- Subs created by: David Coleman. - Christmas.
- Christmas? - Yeah... Christmas.
(Laughs)
Ah, the Christmas specials.
A little nugget of Christmas present for the Whovians.
(Snap)
Because the season ends, and then it says,
Doctor Who will be back at christmastime, with some...
Bizarre title.
(Whoosh)
I think Christmas is the Doctor's favourite holiday, although he'll never say it.
He'd enjoy the warmth about it and how families,
get together and the sense of celebration.
There's this sense that even though he is not only not,
church of England, but not from Earth,
that there's still something significant to him about a,
a family holiday for a guy who doesn't have a family.
Christmas dinner.
Oh, come on.
There's a general holiday vibe,
probably a threat of genocide, and then everyone's happy at the end.
Christmas.
(Theme plays)
There is this thing, this grand tradition,
of the introduction of the new Doctor after a regeneration.
The Christmas Invasion is the debut of the tenth Doctor, who is David Tennant.
Christmas invasion opens with the TARDIS crashing.
It is like a Sci-Fi NASCAR.
(Jackie screams)
(Door creaks)
Here we are, then. London, Earth!
The solar system! I did it! (Dog barking)
This dude pops out and they have no idea who he is, and Rose is like...
Yep, that's the Doctor.
Eccleston, he still felt like your dad, didn't he?
Shut up, listen to me, run this way.
Whereas Tennant was more like, why don't we have a laugh?
Love the sideburns. Um...
Love the gravity-defying kind of hair, pompadour.
That jacket was just hanging off him. Maybe it's the leather thing.
It's not for everyone, you know? Uh, maybe...
He could pull off leather pants but not the top.
Why does Santa always have to be evil in the Christmas specials?
There's just something that's especially creepy about,
turning something that is so precious into a killing machine.
That's a very Doctor Who thing taking childish themes,
or things that children trust, and then turning them on its head.
(Brass band melody: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen)
(Ominous incidental music)
(Whoosh) (Gunfire)
(Screaming)
(Screaming) Run!
I gotta say, those Santa's...
Did not look not scary to begin with, right?
Like, I don't know why anybody was getting within 100 yards of them.
The Christmas Tree took me by surprise. I did not expect that to happen.
It's scary, but it's also really funny, because it's a
Christmas Tree that's killing you, or trying to kill you.
(Scraping)
(Gasping)
(Screaming)
Get out, go, go, get out!
(Gasping)
No, leave him, just leave him!
Get in here!
(Shriek)
(Crashing)
Why can't Christmas just be the peaceful, loving holiday that it normally is?
The thing about all the Christmas specials, I think,
is that they subvert all of that lovely, cozy Christmas imagery,
and make it really, truly nasty.
Ho ho ho, I don't think so.
Those Sycorax were classic Doctor Who monsters.
In every sense of the word,
with the mad eyes and the sort of spiky teeth and that sort of...
(Grunting alien language).
The aliens are going to kill us and we can't even understand what they're saying,
because the Doctor's not around to,
transmit the TARDIS translation field into our brain.
We need the Doctor.
And then something wonderful happens.
(Doors creak) (Echoing hum)
Did you miss me?
(Roaring) (Electrical crackle)
Could put someone's eye out with that.
How dare...
(Roaring) I demand to know who you are!
(Roaring) I don't know!
With this scene, he's saying, this is my stand.
I am the Doctor, like it or not.
Action-hero Doctor was great to me. I thought that was a great move.
Just as that Doctor is defining himself to himself within the plot,
within the structure of the story, you have to define that to the viewers, too.
Say, this is going to be new, it's going to be different.
(Snarling and blades clashing)
(Triumphant roar)
Sycorax!
Witchcraft!
Time Lord.
That's when you're like, well, that arm's not coming back,
oh, wait, he's still regenerating, very clever.
There is some swashbuckling,
a sword that is played with... swordplay, if you will...
All done in a bathrobe and pajamas.
And you think, is this his new character?
Sleepy time Doctor?
Is his weakness hot tea...
Warm milk?
When it seems like the special is over, and Earth is safe, and we're all cool...
Harriet Jones decides that instead of letting the Sycorax go.
She needs to destroy them so they can't go out into the Universe,
and tell other life forms about the Planet Earth.
Fire at will.
