Top 10 Christmas Episodes

Everyone loves a top 10 list and everyone whose name isn’t Ebenezer loves Christmas so I thought it would be a great time to do the top 10 Christmas Doctor Who episodes. Enjoy!

10) The End of Time Part One (25th December 2009- Written by Russell T. Davies)

The first part of the Tenth Doctor’s demise was set on Christmas day but that was a fairly irrelevant plot point. The story itself has nothing to do with Christmas as the Master comes back and converts all humans into himself. Plus the Time Lords are returning and it looks like we’re all doomed. And the Doctor is going to die. Happy Christmas!

On a plus note though, we did have some really Christmassy Doctor Who idents that year. The Doctor, the TARDIS and some reindeer. If only that could have found it’s way into an episode:

9) The Runaway Bride (25th December 2006-Written by Russell T Davies)

The Doctor has just lost his beloved Rose and in the best cliff-hanger ever Catherine Tate suddenly appears in the TARDIS in a wedding dress. This episode has some great features including a TARDIS chase, the return of the robotic Santa’s and deadly baubles but whilst we come to love Donna in series 4, here she’s mostly annoying. Plus the giant spider and Christmas star thing is ridiculous even for Doctor Who.

8) The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe (25th December 2011- Written by Steven Moffat)

The Doctor is rescued by the Mum from Outnumbered and then proceeds to help her and her kids out by sending them to a forest that is about to be destroyed. Good work Doctor. It has some great moments- I loved the Doctor showing the family around the house- but the plot is weak and the ending is too sickly sweet.

7) Attack of the Graske (25th December 2005- Written by Gareth Roberts)

This was an interactive episode which aired via the red button. It’s very Christmassy and you get to be the companion. It’s a Who fan’s dream come true. You even get to fly the TARDIS. It’s great fun and you can now play it online here. There are few things more pleasing than the Doctor telling you that you’d make a good companion.

6) Voyage of the Damned (25th December 2007- Written by Russell T. Davies)

I love Voyage of the Damned- the Doctor running round a space version of the Titanic trying to stop it hitting the Earth and fighting off robotic angels along the way. For the most part it works brilliantly but seeing as though most of the cast die off it’s hardly cheery! And don’t get me started on Kylie’s ridiculously unnecessary death- maybe RTD felt Titanic had to have silly deaths after the James Cameron film.

5) The Unquiet Dead (9th April 2005- Written by Mark Gatiss)

This was the Ninth Doctor Christmas special that never was. It was early on in “Series One” and saw the Doctor and Rose fight off gas monsters with the help of Charles Dickens. It’s a great episode and much more Christmassy than some of the specials. It’s great when the Dickens decides to use the ideas for The Mystery of Edwin Drood and although a bit scary for the young ones, this is brilliant stuff!

4) The Next Doctor (25th December 2008- Written by Russell T Davies)

The Next Doctor is something of a mixed bag. On the one hand the Cybermen are rubbish here with a giant Cyberking and the awful Cybershades. But on the other hand you’ve got David Morrissey as a man claiming to be the Doctor but is actually some bloke called Jackson Lake who is just a bit confused. Although there’s some dark moments everything turns out OK in the end and hardly anyone dies! Plus it has a great ending with crowds saying thank you to the Doctor who then goes for Christmas with Jackson Lake and his family.

3) The Feast of Steven (25th December 1965- Written by Terry Nation)

The first Doctor Who Christmas special, although unofficially, this was part of the epic First Doctor saga The Dalek’s Master Plan. It has sod all to do with the plot though as the Doctor and his companions run round contemporary Earth and then sit down for Christmas dinner. The First Doctor even turns to the camera and says “Incidentally a happy Christmas to all of you at home!"

2) The Christmas Invasion (25th December 2005- Written by Russell T Davies)

The first official Doctor Who special, this sees the aftermath of the Doctor’s regeneration as Rose (and the audience at home) try to cope with his new face and personality. He’s asleep for most of it, only waking up when there’s killer Santa's and Christmas trees around (best line in a Christmas episode from Jackie Tyler here: “I’m going to get killed by a Christmas tree!”). Eventually the Doctor wakes up in time to have a sword fight with the aliens and save the world as per usual. Everyone’s happy and Christmassy!

