I was asked by the lovely Jordan to guest post on her awesome blog about my favorite subject. And not only that, but on the Christmas specials to boot. I jumped at the chance to share my thoughts on these, so here goes:
Doctor Who! oooooooeeeeeeeoooooo!
So Doctor Who has had this thing since it’s reboot in 2005 where they have a Christmas Special episode. The best part about this is that they actually air the episode on Christmas Day. It’s like the best thing ever, and I usually look forward to it more than spending time with the family. Yep I said it.
This year’s Christmas special is titled “The Time of the Doctor” and will see Matt Smith leaving his role as the Doctor and passing the torch to not-so-new-to-Who actor Peter Capaldi. I’m actually kind of really intrigued for this, although it will be hard to say goodbye to the fabulous Matt Smith. It might be just as hard as it was to say goodbye to David Tennant, which is saying a lot because I cried like a baby when that happened.
So with all of this being said, Jordan has asked me to go over the Christmas Specials that have aired to date, and put my own spin on it. I’ve decided that I will rate them from least favorite to most favorite, because we all love to see things rated. Right?
#8 - The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe (2011)
A widowed mother of two takes up residence at a large home, I believe as a matron? Still not entirely sure on that. There they meet the Caretaker formerly known as the Doctor. Formerly you ask? Yes, he’s just gone into hiding after becoming too well known and faked his own death. After the Caretaker shows the family around the house, tries to jump into a hammock and fails big time, the children are sent to bed. Little boy doesn’t listen well though and finds a large present under the tree of which he can’t seem to stop himself from opening. Upon doing so he finds that this present in fact transports him to another world where wood people grow on trees. I learned I was wrong on how trees procreate….silly me thought it was through seeds planted in the ground. Well the Doctor finds out Little Boy is gone and he and Older Sister go after him. Mother finds out they’ve all disappeared and follows too. Turns out the planet is about to have all the trees destroyed by acid rain, and this poses a big problem for Mother trying to rescue her children. The tree people have found a way to communicate through a halo you place on the head. They are looking for someone strong enough to house their entire species inside them. Makes sense. Turns out Mother is magical and can withstand the acid rain, she locates her family and the tree people find that she’s strong enough to house their species. Something happens where they end up flying a ship through the time vortex where her dead husband happens to be caught. He follows her light and she travels back home and the family is reunited. The tree people are saved and all is well. This episode didn’t do much for me, it was full of showy moments, and the wood people were just lame. The best moment of the episode didn’t happen until the very end where the Doctor goes to Amy and Rory’s house and there’s a mini reunion. Sob!
Reason for Rating: It’s a typical Moffat story where it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and exists to wow on showy moments.
#7 - The Next Doctor (2008)
The Doctor has just had the biggest moment ever saving the Earth from the Daleks, and is now looking for a little relaxation time. So he heads to the 1800’s at Christmas time. Unfortunately he finds trouble right away, by hearing his name be called. He goes running and finds who he thinks is a future regeneration of himself. The Governor! Ok, so he wasn’t The Governor just yet. He actually went by Jackson Lake at this point, but he didn’t know that yet either. Jackson got a boo boo on his brain, and blocked out the murder of his wife and kidnapping of his son by the Cybermen, and instead replaced his memories with those of the Doctor on accident through a memory cartridge flashing intel on the Doctor. The Doctor at first is really excited to see that he has a future, and that they can fight alongside each other, but then things start to unravel, and he realizes this guy isn’t his future self, but a man who needs a memory reboot. The Doctor helps Jackson to recover his own memories and in the process Jackson remembers that he has a son who was taken from him. So now they have a larger mission, to retrieve Jackson’s son and also take down the Cybermen who have built a humongous Cyberman controlled by a woman they have possessed and all the town’s children. Jackson and The Doctor save all the children, and then the Doctor takes Jackson’s version of the TARDIS (hot air balloon) and attacks the giant cyberman and takes it down. And by down I mean, using a huge sonic screwdriver to obliterate the huge cyberman thus saving the city. Now that everything has been taken care of, the Doctor is on his way, but not before showing Jackson the inside of the actual TARDIS, oh and actually accepting a dinner invitation by Jackson. Something he hasn’t done since Rose. Awwww.
