Three years ago, starting on the 23rd November funnily enough, I ran the World Cup of Doctor Who Christmas Specials on Twitter; I put 16 stories in a hat, got my son to draw them into 4 pots and then played each story off against each other in a series of Twitter polls. Eventually, after crowning the winner of each group & running through the quarter and semi finals, the story that emerged as the clear favourite and overall winner was A Christmas Carol1. And while my heart belongs to The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe2, it’s a result that I have to agree with.
Really, though, it shouldn’t be. It’s completely unoriginal. It’s Steven Moffat ripping off Charles Dickens with a story that is once again twisty & turny & timey wimey; The Moff plays fast and loose with the laws of Time Travel, what you can & can’t change, just to fit the mould of his story. Again, it’s painfully Moffat. It’s got mad ideas such as flying fish & sharks just chucked in there for no good reason, never explained properly or done anything decent with. There’s barely any Amy or Rory; instead we get a kid sidekick. And it’s got an opera singer in a lead role.
Ultimately, though, I think what should have been it’s weaknesses are it’s strengths. Doctor Who has never been shy of taking strong inspiration from literary sources (hi, Androids of Zenda!) so there’s nothing too wring with doing it here. All that Moffat is doing here is giving his interpretation of the story; after all, with talk of the past, present & future, it’s built for time travel – something Moffat excels in writing. To have The Doctor as all three of Scrooge’s ghosts makes perfect sense, and Moffat gives all credit to where he gets the idea from; he makes it clear this is homage rather than plagiarism.
And who says the rules of Time Travel are being broken? Let’s face it, if there’s anyone who wrote those rules, it’s Steven Bloody Moffat; and so if anyone gets to play fast & loose with them it’s him. I always look at Doctor Who’s Theory of Time much like Quantum Leap: you can’t change the big things, but you can change people’s lives for the better. And isn’t that what The Doctor always does when he interferes and helps people? It’s only because we know our Earth history that we know what should be left the same; who’s to say the Daleks wouldn’t have died out naturally & left the Thals to rule the planet if The Doctor hadn’t come blundering along looking for his spark plug? Lot’s of planets have a butterfly effect…
And so The Doctor sets out to change someone’s life for the better, so that he can save the lives of his friends & a lot more. And so we don’t need Amy & Rory, we have Young Kazran as the companion for this story. It goes back to what I said about The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe giving us something different – something special – for Christmas. And the story is a beautiful one, as we get to live Kazran’s life up close & personal but also through the eyes of his older self, as he watches along as his memories change – a brilliant storytelling device. We get to see him fall in love and then lose that love, which gives us a great sense that no matter what The Doctor does, Time will correct itself & Kazran will be an arsehole regardless.
But this is A Christmas Carol, and so we have to have Scrooge mend his ways. The way it’s done – with The Doctor showing Young Kazran what he grows up to be like – is pure Moffat, a deft little touch using time travel as his tool. It’s poetry, and leads to that touching end of Abigail spending her last day with Kazran, riding sharks through the sky.
And so we do need to sing the praises of Katherine Jenkins. Sure, it’s stunt casting in the mould of Kylie, but she can act – and she can certainly sing, so Moffat & Murray Gold make the most of her. Abigail’s Song is beautiful, meat & drink for Jenkins; making her song crucial to the resolution of the story is a bit contrived & gimmicky, but it’s Christmas, so who cares…!?!?! We also need to shout out dear departed Michael Gambon; perfect, in every inch of every scene, as the wicked old Kazran – totally selling the change from miser to pleasant person. If this was his chance to play Scrooge, then he nailed it.
And, of course, Matt Smith. This is the first story Smith filmed after his debut had been aired, and so he knows he’s a success now. He’s utterly comfortable in the role, and is again able to flip from the light to the dark sides of his character in the same scene. He’s gifted again by Moffat’s script, as he falls down chimneys, delivers lines about people being important, realises something’s up with Young Kazran and then has to face up to the consequences of his mistake. He’s in virtually every scene of this story and carries everything off, more than holding his own against Gambon.
Ultimately, the reason this story succeeds more than any other Christmas Special must be because of the Christmasyness of it. Not just the source material, but the feel of the piece: with it’s snow, Dickensian setting & costumes, carols etc. it couldn’t be more Christmassy if it tried – and boy, is it trying…! As I’ve said before, the specials up until this point were stories coincidentally set at Christmas; this one has Christmas woven into it so much that if you shake the Blu-Ray box you can her sleigh bells. And again, despite all the timey-wimey shenanigans, it does exactly what it should do: it leaves you feeling warm, fuzzy, loved & half way out of the dark.
COMING TOMORROW: “Every life is a pile of good things and bad things…”
- Search for #WorldCupOfDoctorWhoChristmasSpecials on Twitter for the full results ↩︎
- https://skiesfullofdiamonds.wordpress.com/2023/10/26/29-the-doctor-the-widow-the-wardrobe/ ↩︎
Skies Full of Diamonds 