1) A Christmas Carol (25th December 2010- Written by Steven Moffat)

The Doctor is inspired by Charles Dickens’ tale and changes an old miser (played by Dumbledore) into a better man. Which is weird when you think about it because Dickens only came up with the story because of his adventures with the Doctor- see above! Anyway, we get a bit fun romp as the Doctor, Kazran and Katherine Jenkins meet up every Christmas and do fun stuff and then it gets all sad. A beautiful, fun, sad, emotional and awesome story. Plus there’s a great snowman near the end.

I’m sure you instantly disagree with my ratings so please let me know what you think in the comments below. Fingers crossed that The Snowmen will be worthy of coming high in this list. I’ll be here next week with a full discussion on it!

The Great Detective

I just had to have a Time Vortex post on Doctor Who’s 49th birthday! It’s always exciting when there’s new Doctor Who material to devour and the BBC’s annual Children in Need telethon is now a sure fire source for new stuff. This year the main feature was the prequel to this year’s Christmas Special. It’s entitled “The Great Detective”:

  Well that was good fun! It’s nice to see the return of Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax from A Good Man Goes to War and this in itself is an exciting prospect for the Christmas special. Matt Smith once again demonstrates how great he is at playing a darker Doctor in this minisode and it will be great to see how Jenna-Louise Coleman’s character will turn him back to his old self. It’s also great to see that the late great Douglas Adams’ idea of the Doctor retiring has finally been picked up.

We also got the first trailer for the Christmas special and discovered it will simply be called The Snowmen.

Wow, at this point it looks pretty awesome. It looks like Richard E. Grant might live up to his villainous potential but we all know what the biggest talking point of that trailer is. Those snowmen are terrifying!

Already these are my fave monsters in a long time. Looking further ahead, news came out about Neil Gaiman’s series 7 episode (which will air in the springtime). It’s been confirmed that it will indeed be a cybermen episode and the guest cast was revealed to include Warwick Davis, Tamzin Outhwaite and Jason Watkins. This is great news and already I’m thinking this could become a new fan-favourite.

Torchwood: Exodus Code

Your enjoyment of this new Torchwood book probably depends largely on how much you enjoyed the TV show's fourth series, Miracle Day. If you hated it this isn't for you. If you thought it was OK though this is a decent follow up. It sees a new disaster for Earth where woman are having breakdowns and hydrothermal vents are popping up instantaneously all over the world. It doesn't look good.

The use of the main characters in this book is pretty atrocious. Gwen is one of the women having a breakdown and whilst that gives a good window to the plot it means half of Torchwood is out of action. Rhys and Andy Davidson are both in it but as more minor characters their roles aren't very important. Captain Jack is the hero of the tale and whilst he is characterised well (who knows him better than John Barrowman, the actor who plays him) he spends most of the book out of it as well. Miracle Day's Rex Matherson makes a very fleeting appearance which seems unnecessary. Either use him or don't.

Having said that, some of the supporting cast is pretty good. A portion of the book is set on The Ice Maiden, a high tech boat with a crack team of scientists and thanks to Jack a holographic computer personality. It feels like a new Hub and team and I only wish their role had been used more.

The plot itself is in many ways like Miracle Day. Not a lot really happens for the first three quarters, it all building up to a decent but actually pretty easily solved finale. It's pretty global with large bits set in South America and although technically an alien is involved it's a sci-fi story without any aliens, again.

It's a decent effort from John and his sister and at least it continues the show whilst on it's everlasting hiatus but it doesn't quite work. Too long is spent on build up and the characters aren't used effectively and it's like they haven't learnt any lessons from the bad press Miracle Day got. 3/5

The Angel’s Kiss/PS

The run of episodes may have ended but there’s always new Doctor Who stuff to digest! This time round I’m taking a look at a prequel and a sequel to The Angels Take Manhattan. There might be some spoilers for that episode so if you’ve not seen it you might want to avoid reading on- basically run!

First up I’ve reviewed The Angel’s Kiss.

