Just a short post, as I have presents to attend to. Don't read this if you haven't seen it in the US though. Come back after, by all means!
The 'Doctor Who' Christmas special is a tradition in my house now - I want to watch it in peace and quiet, Mum falls asleep five minutes in and the snoring is terrible, my brothers - though they have every right to - natter through the whole thing, the dogs won't sit still and I get frustrated because I don't have absolute silence.
This year was different - Mum simply went upstairs for a nap and the dogs were pleasantly quiet, one of my brothers didn't watch because he had a lovely new Wii game and that meant the other one had nobody to talk to. This may sound like a rather miserable Christmas affair to you. To me, however, this was bliss, and it meant I got to watch the show properly first time round.
And what a great episode to accompany the peace and quiet.
Because it really was a cracker. A Christmas cracker, if you will. Definitely Matt Smith at his funniest - thanks to a wonderfully written script from Steven Moffat - he bounced around the sets like a puppy and absolutely kept my attention throughout. Matt Smith has done some really good work with his Doctor, but I think my favourite thing is that The Doctor doesn't seem to feel burdened any more. He can simply enjoy himself. He doesn't get wound up over things that Doctors 9 and 10 did, and so he has a rather impish charm that makes the screen light up when he's on it. Watching the Doctor cheekily time travel to wind old Kazran up, and using the 'lottery' excuse twice just to really grind his gears, was the sort of cheeky quick-witted humour that I never really felt we got with Doctors 9 or 10.
I always find the simplest stories are the best ones - and at it's core, this was a story about a man who needed his heart to be thawed out, much like Abigail in the ice box. Michael Gambon, relishing the chance to be a real arse, gave a wonderful performance as the broken man that was Kazran. From the opening narration to the moment he de-ices, Gambon was utterly brilliant. I thought Katherine Jenkins as Abigail did well for someone who hadn't acted before too - she sold the pain Abigail was feeling as she watched over her family, even though it gave the game away a little too early.
I would have liked to have seen a little more of Mr. and Mrs. Pond (I like to think Rory took her name), but I guess this wasn't really their story. We'll see them in the spring (in America?). Glad to see Arthur Darvill is in the main cast now.
Good lord this post was a bit... basic, wasn't it? As I'm sure most people will understand, my Christmas belly is preventing me from coming up with a lot of coherent things to say.
It's nice to look back and see what a brilliant year for Doctor Who this has been - beginning with the beautiful but sad end to the 10th Doctor (which I reviewed in much greater depth than this review here), followed by some absolutely rip-roaring adventures (The Eleventh Hour, The Big Bang) and my favourite episode of Doctor Who ever (Vincent and the Doctor, which you can read my review of here), concluding with a brilliant Christmas special and a lovely little teaser for next year.
I can't wait.
Wishing you all the merriest of Christmasses and the happiest of New Years,
What did everyone else think?
