Christmas Special News (Spoilers)

[kirk55555]

I wish Moffat hadn't said that he really loved Superman, because now I know I'm going to watch this and compare it mentally to, say, Lois & Clark. And if I do that, based on the released clip, I'm going to be disappointed; there was more energy, more style, and more verve in an episode of Lois & Clark than there was in that clip. And Lois & Clark was twenty-plus years ago!

Well, no matter how good or lame the superhero in the special is, Capaldi alone makes the special a thousand times better then anything Lois & Clark ever did. To be fair, I consider Lois & Clark the worst TV incarnation of Superman, and the second worst live action incarnation after the Zach Snyder stuff, so being better then that show is a low bar for me. But, regardless of that opinion, Capaldi is awesome and Doctor Who in general is awesome, and I honestly don't think it will be that similar to a romantic comedy sitcom from the 90s, plus it will probably have a much bigger focus on the superhero. If it has similarities to superman, I seriously doubt it will take anything from the sitcom, and just be similar to the character in general.

That said, if the superhero does have a "Castle of Loneliness", then this special is automatically better then about half of the previous Doctor Who Christmas Specials

 

[The Wormhole]

Meanwhile, BBC has begun their annual Advent Calendar for the Christmas special.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

My prediction: the Super will turn out to be a lonely kid that really really wished to be like the comic book hero he adores and a friendly alien fullfilled his wish.
That sounds like somthing Moffat would totally do for a Christmas special.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

My prediction: the Super will turn out to be a lonely kid that really really wished to be like the comic book hero he adores and a friendly alien fullfilled his wish.
That sounds like somthing Moffat would totally do for a Christmas special.

More Captain Marvel than Superman, then.

But yeah, I can absolutely see Moffat doing something like that. That's his brand of sentimentality.

 

[StCoop]

My prediction: the Super will turn out to be a lonely kid that really really wished to be like the comic book hero he adores and a friendly alien fullfilled his wish.
That sounds like somthing Moffat would totally do for a Christmas special.

That's what I thought the moment I saw the first behind-the-scenes Trailer.

***

And I still can't quite believe that when you have one episode in 16 months following on from a sizeable chunk of your audience walking away from the show this is what you come back with.

 

[Samurai8472]

My prediction: the Super will turn out to be a lonely kid that really really wished to be like the comic book hero he adores and a friendly alien fullfilled his wish.
That sounds like somthing Moffat would totally do for a Christmas special.

And then the doctor points his sonic screwdriver at the boy to make him a real hero


Doctor- I don't think there will be any side effects. Oh best not eat after midnight........

 

[The Wormhole]

My prediction: the Super will turn out to be a lonely kid that really really wished to be like the comic book hero he adores and a friendly alien fullfilled his wish.
That sounds like somthing Moffat would totally do for a Christmas special.

Throw in a few five-minute monologues. Because Moffat loves his monologues.

 

[kirk55555]

My prediction: the Super will turn out to be a lonely kid that really really wished to be like the comic book hero he adores and a friendly alien fullfilled his wish.
That sounds like somthing Moffat would totally do for a Christmas special.

Oh god, now that you say that it does seem likely, its definitely something Moffat would do, and that would really suck.

 

[Mr Soak]

This year's Christmas special will be the first episode broadcast in HD in Australia* since July 2010, with the restart of ABC HD on 6 December.

*On ABC, at least. I don't know what resolution pay TV channels air at.

 

[StCoop]

Moffat talks Xmas, complete with a surprising amount of Spoilers from him:
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016...st-all-about-the-doctor-who-christmas-special

Most interesting fact. None of the episode was shot in New York but some of it was shot in Bulgaria!

 

[Solid Snack]

JJ, is that you?

 

[Romulan_spy]

My prediction: the Super will turn out to be a lonely kid that really really wished to be like the comic book hero he adores and a friendly alien fullfilled his wish.
That sounds like something Moffat would totally do for a Christmas special.

WOW. You nailed it. Straight from Moffat's interview:

It’s about a little boy (Logan Hoffman), who is accidentally conferred superpowers and who happens to be a comics fan and so he decides he should be a superhero in his adult years."

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Moffat talks Xmas, complete with a surprising amount of Spoilers from him:

As it's the first episode in a year from a series that's been on a ratings decline, I'm not surprised that he's talking up the story in specific terms. He's doing the hard sell to get people to tune in.

The one noticeable thing, to me anyway, is that he doesn't do a very good job of selling this as a Doctor Who story. He talks about the Doctor and his world very little.

 

[kirk55555]

This special really seems like it just going to be terrible, but I'll definitely watch it. One thing I hope Chibnail does in his time in charge is cut down on child actors and stories focused on children. Some of the very worst episodes of NuWho are focused on kids (Fear Her, Nightmare in Silver, In the Forest of the Night), and if they're not outright terrible then they're mediocre (The Doctor The widow and the Wardrobe, the Rings of Akhaten, The caretaker). Only A Christmas Carol worked, with a good kid actor in a few scenes and a story that was focused on the character throughout his life and not just as a kid.

I'm really not interested in a Doctor Who story about a kid given super powers (ironic, since my favorite superhero, the original Captain Marvel, is literally a 13 year old who has the ability to transform into an adult superhero), especially with Moffat writing it, but its not like I'd skip an episode of Doctor Who. Hopefully this will be better then I expect, my expectations are low at this point so even being watchable would be nice, especially after going a year with no new Doctor who.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

WOW. You nailed it. Straight from Moffat's interview:

Well, it wasn't hard to guess.
Not sure if it counts as a spoiler that there is confirmation now.

 

[Mr Awe]

The one noticeable thing, to me anyway, is that he doesn't do a very good job of selling this as a Doctor Who story. He talks about the Doctor and his world very little.

I noticed that too, and how he said we'd like to spend so much time with the couple he mentions even though it's not the Doctor!

Mr Awe

 

[Photoman15]

Don't you think he looks tired?
I liked his (Moffats) original seasons introducing Eleven and Amy, but once Amy left, He tried to put too much of his mark on the show with Clara (I like Jenna, hate Clara). He almost went as far as making her his mother. And now she has a TARDIS. phhht. Mary-Sue syndrome gone wild. He has become creatively bankrupt and should have went last year. And now he's proud that there is only one mention of Christmas in a Christmas special. I don't even know if I can watch Season 10 coming up..... I'm really conflicted

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Well, it wasn't hard to guess.
Not sure if it counts as a spoiler that there is confirmation now.

If I'm reading that interview correctly, it's the Doctor that gives the boy the powers. Almost certainly by accident, and probably as a byproduct of that weird apparatus we see the Doctor and the boy working with in the promo pictures. And like the Doctor ran off when Rose made Jack immortal, he leaves the boy to his own devices.

I had sort of been expecting something like "Captain Marvel meets Big" -- little boy uses powers to turn into an super-hero, and as the super-hero he forges a romantic bond with a professional woman many years older than his real self -- but "Doctor makes little boy effectively Kryptonian" works, too.

My fear is that, by using the powers, the Ghost is slowly killing himself and the Doctor can save him, but he has to give up being a super-hero. That's cliched, and it's happening right now in the pages of both Thor and Superwoman.

 

[Leviathan]

Still waiting on the Christmas Special where the Doctor wipes out all BBC executives...

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

^ That would be ideal for the finale of the whole show. Have the First Doctor do it, too.