(Zapping)
(Screaming)
(Explosion)
- That was murder! - That was defense.
And that's, I think, good storytelling, is when everybody's right in some way.
The best thing about Doctor Who is that it comments on human society and I think that,
it's not out of the question that human beings would screw it up somehow.
So the episode ends with...
This gorgeous snow falling on the streets of London...
It's the ashes of the fallen Sycorax.
It just sort of underscores the idea that there's this other stuff going on,
that the people of Earth really just don't care or want to know about.
What are they, meteors?
It's the spaceship breaking up in the atmosphere.
This isn't snow, it's ash.
Okay, not so beautiful.
It's reminiscent of the core of what Doctor Who is,
which is, nothing is as it seems, and something always has an...
An antithetical meaning.
There's the thing about a white Christmas I suppose
you're supposed to want it to snow on Christmas,
as part of the, symbology of the day, and it just never does for him.
It's always something horrifying buried underneath.
What should be a beautiful moment.
Would you rather find a sonic screwdriver in your stocking,
or a TARDIS under your Christmas Tree?
I want the sonic screwdriver because...
I can open doors and scan things,
and figure out if they're human or not and make cool noises.
And I can't fly the TARDIS. I'm not River Song.
Fun as it might be to have,
I'm not the Doctor, so I wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to use this thing.
So I'd probably just end up fixing my grandma's TV.
So I think I'd rather have the TARDIS under my Christmas Tree,
because then the Doctor's not far behind.
We meet Donna Noble.
She is about to get married,
when all of a sudden she gets zapped into the TARDIS.
What?
That's what the Doctor says. That's also what I say right now.
Rewind it if you want proof.
We get one of David Tennant's famous...
What?
What?! Which I love so much.
(Wedding march played on organ)
(Electric whispering)
(Screams)
(Whoosh)
What?
- Oh! - What?!
Who are you?
- But... - Where am I?
What?!
What the hell is this place?
What?!
Instead of being scared and frightened and hiding,
she looks at the Doctor and she's like, what did you do to me?
What's going on?
Because usually everyone, you know they kind of,
struggle with him a little bit, they're like, you can't do this,
and he's like, of course I can, and they're like, I love you.
So to have somebody who comes in and is like what the,
bloody hell are you playing at?
Get me back to my wedding!
Never mind, spaceman, chop chop! Time's wasting!
Then she gets kidnapped by robot Santa.
Why does robot Santa have to do that every Christmas?
This is the first high-speed car chase the TARDIS has been involved in.
(Engines wheezing/groaning)
Santa's a robot!
Donna, open the door!
- What for? - You've got to jump!
(Yelping)
(Inaudible)
I can't do it!
Trust me.
Is that what you said to her?
Your friend, the one you lost?
Did she trust you?
Yes, she did.
And she is not dead, she is so alive. Now jump!
(Screaming)
(Muffled cheering)
Wouldn't you just love to see that on the M6?
Wouldn't that just brighten up a journey.
To see the TARDIS dealing with some people
who weren't observing the Highway code?
Fantastic.
In the runaway bride, it asks, you afraid of spiders?
Well, take a look at this bad boy.
The Racnoss Empress has...
Her children, who are finally...
Being born from the center of the Earth.
All these crazy, hungry, scary spider babies.
Are going to emerge and take over the Earth.
It's like that old urban legend where someone's got a mole or a pimple,
or something and then it bursts and spiders come out all over the person's face?
That is the Earth, we thought the Earth was a pimple.
But it's really just a spider sack.
We can't have anything that's just ours, can we?
(Whoosh)
(Hissing)
Racnoss.
But that's impossible. You're one of the Racnoss!
Empress of the Racnoss!
The Racnoss come from the dark times, billions of years ago, billions!
They were carnivores, omnivores. They devoured whole planets.
Racnoss are born starving.
Is that our fault?
I just want to know what that audition is like,
because she has to do some awesome stuff.
She's all, like... (Hissing)
I don't eat shellfish, and it's not for any religious reasons.
It's because to me, all shellfish looks as disgusting as the Racnoss Empress.
Right? Is she that much different than a lobster?
Not really.
He gives her the opportunity to say, hey, you know what?
I am going to take this other option, not destroy this entire race.
He always gives people another chance.
And the crazy spider lady gets greedy.
