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Author Topic: The Doctor Who Christmas Special  (Read 1678 times)

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Offline Irisado

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The Doctor Who Christmas Special
« on: December 26, 2016, 05:32:25 AM »
Most of the time, I find the Doctor Who Christmas Special to be pretty poor or even awful, but I really enjoyed this one.  It was funny, had a script which flowed and made sense, had some great action sequences, and Capaldi continues to get even better at playing The Doctor.

Did anyone else watch it and what did you think?
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Offline Dev Null

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Re: The Doctor Who Christmas Special
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2016, 10:35:40 AM »
While I like to think I remain capable of critical thought on the matter, I'm an unabashed Dr Who fanboy who hasn't had his fix in awhile, so I may be biased.

I quite enjoyed this one.  I've actually enjoyed Capaldi from the start, but the writing for him suffers a bit from wild mood swings between manically silly and serious.  I prefer it when they write him a little more serious, and this one is squarely in the silly (like pretty much all of the Christmas specials) and yet... I think they pulled it off this time?  It _is_ silly, but good-silly?  The romance side-story came straight out of a Hollywood cookie-cutter, but they play it for laughs so it kind of works?  And I like the hints that the Doctor is actually a bit messed up by recent events in his timeline, rather than just blithely moving on to the next companion.

So yeah; enjoyed it thoroughly.

Offline The GrimSqueaker

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Re: The Doctor Who Christmas Special
« Reply #2 on: January 1, 2017, 02:59:38 PM »
I finally got around to watching it last night. It was certainly an improvement over some of them. As we know, Moffat loves putting 10 good ideas into a space fit for only two then gets cranky at people for pointing out the gaps. This time around it actually felt a little empty as there was only one main plot and one alien of the week running, figuratively around. An improvement. The script was fun with the usual welcome snark and come backs.

I was a little dubious about the use of a superhero as I'd read a few excellent books in the past year that handled the matter very well (The Annihilation Score and Steelheart series) and I wasn't sure how Moffat was going to do it. Turned out better than I expected as there wasn't any real heavy handed moralising or Take That Audience going on this time around.

I was doing fine till the ending where UNIT turns up and then the "oh, no!" scene as it didn't follow on from what we'd seen before as to how the aliens worked. Really think they could have left that out without endangering the story any.

So, enjoyed it more than I was expecting and more than some of the others.
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Offline Irisado

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Re: The Doctor Who Christmas Special
« Reply #3 on: January 1, 2017, 04:30:02 PM »
Agreed, UNIT arriving at the end was somewhat unnecessary and added a layer to the story that did not need to be there.  Otherwise, the narrative was of a much higher quality than Moffat's usual offerings for the Christmas special.
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Offline The GrimSqueaker

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Re: The Doctor Who Christmas Special
« Reply #4 on: January 1, 2017, 04:32:35 PM »
It wasn't them arriving as much as one of the aliens somehow taking over a UNIT solider when previously one of the Surgeons was required for the brain doohickey shenanigans. 
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Offline Irisado

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Re: The Doctor Who Christmas Special
« Reply #5 on: January 1, 2017, 06:11:06 PM »
True, although maybe they wanted to hint at other powers that had not yet been revealed?  That said, I'm probably being too generous to the writer there :D.
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Offline The GrimSqueaker

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Re: The Doctor Who Christmas Special
« Reply #6 on: January 1, 2017, 08:29:54 PM »
Still, good to see Jon Davey getting a few roles in within the same episode. Wonderful chap, chatted with him for a while at a con here a few years ago.
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Offline Dev Null

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Re: The Doctor Who Christmas Special
« Reply #7 on: January 9, 2017, 10:02:42 AM »
My guess is that we haven't seen the last of said alien driving a UNIT soldier...

Offline Kindred

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Re: The Doctor Who Christmas Special
« Reply #8 on: January 9, 2017, 06:35:15 PM »
Pretty much everything by Moffat since he became the hea writer has been pure and absolute drek...

That being said... it appears that someone may have reined him in for this episode.

However, his misogynistic bias still showed through and - as much as I liked the episode - annoyed the hell out of me.
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Re: The Doctor Who Christmas Special
« Reply #9 on: February 17, 2017, 05:35:53 PM »
Just watched the episode and i think especially the superhero part was handled very well, but that Alienplot somehow didnt do it for me.

I think my favourit Christmas Special was the one, that had Santa appearing, where people got attacked by Aliens that put them into a dream world, while slowly killing their hosts bodies. I still remember Santas reply in that episode, when confronted with the fact that reindeers cant fly. "Of course Reindeers cant fly. Thats why i am feeding them magic carrots!"  :D


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