’s in trouble.
I thought it was delightful, capturing a spirit of “Christmass-ness” in many ways, from the Doctor arriving via chimney, to the giddy joy of "Merry Christmas" that he and Kazran Jr. greet Abigail each Christmas Eve, to the Christmas Eve dinner they share with Abigail's sister’s family. The mashups came as smaller plot points: the Doctor spending one Christmas Eve at Frank Sinatra’s lodge where he becomes engaged to Marilyn Monroe; the bridge of the spaceship that’s in danger looking a lot like the Enterprise; Abigail (the Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins) singing Holst’s "In the Bleak Midwinter."
But my favorite is that the “monster” of the episode is an enormous shark. When it tries to kill the Doctor and Kazran Jr. it looks like it’s straight out of Jaws---all that’s missing is a quip about needing a bigger boat (Moffat doesn’t seem to know that the line is de rigueur for that trope.)
But more than that, the Doctor tames the shark until it is dolphin-like, and then hooks him to a sleigh for a fanciful flight over faux Victorian London.
Hmm. We know that Moffat chafes at all the Russell Davies particulars that he inherited. In this episode he has the all powerful psychic paper short out-- with the “serious and mature adult credential” being a lie that is just TOO big for it--- and he chips away at the even more powerful sonic screwdriver, as the Doctor asks “what good is the screwdriver” when half is stuck in the shark.
Is it possible that Moffat resents needing to provide a special Christmas episode, which as Ross Ruediger pointed out to me, only started with the reboot? Methinks the flying shark would suggest so. You just don't get to use a shark as a character without the "jumping the" baggage. Moffat, a consummate tv writer, would know that.
Nonetheless, even with the playful jibe, he has added a memorable episode to the Doctor Christmas canon. Casting the great Michael Gambon was an enormous gift itself, as are the songs from Jenkins.
4 comments:
Agreed, agreed, agreed. This has to be the best Christmas special they've done (setting the bar low, I know), and I have difficulty seeing how they can come up with a more Christmassy special next year. I like the point about Moffat sabotaging the old RTD standbys; he certainly seems to prefer a nice watchmakerlike plot to waving the screwdriver around like a magic wand, which as I see it can only be a good thing!
A geek writes:
Lovely analysis/response, but there was an earlier Christmas episode: ep 7 of The Daleks’ Master Plan, broadcast in 1965, in which William Hartnell broke the fourth wall to wish the viewers a happy Christmas.
Hi Nathanael. We'll see if Moffat even writes a Christmas episode next year! It could revolve around meeting Jeff :)
Tim, you longstanding Who fans are a little scary. But a shoutout to Christmas is not the same as a mandate to write a holiday episode.
I like the Moffs way of writing just wondering though if this is cannon to the series or a stand alone? Time will tell.
Warehouse 13 and Eureka did xmas specials this year, was good.
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