Christmas 08: the Next Doctor. Review

[RevdKathy]

Best Christmas special yet!

Lovely Victorian, Dickensian atmosphere. Serious enemy without being over the top or silly. Believable baddies who are nonetheless colourful.

And a pair of companions with real mystery about them.

More when I've been able to watch it again, but I think I enjoyed this more than any other Christmas special.

 

[Lonemagpie]

That was fun - these Xmas specials are getting better and better, and with two minor annoyances this was great brain-off entertainment with the Cybes doing what they do best. Great performances, and and a fabulous Cyber-King. Well, when I say fabulous I mean horrifically stupid and silly... but in a fabulously good way. Though I really wouldn't like to see it done again- it was a brilliant one-time gag. David Morrissey was really good in the long run - there's a reason why he seems so OTT at the start.

Onto the two minor negative points

1) The Cyber-shades were crap. Utter shit. I mean, they're supposed to be converted animals, and successors to the Cybermats, but they fail because they're so obviously just extras in cheap gorilla suits. Animals have different legs than people, you see.

2) The explanation of where the Cybes come from. Why bother? They're Cybermen doing what Cybermen traditionally do, so why bother with the wanky explanation that depends on the casual viewer remembering the line about the void being dead from a story aired six months ago. Cos they won't, and this just goes great lengths to narrow down "oh they're the last Cybes left from the parallel universe" when they could just have cut the line and let people assume they're this universe's Cybes. Oh, and so how the hell do the Pete's World Cybes know about the first nine Doctors or the Time Lords anyway? To know that stuff they have to be our universe's Cybermen.

Personally I think it works better if we just assume the Doctor was thinking aloud and is actually wrong.

But anyway, a solid 9/10 here. Oh yeah, and that last-minute huge plot twist cliffhangery thing we were all expecting?

Never happened. This was beautifully standalone, and all the better for it.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Gotta agree with you there. The Cybershades were crap. I thought the Void stuff was fine, but I did think it would have been nice to find out where the hell the Cybershades and Cyberking came from. Minor quibble though.

I did groan and roll my eyes at the Megazord... sorry Cyberking... but hell it's Christmas, and I liked the use of the TARDIS and the Dalek dimension-gun thing to vanquish it. Liked Mercy Hartigan a lot too.

The story around Jackson, his family and the next Doctor was nicely done too. Nice feint with the fobwatch. And I agree also that this one worked much better as a standalone - it really didn't need a twist, and had a great upbeat ending.

Certainly better than VotD at any rate. So... just 4-5 months until Planet of the Dead then!

Really though - Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style? Amazing.

 

[Peacemaker]

So, spoil us...what was/were the references to the other 9 Doctors...just mentions or did we see clips/photos. US fans want to know.

 

[Servo]

...when they could just have cut the line and let people assume they're this universe's Cybes.

They had the Cybus logo on their chests, so they couldn't have been this Universes Cybermen. That meant they had to explain where the Cybus Cybermen came from, since they were all supposed to have been sucked into the Void.

Oh, and so how the hell do the Pete's World Cybes know about the first nine Doctors or the Time Lords anyway? To know that stuff they have to be our universe's Cybermen.

The Doctor said during his explaination that the Cybermen stole the information from the Dalek database.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

So, spoil us...what was/were the references to the other 9 Doctors...just mentions or did we see clips/photos. US fans want to know.

The Cybermen had loads of these info-rod things taken from the Daleks that showed visual footage and information. One rod was all about the Doctor and we saw a brief clip of all ten in the display when Ten was telling the Next Doctor about his past.

 

[captcalhoun]

i thought it was brilliant. alright, the steampunk Cyberman super bot was OTT, but it was OTT in a good way, not like the OTT angels-fly-the-Doctor-up bit in VOTD...

the Cybershades were a bit crap, but i honestly don't know how they could've been done better...

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Loved the Xmas special this year, definitely my favourite of the specials so far. David Morrissey (hello, David Morrissey) was, as hoped, great. And the blind alleys surrounding the identity of Morrissey's character were nicely done too. And of course the Cybermen go steampunk...

Two Bolians up.

 

[Peacemaker]

So, spoil us...what was/were the references to the other 9 Doctors...just mentions or did we see clips/photos. US fans want to know.

The Cybermen had loads of these info-rod things taken from the Daleks that showed visual footage and information. One rod was all about the Doctor and we saw a brief clip of all ten in the display when Ten was telling the Next Doctor about his past.

What! What! What! You, you mean we saw...the EIGHTH Doctor.

Screenie! Screenie! Dalek Caan demands a screenie! Obey! Obey! Obey!

 

[wamdue]

yes well I have a few problems with the episode, but before I start that I want to talk about what the episode got right, that being the Doctor & the other Doctor, that was some really good drama, truly the best part of the episode.

