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Post by omega on Jun 8, 2016 4:52:37 GMT
The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe is the weakest of the Christmas specials for me. I haven't seen it since it first aired. I managed to enjoy the beginning of it in an Amicus films kind of way, it was only when the plot reared its ugly head and we got to the forest that I completely lost interest. In contrast, The Snowmen managed a fairly solid premise, staying away from the "look at me" temporal mechanics, good characterisation and a strong villain. It was the episode that on first viewing made me snap my fingers and go -- "Yup, I can totally accept Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor." It felt like a genuine Who episode rather than a parody of one. The Snowmen is also the first Moffat era Christmas special not to be based on an existing story. It's the best Strax material before he got lumped with comedy ball (AGMGtW did give us the wonderful lactic fluid line). The memory worm bit is gold. What memory worm bit?
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Post by The Matt on Jun 8, 2016 7:22:57 GMT
The Snowmen was the only really good 11th Dr xmas special. All the others I will never watch. Time of the Doctor was only any good as it was a regeneration story....
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Post by chrisscorkscrew on Jun 8, 2016 7:36:02 GMT
In terms of NuWho, it has to be A Christmas Carol. In a long line of extremely melancholy (or should I say downright miserable) Christmas specials, it stands out as the one which truly cast a 'downer' on Christmas, and the endless over-sentimental warbling provided throughout by Katherine Jenkins did not help.
I find this somewhat of a surprise. I didn't know there was anyone who didn't enjoy A Christmas Carol. In my view, it's not only the show's best Christmas Special so far but also among Steven Moffat's all-time greatest episodes. I did think the production values were very good for A Christmas Carol, but the story just felt contrived and too carefully crafted to me, as it steamrollered the audience towards the bittersweet finale we all knew was coming. It's likely a personal thing as my taste runs more to the more fast-paced and upbeat Christmas specials of Russell T Davies. Chriss C.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2016 8:09:58 GMT
A Christmas Carol was probably one of the more enjoyable episodes of his run for me personally. I enjoyed the RTD Christmas specials as well, but Moffat's style also tends to sway towards more traditional fantasy rather than science fiction tropes and Carol fitted that aesthetic nicely without getting trampled by incisive logic. It's one of those things that really got on my nerve, people using "timey-wimey" as an excuse in the same way people say: "Oh, it's just children's television, it doesn't have to be smart."
The RTD stories seemed to think things through where Moffat era stories didn't and this is one of the few that manages to overcome that by turning a potential weakness into an advantage. Much like Heaven Sent did. The stakes are more towards whether the Doctor can rekindle a sense of wonder in an old, embittered soul rather than the life or death consequences that this era often struggles with. And you know you're having problems when reviewers are jumping for joy at the mere implication of a body count such as with The Zygon Invasion.
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Post by chrisscorkscrew on Jun 8, 2016 12:20:17 GMT
A Christmas Carol was probably one of the more enjoyable episodes of his run for me personally. I enjoyed the RTD Christmas specials as well, but Moffat's style also tends to sway towards more traditional fantasy rather than science fiction tropes and Carol fitted that aesthetic nicely without getting trampled by incisive logic. It's one of those things that really got on my nerve, people using "timey-wimey" as an excuse in the same way people say: "Oh, it's just children's television, it doesn't have to be smart." The RTD stories seemed to think things through where Moffat era stories didn't and this is one of the few that manages to overcome that by turning a potential weakness into an advantage. Much like Heaven Sent did. The stakes are more towards whether the Doctor can rekindle a sense of wonder in an old, embittered soul rather than the life or death consequences that this era often struggles with. And you know you're having problems when reviewers are jumping for joy at the mere implication of a body count such as with The Zygon Invasion. I see what you mean about the intrinsic value of stories with smaller stakes, but in A Christmas Carol, I just didn't care enough about the central character of Kazran Sardick for his redemption to matter to me. Heaven Sent, on the other hand, is one of my all-time favourite stories because I cared fiercely about the Doctor and the mystery. The Zygon Invasion was probably the only other story of series 9 that really spoke to me, but that was not for the body count, but the sheer exuberant cleverness of the story and the wonderful cast. I guess you can go big and small, but for me the key to a successful story of all genres is its ability to engage the viewer. Chriss C.
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shutupbanks
Castellan
There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
Likes: 5,661
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Post by shutupbanks on Jun 8, 2016 14:45:24 GMT
Blake's 7: Voice From The Past. Space yoga Travis in the most ridiculous disguise and accent ever The WORST space backdrop ever Worse than Animals or Stardrive?? Every TV show has a Stardrive: the episode that hilariously/ embarrassingly misjudges a contemporary subculture. And it, at least, has Vila being devious on a space ship, which is one of my favourite scenes in the entire series. Animals suffers from being poorly rewritten for another character - I often think that Cally was the original crewmember who was slated to go down and see Justin, if only because the script features someone getting brainwashed/ possessed. If it didn't have the "squick" factor of the Dayna/ Justin "romance" it would just be a run-of-the-mill caper. Voice From The Past has none of those excuses, IMNSHO. YMMV, of course.
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