1)"The ship is going down - Christmas is cancelled!"
2)"What a clever little boy - you must be so irritated."
3)"You already have a surplus population."
4)"Father Christmas, Santa Claus - or, as I've always known him - Jeff."
5)"The controls are isomorphic." A nice callback to "Pyramids of Mars".
6)"Next time try and find me some funny poor people."
7)"Who are you?" "Tonight, I'm the Ghost of Christmas Present."
8)"You know what boys say in the face of danger." "What?" "'Mummy'."
9)"She was trying to eat you!" "She was hungry."
10)"It's this, or go into your room, and make a new kind of screwdriver. Don't make my mistakes."
11)"I'm the Ghost of Christmas Present."
12)First Queen Elizabeth, now Marilyn Monroe...
An amusing little bit of fluff, I suppose - so long as you don't think about the plot too much. Setting aside the ethics of re-writing somebody's life - even for a good purpose, I'm not a big fan of the whole "time can be re-written" idea. If time can be re-written, then how can the Doctor suffer even the smallest defeat? He can always just go back and re-write it.
It also strikes me as somewhat unlikely that the Doctor couldn't have come up with a somewhat less convoluted plan to save the ship. It smacks of "Plot Convenience Playhouse" to me.
2)"What a clever little boy - you must be so irritated."
Gambom was great, loved his sharp cutting lines.
8)"You know what boys say in the face of danger." "What?" "'Mummy'."
My girls asked what do girls say? Daddy?
10)"It's this, or go into your room, and make a new kind of screwdriver. Don't make my mistakes."
=)
12)First Queen Elizabeth, now Marilyn Monroe...
sigh!
An amusing little bit of fluff, I suppose - so long as you don't think about the plot too much. Setting aside the ethics of re-writing somebody's life - even for a good purpose, I'm not a big fan of the whole "time can be re-written" idea. If time can be re-written, then how can the Doctor suffer even the smallest defeat? He can always just go back and re-write it.
Sure...but they have been going down that road since The Waters of Mars. I think the danger of the Doctor choosing to rewrite history and the unbalanced power it gives him is the central conflict of the current run. It is dangerous and ethically dubious. And I suspect he will pay deeply for it. Back in Silence in the Library we have River Song warn him against changing their history, and seeing as she is a huge part of Moffat's story I suspect that is going to come up again.
It also strikes me as somewhat unlikely that the Doctor couldn't have come up with a somewhat less convoluted plan to save the ship. It smacks of "Plot Convenience Playhouse" to me.
Oh sure...but it was fun!
I think honestly the plan (you do have plan?) ran away from him. He only meant to soften Sardick up a bit, but ended up getting caught up on not letting him (or the pretty blonde) down, and ended up breaking him another way.
I think the danger of the Doctor choosing to rewrite history and the unbalanced power it gives him is the central conflict of the current run.
Interesting notion - you may well be correct. I sometimes think that you - as a viewer of the new series only - may see things that I, carrying the fairly heavy baggage of what the old series meant to me, don't always pick up on.
I don't have a lot of old baggage myself -- the Baker and Davidson runs were the only ones I saw before the new series -- and I'm in agreement with Ana here. The near-absolute power the Doctor possesses will cause huge amounts of trouble if he's not careful. I say "near-absolute" because, unless it's been changed, both Doctors Nine and Ten spoke of some points of time being "fixed" or unchangeable. Ten said "heck with that" in "The Waters Of Mars" but still wasn't able to save everyone.
The episode as a whole was a fun Christmas romp. Not very deep in plot, but still enjoyable.
I noted back in "The Eleventh Hour" that Moffat seems to have an affection for the name "Jeff." It doesn't surprise me that Santa's real name is Jeff. Big guy. Wears red. Loves kids. Hands out presents. Lives in North Plains Pole. Sound an awful lot like someone I know very, very well.
Generally speaking, whenever a TV does a riff on “A Christmas Carol” I’d say its days of creativity are over. I don’t find that to be the case here because of two original twists save this episode from being a mere retread: 1) the time travel aspect, and 2) bringing Scrooge’s “past” and “future” selves (relatively speaking) together. It also demonstrates the way I always assumed altering events in the past must affect the present. I don’t really see the dark foreshadowing that Ana and Don see. For one thing, “The Waters of Mars” was a deadly serious story whereas this was a light-hearted romp. For another, the Tenth Doctor was in a dark place when he went mucking about with the past, but when he regenerated I think he left all that baggage behind him. I could be wrong, though. Time will tell.
