A Christmas Carol discussion and grading thread

[EJA]

It was OK. The changing the past stuff got a little bit hard to follow at times, the flying shark pulling them along in a sleigh was absolutely ridiculous, and when you think about it, the happy ending isn't really all that happy when you consider that Abigail is going to die at the end of it and Kazran will be all alone.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I rather liked that they didn't find a magical cure for Abigail. Yes it's sad that she will inevitably die, but the point was to let her live her remaining day, make the most of it instead of never letting her live it at all. As long as she was suspended in the freezing box she was essentially already dead.

 

[EJA]

In some ways it reminds me a little bit of A.I: Artificial Intelligence.

 

[WillsBabe]

the happy ending isn't really all that happy when you consider that Abigail is going to die at the end of it and Kazran will be all alone.

I think it sums up Christmas beautifully: it's a brief hiatus in which we all delude ourselves that dreams come true and there's a magical moment when all that's wrong with life will be put right; when actually, tomorrow it's all back to the usual grim reality where there are no happy endings and no real magic.

 

[wamdue]

One thing no one mentioned yet. Right at the end Rory asked the Doctor if he had any more honeymoon ideas and the Doctor suggests taking them to the "Honey Moon"...
This places the christmal special right before "The Death of the Doctor" on Sarah Jane Adventures.
Just in case anybody was interested...

Or before, or even during. When Amy and Rory were on the cruise liner, they were already on their honeymoon, so Death of the Doctor could be placed either before, after or during A Christmas Carol.

I so suspect though that when we see Amy and Rory back packing in America in the trailer and the opening two episodes of season six, they are still on their honeymoon.

No, not really... The doctor suggests to Rory he takes them to the "Honey Moon" which he supposedly does right after.
During his little adventure with Sarah Jane in "Death of the Doctor" he tells her, that's were Amy and Rory are right now.
He's talking about a literal HONEY MOON not an extended vacation as such.

yes the connection to SJA is confusing, in SJA he says Rory & Amy are on a planet on a honey moon, it married an asteroid.

I tend to think that possibly Amy & Karen were on the honey moon planet, and then get on the space ship, but its confusing at best.

 

[Saul]

What kind of storyline did Eastenders have this year to beat the Doctor?
Somebody got accidently preggers and hit by a car by the man who's sister she was having an affair with?

 

[Count Zero]

It's also quite tragic for Kazran, realising so late that he essentially wasted most of his life being bitter and mean. But that's life, I suppose.
I wonder whether we'll ever get a follow-up. After all, the Doctor interfering with Kazran's life broke the machine that controls the clouds. Does that mean there will now be more sharks in the streets?

By the way, I loved the shark in the fog.

 

[wamdue]

What kind of storyline did Eastenders have this year to beat the Doctor?
Somebody got accidently preggers and hit by a car by the man who's sister she was having an affair with?

it was the exit of the much loved Stacey Slater, very much a sequel to the live ep.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Brilliant.

 

[Capt_Pickirk]

I loved this one. Much better than the other ones we have had these past Christmases (is that even a word, Christmases??)

I hope Matt's Doctor is like the Tom Baker's Doctor with Jelly Babies. Always with Jammie Dodgers and offering them to enemies.

And as for next series' trailer, I'm a bit worried about the inclusion of Nazis. That often goes wrong.

Unless they made them the good guys in the story, that could be interesting

 

[Mr Light]

Looks like I'm in the minority but I thought this was just so-so. Wasn't adventurous enough for my tastes. It was basically a very drawn out 1h20m love story with the Doctor as a guest star.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Absolutely wonderful episode! Is it the best episode ever? No, but it is easily the best Christmas episode.

This is one of the best renditions of Dickens' novel I've seen with a few clever twists. Michael Gambon was brilliant as always, Katherine Jenkins matched her beauty with an incredible voice (I think I'll have to check out some of her work), and Matt Smith continues to be absolutely and utterly amazing. He's driving a hard bargain as one of my favorite Doctors. Overall, this is wonderful breath of fresh air for the Christmas specials with nothing over the top...well, except the shark-drawn carriage. Oi.

I guess the Blinovitch Limitation Effect is no longer... in effect. (Nor are the Reapers!)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. Oh, well.

Am I missing something because I thought the Doctor couldn't rewrite history, as shown in the Tennant late specials.

And he didn't really - remember Scrooge still turned out to be a miserly cunt who wanted to let the ship crash, just as he had before the Doctor fucked up his attempt to change him by changing things.

Quite right. Time course corrected The Doctor's meddling.

 

[Cyke101]

It's also quite tragic for Kazran, realising so late that he essentially wasted most of his life being bitter and mean. But that's life, I suppose.

Such is the life of your standard Victorian miser, alas. Though I do love that rather than being a miser for money like most other misers (Silas Marner, Ebenezer Scrooge, Mr Boffin), Karzan was a miser for his love's life (also, money. Hey, it works).

