Doctor Who: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe - Blu-ray review

Another year, another Doctor Who Christmas special, and in this case, it’s the last new Who we’re going to see until some time in the autumn, so we’d better make the most of it. I went well and truly gaga over 2010’s “A Christmas Carol,” and it’s easily the smartest and most well written of these the series has yet produced. Back then I had doubts that Moffat could best it, and as it turns out, he did not. He did give it a very good go, however, and “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe” is still probably a better entry than any of Russell’s holiday efforts, although I should declare that a late December viewing of “Voyage of the Damned” – a story I’d previously considered the embodiment of everything that I hated about modern Who – left me feeling that I may have been a little harsh on the piece over the years. Indeed, diving in and pulling these seasonal treats apart always feels a little like kicking puppies, and we all know where that leads – hurt puppies, a phrase which could be the subtitle of this review. Or maybe just “The Apology.” Read on…

The action begins with the Doctor (Matt Smith) high above Earth, aboard a massive spacecraft, and in the process of presumably saving the planet from some unnamed and unseen aliens. The ship explodes and the Doctor plummets through space toward the giant blue orb below, chasing a floating spacesuit along the way (this sequence is reminiscent of Roger Moore and Jaws from the beginning of Moonraker). Improbable as it may seem (and it most certainly does), the Doctor hits the Earth’s surface, and the suit begins “repairing” him (he should keep this gadget in the TARDIS at all times!), but not before he’s discovered by Madge Arwell (Claire Skinner, who I will forever equate with Mike Leigh’s Naked). Without batting an eye, she aids the mysterious spaceman - whose helmet is on backwards, so she never sees his face – in his search for a police box. Right off the bat, there’s something remarkable about Madge, and as the story moves forward, we discover that there are many remarkable aspects to this woman.

The story fast forwards to 1941 - three years in the future - right around the holidays, and Madge has received a telegram delivering tragic news about her husband who's a pilot in the war. Given that it’s the season, she elects to not tell her two children, Lily (Holly Earl) and Cyril (Maurice Cole). The trio evacuates London, and heads for a relative’s house in the country. Upon arrival, there is no relative, only the bouncy, enthusiastic man referring to himself as the Caretaker (the alias is a nice nod to the end of Season Six), who intends on treating them to a delightful holiday season. Of course, things don’t go quite as planned, and before long all four of them are on a distant alien planet, in the middle of an alien forest, being only vaguely threatened by acid rain, sentient trees and harvesters from Androzani Major (see also “The Caves of Androzani”). The sci-fi aspects of the story are far less interesting than the emotion beneath it all and the places the emotions takes these people. 

Whether by design or default, Steven Moffat has, with “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe,” created not just another entry in the ongoing Who Christmas Special oeuvre, but also the very first Doctor Who Mother’s Day Special. On the surface this tale has all the December hallmarks, but its heart is squarely located in the celebration of All Things Mom. In many ways, this special is the opposite of “A Christmas Carol.” Whereas Kazran Sardick was a greedy, selfish man, Madge Arwell is a selfless, thoughtful woman. Whereas the Doctor found himself in a situation in which he was forced to meddle with Sardick’s life, with Madge he’s merely providing something of a good-natured service. In “A Christmas Carol,” the Doctor was the driving force; here he inadvertently supplies the “magic” that allows Madge to rise to the occasion so that she can do the great things. I often feel that Moffat doesn’t write women very well (as my frequent rants about Amy Pond will attest), and I’m not sure he does here either, as Madge seems to be more of a collection of brave deeds than an actual person, and yet I must give him props for at least trying, so as to possibly silence his detractors, one of whom I all too often am. If nothing else, he's created a narrative that seems to get at the heart of the power of women, and that's a triumph itself. My wife missed seeing this episode on Christmas. I fully intend to save her first viewing for May 13^th of this year, and I think she’s gonna love the sentiment behind it.

Indeed, with Season Six I frequently became very cynical about my favorite television show, and hopefully this close-to-a-year-long break is exactly what I need. “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe” is a lovely, heartfelt episode of Who. Certainly the riff within the title leads to some expectations, but aside from a few flourishes, it bears no real resemblance to the classic C.S. Lewis tale, which is probably for the best. The final scene of the story, which sees the Doctor having a reunion of sorts, pretty much melted my hardened heart, and got me all stoked for Season Seven, which I suppose is the best Christmas present of all.

