What happened?
It’s Christmas Day on Earth, but unknown to the planet the cruiser Titanic drifts by in space. With the ship having crashed into the TARDIS, The Doctor has got onboard as a stowaway and merged in with the rest of the guests enjoying their holiday. The party is cut short when the captain deliberately lowers the shields and attracts meteors to strike the ship.
Crippled, with few survivors, those that are left are at the mercy of the robotic Host, picking them off. It’s up to The Doctor with a small band of people to discover that Max Capricorn, the owner of the ship, is behind the attack due to his failed business. The Doctor, with the help of a waitress, Astrid, stops Max.
Thoughts
I didn’t think much of this episode. I mean, I can be charitable and say that since it’s just an Xmas episode, one that exists kind of outside the regular show and the events there, then it doesn’t deserve to be viewed with the same critical expectation. It’s just a good family show, featuring none other than Kylie Minogue, for people to sit down with on Xmas Day having eaten their festive dinner whilst helping themselves to a nice drink as the kids play with toys and watch the telly.
Viewed in that context it’s a lot easier to let slip its misgivings, but that’s not the context I viewed it in. And I think I already tend to allow Doctor Who off the hook a bit more than other shows given it’s got a kind of daft charm all of its own making that affords it some slack. So why should a Christmas Special be considered permissible just because it’s, well, a Christmas Special? If anything a one-off show is exactly the kind of thing that plays to Doctor Who’s strengths.
Thing is, I can’t quite place exactly what it was about this episode that resulted in it falling so flat for me. I rather liked Kylie Minogue as Astrid (she was rather simplistically characterised so Kylie didn’t really have much to work with, but I felt like there was a spark between her and Tennant that really buoyed their interplay), and the Host angel robots were sinister enough villains that were memorable. The moment they showed up in attack, displaying the previously unseen ability to fly, was pretty cool.
The collection of core characters were an assorted bunch. The clichéd self-centred businessman was irritating – but then that was his function. More bizarre was the strange affection between the short alien cyborg thing with Astrid which didn’t exactly do Astrid any favours since it made it seem like she was ready to throw herself at anyone – Timelord Doctors, midget aliens, she’s up for anything!
I think really it was just a problem with tone. I couldn’t get in to the action because there was a slightly tongue-in-cheek aspect to it all (understandable, it’s Christmas Day, it’s a family show – it would be wrong to expect an episode like Blink!) that stopped me. And I suppose it didn’t help that the mastermind behind it all – Max Capricorn – had the sole motivation of doing these terrible things, taking all of those lives, purely so he could ruin his business and upset shareholders.
If you’re going to have one-off villains for a one-off Xmas day episode then just make them more unreasonably evil, like the Syrcorax, and give the casual viewers something to boo and hiss at before The Doctor saves the day.
What was the best part?
I’m really struggling to come up with a part of this episode that I could label as the best part since the whole thing rather left me cold. Honesly, I think the glorious stupidity of The Doctor discovering the captain’s mate was called Alonso, and so joyously declaring “Allons y, Alonso!” That was the best bit. Doesn’t say much, does it?
What do I think will happen next?
Series 4 will happen next, that’s what. Proper Doctor Who and none of this trifling Xmas day fare!
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