OK so on one hand the Christmas Special of any television show is not going to be the place to come with very high standards and hopes – of course TV can be good over the holidays, but generally it is as bloated and filled with excess as our food. The audience are there but not up to much and as a result you tend not to get the best showing up on the screens – just the biggest; and not too much comes bigger than this show at the moment on the BBC. This Christmas Special is not just that though, it is also the handover from Smith to Capaldi and as such more of a big deal.
The plot here tries to set that up with a very big story involving every villain you've seen and even the rift in time and a former companion showing up. The stakes are high with an aging Doctor stuck in a standoff, essentially the only thing preventing another time war, however at the same time it is Christmas so we have turkey being cooked, paper hats and so on. The two sit uncomfortably together because it feels like the plot should be bigger or the Christmas triviality should be the focus, but not both. The "bigger plot" is the one that is main one in the end and this has plenty of noise and explosions but no heart, so it sort of distracts but doesn't engage – it certainly doesn't convince as something going on for hundreds of years at great cost. The problem for me (besides not really caring) was that it is all noise and empty movement, there are very few smaller moments and those that there are seem so isolated and cutoff from everything else that one wonders if they got left in the edit by mistake. So a small moment as the Doctor loses an old friend (albeit a badly explained one) and a scene with Clara's Granny both offer nice moments but they are there in a rather exploitative way, not as part of the story – or at least this is how they feel.
The regeneration we've all come from is equally overblown. I cannot say if this was always the case as I can only remember the most recent ones but I would love it to be more of a quiet affair someday. The appearance of Capaldi is encouraging as he has an older intensity but this is tempered by the episode we just watched – Capaldi may be good but ultimately he works with what he is given. Smith's exit is not a great loss – he suited the material of the last few seasons in that he can run and shout and wave his hands around and to be frank this is often the main things being asked of him. Coleman remains brighteyed and flirty; I liked her a great deal for this but I hope they can find a story soon that offers her more to work with as an actress. The supporting cast are fine but the only one that stands out (Brady) just feels like a lazy clone of River Song in terms of writing and subsequent performance.
Time of the Doctor isn't awful by any means, it is just very so-so and lacking in a lot. The comedic Christmas moments are decent but feel pushed into the bigger plot because of it being shown at Christmas; meantime the bigger plot is marred by lots of noise but no substance and it doesn't really engage as a result. It is a shame for Smith, but his last episode really does stand as a potted summary of so many of his episodes – lots of running and noise to distract and provide light entertainment, but not a great deal else apart from one or two moments which are good but feel isolated in the middle of all the rest of it.
The plot here tries to set that up with a very big story involving every villain you've seen and even the rift in time and a former companion showing up. The stakes are high with an aging Doctor stuck in a standoff, essentially the only thing preventing another time war, however at the same time it is Christmas so we have turkey being cooked, paper hats and so on. The two sit uncomfortably together because it feels like the plot should be bigger or the Christmas triviality should be the focus, but not both. The "bigger plot" is the one that is main one in the end and this has plenty of noise and explosions but no heart, so it sort of distracts but doesn't engage – it certainly doesn't convince as something going on for hundreds of years at great cost. The problem for me (besides not really caring) was that it is all noise and empty movement, there are very few smaller moments and those that there are seem so isolated and cutoff from everything else that one wonders if they got left in the edit by mistake. So a small moment as the Doctor loses an old friend (albeit a badly explained one) and a scene with Clara's Granny both offer nice moments but they are there in a rather exploitative way, not as part of the story – or at least this is how they feel.
The regeneration we've all come from is equally overblown. I cannot say if this was always the case as I can only remember the most recent ones but I would love it to be more of a quiet affair someday. The appearance of Capaldi is encouraging as he has an older intensity but this is tempered by the episode we just watched – Capaldi may be good but ultimately he works with what he is given. Smith's exit is not a great loss – he suited the material of the last few seasons in that he can run and shout and wave his hands around and to be frank this is often the main things being asked of him. Coleman remains brighteyed and flirty; I liked her a great deal for this but I hope they can find a story soon that offers her more to work with as an actress. The supporting cast are fine but the only one that stands out (Brady) just feels like a lazy clone of River Song in terms of writing and subsequent performance.
Time of the Doctor isn't awful by any means, it is just very so-so and lacking in a lot. The comedic Christmas moments are decent but feel pushed into the bigger plot because of it being shown at Christmas; meantime the bigger plot is marred by lots of noise but no substance and it doesn't really engage as a result. It is a shame for Smith, but his last episode really does stand as a potted summary of so many of his episodes – lots of running and noise to distract and provide light entertainment, but not a great deal else apart from one or two moments which are good but feel isolated in the middle of all the rest of it.