She doesn't take that chance.
Empress of the Racnoss, I give you one last chance.
I can find you a planet.
I can find you and your children a place in the Universe to co-exist.
I'm afraid I have to decline.
(Cackling)
Then what happens next is your own doing. I warned you.
You did this.
(Explosions) (Screaming)
My children!
(Wailing cries)
Doctor!
You can stop now!
Empress: (Screaming) My children!
Like, come on, aliens, what are you doing?
How many people does he have to kill by not wanting to kill them,
before you guys just shut up and leave?
He ends up having to murder them,
which is a very weird thing for Donna and for his character, too.
By his tenth incarnation, perhaps he's more used to that.
Because he's seen how the bigger picture is affected.
He knows it's bad, he's doing it anyway.
He knows it's a black mark on his soul.
But he's doing it for some greater good that only he can see.
And you sort of see all that in his face.
Donna says to the Doctor, I think you need someone.
And he says, I don't need someone, and she's like, you do.
You need someone to stop you sometimes.
He needs the counter-balance of those,
other individuals to kind of keep him in check.
Well, you could always...
What?
Come with me.
No.
Okay.
- I can't. - No, that's fine.
Tell you what I will do, though.
Christmas dinner.
He's like, let me just park the TARDIS.
It's a classic French goodbye, right?
He's gone. She calls him on it.
She knows what it's all about.
And he's like, yeah, yeah. I'm still leaving.
Promise me one thing.
Find someone.
I don't need anyone.
Yes, you do.
Because sometimes I think you need someone to stop you.
Yeah.
I think, yeah, when you're a Time Lord.
And you're by yourself, I can imagine it being very, very lonely.
The Doctor has to go it alone.
No matter, you know, whom he wants as his friend or partner,
or girlfriend through time, he's ultimately going to be alone.
But he likes having people to talk to.
He likes having somebody there to show this stuff to.
It's good for viewers, because
those companions are our proxies, those companions are us.
We don't get to really be like the Doctor, we get to be like the people he's with.
Would you rather go sleigh-riding with a Dalek or make Snow Angels with an Ood?
Oh, hello.
Okay, I would rather...
Wait, what is... some kind of feedback. Hold on, let me...
(Whirring)
Ah, there we go now...
I would rather ride in a sleigh with a Dalek as opposed to Santa Claus,
because I would love to see the Grinch try to steal Christmas from a Dalek.
That wouldn't end well. Merry Christmas!
Voyage of the damned is a phenomenal stand-alone episode.
We have the Doctor on his own, and what do we get?
We get a disaster movie played out across space and time.
(Engines wheezing/groaning)
(Horn blaring)
(Crash)
What?
- What? - What?
Like, I just picture David Tennant sitting there and thinking,
how many different ways can I say the word what?
What?!
What, what, what?
There's that what line again.
Don't overuse it, fellas.
Steward: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Christmas.
It's a spaceship made up to be like the Titanic.
I don't know why anyone would name something the Titanic.
Future generations who are watching this, never name anything the Titanic.
It's not going to end well, but...
We do get Kylie Minogue in this episode, which is nice.
We meet Astrid, who is played by international pop star Kylie Minogue.
She's a cocktail waitress on the spaceship Titanic.
The Doctor and Kylie Minogue on a cruise ship?
That is a cruise I would take.
I used to watch the ships heading out to the stars, and I always dreamt of...
It sounds daft.
You dreamt of another sky?
New sun...
New air, new life.
Why stand still when there's all that life out there?
So they go down to Earth for Christmas Eve, which the Doctor has done many times...
And instead of all the people bustling around,
and buying presents, there's just nobody there.
She's just visiting a planet and she's always wanted to travel, and she's...
Excited to be there, but it's empty.
Oh.
It should be full.
It should be busy. Something's wrong.
But it's beautiful.
Really?
Hello, there! Sorry, obvious question...
But, where's everybody gone?
London, at Christmas?
Not safe, is it?
Why?
Well, it's them up above.
Look, Christmas before last,
we had that big bloody spaceship, everyone standing on the roof.
And then last year, that Christmas star,
electrocuting all over the place, draining the Thames.
This place is amazing!
It's a great bit, like after all of these disastrous Christmases,
people are too scared to be in London.
They're thinking about, maybe we should move it to July,
or just some other time of the year when we're not going to get...
