Doctor Who Christmas Special: "A Christmas Carol" TV Review

Historically the "Doctor Who" Christmas specials have only really included Christmas as almost a cameo. It's never really been a major part of any of the stories, and in at least one case ("The Runaway Bride") it only got a casual mention and then was ignored. This year's Christmas special however, appropriately titled "A Christmas Carol" for reasons that will soon be very clear, embraces the holiday as an actual factor of the story being told. And a major one at that. So for once the "Doctor Who" Christmas special isn't just a long episode that happens to air on Christmas, it is actually a proper Christmas episode. It's also a pretty darn good one.

In the upper atmosphere of an alien world a passenger ship is rapidly loosing control. The bizarre and hazardous cloud systems of the planet have disabled the ship. The crew struggles to keep it in the air but they're fighting a losing battle. The ship currently has 4003 passengers including Rory (Arthur Darvill) and Amy (Karen Gillan,) companions to the universe traveling Doctor (Matt Smith.) The disruptions in the sky are such that the Doctor can't use his time traveling TARDIS to save the crew or passengers of the ship, leaving him only one option. On the planet the freakish and dangerous clouds are controlled by one man, Kazran Sardick (the great Michael Gambon, best known as Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" films.) While Sardick could easily manipulate the clouds and allow the ship to land the simple fact is that he's a bitter old man who wouldn't care on the best of days. With this being Christmas day it actually makes things worse with Kazran's absolute hatred of the holiday. With the controls to the needed machine only responding to Sardick's brain waves the Doctor devises a Dickens inspired plan to make him a kinder man. The Doctor acts as the Ghost of Christmas Past, going into Sardick's history and giving him new experiences in an effort to change him for the better in the present.

This episode has quite a few things going for it, not the least of which is a wonderful performance by Michael Gambon. As the sit in for Scrooge he plays not only a supreme grouch but also has to play the changing emotions as the Doctor dabbles in his past. It's actually a tricky thing to pull off because Sardick has a certain level of awareness that his past is being rewritten even as his memories and personality are changing. Gambon also pulls double duty playing his character's father in some of the flash backs. Matt Smith is wonderful as usual as the Doctor. The characters of Amy and Rory are a bit more background in this episode than they are normally but they're still fun when they appear. Also of note is Katherine Jenkins, a classical singer making her acting debut as Abigail who is the object of Sardick's affections in his youth. Jenkins brings a very infectious joy to her performance and also has some truly amazing classical singing in the episode as well.

There are a few weak points. With this episode taking the Christmas aspect more to heart than any other episode before it that also brings along a certain level of cheesiness. It's never groan worthy but this episode is certainly a bit sappier than most "Doctor Who" fare. Also the effects are a little bit mixed as well. There's a whole aspect of the story that deals with flying fish and when it has the smaller fish the effects are quite lovely. However when there's something bigger like a shark it's a bit more Syfy Channel movie than fans may be used to. On the bridge of the spaceship there's also a very clear homage/spoof of the most recent "Star Trek" movie, complete with excessive lens flare which fans may find equally amusing and annoying.

While not a perfect episode of "Doctor Who" this does stand as the best Christmas special that the show has so far produced. Given how well Christmas factored into the story it'll be difficult for the show to ever top it in the future (though they'll certainly try.) For fans of the show it's certainly a great way to stay excited until the new episodes start to air in the Spring. Even taking out it's placement in the show as a whole it works in and of itself as a science fiction retelling of the classic Dickens story that we all know and love.