Reason for Rating: The giant Cyberman was a little over the top. I did feel bad for Jackson Lake losing his family and finding out he’s not the Doctor. That would be a sad day.
#6 - A Christmas Carol (2010)
This episode pretty much sounds like it is; a take on the classic Christmas Carol story by Charles Dickens (hey the Doctor’s met him before!). This version though includes the Doctor, so then of course also includes time travel. The Doctor meets Dumbledore Kazran, a grumpy old man who basically owns a planet and controls everything. He’s the Scrooge of the story if you haven’t picked up on that yet. On this planet with fish that swim in the air, exists a payment plan to Kazran of giving up a member of your family who is then cryogenically frozen to pay off a debt owed to him. I’m not sure why he accepts this as payment, because it’s honestly kind of morbid, and also weird. I’m thinking it’s because his father did this, and he just continued the “tradition”. Is that the right word to use? So anyway we have a frozen girl whom Kazran is obviously attracted to, but instead stores her in his human storage freezer. Kazran’s father had accepted her as payment a while before Kazran took over the business. Well in comes the Doctor through a chimney no less and wreaks havoc. He sees how big of a grump Kazran is and makes it his mission to fix this on the side of his real mission to save Amy and Rory who are on a spaceship for their honeymoon and are about to crash on that very planet. So the Doctor travels back to when Kazran was a boy and from there basically acts as the Ghost of Christmas Past. None of the other ones really showed up. The Doctor then ends up releasing frozen girl from her slumber and young Kazran, frozen girl and The Doctor have a magical Christmas Eve. This ends up occurring every year for many years. The Doctor almost marries Marilyn Monroe one of the years. Well we eventually find out that frozen girl gave up her life to Kazran because she was dying. Kazran had fallen in love with her at this point and then had it all taken away. So instead of changing Kazran’s life, the Doctor only enabled the bitterness that engulfed Kazran later in life. Cut to the present, and Kazran is horribly miserable now having these new memories, and hates the Doctor even more. Well long story short the Doctor manages to fix things, and Kazran and frozen girl enjoy one more Christmas Eve together, the Ponds live to see another day, and we got a really pretty song from the frozen girl.
Reason for Rating: Again another Moffat story full of show, but at least the story made slightly more sense. I’m still unsure of the whole taking people as payment bit, but that’s my largest complaint.
#5 - The Runaway Bride (2006)
This is the first time we meet Donna! She’s not entirely likeable in this episode, but you don’t hate her either, so I feel that’s a win. So the Doctor has just had to say goodbye to Rose which broke his hearts and mine as well. He’s in the TARDIS mourning his loss when boom there appears a mouthy ginger in a wedding dress. Neither of them know how she got there, but they’re bound to find out. So they head back to Earth and begin their adventure. We learn that there’s a giant spider woman trying to harvest her babies and needs humans to feed them. She’s a Racnoss and they hate the humans because they took over the planet that the Racnoss’ originally inhabited. So the Doctor and Donna travel back to the beginning of the Earth as it’s being created and see that a Racnoss ship became the core of the Earth as it was being created. Weird. So now they head back to present time to take down the Racnoss. Poor Donna learns that her fiance has been helping spider woman, but he himself has been duped. The Doctor takes an approach he surely learned from being in the Time War and took no mercy on spider woman and her children by flooding the whole area where she was storing her eggs. He’s about to do more damage until Donna stops him and makes him realize he’s going too far. The Doctor realizes this and he and Donna leave. Just before they part ways, the Doctor asks Donna to go traveling with him and she declines. What??? I would have been all over that, and him…..Anyway….. Donna declines, and the Doctor tries to not look too butt hurt and leaves.
Reason for Rating: Most of the story is fun and action packed. I didn’t much care for the Racnoss Empress, I found her irritating. Other than that, the story was pretty good. Doesn’t get much better than having Donna around to bicker with the Doctor.
