“In 900 years of time and space, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important.”
After the weeks of excitement and the much anticipated viewing of the now traditional Doctor Who epsiode at Christmas, us fans were finally treated to a Who-niverse equivalent of the Christmas Carol. Of course, the christmas specials are never the best part of the Doctor Who journeys but they’re always a good watch because it’s Dr Who, of course it’s a good watch, and this year’s episode was very enjoyable if a little confusing. This year’s Who special as I say took a twist on the traditional Christmas Carol story, throwing in a bit of star Trek and even some Jaws just to mix it up a bit. And whilst it was a bit different to what I expected, it was beautiful, elegant, almost inspiring and despite not being the strongest story still an enchanting tale of a scrooge who’s ways changed at Christmas.
First off, I definitely have to put out my praises to Michael Gambon, for he was absolutely exceptional in the episode, truly wonderful to watch. We all know how good Gambon is (at driving too) and he absolutely made the whole he played of Kazran Sardick. His bitterness, the hurt he felt inside, the torment of his life being shown before his eyes and his memories changing out of his control. Yet the ending of acceptance for his estranged frozen love of Abigail finally dying, and the way his personality developed and grew into the lighter man he became was just perfection from Gambon. After re-watching the episode and thinking about it his performance was definitely the highlight of the episode.
But upon my second viewing of A Christmas Carol, everything was definitely clearer and more intruiging than my original viewing on Christmas Day. Maybe it was the fact I was knackered or that I had a family talking over the episode but watching the episode originally left me confused and unaware at certain plotlines and events, yet the second viewing seemed to clear up my doubts about the episode and made it seem a lot stronger to me, certainly more so than previous Christmas episodes if I’m honest. We’ve also seen a plot modestly downgraded from planets under destruction and giant robots going crazy and focused merely on a man and his life, and opening his heart to save a ship. It’s quite a change from the Russell T Davies days to go some something huge to this smaller scale but it’s something I truly appreciated, even more so with the fact that Moffat’s writing saw Abigail’s life given away and ending as the story says, rather than a miracle turnaround such as has happened many times with the previous head writer. This makes me much more appreciative of what the story writers and Moffat in particular are trying to convey with their story and simply don’t pass the viewer off as stupid by simply breaking these promises in the story they’ve created.
Focusing back on the episode, Matt Smith is progressing becoming my favourite Doctor. Yes, yes I know we all love David Tennant and the man is a legend but there’s just something… human about Matt Smith and yet totally alien at the same time. His mistakes frustrate him, he gets lost in his own thoughts, and there’s just something about his mad cap nature, his erratic behaviour, his rushing to the solution type of ways that make him so appealing as a Doctor. He was utterly hilarious too throughout this episode, especially dealing with the Doctor’s supposed fling with a certain Marilyn Monroe and even his way of simply jumping from Sardick’s childhood to his present self. Much like the Doctor’s companions I find myself falling for whatever he does and the exuberance has for the people he helps, the nature he does it, the everything about him really. Although like him just… not in that way. Like Donna would, or something. I feel like I’m digging myself into a hole here.
It was a very enjoyable Christmas special though I reckon and possibly the strongest we’ve had so far. It was very much a companion-less episode too with Amy and Rory very much finding themselves in very small roles rather than anything major, unless you want to put Abigail into the role of companion which she wasn’t really. The strength of the episode I truly felt lay in the character of Sardick though and the portrayal of his feelings and life through Michael Gambon’s simply staggering abilities to do what he does so well. I would very much advice people to give it another watch if it confused you or whatever on first watching through because now it definitely seemed to clear my doubts about the episode originally. There were plenty of visual gags and cross references in there too, with the Doctor producing a photo of himself and Albert Einstein and Frank Sinatra only to be in that same moment later in the episode, and furthermore with the gags by a quite glimpse of the Eleventh Doctor wearing a long scarf made famous by Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor as well as Kazran wearing a Fez at the same point, something our current Doctor is a big fan off (because Fez’s are cool).