The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery by Justin Richards
This short e-book is a prequel to the Series 7 episode "The Angels Take Manhattan". It's narrated by River Song in her guise of New York detective Melody Malone. It's actually written by Justin Richards who is the lead writer in the book range, though this is very different from any other Doctor Who book.

The story sees Melody Malone investigate when a movie star pays her a visit worrying for his life then appears to forget it ever happened the next day. It's more a story of human evil with a brief but pretty scary appearance from the weeping angel Julius Grayle has acquired in the TV episode.

It's works as a great story but the highlight here is how brilliantly Richards has managed to catch River Song's voice. It's full of great lines as she subtly talks about the bets parts of her body and flirts her way through the investigation. It's incredibly convincing that it's written by the character and sets up The Angels Take Manhattan TV story really well.

So that’s the prequel of The Angels Take Manhattan but we’ve also got a sequel which explains what happened to Brian Williams and to the Ponds. Sadly it was never filmed but the short scene by Chris Chibnall has been put together in the form of an animated storyboard with a voiceover by Arthur Darvill who plays Rory. It’s pretty damn good. Here’s the scene:

That’s such a great little scene and it’s just a shame that it was never filmed. Chibnall for next show-runner anyone?

The Power of Three

This week Doctor Who gave us the invasion of the small cubes and the time the Doctor came to stay. There’ll be spoilers so if you haven’t seen the episode yet you probably want to avoid this post- basically, run!

This episode felt like a Russell T Davies era episode: an invasion of Earth, rolling news coverage and very character driven. It’s the first invasion of contemporary Earth story we’ve had in a long time. The plot consisted of millions of small cubes landing on Earth and then not doing anything. The Doctor was forced to come and stay with the Ponds as they are in the process of deciding whether they should keep travelling with the Doctor.

Seeing the Doctor come to stay is good fun and provides most of the many laughs from the episode. He has no patience and can’t sit still and do nothing. He did loads of keepie-uppies and played on the Wii. My favourite scene which I think summed up the whole episode was when the three characters were sat watching The Apprentice (with the real Lord Sugar putting in a cameo) and the Doctor talks about inventing the Yorkshire pudding. That is perfect TV.

The episode also did a fantastic job at referencing classic Who but did so in a way that it didn’t matter if you don’t get the references. The Doctor mentions past companions dying (Adric!), how his metal dog used to hover (K9) and there was return of sorts for classic monsters the Zygons, hidden under the Savoy hotel. Perhaps the best classic reference was in the form of character Kate Stewart, the person now in charge of UNIT. Kate is the daughter of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, the former leader of UNIT and the character that met the most Doctors (Two, Three, Four, Five and Six). Kate fitted in perfectly with the show and Jenna Redgrave had her character nailed. I really hope Kate Stewart becomes a semi-regular character in the future!

I did have a few problems with the episode, though they are fairly minor niggles. The resolution of the plot felt a bit rushed. If Doctor Who was an hour long this episode would have been perfect. However, I loved the cubes and really want one. I liked the way that they all did different things, from squirting water to playing the Birdie Song really loudly. My other problem was the massive coincidence that meant one of the seven locations across the world just happened to be the hospital Rory works in. That was handy.

Still, I do think this was a great episode and Chris Chibnall has really proved himself as a writer. And this episode sorted a problem I had back when I was talking about Asylum of the Daleks. Amy is now working as a journalist as opposed to a model, which seems a much more likely thing a TARDIS traveller would do!

On a completly unconnected note, I was wondering how old the Doctor is now. We could follow his age fairly easily until series 6. Something like 200 years went by for the Doctor between episodes and as he’s been doing lots of travelling without the Ponds it seems likely even more time has gone by. Just how old is he now? I’d like that to be cleared up please.

The horrible thing is now that there’s only one more episode left and it will be the end of the Ponds. This is the point where we have to speculate wildly about what might happen. For one thing Christmas has been mentioned in every episode of the series. I suspect if that’s more than coincidence it’s actually to do with this year’s Christmas special, where Oswin will return. A more important thing to note is how the titles to each episode are getting darker. There’s also been quite a lot of flashing lights and lights turning off in the episodes so far. Given what happens when lights flicker and the Weeping Angels are around this could be a sign of things to come. Maybe.