Attacked and snowed on by alien debris.
You don't think, though, that the Doctor would feel guilty about,
his involvement in those alien attacks.
(Imitating 4th Doctor) He's involved, doing what he can to make things better.
Some things could be better with the Daleks.
Not many.
There's a very sweet scene where,
Astrid asks the Doctor if she can be his companion, and it's...
This is the one time I'm not jealous of a woman,
trying to go off with the Doctor, because it's Kylie Minogue!
I was a little shocked, because normally when someone asks the Doctor that,
the Doctor always says no.
I'm sort of unemployed now.
I was thinking that blue box is...
Kind of small, but I could squeeze into it, like a stowaway.
It's not always safe.
So you need someone to take care of you, I've got no one back on Sto, no family.
Just... me.
So what do you think?
Can I come with you?
Yeah, I'd like that, yeah.
(Bang)
He agrees, and so, you know, you kind of think, oh my God, she's going to be...
Nope, she's not, she's out of there.
This is Kylie Minogue. She's not going to be on Doctor Who.
She might as well be wearing a red expendable-crew member shirt.
Kylie Minogue / Astrid is so valiant.
It's such a Doctor Who heroic scene because,
she essentially kills the villain to save everybody.
The reason you know that the Doctor can love her,
is that she understands that notion of bravery and sacrifice.
But it's the things he loves about her that mean she has to die.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
And I remember, as I was watching her fall to her death, I was thinking...
Oh, I wish the Doctor could bring her back as a being of pure energy and then...
Have a ghost kiss with her.
And then that happened!
She's just atoms, Doctor.
An echo with the ghost of consciousness.
She's stardust.
Kylie Minogue is stardust.
Truer words were never spoken.
Astrid Peth...
Citizen of Sto.
The woman who looked at the stars and dreamt of traveling.
There's an old tradition.
And David Tennant kisses Kylie Minogue.
Now you can travel forever.
(Screwdriver whirring)
(Wind gusting)
You're not falling, Astrid.
You're flying.
If your eyes are still dry when that happens, you have no soul.
I guess it would be pretty fun to just be pure energy,
cruising around and finding stuff.
I guess turning into pure energy to roam the Universe is supposed to be uplifting.
But it was a bummer, because he obviously liked her.
You knew that...
That this whole story really meant something to him,
and it was going to stick with him.
This is the new Christmas tradition, really, is...
Something terrible is going to happen on Christmas Eve,
it's probably going to involve aliens who want to blow you up or eat you.
And somehow the Doctor's involved.
(Whooshing roar)
Open the door.
(Dog whining)
Computer voice: Engine active.
(Yells) Energy active.
(Gasping)
Thank you, Doctor.
Thank you. Happy Christmas.
Well, it's about time, right? When...
When are more of these heads of state going to thank the Doctor,
and would it kill you to give him a medal?
It's amazing that the British government depends so much on this alien being,
for them to just continue.
It's like, oh, we didn't blow up again. Thanks, Doctor. We appreciate that.
For some reason, we just always forget what happens in the past.
Until it comes up again next Christmas.
(Bright Christmas music)
Would you rather spend Christmas traveling with the Doctor,
or relaxing at home with Amy and Rory?
Probably the Doctor.
You couldn't relax with 16 pairs of...
Amy and Rory in the TARDIS.
And you could go to Florida...
London...
Wherever.
Well, instantly, the next Doctor had this wonderful Victorian setting.
And that great misdirection.
When you call something the next Doctor.
All people are expecting is the end of David Tennant.
So we have to watch this.
Woman: Doctor!
Who, me? (Laughs)
Woman: Doctor!
Don't worry. Don't worry. Stand back, what have we got here?
(Snarling and banging)
Okay, I've got it, and whatever is behind that door,
- I think you should get out of here. - Doctor!
Standing right here. Hello.
Don't be stupid! Who are you?
- I'm the Doctor. - Doctor Who?
- Just the Doctor. - Well, there can't be two of you!
- Where the hell have you been? - Don't worry, stand back!
- What have we got here, then? - Hold on, who are you?
I'm the Doctor. Simply the Doctor.
The one, the only, and the best!
There's another guy that we haven't seen before and you kind of go, what happened?
Was there a regeneration at the meeting that I was not invited to?