In the meantime, there are going to be loads of classic Who DVD releases (the classic range is nearly complete) coming out in the coming months, so there’s no better time to dive in and explore much of what came before. I’ll still be here watching and writing, and hopefully you’ll be reading and then watching.

Blu-ray Extras: As is to be expected, the special looks crisp and gorgeous and sounds just amazing. These days, I almost never have complaints about the presentation. How can you with a show that looks and sounds better than almost everything else on TV? 

Thankfully the disc includes the prequel to the story, which was released on the internet a few weeks before the episode played on Christmas. “Thankfully” because it goes some way toward explaining what’s happening when the episode proper begins. Something tells me it was supposed to have been part of the episode, but a decision was made to chop it and put it online as a tease. In any case, it’s highly recommended that you go into the special features menu and watch it before watching the episode.

Boffo points for presenting the three “Best of Doctor Who” specials (which each run at about 44 minutes) that played on BBC America in the weeks leading up to the premiere of the second half of Season Six, which are comprised of your standard mix of clips and talking heads. The clips come only from Season Five and the first half of Season Six, and the discussion is pretty much restricted to the Eleventh Doctor’s era. The heads are a real oddball assortment of celebs – Alison Haislip, Paul F. Tompkins, Reggie Watts, Hugh Douglas(!), Scott Adsit, Chris Hardwick, and Amanda Palmer to name but a few. The whole exercise won me over in the second installment (which is all about the companions) when the lovely Natalie Morales (The Middleman) showed up, draped in a Tom Baker scarf and showing a tasteful amount of cleavage. I adore this girl – even more so now that I know she’s a Who freak - and sure hope that somebody recognizes her talents soon. Make her the Doctor’s new companion, please! In any case, there’s so much fannish good will being tossed around during these specials – not to mention worthy points of view - that I couldn’t help but feel like I’d been a little hard on Season Six. We’ll see how I feel later this year when Seven kicks off.

Lastly, the disc includes an “in-game reward code” that can be used in connection with the online game “Worlds in Time.” No doubt this makes sense to a gamer, but since I am not one, it held no value for me, nor did the goofy stickers that make all the Doctor Who villains look like Muppet Babies.

Madge: "Lily and Cyril's father - my husband - is dead and they don't know yet because if I tell them now then Christmas will always be what took their father away from them, and no one should have to live like that. Of course when the Christmas period is over I shall...I don't know why I keep shouting at them."

The Doctor: "Because every time you see them happy you remember how sad they're going to be. And it breaks your heart. Because what's the point in them being happy now if they're going to be sad later. The answer is, of course, because they are going to be sad later."


(Thanks to Sonic Biro for the screencaps.)

Doctor Who: The Complete Specials

Some called it the best of times, others claimed it the worst of times, but when it comes right down to it, wasn’t it really just The End of Time? Yeah, the big finish which brought to a dual close the eras of David Tennant and Russell T. Davies was nothing if not a controversial conclusion to the most revolutionary period in the long history of Doctor Who. This Blu-ray set is a grand celebration of the Tennant/Davies era, and a fitting coda to the past five years of Who. Over five episodes, these stories offer up examples of everything that was glorious, right alongside everything that didn’t work quite as well. Anyone interested in this set likely already knows how they feel about this block of episodes, as this is for the folks who’ve been paying attention. If you’ve never seen Doctor Who, this is no more the right place to start than it would be to dive into the Star Wars movies with Return of the Jedi.

Read the rest of this Blu-ray review by clicking here and visiting Bullz-Eye.

Doctor Who: The End of Time Part Two

Last week, when writing about the first part of the Tennant/Davies swansong, I talked about not making any predictions, as well as the possibility of expectations not being met. On the predictions front, I’m glad I didn’t bother (although one of the few that I did make may actually be true – more on that in a bit), because there’s really no way I could have predicted the bizarre manner in which this tale concluded. The narrative meat of this episode – the stuff involving the Time Lords, Gallifrey and the Master – was quite frankly difficult to wade through on the first viewing; a second viewing alleviated some of that, and yet I’m still not convinced it all makes perfect sense. Perhaps I’m looking at it too deeply, and wanting more than there is?

