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sir_guinglain Dec. 25th, 2011 08:12 pm)
sir_guinglain Dec. 25th, 2011 08:12 pm)After my disappointment with 'A Christmas Carol','The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe' redeemed the Doctor Who Christmas special as a concept. Steven Moffat seems to perceive the business of making the Christmas episodes as the maintenance of a careful balance between a saccharine sentimentality which in my childhood was not Doctor Who's province, but rather that of light entertainment portmanteaus on ITV, and a public idea of traditional Doctor Who of monsters and possession and thrills. Last year this mix was mulled with classic Christmas fiction somewhat desperately acknowledged in the dialogue; this year the literary influence was just as clear but spiced with depictions of the Second World War in film and television, from A Matter of Life and Death to, more remotely, the demotic background of Shine On Harvey Moon. Madge's accent reminded us that the Battle of Britain was won on the playgrounds of the council schools of Britain, to borrow a phrase from A.J.P. Taylor. Liberally sprinkled too was modern eco-mythology, with Christmas stars becoming tree-spirits; and the walking tree people suggest that C.S. Lewis was not the only Inkling receiving a nod this Christmas.
Watching Doctor Who at Christmas is a family occasion, and while last year my parents' patience was soon exhausted, with the appearance of Katherine Jenkins being the final straw for my mother, this year my father was praising the strength of the central storyline. There was an ease with the nicely underplayed emotional story which has been absent for much of the Moffat period and certainly for the badly bungled Amy-River motherhood tale. We returned, of course, to Moffat's mother trope, with Cyril's faith in his mother having a direct relationship to the Empty Child back in 2005. The coronation of Madge as mothership of the forest recalls Miss Hartigan's transformation into the Cyber-King in 'The Next Doctor', but inverts it neatly if a little cloyingly.
The Doctor is reconciled to his friends at the end, with the emotion of ending his self-denial being almost too much for him; how 'heartbreaking' will the forthcoming departure of Amy and Rory be? The Arwells are set up for a return; all Madge needs to do is wish, and I'm not the first to wonder at the casting of an obviously older actress as the supposedly fourteen-year-old Lily.
Watching Doctor Who at Christmas is a family occasion, and while last year my parents' patience was soon exhausted, with the appearance of Katherine Jenkins being the final straw for my mother, this year my father was praising the strength of the central storyline. There was an ease with the nicely underplayed emotional story which has been absent for much of the Moffat period and certainly for the badly bungled Amy-River motherhood tale. We returned, of course, to Moffat's mother trope, with Cyril's faith in his mother having a direct relationship to the Empty Child back in 2005. The coronation of Madge as mothership of the forest recalls Miss Hartigan's transformation into the Cyber-King in 'The Next Doctor', but inverts it neatly if a little cloyingly.
The Doctor is reconciled to his friends at the end, with the emotion of ending his self-denial being almost too much for him; how 'heartbreaking' will the forthcoming departure of Amy and Rory be? The Arwells are set up for a return; all Madge needs to do is wish, and I'm not the first to wonder at the casting of an obviously older actress as the supposedly fourteen-year-old Lily.
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