What's fun about this episode, is you are waiting the whole time to uncover why,
he thinks he's the Doctor because you know he's not.
I think time lords are always going to recognize regenerated friends.
I'm not a Time Lord. I don't know.
I really did not know what was going on.
And I thought, this is... they're doing a new thing where we actually are seeing,
the newer guy with the older guy at the same time.
And what other rules are out the window?
And is the Doctor just going to start straight-up murdering people,
and eating their flesh?
He didn't go that far.
(Whoosh)
I love Miss Hartigan. Her real name is Mercy Hartigan.
But I think of her as evil Jane Austen.
It's a really high-level thinking about having Miss Hartigan be the villain,
because she is the sort of flip side of...
The kind of dawning awareness of women's equality.
She's got this brilliant forward-thinking mind.
Especially for a woman growing up in Victorian England.
You've walked past me so many times...
All you good men of charity.
Never once asking my name.
It's Miss Hartigan, isn't it?
Oh, you noticed.
I saw you looking. You cheeky boy.
Hark, I can hear them now!
(Hydraulic stomping)
(Confused murmurs)
1851 must have been incredibly frustrating to not get taken seriously by men.
It's quite frustrating in 2011 so, you know, it must have been a lot worse.
Commandeering an army of Cybermen is not necessarily...
The most sensible way forward.
It's hard to tell if you don't have any other recourse other
than to have a giant steam-punked robot crushing London.
She saw an opportunity.
Cybermen promised to, you know, give her a better tomorrow.
People of the world, now hear me.
Your governments will surrender.
And if not...
Then behold my power.
(Rattling)
(Explosions)
(Screaming)
(Power humming up)
(Zapping)
The Cyber King is one of my favourite things ever because it's a gigantic...
Robot that looks like it runs on coal.
Kudos to the Cybermen,
using available materials, it's like a challenge on a reality show.
Cybermen, you have to build a gigantic steam-punk robot.
Go.
And then the Doctor seems to manage to defeat it with a hot air balloon.
It's like the exact opposite of machinery.
He wants to give her a chance, you know, as he always does.
And he ends up saying something he... that David Tennant says a lot.
Which is, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
(Crashing) (Miss Hartigan screams)
(Zapping)
(Electronic shriek)
(Click)
The Doctor is often put in these positions of being,
God with either humans or the aliens he's dealing with.
By giving them free will um..
And then having them suffer the consequences,
of their sins or their choices.
I think the Doctor deserves a Christmas dinner quite frankly.
Normally he'd just wander off.
This other guy had his consciousness implanted in him.
I guess it's the least he can do, right?
Like, if he tries to get out of it,
this other guy's going to go, wait a minute, I know exactly what you're doing,
and it's hurtful.
That offer of Christmas dinner, it's no longer a request, it's a demand.
In memory of those we've lost.
Ah, go on then.
- Really? - Just this once.
You've actually gone and changed my mind. Not many people can do that.
Jackson...
If anyone had to be the Doctor, I'm glad it was you.
The feast awaits. Come, with me.
- Walk this way. - I certainly will.
Merry Christmas to you, Jackson.
It's kind of nice, he kind of maybe felt like he belonged somewhere.
Or at least had someone that understood what he was going through.
Even if it wasn't an actual Doctor, you know?
Good team. It's like a Victorian bromance.
Yeah, you could make the case that because he had...
That info-stamp information about the Doctor.
That he was the closest that the Doctor would have to another Time Lord.
The Doctor could feel a little bit like maybe
they could talk about some Time Lord stuff, over Christmas goose.
He actually sticks around and has Christmas dinner.
And I also think that we, as the audience, know that that means something,
that maybe this is his last Christmas dinner.
(Theme plays: Dramatic orchestral music)
Would you rather eat fish fingers and custard or a traditional Christmas dinner?
Last year, my grandmother left the Christmas Turkey
in the backseat of the car for three days before she found it.
We all ended up with food poisoning.
This year, I'll take the fish fingers and custard.
Just as long as you take it straight from the freezer.
At the beginning of the end of time... was that confusing?
Probably.
You get the feeling from the beginning that this isn't going to go well.
He's been away for a few years, is what I get.
Avoiding this confrontation and he just seems a little drunk.
The Doctor seems like, hey okay, everything's groovy.
