The Christmas Carol RX: An Overview Of The Doctor Who 2010 Christmas Special

When I first heard that “Doctor Who” show-runner Steven Moffat was basing this year’s Christmas Special on Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, by first thought was (rather sarcastically): God bless us, every one. Yet somehow Moffat wrote a 60 minute episode that managed to soften even my cynical disposition!

Summoned by his companion/assistant Amy Pond to save the crashing star liner where she and now-husband Rory are spending their honeymoon, the Doctor lands his Tardis on a planet where the skies are controlled by an old miser by the name of Kazan Sardick (played by Michael Gambon). When Sardick refuses to open the skies so the star liner could land (crashing to him is “kind of a landing”), the Doctor uses the Christmas Carol motif to change Sardick’s heart, with the help of a flying shark, a frozen beauty and a half-masticated sonic screwdriver.

I know that the premise just sounds ridiculous on paper, but it works! Gambon is completely believable as a person who can still change his ways despite the years and the heartbreaks. Karen Gillan’s Amy is as feisty as ever, putting her comedic talents and her legs to good use. I wasn’t sure why an opera singer originally was needed for the role of the cryogenically preserved Abigail, but the casting of Katherine Jenkins was pitch perfect as her voice calmed sharks and opened skies while her beauty and kindness won Sardick over!

What can I say about Matt Smith playing the Doctor that hasn’t been said before except this (let me apologize to my nieces now): Matt Smith will probably go down as the best actor to play the Doctor since Tom Baker! Smith is nimble and quick, yet boyishly subtle in the role. IMHO Smith is even better at this point than his predecessor, the wonderful David Tennant.

As a kid, I always thought the BBC’s “Doctor Who” had good stories, even when my friends derided its cheesy special effects. Now that the computer effects have caught up with “Doctor Who”, we are treated with flying fish and rolling fog through Dickensian-style streets in true steampunk fashion. Old and new technology, combined with a new way to tell an old story, has given us something truly remarkable on Christmas day. I fully expect the BBC, Moffat, Smith and the others to keep it that way for 2011!

Previous Doctor Who Entry

Have Yourself A Pretty Vacant Christmas (2010)*

Mindy have a Pretty Vacant Christmas
Drugs have sapped your will
Just one coat of plastination
keeps you still

Mindy have a Pretty Vacant Christmas
Be it oh so nice
It’s much better when your
body’s packed in ice

Dressed in sequins your mannequin’s
profit margin’s up this year
And the friend who you dearly prize
we will plasticize right here

Someday Gigi will be frozen with you
When the times allow
you and she will be posed on the highest bough
So Mindy have a Pretty Vacant Christmas now!

*Sung to the melody of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. Art by Oscar, WoZ and me. Apologies all around!