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jjporAll I'll say is that there was no way he was flying a Lancaster on operations around about Christmastime 1941 (or 1940, if the telegram was to be believed), considering they didn't enter operational service until March 1942.
I therefore suspect the whole thing was an illusion, part of some sort of elaborate Doctor-trap engineered by the Black Guardian and/or the Celestial Toymaker!
Or possibly not.
Hmm. I watched this one twice over the course of the extended Christmas/bank holiday weekend, and I'd definitely say that this was one of those NuWho stories (nearly all of them, to be honest, even the ones I really like) that greatly improved for me on a second watch. Even then, though, I think I'd definitely go with my initial gut feeling that this wasn't as good as last year's, Scrooge-themed proceedings. I think A Christmas Carol (another one that's only improved for me on re-watches) really raised the bar for NuWho Xmas specials, or at least seemed to after Ye Livelieste Awfulnesse that was The End of Time (Part 2, anyway, to be fair). The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe was probably on a par with some of the better Ten-era efforts, for me anyway (and if Moffat wants to keep up his practice so far of riffing off classic Christmas-related stories for his specials, next year can he please do Die Hard? Just for me. :D).
If The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe counts as a Christmas story. Well, it has Father Christmas in it, I guess, so...
Anyway, Moffat himself has expressed his opinion regarding Christmas specials, saying that since you can't honestly expect your target audience to be paying full attention on the day, you don't want to tax them with anything too intricate storywise. I see his point, but he seemed to go against his own advice somewhat in 2010, where A Christmas Carol not only made pleasing use of time travel in its plot but also provided a compelling guest character and, in spite of a couple of prominent plot holes and manipulative emotional plays, a real payoff at the end. I don't think this year's really matched that, and without something like that the expected heavy-handed heartstring-twisting seemed a bit too transparent at times.
Although it didn't have a random guest star singing number thrown in, so there was that.
What am I saying?! It had Bill Bailey in it! A random guest star singing number would've been ace!
While I am, Scrooge-like, accentuating the negative, I'll also say that the very beginning and plot resolution of the story (although not the middle), didn't exactly play to Matt Smith's strengths as an actor. I have loved, and continue to love him as Eleven, but one thing I became more aware of during the course of S6/6b/whatever and which I've been meaning to share for a while now is that, well, excellent actor though he is in just about every other way, he's often a bit jarring when it comes to the shouty, triumphalist sort of stuff (A Good Man Goes to War is a very good example). I get that Eleven's meant to be more than a little awkward and, for want of a better word, dorky, but sometimes, especially when he's getting all overexcited when things are finally going his way after a bit of a fraught moment, he's a bit, well, Ace would say "naff". In fact, he sometimes comes off a bit like Delia Smith during that half-time pep talk to the Norwich City supporters.
Now, if I were Steven Moffat, which I'll admit I'm not, I'd take note of this as my otherwise absolutely brilliant lead actor's inevitable Achilles' heel (they all have 'em) and give him less of that sort of stuff to do in future. Instead of more, as seems to be the trend during 2011. Eleven (and Smith) seem to me to be at their best when they're outright clowning about, or when they're being slightly creepy and quietly menacing, or when they're delivering deceptively gentle-seeming monologues quivering with barely-suppressed emotion. Not when they're waving their hands about and going "You go, girl!" in a vaguely embarrassing way. Or indeed reciting cobblers about stuff being translated "from the base-code of nature" as if it's somehow a serviceable plot-twist.
Hmm. All of the above makes it seem like I didn't like it. I did, though, on the whole, and as I say on the second watch some of the things that had made me cringe a little in the first go-around no longer seemed like a big deal.