FYI, the extras on the DVD include a Doctor Who Confidential episode and the 2010 "Prom" concert, which is mostly music from Series Five, although it does have some older stuff, including a tribute to all of the Doctor's regenerations. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill host, with a "surprise" appearance by Matt Smith.
Watched this one again on Christmas Eve. Totally missed Bob's #10 (above) first time through. Speaking of DVD extras, really enjoyed the mini-episodes "Time" and "Space" (which we saw for the first time). I know some people who don't watch Doctor Who who appreciate those.
Replies
1)"The ship is going down - Christmas is cancelled!"
2)"What a clever little boy - you must be so irritated."
3)"You already have a surplus population."
4)"Father Christmas, Santa Claus - or, as I've always known him - Jeff."
5)"The controls are isomorphic." A nice callback to "Pyramids of Mars".
6)"Next time try and find me some funny poor people."
7)"Who are you?" "Tonight, I'm the Ghost of Christmas Present."
8)"You know what boys say in the face of danger." "What?" "'Mummy'."
9)"She was trying to eat you!" "She was hungry."
10)"It's this, or go into your room, and make a new kind of screwdriver. Don't make my mistakes."
11)"I'm the Ghost of Christmas Present."
12)First Queen Elizabeth, now Marilyn Monroe...
An amusing little bit of fluff, I suppose - so long as you don't think about the plot too much. Setting aside the ethics of re-writing somebody's life - even for a good purpose, I'm not a big fan of the whole "time can be re-written" idea. If time can be re-written, then how can the Doctor suffer even the smallest defeat? He can always just go back and re-write it.
It also strikes me as somewhat unlikely that the Doctor couldn't have come up with a somewhat less convoluted plan to save the ship. It smacks of "Plot Convenience Playhouse" to me.
The Baron said:
Gambom was great, loved his sharp cutting lines.
My girls asked what do girls say? Daddy?
=)
12)First Queen Elizabeth, now Marilyn Monroe...
sigh!
Sure...but they have been going down that road since The Waters of Mars. I think the danger of the Doctor choosing to rewrite history and the unbalanced power it gives him is the central conflict of the current run. It is dangerous and ethically dubious. And I suspect he will pay deeply for it. Back in Silence in the Library we have River Song warn him against changing their history, and seeing as she is a huge part of Moffat's story I suspect that is going to come up again.
Oh sure...but it was fun!
I think honestly the plan (you do have plan?) ran away from him. He only meant to soften Sardick up a bit, but ended up getting caught up on not letting him (or the pretty blonde) down, and ended up breaking him another way.
I think the danger of the Doctor choosing to rewrite history and the unbalanced power it gives him is the central conflict of the current run.
Interesting notion - you may well be correct. I sometimes think that you - as a viewer of the new series only - may see things that I, carrying the fairly heavy baggage of what the old series meant to me, don't always pick up on.
I don't have a lot of old baggage myself -- the Baker and Davidson runs were the only ones I saw before the new series -- and I'm in agreement with Ana here. The near-absolute power the Doctor possesses will cause huge amounts of trouble if he's not careful. I say "near-absolute" because, unless it's been changed, both Doctors Nine and Ten spoke of some points of time being "fixed" or unchangeable. Ten said "heck with that" in "The Waters Of Mars" but still wasn't able to save everyone.
The episode as a whole was a fun Christmas romp. Not very deep in plot, but still enjoyable.
The episode as a whole was a fun Christmas romp. Not very deep in plot, but still enjoyable.
I'd go along with that. Smith just brings such a sense of fun to the part. (And he got to wear a fez again!)
Generally speaking, whenever a TV does a riff on “A Christmas Carol” I’d say its days of creativity are over. I don’t find that to be the case here because of two original twists save this episode from being a mere retread: 1) the time travel aspect, and 2) bringing Scrooge’s “past” and “future” selves (relatively speaking) together. It also demonstrates the way I always assumed altering events in the past must affect the present. I don’t really see the dark foreshadowing that Ana and Don see. For one thing, “The Waters of Mars” was a deadly serious story whereas this was a light-hearted romp. For another, the Tenth Doctor was in a dark place when he went mucking about with the past, but when he regenerated I think he left all that baggage behind him. I could be wrong, though. Time will tell.
Watched this one again on Christmas Eve. Totally missed Bob's #10 (above) first time through. Speaking of DVD extras, really enjoyed the mini-episodes "Time" and "Space" (which we saw for the first time). I know some people who don't watch Doctor Who who appreciate those.