Doctor Who Christmas “Special”
by John Walker on Dec.27, 2007, under Television
I officially declare, having signed all the relevant documents, that I will never watch another RTD-penned Doctor Who so long as I both shall live.
That was the worst thing that has ever happened on planet Earth. Holocaust, you’re in second place.
Every stinking cliche imaginable, with no purpose or direction. An insult to eyes and ears. Big fat stupid people are heroic because they’re fat and stupid, and so hard-done by. Rich people are EVIL. Robots have to die. Kylie Minogue has a magical cycling non-accent. Russell T Davies should be sealed in concrete and buried at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean.
December 27th, 2007 on 21:17
To be fair, it wasn’t AS bad as some of the others. Plus. Um. Kylie in a skimpy maid dress?
I daresay I’ll end up sitting through all of them (OH GOD HELEN RAYNOR GOT THE SONTARAN EPISODES) in the hopes that karma will drop something magnificent in my lap to repay all my suffering. At least Moffat’s getting more than one episode.
December 28th, 2007 on 02:22
Even I thought that was shit.
December 28th, 2007 on 15:24
Drinking helps you put up with the nonsense. And decided whether you’d do Kylie or is she too old now. Maid uniform gives her +1. And the fat people did die entertainingly.
Extras christmas special made up for it.
December 28th, 2007 on 17:10
And remember that Catherine Tate and season 2 of Torchwood (rude words, shagging, we’re so adult!) is just around the corner!
December 28th, 2007 on 20:06
What I like is the image of RTD sitting at his desk saying things like “Ah, this’ll be great! Look at this amazing character development! Everyone has a story arc! I’m a genius!”
The only good thing about that episode was the regenerating stomach-wound boy-sailor’s VERY MANLY SCREAM when he saw the robots hand stuck in the door. Classic.
December 28th, 2007 on 20:11
Was Queer As Folk really any good, or has RTD always been a useless hack?
December 28th, 2007 on 23:05
Depends if you like rimming, really.
December 29th, 2007 on 12:04
RTD is the Wrong Sort of Gay for writing Sci Fi. He clearly hates the genre, and sees it merely as a platform for his banally inclusive leftism (and, more than once, quite nasty anti-Americanism). The Special also confirmed that Tennant is a pretty rubbish actor. If he literally grits his teeth to show conviction and gumption once more, I’ll shove my fist through the telly and break them.
December 29th, 2007 on 13:47
Not only anti-Americanism, but also some rather unpleasant xenophobia at the end, with his sickly declaration that “only Britain is great”, when compared with Germany and France. The line was made far worse by its horrible inevitability from the moment the wacky tourguide got the names wrong. How odd that the alien from millions of light years away would have such a strong bias toward one country on a distant planet. Why, you could almost think that the programme is nothing but a platform for RTD’s vile platitudes.
December 29th, 2007 on 16:43
But all Americans are so loathsome. And fat.
December 29th, 2007 on 16:45
(I’ve just been watching Remembrance Of The Daleks, one of the last Doctor Whos made before RTD, and you people have no idea how lucky you are.)
December 29th, 2007 on 23:43
Pretty much all I can remember about that is Sophie Aldred beating up a Dalek with a baseball bat. Then possibly yelling “ace!” and jumping out a window.
Hngh.
December 30th, 2007 on 15:48
I quite liked it.
(There does seem to be a theme appearing here. Sorry.)
December 30th, 2007 on 15:50
(And Remembrance of the Daleks had the renegade dalek with the bazooka in the middle didn’t it? That was the highlight of my formative years.)
December 31st, 2007 on 11:33
Will, that you are allowed to critique anything, let alone edit a national critical magazine, frankly frightens me.
January 1st, 2008 on 14:24
I think I’m agreeing with Janek slightly about Kylie in a skimpy dress.
But yeah. The episode was pretty much one long cliche.
January 2nd, 2008 on 02:32
I know Moffat is generally good, but has there been anything else like Blink? I just re-watched that the other day, and it remains singularly masterful.
January 2nd, 2008 on 11:04
Moffat wrote the wonderful WW2 two-parter in the first series (“Are you my mummy?”), and the best episode of Doctor Who since it returned, The Girl In The Fireplace in series two. So every episode he’s written has been stunning.
January 17th, 2008 on 03:07
The final two episodes of the second Tennant season- why do we need two musical numbers?
Oh, wait, i forgot. RTD wrote them.
And yes, Blink was one of the best ones yet.
January 19th, 2008 on 08:43
“Big fat stupid people are heroic because they’re fat and stupid.”
Prejudices shining through a little? They weren’t stupid, merely common, but your mind appears to be unpleasantly equating the two.
January 24th, 2008 on 02:26
No, they were defiantly stupid. It’s not prejudiced to point out when someone is stupid. It’s fairly dismally moronic to pretend otherwise.
February 12th, 2008 on 12:17
Weren’t they robotics experts or something? So not totally thick, is what I’m getting at.
I’ll leave this alone, however, as my memory of the episode has thankfully been pushed aside by vastly superior shows in the past month or so. Sorry if my comment seemed a bit strong; it didn’t come out exactly as intended.