I thought the guest cast were without exception very good indeed in their roles. Non-annoying child actors are always good to see, and young Cyril and slightly older Lily were both great in that regard. I thought the briefly quasi-companion-like interaction between Lily and Eleven around the middle of the story was great ("Grow up, Lily! Fairyland looks completely different!"). Claire Skinner is always good value, and I liked her portrayal of Madge, a little bit daft but incredibly strong and struggling to deal with the crushing sadness she was carrying around with her, her main consideration being what it is going to do to her kids. And you know, this was conveyed admirably by the performance and the subtler parts of the script without Moffat taking time out to hit me over the head with the less subtle parts (which definitely existed). And Alexander Armstrong didn't get a whole lot to do, but I always like seeing him nowadays so I can go "Heh, look - he's Mr Smith's voice!". ;D
And to return to an earlier point - Bill Bailey! And Arabella Weir - haven't seen her much since her glory days on The Fast Show. And some other actor who I didn't recognise straight off, but might have been the funniest of the lot, blubbing over his "mother issues" and then offering to shoot Madge to demonstrate how they weren't interfering with his duties. Much. And of course, the reference to Androzani Major (and its sharp capitalist practices certainly seem to be going strong, although its army is nowadays considerably more touchy-feely, or likes to think it is) was guaranteed to get a deranged fanboyish cackle out of me, anyway. But yes, these particular guest characters seemed a little underused, but they got some great lines ("I'm respecting her as a woman." "Tell me we can tell the difference between wool and sidearms."). And that facial expression Bill Bailey does cracks me up.
My favourite part of the story, however, was the part where Eleven was showing the unsuspecting Arwell family around Uncle Digby's house, detailing the "repairs" he had made. Something of a showcase for Matt Smith's characterisation of the Doctor, I thought ("That's a cooker, probably." "A mirror disguised as a window, a window disguised as a mirror!" "The Magna Carta!" and of course, "I know!"). Here is a Doctor who is often enormously pleased with himself, gets easily overexcited by his own cleverness, and is as daft as several brushes, yet can turn on the proverbial sixpence to deliver a soft-spoken, yet clearly incredibly heartfelt bit of advice to someone he feels may in need of it. This whole sequence, with its combination of well-executed whimsy and quiet, non-histrionic emotion, is the kind of thing I like seeing Eleven doing, and am always surprised by how well Matt Smith does it and how much the latter gets to me when I like to think I'm a hard-hearted old cynic. A bit less, though, of the running away from explosions while going "wwaarghh!". If you please, Mr Moffat.
I suppose, in the final analysis, I would say that while this probably wasn't the best NuWho Xmas special of them all, it was certainly pretty far from being the worst ("I don't wanna go!" *resists urge to vomit/kick telly*)
Still should have let Bill Bailey do a song, though.
Over the course of this Christmas, I also watched the film The King's Speech. I found it to be something like Victory of the Daleks, without the good bits.
Yes, I know.
I therefore suspect the whole thing was an illusion, part of some sort of elaborate Doctor-trap engineered by the Black Guardian and/or the Celestial Toymaker!
Or possibly not.
Hmm. I watched this one twice over the course of the extended Christmas/bank holiday weekend, and I'd definitely say that this was one of those NuWho stories (nearly all of them, to be honest, even the ones I really like) that greatly improved for me on a second watch. Even then, though, I think I'd definitely go with my initial gut feeling that this wasn't as good as last year's, Scrooge-themed proceedings. I think A Christmas Carol (another one that's only improved for me on re-watches) really raised the bar for NuWho Xmas specials, or at least seemed to after Ye Livelieste Awfulnesse that was The End of Time (Part 2, anyway, to be fair). The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe was probably on a par with some of the better Ten-era efforts, for me anyway (and if Moffat wants to keep up his practice so far of riffing off classic Christmas-related stories for his specials, next year can he please do Die Hard? Just for me. :D).
If The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe counts as a Christmas story. Well, it has Father Christmas in it, I guess, so...
Anyway, Moffat himself has expressed his opinion regarding Christmas specials, saying that since you can't honestly expect your target audience to be paying full attention on the day, you don't want to tax them with anything too intricate storywise. I see his point, but he seemed to go against his own advice somewhat in 2010, where A Christmas Carol not only made pleasing use of time travel in its plot but also provided a compelling guest character and, in spite of a couple of prominent plot holes and manipulative emotional plays, a real payoff at the end. I don't think this year's really matched that, and without something like that the expected heavy-handed heartstring-twisting seemed a bit too transparent at times.
Although it didn't have a random guest star singing number thrown in, so there was that.
What am I saying?! It had Bill Bailey in it! A random guest star singing number would've been ace!
