# Doctor Who Christmas Special **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 25, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353 "2010-12-25T13:47:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/21 "2010-12-26T16:30:11Z")
I agree it was fun and schmaltzy for a Christmas episode. My main criticism is Rory and Amy. They seemed superfluous to the story and their acting performances seemed like they got called in on a weekend, filmed their parts too quickly and that was that. I’m okay with an atmospheric “ocean” filled with flying fish, but it bugged me how Rory & Amy’s ship was slooooooowly falling to its doom over a matter of hours. Hours? That’s not a very scary crash. I figured when I read the adverts for it that the Doctor would have mere minutes or seconds to stop the crash. No biggie though. Next season does look fun! ---
**Author:** ![cstamets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@cstamets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cstamets)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/22 "2010-12-26T17:50:56Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It was pretty good. It bugged me that the Doctor took them several places in time (including a party with Marilyn Monroe), but nowhere that had a real doctor to help the lady with the great voice? The Doctor never knew. Young Sardick didn’t tell him why he didn’t want to do the Christmas Eve thing anymore. Sardick didn’t even know until that last night. If she had spoken up when the Doctor asked her what the number on the door was for, maybe he could have done something. Then again, maybe there was nothing anybody could do. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/23 "2010-12-26T18:51:49Z")
> [@cstamets](#): > > The Doctor never knew. Young Sardick didn’t tell him why he didn’t want to do the Christmas Eve thing anymore. Sardick didn’t even know until that last night. > > If she had spoken up when the Doctor asked her what the number on the door was for, maybe he could have done something. Then again, maybe there was nothing anybody could do. Yeah, her asking him if he is the doctor to help with her illness when she was first unfroze and he introduced himself wasn’t obvious enough for someone who notices things like chairs all pointing away from a picture of an old man on Christmas … We have to have oversized suspensions of disbelief on Who to begin with; it doesn’t help when they are as sloppy with it as they were this time. I know it’s Who but I do like my fantasy worlds to be internally consistent. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/24 "2010-12-26T22:27:51Z")
The Doctor did know that Abigail was dying. Of course he did, that’s what the celebrations at Christmas Eve for her were all for. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/25 "2010-12-26T22:30:56Z")
Just watched again. I didn’t notice so much the first time around, but goodness, the starship scenes don’t half riff on Star Trek. I noticed the Geordie character, but the lens flare! Well done director, well done. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/26 "2010-12-26T22:32:50Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > The Doctor did know that Abigail was dying. Of course he did, that’s what the celebrations at Christmas Eve for her were all for. Aye, I thought that too. He knew. Fixed point in time would be her death. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/27 "2010-12-26T23:04:31Z")
I did enjoy a lighter, happier Christmas Special. The one last year was so grim knowing the Doctor would die. This one was a lot of fun. The best part was the Doctor interacting with the young boy and dealing with the shark. Only Doctor Who could get an acclaimed opera singer to sit on the floor and sing to a shark in a blanket. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/28 "2010-12-27T03:04:16Z")
I thought it was a pretty powerful episode, maybe the best since Tennant left. I did love the way they didn’t do the obvious thing and run **A Christmas Carol** line for line. The “Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come” revelation was a skillful bit of writing. They managed to both be true to the original story and come up with something completely different from it. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/29 "2010-12-27T12:38:36Z")
I found the plot sort of … well, surreal almost to the point of silly. The bit about the turned-around chair turned me off – that’s Moffat pulling his SHERLOCK into the Dr Who universe. The rapid-fire observation/deduction is right out of SHERLOCK, and bothered me. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/30 "2010-12-27T12:41:31Z")
Except that this incarnation of the Doctor has been doing it right from the beginning. Remember Prisoner Zero? There were loads of instances of him noticing small details to draw conclusions, including that natty sequence where the camera moved around to in freeze frame until it landed on the guy who happened to NOT be looking in the sky where the aliens were. Personally I think it’s something that Moffat like both characters to do, I don’t think one is aping the other. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/31 "2010-12-27T13:21:34Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > I found the plot sort of … well, surreal almost to the point of silly. All Christmas specials are silly - that’s a given. As for surreal, I suppose you could call it that, although I would rather say that it followed its own sort of dream logic, which is similar yet altogether different from our own Earth logic. That’s because while Russel T. Davis did space opera, Moffat does fairy tales. Incidentally, I find his Doctor-as-Peter-Pan subtext - never as strong as it was here - fascinating. I wonder where he’ll take it. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/32 "2010-12-27T14:53:53Z")
Anybody else listen to the dialogue (especially near the beginning) and think “That sounds like Joss Whedon?” ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/33 "2010-12-27T16:26:13Z")
That was fun, especially the opera singer doing _In the Bleak Midwinter_ to the shark. It was silly, but it was a heck of a lot less silly than some of the other Christmas specials, and I loved the Doctor inserting himself into Kardick’s past. It was sweet. Oh, and his advice on how to kiss a girl was great! “Be nervous and a bit rubbish.” ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/34 "2010-12-27T18:37:31Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > May have had a few too many beeripops in the pub yesterday, because I spent the whole episode wondering what the fuck was going on. I watched it sober and wondered the same thing. The one good thing this story did was made the good Doctor appear a little less human than he usually does. To me at least it felt like he was sort of lording (ha!) it over the Scrooge character, just appearing a little too smug about being able to go back and “fix” people. Making someone see sense and changing for themselves yes, but going back in time, turning around to the same person in the future (but at the same time via a recording, if you know what I mean) and saying “Look at me, I’m changing you!”, just seemed a little unsettling. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/35 "2010-12-27T18:47:20Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > I watched it sober and wondered the same thing. > > The one good thing this story did was made the good Doctor appear a little less human than he usually does. To me at least it felt like he was sort of lording (ha!) it over the Scrooge character, just appearing a little too smug about being able to go back and “fix” people. > > Making someone see sense and changing for themselves yes, but going back in time, turning around to the same person in the future (but at the same time via a recording, if you know what I mean) and saying “Look at me, I’m changing you!”, just seemed a little unsettling. Well, the guy was about to let 4,000 people die for no other reason than he didn’t care. I’d say he deserved it. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/36 "2010-12-27T21:35:09Z")
…this episode, to quote the Doctor, was “FANTASTIC!” ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/37 "2010-12-27T22:49:15Z")
We were all fairly shitfaced when we watched it, so I didn’t really follow the plot. I did enjoy: Amy and Rory being in their iconic outfits (was that explained?), Gambon’s acting, and how cross the Doctor was when he told Marilyn to get her coat. I liked Katherine Jenkins fine, but as my brother-in-law put it, “if you’re going to have a boring classical singer guest star, you might as well have her lie down in dry ice and serenade a space fish”. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/38 "2010-12-27T22:53:35Z")
> [@SecondJudith](#): > > Amy and Rory being in their iconic outfits (was that explained?) Remember that they were on their honeymoon, and fill in the blanks. \>\_\> ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/39 "2010-12-27T22:56:03Z")
> [@SecondJudith](#): > > We were all fairly shitfaced when we watched it, so I didn’t really follow the plot. I did enjoy: Amy and Rory being in their iconic outfits (was that explained?) It was their honeymoon, and the season closer established that Amy had an erotic fixation on Roman soldiers. And presumably Rory quite liked the sight of Amy in that outfit (I know I do.) It’s not as if the games newlyweds play have to make _sense_. ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353/40 "2010-12-27T23:14:59Z")
They actually made that joke in the show? Goodness. We did when we were watching it and trying to figure it out, of course, but I had no idea they went there onscreen, too! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-christmas-special/565353.md?page=3)