The Official 2010 Christmas Thread

[Kit]

Oh, look! It's your long lost admin! Why, yes, I did disappear off of the face of the Earth. You see, I was kidnapped by the evil alien menace known as University, who had an evil sidekick called Finals. Fortunately, though, the Doctor rescued me about half-way through December. Unfortunately, he wiped my memory and I had no recollection of him whatsoever. Fortunately, again, he arrived on Christmas and decided that I needed to start paying more attention to him, so he gave me my memory back. In conclusion, I'm back! And hello new (though probably not that new) people I don't know! -waves-

Basically, that means I had kind of fallen out of Whodom and it took the Christmas Special to bring me back.
Amazingly, it aired, for the first time ever, on Christmas Day over here in the States! I'm hoping the next series will follow that lead...


So, I'm not going to white out my spoilers. One, because I'm lazy; and two, because when I first made this section ages and ages ago I intended for it to contain spoilers, so you enter and read at your own risk.

So. SPOILERS BELOW! Don't look if you don't want to know!







I loved the Christmas special! Maybe it just reintroduced me to Doctor Who which makes me happy, but I absolutely loved it! Eleven and Amy and Rory are fantastic! I didn't really comment on this/last year's series because it aired a bit late in the States and I always felt late and out of the loop. But now I finally get the chance to say that I love Eleven. He is in my top portion of favourite Doctors, which is growing to be about half of them... But anywho. Reasons to love the Christmas episode:
1. Michael Gambon. 'Nuff said.
2. Steampunk planet! Awesomeness.
3. As has been stated earlier in this thread: Roman!Rory!!
4. It was, in general, just awesome.


Thank you, that is all.

[clocketpatch]

KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, I want my Roman!Rory NOW damnit. Especially since the SPACE summary for the episode is so utterly random.

[Kit]

Clocket!! Thanks for holding down the fort. Don't know what I would've done without you!

Aha, that is a bit of an odd summary. But fear not! The episode isn't that odd (well, aside from the usual oddness). It's really quite a lovely episode.

[clocketpatch]

I keep telling myself not to look at spoilers. So I'm not. But I did look up a picture of the bearded Doctor from the trailer because that rumour confused me so

the verdict? DO WANT!!

[leamichelle]

The only thing I can really say about the Christmas special is this: lsakfjlsdkfj.

Also, the trailer - wot. WOT. He looks like one of my old roomies! (Not like that's the only thing I noticed about it, but it stood out. How could it not?)

I can't believe it's taken me this long to say it, but this show has ruined my life. (I mean that in the best way possible, of course.)

Speaking of, can I just say that I love the way Eleven interacts with children? The bowtie thing - think I awwww!'d so loud the neighbours could hear. I missed Amy and Rory not taking a hugely active role in the saving of the ship, but there were so many other great things about it (fishing with the sonic screwdriver!) that I allowed it to slide. Apart from The Christmas Invasion, this was one of the most impressive specials yet. I'm ready for next spring, though.

P.S. Hi Kit! Nice to meet you!

[johne]

So, it would seem that the moral of the story is:
]If the Doctor makes a reasonable request of you, do it. Otherwise, he will cheerfully bribe your servants away, leave you unable to control your weather machine, rewrite your timeline, break your heart, and stick you in an emotional feedback loop with your younger self, until such a time as you suit his purposes.[

Rather a good job that the Master didn't get the opportunity to do all that to Lucy, wasn't it?

[leamichelle]

Quite! Although what he did do was admittedly not as gentle, mentally. After all, the Doctor had no intention to give him all the bad parts. And what he did manage to do in the end - the Ghost of Christmas Future bit - did soften him up and sort of heal the wound, as it were. You might say that opposed to what the Master did, it were worth it, considering.

[jjpor]

Dec 26, 2010 22:15:21 GMT johne said:

So, it would seem that the moral of the story is:
]If the Doctor makes a reasonable request of you, do it. Otherwise, he will cheerfully bribe your servants away, leave you unable to control your weather machine, rewrite your timeline, break your heart, and stick you in an emotional feedback loop with your younger self, until such a time as you suit his purposes.[

Rather a good job that the Master didn't get the opportunity to do all that to Lucy, wasn't it?

Er...yeah... Pretty decent summing up, really, johne. All I'd say would be:

It was a reasonable request, and the guy was perfectly prepared to let 4003 people die purely in order to reinforce his own misanthropic, dog-eat-dog worldview. So really, he had it coming, as worrying as the Doctor's willingness to essentially rewrite his whole history and personality (and the obvious glee with which he did it) may be.