And then Sigma drops some crap on the Doctor.
(Dripping)
So...
Right.
The darkness heralds only one thing...
All: The end of time itself.
(Evil laughter)
They, basically, tell the Doctor his life cycle is going to end.
At which point, I turned it off and sobbed.
Whenever I tell anyone to watch Doctor Who, they're like, oh, end of
time's coming up, I'm like, okay, I want you to brace yourself because,
you're going to go through a lot of things.
His song is ending. No one ever wants to hear that.
Even worse if you're told your jam is ending...
Because you're like, that's my jam.
And I suppose, in a way, at that point,
it's, again, playing with audience expectations because...
Maybe you know that this is it for Tennant as an actor on this.
You know, at this point, we always saw regeneration as something...
Awesome and cool and then,
when we hear the 10th Doctor talk about it, you realize it's not just that.
If I'm killed before regeneration then I'm dead.
Even then...
Even if I change, it feels like dying.
Everything I am dies.
Some new man goes sauntering away.
And I'm dead.
It's such a great scene because...
You're reminded of a few things and also told something new.
Right? You're reminded that the Doctor is an old man.
And that he's tired, but also that, for this Doctor, at least,
in this sort of the new construction of it, that a regeneration is a death.
You think, oh, this is a new body but that's when he starts to define it as...
Well, yes and no.
So, it was really, it was really hard...
(Emotively) Really hard to watch.
(Whoosh)
And The Master is back, the Doctor's old foe.
He is uh...
Much like the Doctor in every way.
Maybe in ways that are too close for comfort?
For everything that the Doctor can do and be,
The Master can do and be except he's evil. (Chuckles)
He makes all these copies through this alien technology,
that you don't really need to know how it works I mean, it's just creepy.
(Evil laughter)
(Flicking)
(Laughter)
(Snaps fingers)
The hierarchy is very confusing because everybody's the same person, right?
Yet, one guy will say, hey, go over there and do that thing.
And I don't know why the other guy doesn't say, who, what? We're the same person.
Who are you to tell me what to do?
I still don't understand what good that would serve.
All right, great, what do we do now? I don't know.
We're all Masters. You want to go bowling or something?
So the Doctor comes up with a solution, and this is like...
When you get stuck on a video game level for a really, really long time.
It doesn't really matter how this is working.
Don't pay too much attention to that.
Like, what's happening there is emotional arcs.
What's happening there are people, characters who have been built over years,
now are coming to a conclusion.
And it's just...
It's, uh, it'll wreck you if you're a fan.
(Sobbing)
Then there's the four knocks.
Oh, Wilfred.
The four knocks. The damn four knocks.
Wilfred, knock-knock-knock knocks...
On that glass door.
Still problems.
(Four knocks)
The Doctor is still that character that will...
Sacrifice his life for an old man.
To be as big as a Universe and as small as...
Human love is, uh...
Yeah, I cried like a baby.
They drag out his death so painfully.
Usually when a Doctor regenerates, it's just like, oh, I've been shot by a thing,
or something happened and now here I go, and then, you know, hand sparklers.
He knows he's dying but he also doesn't have to regenerate immediately.
So it gives him the time to say goodbye.
(Majestic orchestral music)
(Creaking)
Dad.
I bet you're going to have a really great year.
Yeah?
See ya.
Man, I... the farewell tour wrecks me.
It wrecked me the first time I saw it.
It makes me feel like a...
Twelve year old.
Good final words for David's era, I don't want to go.
Yes, the audience didn't want him to either.
I don't want to go.
(Quivering breaths)
(High-pitched whirring)
(Gasping)
(Explosion)
(Whooshing)
(Screams)
(Explosion)
(Crackling)
Legs?
I've still got legs. (Smooch)
Good!
(Patting)
Arms, hands.
Ooh, fingers, lots of fingers.
Ears, yes. Eyes, too. Nose...
I've had worse. Chin... blimey.
Hair...
I'm a girl!
No! No, I'm not a girl. No.
Ah, I'm still not Ginger!
There's something else, there's something important, I'm, I'm, I'm...
(Explosion)
(Laughs)
Crashing!
Matt came in and did his own.
The 11th Doctor is his own Doctor.
And, uh, it's...
It just reaffirms why...
(Chuckles)
It's my favourite show in the world.