I’d also be lying if I said I went into this episode without any expectations – I mean, how can you not? Many, if not most of them weren’t met, although there were plenty of other treats on display that made up for that. Indeed, this episode was hell bent on subverting expectations. “The End of Time” as a whole, which is how it should be judged, is a landmark slice of Doctor Who, even though the writing isn’t as tight as the intricate standard set by “The Waters of Mars.” Oh well – based on previous finales, I didn’t really expect it to be, and on that level it can’t be called a letdown. It’s so steeped in the mythology of Davies’ vision of Who, that it’s difficult to imagine it could possibly work as a piece of standalone drama for anyone unfamiliar with the past five years of the series. But that also can’t be a criticism, since what it really is is a jagged love letter to everyone who’s been paying attention during that time. Davies really backed himself into a corner with this one, because “Journey’s End” very much felt like the end of the era, only it wasn’t. So this proper ending, which feels more like a coda or an afterward, had to be a horse of a different color, and it most certainly was.

The episode wastes no time addressing the final moments of “Part One” by diving straight into the Gallifrey situation. Before going further, let me just say how incredibly fucking cool it was to have James Bond playing the Time Lord President. If someone had told me 20 years ago that Timothy Dalton would someday be playing such a role on Doctor Who I’d have thought them bonkers. Sure, it’s not as if Sean Connery is gracing the screen, but anyone who really appreciates the Bond franchise knows Dalton got a bum deal, and that both of his outings were pretty damn good entries. Anyone who appreciates both Bond and Who will also acknowledge how the two concepts – which, aside from their inherent Britishness, really only have the changing of lead actors in common – have worked oddly parallel to one another over the past 40 some-odd years. Dalton is terrifying here, especially for anyone who doesn’t know the history of the classic series, and expects the Time Lords to be the good guys. Even as an old school fan, it was shocking to see the Time Lords as they’re presented here, but the more I thought about it, the more it was perfect and right. These guys – even from their very first outing, “The War Games” – were bad news. It’s just that they were so passive in their assholedom before; here they’re proactively destructive. Even though it’s never stated in the episode, the old Time Lord decree of “non-intervention” was obviously filed into 13 once their existence was threatened. And then there’s the Deus ex glove! Oh, how I loved and hated that stupid glove! (Maybe it’s a relative of the glove from Torchwood?) My teenager hilariously dubbed it “The Glove of Time.” He started making up dialogue for Dalton: “I am endowed with The Glove of Time!” and “The Glove of Time will smite you!” We got, and will continue to get, a lot of mileage out of that silly glove.

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Doctor Who: The End of Time Part One

Before moving on to the actual write-up, let’s take a moment to offer some high praise to BBC America for showing this episode a day after it first screened in the U.K. A day! For the first time on American TV, we aren’t seeing the premiere of a Doctor Who Christmas special when it’s warm outside, and the Christmas-themed portions of the story don’t seem hopelessly out of place. Back when I wrote up “Journey’s End,” I pleaded with Syfy to show the various David Tennant specials in a timely manner, so that audiences wouldn’t be forced to go elsewhere to get their Who fix or, even worse, get bored and forget about the show altogether. Good thing Syfy no longer has first-run rights here in the States, because I highly doubt they would’ve made the same programming move that BBC America made. Further, BBC America is committed (at least for the time being) to showing the episodes uncut, which is just as if not more important. Keep it up BBCA, and you’ll keep building a devoted audience. Heck, even a week or two after the U.K. premieres would be more than acceptable in my book.

It’s always difficult to write about the first half of a two-part finale, and never more so than in this case. This episode is all over the place in tone, and yet hangs together quite nicely, although it took me two viewings to realize the latter. Yet whatever one might think about “The End of Time Part One,” there’s no denying that the bigger picture has yet to be seen, and what Russell T. Davies unveiled in this hour is only a setup for the real finale. About the first 15 minutes of this thing just zoom by, setting up one aspect of the story after another. In fact, there are so many elements that are set up throughout the hour that one wonders how they can all be addressed in the finale proper.