#4 - Voyage of the Damned (2007)
The Doctor has just said goodbye to Martha, which went better than when he had to say goodbye to Rose. He’s just getting set on a new course when all of a sudden there’s a huge crash and there’s a ship protruding through the TARDIS. This is where you get an awesome rendition of “what?” from the Doctor. Especially when he picks up a life preserver with the word Titanic on it. This wouldn’t be so weird if he weren’t in space and in the year 2007. So of course he sets out to investigate. We find that it’s a cruise spaceship that’s been modeled on the most famous ship on Earth, the Titanic. Bad omen! On this ship he meets Kylie Minogue who is in disguise? Ok she’s a waitress named Astrid, and she’s never truly seen the stars, let alone another planet. Good thing Earth is the cruise destination! Forget that they don’t entirely know about aliens yet… So the Doctor takes a shining to Astrid, but also makes an effort to find out what’s going on. He meets a few other interesting folk, as well as some demonic looking angel robots. Demonic isn’t far off, because they end up going off grid and trying to destroy the ship. The Doctor and his little gang now have to try and stop it. Lives are lost along the way, but eventually it comes down to the Doctor meeting Max, the cruise ship company owner, who looks like a poor man’s version of Davros. Astrid follows the Doctor and ends up giving up her own life to save him, and takes Max down with her. The Doctor is pretty upset about this, and finds a way to “save” her and let her travel the stars like she’s always wanted to do. Unfortunately because of the way he saved her it’s going to be forever, I hope she’s ok with that.
Reason for Rating: Overall this episode had a lot of great moments, and a few cheesy ones. For example the Doctor being flown up the ship’s core shaft by the demonic angels. And then the ghostly kiss with Astrid, but other than that, it’s an enjoyable episode.
#3 - The Snowmen (2012)
The Doctor is acting like a bitter old man after the loss of Amy and Rory. Basically he’s become his own version of Scrooge and has planted himself in the late 1800’s which fits. Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax have taken it upon themselves to watch over the Doctor, albeit from a distance most of the time. This is also where we meet Clara, a barmaid by night and a governess by day. She experiences a weird occurrence with the snow as she’s leaving the bar one night. The Doctor happens to be walking by and they meet, and then they meet an evil looking snowman that has magically appeared. This intrigues the Doctor, but only slightly. He decides he needs to rid himself of Clara, so he can investigate on his own. The Doctor has no idea who Clara is, but finds her annoying and not befitting of his grumpy demeanor. Strax is his driver that night and as the Doctor instructs Strax to use the memory worm on Clara, it backfires on Strax, and Clara retains her memories of all that’s happened thus far. The Doctor retreats to the TARDIS which is high up in a cloud. I’m still confused as to how he can do this, but I’ll play along. During all this we are also reintroduced to the Great Intelligence, the baddie of the episode. Only it’s an invisible villain who inhabits a large glass globe, and works through the brainwashed mind of a once vulnerable child, now grown. The Doctor catches onto the existence of the Great Intelligence, as well as the fact that Clara isn’t exactly who she says she is. And a battle ensues with an ice woman at the house Clara governs, which ends in the mortal injuries of Clara, and the Doctor outwitting the Great Intelligence in return. Or so he thinks. As Clara dies, she mutters the words, “run you clever boy, and remember”, sparking a realization that he’s met Clara before, she’s souffle girl!
Reason for Rating: This is the best of the Moffat era Christmas Specials, and it’s because it almost entirely makes sense and isn’t painfully confusing. It’s also where we officially join the Clara Oswin Oswald bandwagon. Or at least where I did. Plus you get Strax! And it’s always a good time when Strax is around. Who knew we could love a potato head, er Sontaran.
