Doctor Who: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

SPOILERS naturally.

I really enjoyed it, thought it was just a good ol' bit of fun.
I liked the little continuity nods, such as Androzani Major (As seen in The Caves of Androzani, the last 5th Doctor's adventure) as well as a mention of the Forest of Cheem (As seen in the 9th Doctor's second adventure, The End of the World).

The ending was cheesy as hell, but hey, Christmas episodes, whatcha gonna do? Overall, I had fun.

That was quick.

I was very meh as to the whole thing. It had a nice set up, but it was utterly let down by trying to do too many things at once. It felt overly long and in parts streched, with the 3 characters who managed to be rather intresting, vanish early on.

Also, those aren't christmas baubles. They are idiot balls and the kid carries one.

Stuff I liked:
- The Bond-style pre-titles explodery sequence

- Bill Bailey (however briefly)

- Nods to HalfLife and Halo

I've always been disappointed by the Christmas episodes. Except for Voyage of the Damned but they killed Astrid in that one so it was a downer. This one was my favorite by a huge margin.

Something that may factor in is that I love the Narnia stories and movies and had watched Dawn Treader earlier today.

Not the best christmas episode, but also not the worst (by a fair margin).

The story was pretty predictable, we knew the Dad was getting saved, no one was going to die, etc. It was pretty much a by the book adventure. Set up, bad stuff, resolution, happy happy happy.

It did do it pretty well though, the visuals were all fantastic, the characters are likable, it manages to tug the right heart strings in all the right ways.

I did feel the tone was a little.. juvenile though? Like it seemed -expressly- written for a younger audience. The Doctor is silly and that's been established, he's basically a big kid at heart, but this one, the whole episode just seemed to have a sort of kiddy tone to it. Not necessarily bad, it's just I know the team has managed to do things that appeal more broadly even when kids are involved (See: The Beast Below)

Still, it was pretty cute and the ending was really nice.

I enjoyed it, as always.

Bit of foreshadowing for the new series though, anyone notice how none of the other characters called him Doctor, it was always Caretaker?

Wonder if that's going to be a recurring theme, given how he wants to disappear from the universe.

Didn't really like at all. Oh, the part with the doctor showing them around the place was amusing as heck but the rest of it... Meh.

For me it just started off bad with the whole falling through space with no ill effects thing and never really recovered. I don't need hard scifi in my Doctor Who at all, but since when can he survive in space??

Still, was nice to visit with the doctor again, even if it wasn't that good a bisit. (Was fun, just not good... odd.)

He only needed to survive long enough to get into the space suit...

Overall I found the episode entertaining, I suppose. The girl's idiocy annoyed me. And the space marines seemed kind of random. And the acid rain danger they introduced was just as random. And the ending with the family was sappy and predictable.

The bet parts were the Wonka tour and the Doctor crying like a human.

As for the lighthearted silliness, expect more of it. Moffat has said that he believes that Doctor Who has been getting too adult and although it should be entertaining to adults it should be aimed at children.

And didn't he call the space suit an impact suit at one point? Could have sworn I heard that. If so it would imply it was designed to survive reentry.

Well, I liked it. It was a fun little episode to provide a nice sweet ending to a good Christmas.

I love that Amy and Rory live in a little blue box for a house.

It was a fun Doctor Who episode. Not a great one but a fun one. I liked the line. "We are in a forest, in a box, in the sitting room."

*Obligatory Spoiler Warning* (Brought to you by River Song)



At some point in the middle I was thinking this special was way too scattered and I'm not caring about the characters but I was definitely moved when Madge was forced to think of her husband at the moment of his death. The show felt a little rushed but it came together cohesively and in a satisfactory way in the end. I want the forest king and queen costumes for my house!

You forget the episode where 10 met Martha for the first time and he walked on the surface of the moon with no special equipment.


S.

Ummm
The reason the Doctor needed the suit was not for surviving space but surviving smashing into the Earth which is made clear by when he says that he's not able to take the suit off cuz it's not done fixing him... which also means that it prevented the regeneration from taking place which means there could be some sort of magical mechanism with the suit or regeneration that allows it to say when it is needed which is kinda interesting to think of because it means a number of regenerations didn't actually have to happen... he could have just found the way to fix himself and cancel the regeneration process...

either that or this is gonna be one of the shorter doctor runs...

Here in the US, the episode had a special looking at Doctor Who Christmas specials. It had a variety of American and British actors who are Whovians (including the ever delightful Natalie Morales) and it became obvious in retrospect that RTD's Christmas specials (they included The End of Time) are for the most part downers when you look at the bigger picture.

• The Christmas Invasion - that's not snow.
• The Runaway Bride - so this is the Doctor's, what number genocide again?
• Voyage of the Damned - the Doctor meets new girl, she asks to come along, he says yes, she gets Jossed. Merry Christmas.
• The Next Doctor - well a somewhat upbeat ending, invited to dinner and all, but the other Doctor did lose his wife and it had a giant CyberKing robot that's powered by orphans.
• The End of Time - knock x 4 plus an ending almost as long as the one in Return of the King.

The End of it, had me crying like a baby, it was a really good Episode , The only show in the world I like 100 percent and that is rare for a show get me really emotional.