As for the Blinovitch Effect, I'd like to think that the giant shark ate all the Reapers that came when the two Karzans hugged. She really is cute, when she's not trying to eat our heroes!

Anyway, I love how the crisis of the crashing starship not only took a back seat, but was merely an excuse for a Christmas story. Recurring just came together in a way that was rarely executed well before (Giant Cyber-Man -- Whaa? Flying carriage over flying bus anyday!). For a story with a simple point, it sure took its time with the story beats, and I'm thankful for that. The climax didn't involve some huge and misplaced mega battle, but with a song, and that was more than enough of a payoff for all the whimsy and charm. Above all, I'm glad this episode didn't feel rushed at all, nor did it feel like it was ever slow.

What's River gonna do when she finds out that her sweetie married Marilyn Monroe?

Additionally:
-Rory's in the opening credits! Merry Christmas, Arthur!
-What a fantastic twist on the whole miser type. My class examined finance culture of London in the 19th century, specifically misers, capital, and trade in fiction. Yes, this special is set on an alien world and perhaps the future as well, but now I get to bring something up to my professor!
-Ah, the Doctor Who Homage to Star Trek XI. What a smile it brought to this nerd's face!
-Such a great use of time travel with the camera. It didn't make much sense, but it provided such a unique and creative plot device that it it must be allowed (of course, now I'm just waiting for the first person to moan that its violation of time travel according to DW ruined the episode)

 

[Mr Light]

Oh yes that was also my problem with the episode. I thought the Doctor couldn't change people's personal time-lines. I thought that was the entire point of "Father's Day".

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Oh yes that was also my problem with the episode. I thought the Doctor couldn't change people's personal time-lines. I thought that was the entire point of "Father's Day".

The entire point of "Father's Day" was to entertain. Plot points don't always carry out from one episode to the next in Doctor Who if they get in the way of a good story.

 

[Cyke101]

Oh yes that was also my problem with the episode. I thought the Doctor couldn't change people's personal time-lines. I thought that was the entire point of "Father's Day".

Tardis.wikia.com theorizes that the Doctor wasn't outright directly impacting Karzan's life, and that the changes in his life would depend on his decisions. Since Karzan made all those choices, and not Older Karzan or the Doctor, time changed but not so much that the Blinovitch Effect happened. However, I don't think I buy that explanation.

Hence, the Reapers came, but the epic sky sharks, and the even more epic sky skarktopus, ate them all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharktopus

 

[Count Zero]

Oh yes that was also my problem with the episode. I thought the Doctor couldn't change people's personal time-lines. I thought that was the entire point of "Father's Day".

And yet, in Father's Day the personal timeline of Rose and her mother was changed because originally her father had died alone but then they both remembered the young woman who was with him.

 

[captcalhoun]

Moffat blew the BLE out of the water in Time Crash. try to keep up at the back.

 

[Irvy]

I'd read and rather enjoyed the Moff's article in this year's Christmas Radio Times, and in it he said that he'd set out to write the best Christmas Movie ever. And quite right, what kind of silly point would there be in setting out to write a mediocre one?

Whether or not it's "The" best Christmas Movie ever is obviously debatable, but at the same time, I do hope that the Moff is sat with his feet up and a big contented smile on his face today, because he has every reason to. I feel very comfortable saying that was the best Dr Who Christmas Special ever, and certainly the most Christmassey.

I do hope we see more of this Doctor properly using time travel. I loved it when the Doctor came back to Karzan's present just to overhear him shouting the passcode to the screen. I loved watching Karzan experiencing this new, second reality, watching his new past unfold on the screen infront of him, with old Karzan realising he already knows what happens next.

For those saying that the Doctor is breaking the rules here, we are now dealing with a Doctor who spanned thousands of years, hopping back and forth inside his own timeline, and he did it all in order to save the entire history of existence from being erased, who sacrificed himself in order to do that, and then still managed to come back unscathed. And got away with it. Anyone who doesn't think the Doctor's going to be a bit more fast and loose with the rule book from now on really doesn't know the Doctor very well at all. As the psychic paper shows, he may well be one of the most powerful entities in Time/Space, but he's not a responsible adult.

The trailer for series 6 is tantalising. I'm really looking forward to whichever episode has had the Doctor locked up in Area 51 long enough to have grown that beard. I reckon that might be an interesting story.

 

[Jax]

Unofficial overnight figures show Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol was watched by an audience of 10.3 million

Since overnights have been quite off for the past season I wouldn't be surprised to see around 11 million becoming the final figure. The results are virtually on par with last years christmas specials with David Tennant.

The programme was the second highest rated for the day with EastEnders taking the top place with 11.4 million

Beat Coronation Street and Doc Who was directly up against Emmerdale too so a very good peformance. The I player results should be high since the 2010 season of Doctor Who smashed all previous I Player records with the opening episode of Smith's reign still the most watched I Player show of all time.

The 9am Christmas Day repeat of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Death of the Doctor, got an overnight rating of 1.4 million, far higher than its initial showing on the channel