#2 - The End of Time Part 1 & 2 (2009, 2010)
I kind of forget this is a Christmas special because not much is centered around the holiday time. You do get some Donna time, and Wilf! This is the Doctor’s song ending basically. The Master whom was once dead has been brought back to life, but he’s not really himself so much. He’s extra crazy, and this poses a huge problem for the Doctor. As the Doctor is searching for the Master who has already started wreaking havoc, he happens upon Wilf. Well not really, Wilf has kind of been stalking the Doctor like all the people who meet him do. Ok well like the Noble family does. Anyway, the Doctor reluctantly recruits Wilf as his companion to help take down the Master, who has been apprehended by the new Prime Minister. But they didn’t count on the Master being as cunning as he is, and the large machine that has been built to heal, is now the Master’s ultimate weapon. And because his ego is that big, he uses the machine to turn every person in the world into him. The whole world is the Master! Everyone except for the Doctor, Wilf, the green cactus aliens and Donna(!). So now it’s up to the Doctor’s small team (minus Donna who has basically exploded on the Master’s clone minions and knocked herself out) to put everything back to normal. But things go slightly wrong and the Doctor is taken hostage by the Master and reveals his plan to bring back the Time Lords. It’s never sat well with him that he and the Doctor are the only survivors of their race. The only problem is that by bringing back the Time Lords, he’s also brought the entire planet of Gallifrey with, and it’s encroaching upon the Earth. So the Doctor is now left to not only fix every human on Earth, but once again destroy his species. The Doctor has managed to reverse the cloning effects, and is now about to end the Time Lords when the Master interjects and does it himself. So now all of the Time Lords are gone, and Wilf trying to help has locked himself in a nuclear control room which is about to malfunction and release a shit ton of radiation into the area. So now the Doctor is left with the agonizing decision of giving up his own life or Wilf’s. Of course the Doctor does the right thing and switches places with Wilf, absorbing all of the radiation, and beginning the regeneration process because he is now dying. We then get a super sad goodbye moment where he sees all of the people he’s spent his time with during that current regeneration, and I cried a lot. And then we watch the Doctor regenerate and I bawled my eyes out. And boom regeneration done, and we have our 11th regeneration and I’m hysterical.
Reason for Rating: You’d think I’d rate this one a lot lower. It is the end of the David Tennant era after all, and it’s no secret he’s my favorite. And this is why it ranks as high as it does, because it was the most emotional regeneration I’ve seen yet. I didn’t want him to go, just as he said he didn’t either.
#1 - The Christmas Invasion (2005)
The Doctor has just regenerated due to Rose becoming the Bad Wolf and his regeneration has gone a little wrong. His body isn’t taking it so well, and the Doctor basically goes into a coma. Meanwhile he’s disbursing energy as he sleeps and it’s attracting aliens bent on obtaining the Time Lord to use as an energy source. They try to get to him by using killer Christmas trees and deadly musical instruments, but it doesn’t work, the Doctor awakes for a moment and puts a stop to it, and then collapses again. Next up are the Sycorax who have come for world domination. Harriet Jones the new Prime Minister kindly takes on the role of Earth’s ambassador and tries to reason with the Sycorax. It doesn’t go well, and she loses a few men. They then detect an alien intelligence device on Earth, we know it as the TARDIS, and beam it onto their ship thinking Harriet Jones is trying to deceive them in some way. Really Rose and Mickey have just loaded the Doctor onto the Tardis and are trying to get it to come alive, and triggered something. Unfortunately when they leave the TARDIS they find themselves on the Sycorax ship and in a lot of trouble. The Sycorax have used blood control to threaten the lives of ⅓ of the population. Well as Rose is trying to save the Earth, the Doctor awakens and does that for her. He loses a hand in the process, but grows it back. It’s a Time Lord thing. The world is once again saved, but at a cost. Harriet Jones takes it upon herself to destroy the Sycorax ship the Doctor just told never to return. This prompts the Doctor to take action with her and basically destroy her career. He doesn’t do second chances. After all that drama, the Doctor now gets to dress up his new self and join Rose and family for dinner. After a night of fun, the Doctor is ready to get a travelling again and Rose is keen to join. Aw she really likes this new regeneration, and so do I.
Reason for Rating: The first episode of David Tennant. That is all.
So there you have it. We all have our favorite episodes and specials, and this was the order of mine. I’d like to thank Jordan for asking me to guest post. I hope you all have a Happy Wholidays! Yep that just happened.
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