However what I didnt like about the episode, well its got a few plot holes, just explaining how the Cybermen ended up their felt a bit weak to me, the fact any technology the Cybermen used may have come from the Daleks, the 10 Doctor montage was great, but where did the Daleks get that footage from in the first place?

now up to the point where Mrs Hartigan takes control of the Cybermen I can put the plot holes aside, but after that, im just wondering WTF and where exactly this episode is headed. Soon after this I am treated to the 100ft "Shinning Darkeness" Cyberman, and at this point I had pretty much given up on this episode (like I did with the Transformers movie, when the robots play hide & seek in the garden)

also I try not to mention this in reviews too much, but their was some poor CGI in this, the Cybershades claiming the wall being a good example.

In conclusion the episode got it half right, the Tennant/Morrisey stuff good, the Cyberman stuff bad, VERY bad. In truth had they just include a bad guy with a less complicated back story, and not inculded a 100ft robot attacking Victorian London, the episode would have been much better.

It pains me to say I thought this was an awful episode, but it was, certainly the worst Christmas specail, and maybe one of bottom 5 newWho episodes ever, and ill forgive a show I love alot.

 

[biotech]

Who is never about FX, I dont have a problem with the cybershades or the giant robot, although I doubt it would have fit in the Thames, depthwise, but its always about the drama.

A man who lost his wife, and his son, and the only way he could cope with it, was by being the doctor, compared with the real Doctor, who is so afraid of being hurt by a companion again that he refuses to have one.

One man gets a chance at redemption, and the other manages to not be lonely for one night at least.

 

[wamdue]

Who is never about FX, I dont have a problem with the cybershades or the giant robot,

which is why I said I dont mention it alot, and my problem with the giant robot was not the CGI used to create it, it was the fact it existed.

That said thinking about this, I think it might be the case that I just don't like giant robots on any TV show or movie.

 

[The Badger]

Hokum, pure hokum, from start to finish. But as the late Bob Holmes, original Who's best ever script editor once said, hokum is no small thing to be. Wonderfully entertaining with some great lines, marvellous performances (stand up and take a bow, both David's. You too, Miss Kirwin), and fantastic scenes. The whole 'dragged along on their bums' bit was laugh out loud funny.
Can't wait for Easter, and 'Planet of the Dead'.

 

[Mitty]

Well I just loved that from start to finish. I genuinely believed for a while that this may be a future Doctor, and you know what, I was just a tad disappointed when we found out he wasn't. Sure the cyber explanations were a tad silly and superfluous really, and the giant Cyberman was slightly naff, but I still loved it. The final scene were the Doctor stays for Xmas dinner was a nice upbeat moment to finish on compared to the sad final moment of "Journeys End".

Looking forward to the next one.

 

[Charlie Kelly]

I really enjoyed this, every minute. A perfect Christmas Special. I particularly enjoyed the montage of Doctors, it seems like every year they have more and more direct references to the old series.

Don't know how I'm going to wait for the next one.

Charlie

 

[Eagle]

"I'm The Doctor, simply The Doctor - the one, the only and the best ."

He actually reminds me of a salesman with that line and I just love the delivery of it !

Edit: and I could see a bit of Colin Baker's and Peter Davidson's incarnation in his character too.

 

[Australis]

Yep, I thought it was a great bit of fun. Good acting from both Davids, and the two women.Jackson's reactions standing inside the TARDIS were wonderful. Giant steampunk Cyber Machine! Gotta love it! And glad Ten decided to stay for dinner.

Yes, it was all a bit silly, but I didn't find the holes as large as some did, and I definitely enjoyed this special more than the others.

Roll on Easter!

 

[hammerhead]

the 10 Doctor montage was great, but where did the Daleks get that footage from in the first place?

I'm guessing the Daleks just recorded images of encounters with each Doctor and I'm sure the Daleks must have taken over races with information and data on each Doctor

 

[Meredith]

the 10 Doctor montage was great, but where did the Daleks get that footage from in the first place?

I'm guessing the Daleks just recorded images of encounters with each Doctor and I'm sure the Daleks must have taken over races with information and data on each Doctor

It was pretty much a Dalek Doctor Database, say that three times fast....

 

[Cutter John]

Oh dear. Months of waiting and now its over. I'm going into withdrawals already.

I'm guessing the Daleks just recorded images of encounters with each Doctor and I'm sure the Daleks must have taken over races with information and data on each Doctor

Plus I'm sure at one point or another the Daleks also managed to get access to a TimeLord database. But at least now we know once and for all that the tv movie is official Doctor Who canon (yeah I know theres that word again).

Anyway, I thought it was great! Doctor Who does steampunk! Hell I'm just glad the Cybermen were finally written as worthy villains. Yes, maybe a bit silly in places, but I'm a Who fan from way back, so silly can be a good thing. I'd say Tom Baker would've been right at home in this tale.

Re the gripes about the shape of the Cybershades and the CyberKing, I imagine its just the Cybers making do with the material they had on hand. I imagine a proper King is much more impressive. The Shades I imagine were just a quick and dirty servant units. There was really no point in spending the time engineering proper animal-form bodies.

Sooo, when does the David Morrissey for companion campaign start?