And to be honest, it is a little worrying, or at least confusing, insofar as no hint was ever dropped that what the Doctor was doing was in any way ethically problematic or that we should react with anything other than cheers and warm fuzzy Christmassy feelings. You know, Eleven at times acts like Seven at his TV dodgiest, and like Seven it is assumed that when he does take such drastic action he has a pretty damn good reason for doing it, yet in Seven's (and Ten's, in similar circumstances) case, it was still made pretty clear in the stories that this was drastic action. Here, it just seemed like Eleven having a bit of a lark. ;D

That said, I think I liked this one better than just about any of the prior Xmas specials, with the possible exception of the bits of the Xmas Invasion that had Ten in but not Harriet Jones in the same scene (you know what I mean), or the first 45 mins or so of The Next Doctor (that "they break my heart" thing STILL has the ability to get right up my nose). It certainly made EoT look like the overblown rubbish I in fact suspected it to be at the time of first viewing by comparison. And I think that's mainly down to Matt Smith - he was, as always, excellent. Mind you, Michael Gambon and the actors playing his younger selves were no slouches, nor were Rory and Amy in their admittedly brief screentime.

But yeah, and I kind of think the Doctor might have been able to think his way out of the whole Abigail situation in a more elegant, non-fatal way, but then I suppose from a purely storytelling pov it needed that emotional payoff. Or something.

But no, I liked it generally, but I'm trying to be evenhanded. ;D

[merrythemad]

I have to rewatch this one. It was Christmas and I was a bit in my cups...(kids go to their dad's arond 1 pm on Christmas and spend the night so...) but first I do have one thing to add and an agreeing statement to make

**I agree with Johne and JJ, it IS disarming and I quite agree even doubly disarming is how glibly it was all done. I also think he ought to have just healed Abigail the last Christmas Eve instead of running off marrying Marilyn, that being said, he got married! So is that one of the true spoilers from the list?**

One last bit, Aquabluejay, yes!!!! they really did!

[jjpor]

*On the list of spoilers it said he gets married TWICE!! So, it's half-proven, then?

As I say, Merry, I don't really have any problem with what the Doctor did in the circumstances, but by the sort of unofficial code of behaviour the Doctor has adopted over the course of the past 47 years or so, it was a bit dodgy and would usually at least be acknowledged as such, but not so much here. And yes, he ought to have thought of a solution to Abigail's problem, really, although that would have perhaps undercut the emotional impact of the story, or whatever phrase RTD used to use to describe the whingey whiney bits. ;D

All I hope is that all of those other people got let out of the freezer, because that was never addressed either... *

[merrythemad]

well, there is a whole half series to wait and see whether he marries again, and I am betting he will (in the same silly off-hand way he married Miss Monroe I bet) Upon closer inspection I didn't like this one as much as I had wanted. While certainly more Christmas-y than any other it all just felt a bit forced to me. Still, i did enjoy it and I am beginning to wonder if it's me and not the show, perhaps I just need a whovian infusion, yeah? anyway ROLL ON EASTER!!!!!

[jjpor]

I don't know, you can't like everything, can you? Different strokes, and all that... As I say, for me it has the best awesomeness-to-annoyance ratio of any of the Xmas specials so far, which is about as much as I dared to hope for anyway. ;D And it just confirmed my impression that, while by no means suddenly perfect, NuWho is at least back on the right track this year after what I would consider to be some of the deeply misguided choices made in the last year or so of the RTD era (not that I didn't take issue with things before that, but...well, I've gone on enough times already about that stuff... ;D).

Trying to think positive la la la sort of thoughts about S6, but...you know, more nervous than I was last year, because I'd hate to see them mess the Eleven era up now after having imho such a strong start... ;D

*And I agree, I think the marriage thing, if it happens, will again be a joke. I continue to believe that Moffat is going to bring off some sort of evil rug-pulling twist in relation to the whole River situation. Or possibly not, but I tend to suspect him of that sort of thing, perhaps entirely wrongly.*

[clocketpatch]

I still have to write a reaction post to this don't I? Unless you count that overly long reply comment on lj...

I liked it. Mostly. I liked the fish and how they spun in adorable circles in front of Eleven's sonic, and how they bit Eleven when he kept interrupting the singing with his pseudo-science. I liked the dialogue, which was great and had some really memorable one-liner zingers.