So yes, I loved it. It was Christmassy, uplifting, and then finally tragic but still totally brilliant into execution of the story which, and this is my own little theory, was only set out for the Doctor to create his own Christmas Carol; the Doctor did meet Charles Dickens whilst being in his 9th incarnation of course. I decided to leave a certain talking point till last though because it seems the best way to end this review, and that’s the role of Abigail and Katherine Jenkins playing her character. Jenkins has never done any acting before, and to throw her into such a huge role and episode is quite staggering but brave. Whilst she wasn’t anything amazing, she played the role of Abigail very well considering her lack of experience and the tragedy of her short life towards the end of the episode really hit home. Of course, if you’re going to cast an opera singer you may as well use the most of her voice and Moffat sure of that. In fact, I go back on my earlier mention of Gambon being the highlight because I put that jointly with Abigail’s Song at the end sung by Katherine Jenkins which is just an incredible piece of music. Created by Murray Gold (the show’s composer), it’s Doctor Who’s own Christmas Carol and it’s just totally beautiful and was the perfect way to end the episode. Gold himself mentioned on Confidential following the episode that with the crescendo of the song he wanted to create a sound similar to something Muse would do and that made me very happy, as you can probably imagine. You can listen to the song at the bottom of this post, I very much do recommend it.
So now we wait for Series 6, which airs in the Spring and I can’t wait because Christmas Carol was a lovely way to tell a longstanding story in a way that works for the sci fi nature of this show. Remember to check out christine’s views on this episode over on her blog, because it’s always a read worth reading! As for a Christmas Carol? Well, think we can all thank Steven Moffat and Jeff, I mean, Father Christmas for delivering this present on Christmas Day.
My first choice is British comedian and actor David Mitchell. He should not be confused with author David Mitchell of course, but rather the multiple panel show contestant, and star of the brilliant Peep Show. The man is absolutely hilarious and I love nearly anything he does (Magicians… really?) but I think he’d be fantastic to talk to over dinner. Witty, smart and 
My next invitee would be video game designer and games industry legend Peter Molyneux. I can understand if you’ve never heard of the chap so I’ll give you a bit of insight into why I admire Molyneux so much. He is the head honcho right now behind Lionhead Studios and works alongside Microsoft Games Studios whilst his history includes being in charge of the legendary Bullfrog Games. His back catalogue includes Theme Hospital, Black and White 1 & 2, the Fable series, Dungeon Keeper and so on and so on. His creativity and passion for games and the development of what he wants to do with them is incredible – so much so that he often overhypes games, talking too much about what he wants to do with past releases not having everything he’s wished and mentioned in the media. This gets him criticised a lot but I love this passion and excitement he has for what he does, and the games he creates as well with some of his better games in my all time favourites. Talking to him and his insight into what he does with games and his past experience would be just so awesome. Big admiration forthis man.
Next up, well it was coming and it’s totally expected but my dinner party just has to have Chris Wolstenholme, who is over course the bass player from Muse and all round legend. I mean, where to start on why Chris should be there, the man is a legend! Would be fantastic getting to talk to him about his many years on the road and making albums with fellow bandmembers Dom Howard and Matt Bellamy. Plus if I could only meet one of them it would be him. I wouldn’t even ask him to headbang, just talk to his awesomeness. if he brought his bass guitar he could even bring some entertainment and
Another obvious one to follow Chris with the most experienced F1 driver in the history of the sport and all round nice guy Rubens Barrichello. He was always going to be at my dinner party, of course. Here’s a man who could talk for years and I’d always be interested. So much experience in F1 and hearing his stories of my favourite sport let alone the fact he’s my absolute favourite driver would be enough to listen to! He’s always the most lovely person in interviews in the paddock and for TV, for someone who’s been in the sport for nearly 2 decades he always seemed down to earth and lovely so it’d be a pleasure to host him at my dinner party. Although I would have to give him the biggest hug ever.
My final choice is going to be the current head writer of Doctor Who and scriptwriting genius Steven Moffat, who has written some of my favourite pieces of programming on the BBC in the last few years. Whilst I know him mostly for his awesome work on Dr Who, he also wrote the simply fabulous Sherlock as well as his other shows including Coupling. I would definitely have to keep asking about those main two shows though of his – Dr Who and Sherlock – especially with my love for the Doctor’s many travels. Listening to his ideas and love for Doctor Who would be brilliant! He’s always come across as very dry in his humour too in interviews and his dieas are always totally creative for the shows he does – one of my favourite Dr Who episodes with Blink is a prime example of how to do something totally brilliant and totally different for a show like Doctor Who. Love his writing, love his shows, love the man and the changes he has brought to my beloved Doctor Who!
