A Christmas Carol

I really like this Doctor Who take on A Christmas Carol. I kind of have gained affection towards this episode over time. My initial experience with the production was a little rough. It starts out so frantic and noisy in its rush to get the basic premise out it is hard to realize what the show is going for until we start messing around with Kazran's own timeline. It's a story that really plays into then showrunner Steven Moffat's strengths as I find he both likes and is really good at telling stories around time travel.

Once I got what Moffat and crew were going for, I really started liking this episode. One of Moffat's strengths as a showrunner was his understanding that rules around time travel or Doctor Who shouldn't get in the way of a fun time, and A Christmas Carol's time travel plot bits are very much a strong example of that. Going through Christmas upon Christmas in Kazran's life, improving him as a human every step of the way so that he is willing to save Amy and Rory, is a brilliant plot piece, and it easily carries what could have been a shaky episode. This is one of Matt Smith's best and also one of the best Christmas Specials in all of Doctor Who because of it.

Not to mention this features a very, very strong performance by Michael Gambon. He is essential in making this a memorable story. If I were just reviewing his acting I would give performances a perfect score but the rest of the cast doesn't quite live up to his talents, including the youngest Kazran. It's expected but still holds this episode back from being a stronger editing along with other aspects of how this fun idea for a story is presented and told to us.

I don't love the special effects and editing, a lot of it feels choppy and the shark wasn't exactly looking great, but this is a touching and wonderful time, a really nice, emotional Doctor Who adventure, and absolutely worth checking out for the holidays.

Modern Who's magnum opus. I don't think it ever got any better than this; a beautiful adaptation of the classic Dickens tale, but done in a way that feels fresh and fully involves the time travel aspect of the story much more than the original could.

The music is fantastic, the world building is amazing. Ember and Sardicktown are, perhaps, the greatest realised alien planet of all of Doctor Who; it feels so lived in, unique, fun to explore if you ever visit. Its aesthetic is unmatched, its people have a consistent feel that isn't generic or typical. Such brilliant set and costume design.

The story is emotional and involving, you just get sucked into this world for the hour and it never lets you go. It's one of Matt Smith's greatest performance, and it helps that the Doctor is so perfectly characterised within this episode; he's given so many great lines and is fully engaging throughout.

You can't ignore how well the guest stars are doing to back all this up; Michael Gambon, Katherine Jenkins, Laurence Belcher and Danny Horn all deserve praise here.

It really is just the perfect coda to what I believe is the greatest Doctor Who series of them all - Series 5.

Doctor Who is a time and space and genre and retelling of classic stories machine. The show has a proud history of adapting well known stories, and A Christmas Carol is a gem in terms of source material for Christmas Day. Add in a flying shark, time travel and a psychopathic loan shark, and you have the perfect mixture of the new and familiar, the tantalizing and the comforting.

Michael Gambon is marvelous as Kazan Sardic, an excellent piece of casting that brings an endearing mixture of cruelty and vulnerability to this stories’ Scrooge. Katherine Jenkins sings beautifully, and adds some extra star power to those freezer scenes, which could have been dull in someone else hands. Although on a large, crisp, modern TV the fringing of her wig was a lot more obvious than I had remembered.

Amy and Rory take a backseat, slipping into a comedy duo role. No complaints for, me as Matt Smith’s Doctor gets to rule Christmas Day, in what is most likely the best Xmas special ever.