It’s become a tradition now. Every Christmas Day we are treated to a Doctor Who special. It seems weird that there was a time when there wasn’t Doctor Who on Christmas Day. This story borrows a lot from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Even borrowing the name. The story is quite a simple one, Amy and Rory are on a spaceship that is hurtling towards the planet but the clouds are hampering their attempts at a safe landing and the only person who can help them is a Ebenezer Scrooge type character called Kazran Sardick (Sir Michael Gambon). The clouds are controlled by Kazran and can only be operated by him. The Doctor has to try and convince Kazran to be nice. This involves the Doctor going back to when Kazan was a boy and doing nice things to a young woman called Abigail (Katherine Jenkins) however Abigail reveals a secret to Kazran and this is what turns him into the miser that we see at the beginning of the story.
Michael Gambon steals the show. It’s quite remarkable that someone of his acting distinction appears in Doctor Who. As Kazran Sardick he starts off as the miser Scrooge but by the end of it he plays a sad and softened character which is does very well. Every scene he was in was a joy to watch and the story wouldn’t have been as good had it been someone else. Katherine Jenkins does a good job. She revealed in Doctor Who Confidential she had never done any acting before this and to be honest I couldn’t tell. It did take me a long time to really like the character. I think that her acting was ok but she really came into her own when she had to sing which is of course her day job. She really is a very good classical singer. Normally I’m not a fan of young actors but I must admit that I found Laurence Belcher to be very good as the Young Kazran, he didn’t have a whiny voice or irritating manner. Also Danny Horn was good as the Middle Kazran who’s role mainly consisted of kissing Katherine Jenkins, though I could think of worse jobs to do. Matt Smith is very good in this and seems to have well and truly settled into the roll. There are a lot of funny moments and Matt did them well. That’s one thing that I’ve been surprised with about him. He doesn’t look like the sort of actor that can do funny and serious acting in equal measure. He puts a lot of energy in his performance and really shone when he shared scenes with Michael Gambon. Even though they weren’t really in the story very much I did think that Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill were very good. Their scenes were largely on the ship but it would have still been weird without them.
As well as the acting, I found the sets very impressive. Especially Kazran’s study which was very big and suitable for some wonderful scenes between Matt Smith and Michael Gambon. It was also empty which summed up Kazran. I watched this in HD and it the quality came through brilliantly. Also the chamber with the capsules were eerie and very effective and created some wonderful moments which included the scene where the young and old Kazran were hugging. Every moment of this right down to the spaceship showed that a lot of time and money had been spent on it and I loved it. The shark flying scenes were very odd but very Doctor Who, its Christmas after all and so instead of a reindeer we get a shark.
I think that this is the best Christmas Special that we have had. It had Christmas running through it like Blackpool rock. Top writing from Steven Moffatt and fantastic directing from Toby Haynes but it’s the special effects that I was most impressed with. They were truly spectacular and I was just blown away with them every time I saw them. A Christmas Carol has to rank in my Top 10 of new series episode. Great way to see out Christmas Day 2010 and as for the trailer that appeared at the end, it looks like its going to be as the Ninth Doctor would say ‘Fantastic’.
Michael Gambon steals the show. It’s quite remarkable that someone of his acting distinction appears in Doctor Who. As Kazran Sardick he starts off as the miser Scrooge but by the end of it he plays a sad and softened character which is does very well. Every scene he was in was a joy to watch and the story wouldn’t have been as good had it been someone else. Katherine Jenkins does a good job. She revealed in Doctor Who Confidential she had never done any acting before this and to be honest I couldn’t tell. It did take me a long time to really like the character. I think that her acting was ok but she really came into her own when she had to sing which is of course her day job. She really is a very good classical singer. Normally I’m not a fan of young actors but I must admit that I found Laurence Belcher to be very good as the Young Kazran, he didn’t have a whiny voice or irritating manner. Also Danny Horn was good as the Middle Kazran who’s role mainly consisted of kissing Katherine Jenkins, though I could think of worse jobs to do. Matt Smith is very good in this and seems to have well and truly settled into the roll. There are a lot of funny moments and Matt did them well. That’s one thing that I’ve been surprised with about him. He doesn’t look like the sort of actor that can do funny and serious acting in equal measure. He puts a lot of energy in his performance and really shone when he shared scenes with Michael Gambon. Even though they weren’t really in the story very much I did think that Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill were very good. Their scenes were largely on the ship but it would have still been weird without them.
As well as the acting, I found the sets very impressive. Especially Kazran’s study which was very big and suitable for some wonderful scenes between Matt Smith and Michael Gambon. It was also empty which summed up Kazran. I watched this in HD and it the quality came through brilliantly. Also the chamber with the capsules were eerie and very effective and created some wonderful moments which included the scene where the young and old Kazran were hugging. Every moment of this right down to the spaceship showed that a lot of time and money had been spent on it and I loved it. The shark flying scenes were very odd but very Doctor Who, its Christmas after all and so instead of a reindeer we get a shark.
I think that this is the best Christmas Special that we have had. It had Christmas running through it like Blackpool rock. Top writing from Steven Moffatt and fantastic directing from Toby Haynes but it’s the special effects that I was most impressed with. They were truly spectacular and I was just blown away with them every time I saw them. A Christmas Carol has to rank in my Top 10 of new series episode. Great way to see out Christmas Day 2010 and as for the trailer that appeared at the end, it looks like its going to be as the Ninth Doctor would say ‘Fantastic’.
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