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Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars

When it was first announced that Doctor Who was taking a break from normal seasons in 2009, I thought, “I can handle that – not a big deal.” After all, aside from the Fox TV movie with Paul McGann in 1996, I’d lived without new televised Who for 16 years before the show came back in ’05. Each new season since then has been like a little gift. Surely one year with “only” four specials would be a breeze? As 2009 droned on, however, it seemed an interminably long wait for new outings of the series, and it didn’t help matters that the one outing we did get – “Planet of the Dead” – was a subpar piece of storytelling at best. The other three specials are all being unveiled on BBC America in the last weeks of the year (actually, the big finale will play on the second day of 2010!). Anyway, this was my roundabout way of illustrating how much I’ve come to take the new series for granted, and thankfully “The Waters of Mars” is as strong a slice of Who as just about anything the series has done up to this point. It is, in fact, everything “Planet of the Dead” wasn’t, which may very well have been the point.

The Doctor (David Tennant), still traveling alone, lands on Mars in the year 2059. He trudges across the desolate, red landscape and bumps into a robot, called Gadget, that takes him to its leader on Bowie Base One, which is a clever enough joke – although one that’s a bit old hat for anyone who’s basked in the wonder that is Life on Mars, which coincidentally (or not) starred John Simm, who we’ll be seeing more of next week. Inside the base, the Time Lord meets the crew, led by Captain Adelaide Brooke (Lindsay Duncan), and quickly realizes who they are, and is as awestruck as any fanboy we’ve ever seen. Bowie Base One holds humanity’s first group of colonists on Mars, only the Doctor knows they all mysteriously died on the 21st of November, 2059. Guess what the date is? He quickly realizes that he should go, as this is an instance where he shouldn’t meddle with time. He sees it as a fixed point in the universe, and, as he explains later in the episode, “What happens here must always happen.” But events conspire to prevent his exit, and before long the crew begins succumbing to what ends up being a virus – it transforms them into hideous, zombie-type creatures, with cracked faces and the ability to use water as a deadly weapon. Only Doctor Who can find an inventive, frightening way to use water as a killer, and its ideas such as this that make the show the unique concept it is.

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Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead

There will probably be a time when “Planet of the Dead” doesn’t feel like such a colossal disappointment. When it can be grouped together and viewed alongside the three specials that follow it, it’ll likely be easier to appreciate what it amounts to, which is, as Russell T Davies has stated, “the last chance for the Tenth Doctor to have a good time.” The Doctor (David Tennant) does indeed have a splendid time in this outing, despite once again being thrust into a hopeless situation, but unfortunately, the viewer doesn’t fare so well. It’s not that “Planet of the Dead” is bad as much as it is total whiz-bang, balls-to-the-wall, non-stop eye-candy and action – which, for some people, will amount to bad. Thing is, it’s not actually any worse than any number of the other various action romps the new series has presented, but it doesn’t have the cushion of better stories surrounding it to fall back on. As the sole Who outing for a ten month period in 2009, one quite reasonably expected it to be something special, which it just simply isn’t.

Read the rest of this DVD review by clicking here and visiting Bullz-Eye.

Doctor Who: The Next Doctor

Writing about the fourth Doctor Who Christmas Special is, admittedly, about as much fun as sitting down to eat a bowl of shredded wheat. I feel as though I’ve said everything there is to say about how these one-offs operate, and am not sure I can bring a whole lot that’s new to the table.

It’s unfortunate that I’m coming at this material from such a blasé angle, too, because “The Next Doctor” may actually be the best Christmas special Russell T Davies has yet unveiled. Then again, it may not – such is the luxury of using the word “may.” It’s certainly a vast improvement on 2007’s “Voyage of the Damned,” although it wouldn’t be tough to improve upon that story. Watching David Tennant decorate a fucking tree for an hour would be more entertaining than another bombastic adventure set to the same tune as “Damned.” Luckily, “The Next Doctor” is a sweetly inspired piece of entertainment that goes to show that maybe, just maybe, there’s actually some life left in this yearly offering that aims to do nothing more than provide a little something for families to gather around the tube and enjoy together after they’ve feasted on a fine meal of turkey or ham or whatever it is people in Britain eat for Christmas dinner.

Read the rest of this piece by clicking here and visiting The House Next Door.