Doctor Who now has a Christmas Special every year. Though to be quite honest, I expected this one to be shown on Boxing Day or Christmas Eve, because now Dave’s left I didn’t think there would be that much hype for the Christmas Special. The series build up to Series 5 felt artificial, and the build up to the Christmas Special (or “Christmas ep” as Matt refers to it) was almost non-existent. There’s an Advent Calendar which is rubbish, and a whole website which is rubbish! The trailer was the same one, and the performances of Mr and Mrs Williams (Pond) don’t inspire me.
Ok so I’ll review each bit. The Plot. The Doctor. Rory and Amy. The Others. Overall.
The Plot, was a bit… weak. It wasn’t Doctor Who, it was like Dalek, another good story, another good drama. The trailer seemed to promise classic series epic sets and also lots of action, but what we got was a slow, lovely and heartfelt drama. Doctor Who is not the place for this episode. BBC’s 60s Armchair Theatre or maybe a nice afternoon play on BBC 2 is. I just can’t see how fish and a big shark fit in with Christmas, or fit in with anything really. Especially fit in with Doctor Who. So the plot wasn’t very Christmas, wasn’t much better than Russell’s failed attempt to write a regeneration episode last year, but at least it had thought, and it had feelings, and it made you feel. But where the hell are the sci-fi bits we all watch Doctor Who for?
So with a lovely drama, full of emotion… and fish. How does the Doctor fit in? Well he is on top form as always, and we can continue to see how ‘nice’ his Doctor is. In the same Peter Davison was nice. We still have the madness Matt Smith brings to the role of the Doctor, and we still have his inability to talk about girls (which always provides amusement) and I can see that with his madness, his alien-ness and with his emotion, he is perfect for the role, and he doesn’t disappoint.
Now, I won’t spend too long on Amy and Rory ‘cos I think they’re pointless characters. Amy’s weird, over-obsessive and she talks so quickly I can’t always understand what she says. Rory got his name in the titles (for all of two seconds when he vanished again) and he still seems to have a mini role. HE IS A COMPANION! So get used to it, write more for him, and with any luck, keep Rory and chuck Amy out of an airlock. Rory has potential to be a good companion – but he doesn’t have enough to do. Amy is over the top and she doesn’t need to be the Doctor’s companion, because she just isn’t right. However, Amy does do quite well in this story. She’s lost some of her weirdness and she actually manages to play a good role. Rory still doesn’t have enough to do.
The Others are incredible. Katherine Jenkins actually manages to act fantastically! She can sing, as well, I’d hope so. But she is a really good actress. Mr Gambon was very good, I can’t say he wasn’t good. But I just don’t think HE is right for Doctor Who. The actors playing his two younger selves were fantastic though, and were actually right for Doctor Who. So the other actors were incredibly good.
Ok. Now. Overall. Overall, it was a good Christmassy story, with Doctor Who characters just happening to be in it. While I normally enjoy these kind of things, for a Christmas special it should be Doctor Who! This was a good Christmassy story with Doctor Who characters in, so it could have had more Doctor Who stuff in. But it was a good story for Christmas with good actors, so it’s ok. BUT PLEASE GIVE US DOCTOR WHO OF A HOLMES/HINCHCLIFFE STANDARD, that makes all stories better.
No comments:
Post a Comment