Space fish!
If Charles Dickens ever sees the Doctor Who version of a Christmas Carol.
I think he'll realize where he went wrong with his original draft...
No flying sharks.
That's the best Christmas special by far. It's got time travel as a plot point.
It's about exuberance and joy, the true Christmas spirit.
Can't go wrong with opening with a spaceship crashing.
That's a big, that's a good way to open a show.
There's always a spaceship crashing towards Earth, isn't there?
Please return to their seats and fasten their safety belts.
- He'll come! He always comes! - Well, he is cutting it kind of fine!
The ship is going down.
The planet that the spaceship is about to crash into in a Christmas Carol.
Is basically Victorian London but with a twist.
There are sharks that swim through the sky unless this force field is activated.
And only one man is in charge of that force field...
Gambon. Gambon. Gambon.
Viewers will be familiar with Gambon from Top Gear.
The man even has a corner named after him on that.
So we meet Mr. Sardick, this guy, look, I don't like to talk
about people behind their back, but he is an unpleasant person.
There is not a caring bone in his body.
So the Doctor makes it his mission...
To get this guy to care and he does it...
By going back to his childhood and changing his life.
And changing his memories.
Get out. Get out of my house.
Okay. Okay, but I'll be back.
Way back. (Sobbing)
(TARDIS engines wheezing/groaning)
See? Back. (Clattering)
- Kazran: Who are you? - Hi. I'm the Doctor.
- Kazran: Who are you talking to? - You.
Now, your past is going to change.
That means your memories will change too. A bit scary but you'll get the hang of it.
- I don't understand. - I bet you don't.
I wish I could see your face.
Well, that never happened.
(Doctor thuds on bed)
But it did.
I don't know why that little boy was making home movies of himself.
I don't know. I guess every planet has their own YouTube.
He doesn't mess with people's time lines usually.
That's supposed to be against the rules.
The Doctor, I feel like he says he has rules but he really doesn't.
He breaks all the rules all the time.
I think this is the new Doctor, you know?
I think he realizes time can be altered.
And he's going to take advantage of it.
Then show me the future. Prove me wrong.
I am showing it to you. I'm showing it to you right now.
So, what do you think?
Is this who you want to become, Kazran?
Dad?
(Clattering)
(Sobbing)
That's just heavy for me.
So that episode in particular just really
grabbed me in a very profound way because...
It's all about behaviour and who we are through experience.
And yet how much does that define who we are?
And that's an interesting question.
That's a heart wrenching scene.
Also no little boy wants to know he's going to look like that guy.
They end up saving the spaceship in a sleigh with space fish then it's a...
Merry, a Merry Christmas or whatever they...
Celebrate up on that planet.
The day space Jesus was born in a space manger.
Where are they, Kazran and Abigail?
Off on a little trip I should think.
- Where? - Christmas.
- Yeah...
Christmas.
(Bells jangling)
(Laughter)
When the snow is not alien ash from a...
From some genocidal holocaust that the Doctor perpetrated this time,
that's a nice relief.
You can't really imagine Christmas without a Doctor Who Christmas special.
You can have your How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Because, really, the only kind of Whoville I want to visit,
is in a Doctor Who Christmas special.
With the Christmas specials, they're... in some ways, more interior.
It's more that the kind of science fiction where,
it almost doesn't matter who the evil robot space aliens are...
As much as it is working through the emotional issues of...
Who your loved ones are, and where they are, and how can you be with them.
So it's kind of like Christmas.
Sometimes it's really fun and sometimes it's just uncomfortable and sad.
The message always seems to be Christmas is a tough time.
You've got your relatives.
You have space monsters.
There's always somebody who's gonna bring it all together.
If the specials are trying to send a Christmas message,
it might be don't go to London on Christmas.
I know, seriously, everyone should just leave London.
Really, Britain's calendar is Christmas,
and then January through the 1st of December is rebuild England.
Christmas! Crap!
Rebuild England.
We just fixed that.
Big Ben, Parliament, we just fixed that. Come on.
What are you doing? Why do we live here?
You know what? Just leave it. Leave it.
Here, I'll kick it down, aliens.
There, I'll knock down Parliament, okay?
Fine. Whatever. I'm leaving.
Sync & corrections by P2Pfiend. Www.Addic7ed.com.