Still... there was a weird feeling while I was watching it that what I watching wasn't really Doctor Who, that it had missed the point and skidded past that some how. I think this feeling was partially brought on by the Moff's obsession with time travel and going back to fix things... which sort of takes all of the tension out. It's become a cheap plot device for shortening/lengthening the length of the episode -

The Doctor doesn't have to crack the code on the safe; he only has to pop forward in time to grab it. He doesn't have to come up with his own solution to the spaceship crashing (which he totally could have, and DID in fact do) because he can change time whenever he wants with no apparent consequence.

I'm not sure I like the implications of that. I'm still a little squiffy on the morals of what the Doctor did in this episode (and also on the treatment of the female characters...)

It also weirded me out that the whole episode felt like some weird Hallmark/Who mash-up, which is probably the fault of it being a Christmas Carol re-telling... still...

But I *did* like the space sharks and the one-liners and Rory in his centurion outfit (and I really REALLY want to know how the parents explained that one to their kids). Oh! And the bit with the fake!snow snowmen at the end and "That could almost pass for a real man" Heh.

The whole thing with the people in the freezer has attacked me with plot bunnies. There was talk of a surplus population and the Doctor didn't seem to give any indication that he was releasing the rest of the freezer people at the end. Why? Why was Abigail dying? What kind of social structure did that planet have that made freezing your relatives as collateral a viable option? Enquiring fans want to know.

As for the trailer... I saw nothing but scruffy!Eleven heh

[Maggadin]

So, yeah, I basically agree with every Clocket just said. ;D

Also, Woman. Literally. Fridged.

[jjpor]

Literally!

I'd sort of agree about the time travel elements, Clocket - there is a balance to be struck there between cleverness of plotting and taking the drama and tension out of the story because the TARDIS = perennial get out of jail free card. I think a lot of people have said about some of Moffat's stories "hey, isn't it good having stories that are actuall about time travel in this time-travel-themed programme!" and personally I'd agree with that. However, it does run the risk of making non-time-travel related plots look a bit stupid, because, well, couldn't the Doctor have just hopped back half an hour in time and prevented that from happening? Oldschool plot devices like the infamous Blinovitch Limitation Effect or the Doctor having imperfect control over the TARDIS were pretty hokey, but they served a purpose in safeguarding against that kind of pitfall.

Having said that, I think that Moffat is still, just, on the right side of overdoing it. I'll admit it, I am very forgiving of any story that makes me go "oh, that was clever!" ;D, even when it isn't really, but yeah, he probably should watch it from now on, I'd say. Too much of a good thing...

The more I think about it, the more mystified/concerned I am about the people in the freezers. Did they ever get out?? I need to know!

[IMForeman]

Hmm. I really want to share my thoughts on this (short answer: I loved it) but feel it requires a rewatch to be able to do so. In the meantime, those of you who were disturbed by the Doctor's timeline meddling and comparing him to Seven may find this short story by Moffat an interesting read if you're not familiar with it.

[clocketpatch]

ohhhh!! I'd heard of this story but never though I'd get the chance to read it. ;D ;D ;D

Thanks so much for the link IM!

I'm slightly amused that the Moff apparently reused the Giant Library idea. He does that doesn't he? And the "what do monsters have nightmares about?" line. Word for word.

The Dalek translation of The Oncoming Storm was both funny and a bit scary,

but this:

"Most troubling of all, everyone on record as having known the Doctor insists that he is a good man, a hero in fact. But did they think that for themselves?

Or did he think it for them?"

Just chilling.

I've had a theory for a while now that the Doctor unintentionally messes with people's heads. Sometimes Seven did it intentionally (these are not the droids you are looking for) but that it was generally something he avoided for fear of being like the Master.

Though, at least the Master is honest with himself with the whole "And you will obey me!" thing. Meep. I do worry about where Eleven is headed with all of this...

[jjpor]

That is a very good story, actually; very Seven, I think. I know I've read it before, a while ago, online somewhere, but couldn't remember where - thanks for the link, IM!

It is interesting, isn't it, just in that one short story, how much material Moffat has reused in his various NuWho scripts? Hmm Still, I guess it's his prerogative as a writer. But yes, interesting to see his recurring themes and how his conception of the Doctor as this sort of fairytale trickster figure, dangerous and a bit scary as well as heroic, was formed even back then. And those of us who saw the Seven-nuances in Eleven weren't just projecting after all, it would seem!

Yeah, the Doctor unintentionally influencing people is sort of my personal "canon" too - what with Seven and his Jedi mind tricks on a couple of occasions. He's the sort of overdo that kind of thing, I suspect. As for the Master - it's another example of how he is in many ways just the Doctor with all restraint and self-control removed, or at least he seems that way in some of the stories he appears in.