Dr Who - Christmas Special

[Ravenbait]

I'm not so sure. Remember that one of the messages in this year's Christmas special was quite explicitly that sometimes people die, and that's OK. There is a darkness to him, but its almost as if the character is suppressing it. One episode last year had the Dream Lord force Amy to choose between false realities, not knowing that this character was actually the Doctor himself.

I haven't rewatched that episode yet, so I'm not really in a position to analyse it.



As for the Christmas episode... I think telling kids that sometimes people die and that's okay is hardly dark. In Family of Blood the ending made it clear that letting them die was the kind thing. That there are far, far worse things than death. That there are fates so unspeakably awful that dying is the preferable option, and that the Doctor is a man who will condemn a being to one of those fates if that's what he feels is necessary.

And Moffat does terrifying brilliantly - Time of Angels put a very nice spin on his own Blink (walking through the forest of Angels with your eyes closed...) - better than RTD ever did, IMHO.

Really? I rewatched that episode last night. The Angels were scared, fleeing from the crack. They weren't all that interested in Amy.



I'm not trying to say that RTD was better but he was definitely darker and less nice. He demonstrated a cruel streak that Moffat hasn't so far. He had an ability to make things claustrophobic. Midnight still makes me shudder just thinking about it. RTD would push right to the end whereas so far Moffat has snatched the Doctor away from the truly horrible option at the last minute (see The Beast Below as an example).

What Moffat doesn't do well is containing his stories. As a whole, the last series was excellent, and fitting together the pieces of the picture is a treat. However individual episodes when taken out of context can seem a little weak.

I agree with you there. I'm undecided over the "excellent" description, especially as he shouldn't need time to find his feet. There are plenty of people who will forgive Moffat anything just because they're glad to see the back of RTD and I think that's really sad, and I'm not one to forego criticism just because I'm a fan. There have been some really, really good points to Moffat's stint so far and I liked it enough to request the Blu Ray box set (limited edition) for my Christmas!



Sam

 

[BrumJim]

FINALLY got to watch it last night after waiting ages for Virgin Media to put it on CatchUp TV. We even e-mailed and phoned them up to find out where it had gone.
(ask me later about one of the weirdest responses ever to a complaint e-mail).

Summary - not too bad. I'm not a fan of the over-blown RTD specials, so this was nicely pacey but real. But very tragic at the end - seriously bitter-sweet.