While I am, Scrooge-like, accentuating the negative, I'll also say that the very beginning and plot resolution of the story (although not the middle), didn't exactly play to Matt Smith's strengths as an actor. I have loved, and continue to love him as Eleven, but one thing I became more aware of during the course of S6/6b/whatever and which I've been meaning to share for a while now is that, well, excellent actor though he is in just about every other way, he's often a bit jarring when it comes to the shouty, triumphalist sort of stuff (A Good Man Goes to War is a very good example). I get that Eleven's meant to be more than a little awkward and, for want of a better word, dorky, but sometimes, especially when he's getting all overexcited when things are finally going his way after a bit of a fraught moment, he's a bit, well, Ace would say "naff". In fact, he sometimes comes off a bit like Delia Smith during that half-time pep talk to the Norwich City supporters.
Now, if I were Steven Moffat, which I'll admit I'm not, I'd take note of this as my otherwise absolutely brilliant lead actor's inevitable Achilles' heel (they all have 'em) and give him less of that sort of stuff to do in future. Instead of more, as seems to be the trend during 2011. Eleven (and Smith) seem to me to be at their best when they're outright clowning about, or when they're being slightly creepy and quietly menacing, or when they're delivering deceptively gentle-seeming monologues quivering with barely-suppressed emotion. Not when they're waving their hands about and going "You go, girl!" in a vaguely embarrassing way. Or indeed reciting cobblers about stuff being translated "from the base-code of nature" as if it's somehow a serviceable plot-twist.
Hmm. All of the above makes it seem like I didn't like it. I did, though, on the whole, and as I say on the second watch some of the things that had made me cringe a little in the first go-around no longer seemed like a big deal.
I thought the guest cast were without exception very good indeed in their roles. Non-annoying child actors are always good to see, and young Cyril and slightly older Lily were both great in that regard. I thought the briefly quasi-companion-like interaction between Lily and Eleven around the middle of the story was great ("Grow up, Lily! Fairyland looks completely different!"). Claire Skinner is always good value, and I liked her portrayal of Madge, a little bit daft but incredibly strong and struggling to deal with the crushing sadness she was carrying around with her, her main consideration being what it is going to do to her kids. And you know, this was conveyed admirably by the performance and the subtler parts of the script without Moffat taking time out to hit me over the head with the less subtle parts (which definitely existed). And Alexander Armstrong didn't get a whole lot to do, but I always like seeing him nowadays so I can go "Heh, look - he's Mr Smith's voice!". ;D
And to return to an earlier point - Bill Bailey! And Arabella Weir - haven't seen her much since her glory days on The Fast Show. And some other actor who I didn't recognise straight off, but might have been the funniest of the lot, blubbing over his "mother issues" and then offering to shoot Madge to demonstrate how they weren't interfering with his duties. Much. And of course, the reference to Androzani Major (and its sharp capitalist practices certainly seem to be going strong, although its army is nowadays considerably more touchy-feely, or likes to think it is) was guaranteed to get a deranged fanboyish cackle out of me, anyway. But yes, these particular guest characters seemed a little underused, but they got some great lines ("I'm respecting her as a woman." "Tell me we can tell the difference between wool and sidearms."). And that facial expression Bill Bailey does cracks me up.
My favourite part of the story, however, was the part where Eleven was showing the unsuspecting Arwell family around Uncle Digby's house, detailing the "repairs" he had made. Something of a showcase for Matt Smith's characterisation of the Doctor, I thought ("That's a cooker, probably." "A mirror disguised as a window, a window disguised as a mirror!" "The Magna Carta!" and of course, "I know!"). Here is a Doctor who is often enormously pleased with himself, gets easily overexcited by his own cleverness, and is as daft as several brushes, yet can turn on the proverbial sixpence to deliver a soft-spoken, yet clearly incredibly heartfelt bit of advice to someone he feels may in need of it. This whole sequence, with its combination of well-executed whimsy and quiet, non-histrionic emotion, is the kind of thing I like seeing Eleven doing, and am always surprised by how well Matt Smith does it and how much the latter gets to me when I like to think I'm a hard-hearted old cynic. A bit less, though, of the running away from explosions while going "wwaarghh!". If you please, Mr Moffat.
I suppose, in the final analysis, I would say that while this probably wasn't the best NuWho Xmas special of them all, it was certainly pretty far from being the worst ("I don't wanna go!" *resists urge to vomit/kick telly*)
Still should have let Bill Bailey do a song, though.
Over the course of this Christmas, I also watched the film The King's Speech. I found it to be something like Victory of the Daleks, without the good bits.
Yes, I know.
