Sunday 26 December 2010

The Dr Who Christmas Carol: I’ve been Thinking

You know, I’ve got to admit that, granted it wasn’t me that gave birth this morning.

But, by heck, hanging around and waiting was exhausting enough.

I’ve got to admit, me Mum and Anna, the older of my two sister’s all went to visit Ruth, and her son — my new nephew — this afternoon.

Definitely an experience.

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You can’t tell I’ve never had kids, can you … ?

Ahem … !

At any rate, that’s not what I meant to tell you about.

Well …

Sort of …

Hmmm … Am I making any kind of coherent sonce … sex … sense … ?

Possibly not …

At any rate, I meant to put a few more thought’s down, about this year’s Christmas episode of Dr Who, called A Christmas Carol.

That’s assuming I’m coherent enough …

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Now, I’m also assuming you’ve seen A Christmas Carol … ?

Base loosely on the Charles Dickens novel of the same name, it opens with Amy and Rory trapped on a space liner that’s heading at a rapid rate of knots towards a nearby planet whose chief city — Sardicktown — is ruled by Kazran Sardick, played incrediably well, by Michæl Gambon.

Sardick dominates the world he lives on by the simple fact that he controls the weather: it’s the machinery designed by his father — Elliot Sardick, also played by Michæl Gambon — that keeps the bad weather, and the native fish, away from the human population.

On top of that … ?

At the start of the episode … ? We see that Sardick really isn’t a pleasant piece of work …


But as it progresses … ?

As it progresses, we see the 11th Doctor working his charm — as both Moffat’s version of the tale’s Ghost of Christmas Past and Christmas Yet To Come — and showing Sardick how things can be re-written.

It takes a lot of doing.

And a bit of jiggery-pokery.


And not just from the Dr, either. Writer, Stephen Moffat, has managed — as he did with Blink — to twist the tale to come up with a slightly different take on ‘Yet To Come’: one that proves he’s possibly one of the few — if not the only — writer to get the point that Dr Who is a show that features time-travel.


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Now, I’m going to be frank, here.

Now of the 11th’s Doctor’s episodes have grabbed me in quite the same way as the Tennant/Davies era’s did.

However, I do know that, over the course of Season 5, Matt Smith has begun to impressed me, especially as season 5 progressed and finished.

Granted, A Christmas Carol didn’t explain the phone call the Dr receives at the end of The Big Bang.

But I believe it shows the 11th Doctor’s era to be improving …

And that Moffat, Smith and co as on a par with anything that’s gone before.

And that what’s to come next … ?

Is looking like it’s shaped up well … !



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