Full Notes: A Christmas Carol

Is it the best of Eleven's holiday specials?

The Doctor must rewrite the childhood of an elderly miser to prevent a Christmas tragedy.

Notable for:

• The first Matt Smith Christmas special.

• The horesehead nebula is visible in the first shot, putting this planet about 1,500 light-years from Earth.

• The Doctor seemingly marries Marilyn Monroe offscreen.

• Abigail’s song was an original composition for this episode. Katherine Jenkins, a classically trained singer, performs it. She was originally only supposed to do the song, but Moffat and director Haynes were impressed with her.

Commentary:

• Moffat really outdid himself with this timey-wimey interpretation of A Christmas Carol. I sets the course for Moffat’s specials: Whereas Davies would have a more or less traditional Doctor Who episode with Christmas overtones, Moffat would reinterpret entire Christmas stories or legends as Doctor Who episodes (Doctor/Widow, Last Christmas). In this, his first outing doing so, he really nails it, and a big reason is because A Christmas Carol — with its past/present/future setup — is ripe for some timey-wimeyness, which is what Moffat is best at.

• Isomorphic controls is an oblique reference to Pyramids of Mars, where the Doctor fools Sutekh into thinking only the Doctor can pilot the TARDIS, which is demonstrably false. It’s the first Tom Baker claim Smith debunks — he also rips up “temporal grace” later.

• Smith is full Geronimo from minute one. His rapid-fire dialogue in the first scene when he comes down the chimney is [chef’s kiss]. I could watch that scene over and over, and in fact I have! He fires off so many one-liners in the space of a minute it’s unreal (“Stay off the naughty list.” “Give me time, and a crayon.” “Ice clouds. Love that.”) capping it all with “in nine hundred years of time and space, I've never met anyone who wasn't important before.” Yes!

• Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are given a bit of a short shrift here, but that’s clearly by design. What they have is memorable, with hilarious callbacks to Series 5 with their outfits.

• With Amy and Rory sidelined, it makes room for the great Michael Gambon. This is really his show, with his hateful Sardick played against Smith’s Doctor perfectly. Him: old, bitter, angry and proud of his apathy. The Doctor: young (at heart and in appearance), bursting with energy and empathy. Their conflict is the heart of the entire thing, and the nature if it evolves throughout.

• The crashing ship is the big weak spot in the episode. There are more lens flares than a J.J. Abrams movie, the “Christmas is cancelled” line at the beginning is really OTT, then the ship is crashing for a whole hour, with stuff constantly exploding/short circuiting? I know it’s the whole “volume up” thing for Christmas, but come on.

• That said, “Come Along Pond…” is amazing.

• The setting is one of the best realizations of an Earth colony in the far future. There are references to Earth, Sardick’s narration mislead at the beginning is a cool way to set the stage, and it’s amazing how much a dash of steampunk can make London feel otherworldly.

• The story makes great use of a few visual cues that really pay off: the circular window, the doors to Sardick’s study that the Doctor keeps going in and out of, the spire that you see under construction when the Doctor and young Kazran are on the rooftop, and the cryogenic sarcophagi that house all the “security” that the Sardicks has collected over the years.

• The TARDIS “can’t lock on” is a hell of a throwaway contrivance, but I’ll allow it.

• LOVE the twist of the ghost of Christmas future being himself. Just when you thought they were going to drag this thing out with another predictable act, they do something else, which is even more impactful, and lets them cut right to the climax and resolution.

• The rules of time travel/time being rewritten here are hardly consistent, but they work, and one of the best parts of the story is Kazran’s stubborn insistence that he doesn’t care. He’s screaming about how much he doesn’t care to Smith by the end — not able to hear himself until he sees himself. It’s at this point you start to thing, “Isn’t he changed enough that he’ll at least save a crashing spaceship full of people? Surely the 8 Christmas Eves he spent with the Doctor and Abigail did SOMETHING, didn’t they? And they did, but they ended up not having the effect the Doctor thought: He was bitter that the Doctor made him fall in love with Abigail only to never be able to see her again. He was also bitter that the Doctor manipulated his life to his own ends. As a result, Kazran, although changed, is so wrapped up in his own anger with the Doctor that he refuses to save the ship. Just really, really smart character writing by Moffat, and superbly performed by Michael Gambon and Danny Horn.

• Speaking of Kazran, young Kazran gets some great moments with Smith too. Again, Moffat understands the need to have kids involved in Christmas specials, and he sometimes even writes them well.

• Katherine Jenkis is pretty amazing in her acting debut, and of course her singing is completely on point.

What did Pete’s family think?

• My kids both loved it. Grace was really looking forward to watching it, since she had such fond memories of it, even though it’s sad. She cried at the sad parts and really snuggled in. Jack said the setting was one of the best ever and that he liked the steampunk elements — modern tech in classic/victorian settings. He liked the fish and recognized how well the past/present/future storyline of A Christmas Carol fits with Doctor Who. Also, in his words, it shows the Doctor is clever but doesn’t understand everything. 

Four Questions to Doomsday

1. Why did the Randomizer take us here? ’Tis the Season!

2. What if the evil plot had succeeded? So the evil plot is Sardick’s, the original Sardick’s, which is to let the spaceship crash. As he says, he doesn’t WANT it to crash — he just doesn’t care. So if you interpret Sardick’s success as simply not having to lift a finger, I choose to believe the Doctor finds some other way to prevent the crash. He’d time-travel to get a giant net or cushion or fool the Daleks into tractor-beaming the ship to safety. Then Sardick gets his somehow.

3. Where's the Clara splinter? Holding the camera in those holidays in Paris.

4. Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, or Lady Cassandra? Banger? Dalek? It’s a Banger-Dalek hybrid! One of the best Christmas specials, for sure, though sidelining companions and the Star Trek-iness of the crashing ship keep it one step short of perfection.

Chris commentary:

• Let's talk about how long it takes the Doctor to recognize that this is a Scrooge situation. 

Cast (per TARDIS Wiki)

The Doctor - Matt Smith

Amy Pond - Karen Gillan

Rory - Arthur Darvill

Kazran/Elliot Sardick - Michael Gambon

Abigail - Katherine Jenkins

Young Kazran - Laurence Belcher

Adult Kazran - Danny Horn

Pilot - Leo Bill

Captain - Pooky Quesnel

Co-pilot - Micah Balfour

Old Benjamin - Steve North

Boy & Benjamin - Bailey Pepper

Servant - Tim Plester

Eric - Nick Malinowski

Isabella - Laura Rogers

Old Isabella - Meg Wynn-Owen