It’s worrying that it’s the Weeping Angels that the Doctor has to face next week. He’s not really defeated them properly yet. Sure, he beat four of them in “Blink” but that was only four. “The Time of Angels” was only resolved because of the crack in time which sucked the Angels in. Can the Doctor defeat a whole city’s worth of Angels? And how will the story of the Ponds end?

A Town Called Mercy

The Doctor gets to wear a stetson again and visit the Wild West for the first time in forty six years. Join me to discuss the episode and talk about morals. There’ll be spoilers so if you haven’t seen the episode yet you probably want to avoid this post- basically, run!

I was particularly excited about this episode. It was written by Toby Whithouse (creator of one of my fave shows, Being Human) and writer of some of the best Who episodes (School Reunion, The Vampires of Venice and The God Complex before this one). It’s also the first Doctor Who western since The Gunfighters in 1966, a First Doctor story which is one of the worst of the era. It was originally going to be called “The Gunslingers” which is how this week’s ‘monster’ got it’s name.

It appears that in comparison to last series, Series 7 is going for fairly simple plots. The town of Mercy is looking after Kahler-Hex, an alien Doctor who is providing the town with electricity and healthcare. He can’t step outside the town’s border though for fear of meeting with the Gunslinger, Kahler-Tec, a cyborg. Hex experimented on innocent soldiers to create cyborgs which ultimately won a horrible war. The Gunslinger wants revenge for what Hex did to him.

The Doctor sees what Hex did in Hex’s ship and then does a very un-Doctery thing. He decides Hex deserves to be executed and drags him outside of the town. It’s only because of sheriff Issac’s sacrifice that Hex survives and it takes Amy Pond to make the Doctor change his mind. She tells him to be better than Hex. The Doctor argues that because of his mercy many people have died, referencing the Master and the daleks. He knows that saving Hex would involve putting the whole town in danger and he doesn’t want to do that. Plus I get the feeling he has turned a little dark and wants people that do bad things to die- he did that in the last episode with Soloman. The situation is summed up later in the episode: “You’re both good man but sometimes you forget that”.

I suppose this episode brings up a major issue within the world. Is the death penalty right, can it ever be right? Many countries have withdrawn it from the legal system but it still remains in many others. People have strong opinions about this and some will argue that murderers and terrorists etc should die for their crimes. The Doctor was kind of taking this view in this episode but normally he turns to the other side of the argument- that killing someone for their crimes makes you no better than them. And I think he’s right about that fact.

In the end the Doctor helps Hex escape by having Rory and various residents put a Kahler symbol on their face and run around confusing the cyborg’s sensor. When Hex got to his ship though he blew himself up, wishing no more to die because of him. Let me share with you what Kahler-Hex says which really sums up how brilliant Toby Whithouse is as a writer:

“In my culture, we believe that when you die, your spirit has to climb a mountain, carrying the souls of everyone you’ve wronged in your lifetime. Imagine the weight I will have to lift: the monsters I created, the people they killed. Isaac! He was my friend. Now his soul will be in my arms, too.”

Fantastic! And the Gunslinger lives on to protect the village and everyone’s pretty much happy. Apart from a little tension from the fact the Ponds want to return home again and the Doctor looking a bit miffed about this but expect much more on that plotline next week.

There was also some great fun bits this week. Rory had a couple of good lines, although the Ponds were largely absent from the episode, but the best had to be the horse. The preacher says “He’s called Joshua” to which the Doctor replies “No he isn’t. I speak horse. He’s called Susan and he wants you to respect his life choices”.

I feel I should also mention how much like a Western the episode felt. The set was fantastic. They filmed the episode in Almeria, Spain in the same sort of area where all the classic Western films were filmed. Murray Gold did a fantastic job with the music, as always and Whithouse made it feel like a Western despite the sci-fi elements what with a stand-off at high noon and everything. All in all I think it was a great episode and it was my favourite for some time, though some may have found the episode too dark and serious. But the Doctor has always been on the edge of darkness and has carried a gun many times in the past. And if you think of what he did in the Time War the events of this episode were nothing.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

It’s Doctor Who Series 7 and there is the most literal title ever- Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. Join me as I discuss the episode and show off with various factlets on the episode. There’ll be spoilers so if you haven’t seen the episode yet you probably want to avoid this post- basically, run!

