Doctor Who Christmas Special: Preview

As the Christmas season rolls in and the bulkiest Radio Times on record hits the shelves, there is one television event that never fails to captivate the nation: the Doctor Who Christmas special. 11.14 million people tuned in last year, and this year’s Christmas episode will inevitably draw similar figures.

In the past we’ve had David Tennant, clad in a dressing gown, having a swordfight with an alien warlord atop a spaceship, then defeating him with a satsuma. The 2007 edition featured the Titanic in space, with Kylie Minogue on board, and more recently we’ve been treated to both Tennant and Matt Smith’s epic regenerations showing all the pomp and ceremony you’d expect from a Muse gig on Mars. But what can we expect from this year’s offering and how will it link to the spectacular finale to Peter Capaldi’s debut series?

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Well, if the two minute excerpt from Children in Need is anything to go by, it’s going to be interesting. The preview clip shows a dialogue between Clara and Father Christmas (or at least someone who appears to be) which starts off jovially and then begins to draw a more sinister tone. As the music sharpens and the warped strings that characterise the show begin to sound, Nick Frost, who appropriately (given his name) portrays St. Nick, asks: “Believer until the age of 9, why did you stop?”

The response from Clara begins a beautifully timed sequence that highlights Head Writer Stephen Moffat’s authorial flair on the almost fantastical nature of the Doctor: “I stopped believing in fairy tales.” “Did you Clara?” The TARDIS begins to materialise. “Did you really?” As was once said of the Doctor in the much loved Comic Relief sketch, ‘A Curse of Fatal Death’, “You’re like Father Christmas, Scooby Doo!” so perhaps, given Moffat’s involvement in that venture, this encounter was inevitable. A tense encounter ensues where an on-edge (even more so than usual) Capaldi orders Clara into the TARDIS and utters: “I know what’s happening, I know what’s at stake.”

From chilling gas-mask children to Weeping Angels, Moffat’s writing taps into a purely instinctive level of fear without shedding a drop of blood, and therein lies the strength of the show.

It seems that the tone is being set on a dark note, which amid rumours that this could be Clara’s last episode, is fitting. Jenna Coleman described the episode saying, “It makes you question reality. You can’t quite figure it out. It makes you question what is real and what isn’t, but with a thriller and psychological element,” while Capaldi referred to it as “both really scary and really festive.” All the signs are very promising as long-term fans of the show’s second coming will know that Steven Moffat’s writing, when based around horror, has been some of the most outstanding in British television. From chilling gas-mask children to Weeping Angels, his writing taps into a purely instinctive level of fear without shedding a drop of blood, and therein lies the strength of the show. This last season has been an up and down affair, but was at its finest with ‘Listen’, another psychological masterpiece from the master of horror: if the Christmas special is anywhere near that calibre it will be outstanding.

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We will also expect some answers to questions raised, but not closed, from the past season. In particular the presence of future time-travelling astronaut Orson Pink heavily hinted at Danny and Clara having a child; with Danny’s death we can assume that either Moffat has forgotten about this loose end, or more likely, Clara is already pregnant. Evidence for this could be seen in her last encounter with the Doctor where the poignant line: “Never trust a hug, it’s just a way to hide your face” seemed more than accurate for what the two characters may be hiding from one another. An even more interesting observation from eagle-eyed viewers was the presence of a note on Clara’s bookshelf reading “three months” in ‘Dark Water’, which some fans – admittedly mainly on internet forums – have alleged is a reference to her pregnancy.

Whilst I appreciate the need to accommodate a younger audience, the success of the show when producing ageless content stands as testament to a more serious underlying tone.

However there is a risk of it slipping into the kind of needless slapstick humour that has become more frequent with Moffat at the helm of the show. Gags such as Clara being hit in the face with a newspaper in ‘Deep Breath’ represent to me a level of dumbing down that could destroy the show long term, and whilst I appreciate the need to accommodate a younger audience, the success of the show when producing ageless content stands as testament to a more serious underlying tone. When I watched the newly revived series at age ten, ‘Dalek’ was the one episode that me and my friends were most captivated by, and nostalgia aside, I feel it continues to stand as an outstanding episode ten years on.

For me, the need for the Doctor to kiss at least one girl every series began to grate after a while, as it seemed a hollow reverberation of what was initially a genuine relationship between Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor and Rose.

There is also a problem with Moffat’s almost ‘James-Bondesque’ idea of the Doctor as an action hero at times. A lot of criticism was levelled at the Doctor’s romances with his companions over the recent few series. For me, the need for the Doctor to kiss at least one girl every series began to grate after a while, as it seemed a hollow reverberation of what was initially a genuine relationship between Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor and Rose; it is also a far cry from William Hartnell’s detached original portrayal of the Timelord. If these kind of traps are avoided, I feel that this Christmas special could be another highlight of the season and something enjoyed by viewers young and old alike.