So the episode opens with the Doctor assembling the cast. Queen Nefertiti of Egypt forces herself on the Doctor and then he’s speaking with what appears to be an Indian version of Torchwood who are going to blow up a spaceship which is heading towards Earth. The Doctor goes to investigate but first picks up Edwardian hunter Riddell and the Pond’s, complete with Rory’s Dad Brian.

It then leads into an adventure where a creepy old man called Soloman has taken over the spaceship and plans to sell the dinosaurs. The Doctor and the gang have to stop him and prevent the pressure cargo from being blown up by that Indian agency. Simples.

This is a really uncomplicated episode and it works well because of that. But this post is no-where near as simple because I’m going to shift all over the place and go on about various things. Keep up.

Chris Chibnall, writer of this episode, is clearly the man in charge of the Silurian's. He brought them back in Series 5 and the dinosaurs were on the ship because the Silurian's were trying to save them, until Soloman came along and massacred all the Homo Reptilia. It was a complete surprise to see a Silurian on the screen but a great one. Great work Chibnall!

So fairly soon after their arrival on the spaceship the Doctor, Rory and Brian are transported to a beach which is also on the spaceship apparently. The beach is the only beach that Doctor Who has access to film on apparently. It was Bad Wolf Bay a couple of times AND appeared in the Time of the Angels two-parter. Brian Williams is a fantastic character what with always carrying a trowel and golf balls, brilliantly played by Mark Williams (you know him as Arthur Weasley). It was interesting to see what Rory’s dad is like and it kind of explains a lot. He refused to be called a Pond (the Doctor assumes anyone related to Amy is a Pond) and the scene at the end where he had a packed lunch sat on the edge of the TARDIS looking at the Earth was perfect. There’ll be more of Brian later in the series too!

The other characters introduced are quite interesting. Queen Nefertiti is a strong, independent woman which is something you don’t tend to see from historical women. And played by a very attractive actress I might add. Riddell on the other hand is a game hunter who is really sexist. He should be a character the Doctor hates but his heart is in the right place and he is a genuinely great character. I kind of want to meet him. The pair of them get on rather well and at the end we see them both back with the Edwardian tents. That even works historically as Nefertiti disappears from the records for no apparent reason. It works for me.

There’s two very camp robots in this episode voiced by famous comedy double-act David Mitchell and Robert Webb. They’re not the villains really though, just servants of Soloman, playing by David Bradley (who you know as Argus Filch). Soloman is creepy, especially when he wants to take Queen Nefertiti as his prize. And all the kids of the world hated him when he shot the triceratops. Not to mention the fact he wiped out thousands of Silurian's. But still, the Doctor killed him. Put the missile target in Soloman’s ship and sent the ship flying into space. That was a very un-Doctory thing to do. Suddenly the Doctor is becoming very dark again, which we haven’t really seen since David Tennant’s time. In the next episode he is supposed to do something really un-Doctory. This is all part of the series arc and it’ll be interesting to see where it goes.

There was a touching scene, or rather a scary one, where Amy is talking to the Doctor saying she is always listening out for the TARDIS sound (aren’t we all?). The Doctor says he does still care and that the Ponds will probably be with him until the end of him. Then Amy says it’ll be the other way round and there’s an awkward silence. Is Amy going to die? I really doubt it but I think to the Doctor she’ll effectively be dead, in a similar way to Rose and Donna are both living their lives but “died” at the end of a series all the same.

All in all a fun episode. It felt very much like Classic Who at times but with good CGI and prosthetics (top marks to the team for that, it looked incredible). Dinosaurs last appeared in Doctor Who properly in a Third Doctor story called “Invasion of the Dinosaurs” where toy dinosaurs were super-imposed onto London. It’s not supposed to be very good. Chris Chibnall wrote the episode after next as well which is great, though it’ll be very different to this one!