Merry Who-mas

In the old days when we listened to Sony Walkmans and watched proper Saturday morning cartoons, there were no Doctor Who Christmas specials. Our festive time-travelling fare was whatever story happened to be aired during the week of the holidays.

The Mutants, Robots of Death and State of Decay were my yuletide extravaganzas. Each holds fond memories closely associated with the season. The Mutants even has a kind of quasi-religious subtext with the Doctor as a kind of Gabriel delivering a message of good news from the "gods", the evil Marshal (Herod) out to exterminate the Solonians, and Ky as another sort of angel-like figure proclaiming the good news (okay I'll stop now before my analogy snaps). The point remains, that any Doctor Who story can be a fun addition to Christmas!

This year I scheduled my re-watch of The Face of Evil on Christmas morning. It wasn't going to be possible to, er...download this year's special A Christmas Carol later on the day, so this seemed a perfect alternative. Boy was it fun! Yay, Leela. Omigod, it's the Doctor's face carved in a mountain. Yummy, it's Tomas wearing very little!

Sometimes Doctor Who is just plain fun. The story is an old sci-fi trope: backwards society descended from spaceship crash worships God that turns out to be computer, yadda yadda. But we get the added twist that the Doctor is responsible or the whole mess and the computer is MPD (with the Doctor being one of the personalities).

By comparison I was a little disappointed by A Christmas Carol when I finally got to see it. It was a bit more sombre than usual. Don't get me wrong, Steven Moffat's script was an extremely clever and inventive riff on the traditional tale. The dialogue sparkled, the imagery was interesting and there were lots of fun moments. It just wasn't the thrill ride I'm used to getting from a Russell T Davies script. As usual I watched most of the past specials over the season, and without any of the heightened expectation of watching for the first time, I enjoyed them all. The TARDIS car chase in The Runaway Bride is still on-the-edge-of-your-seat viewing and Voyage of the Damned never slows down! I'm not sure Moffat's take on the season will stand up to repeated viewings (I won't even get into the central controversy of the Doctor being able to manipulate the past within the narrative of the story--that begs some serious consideration). Time will tell.

But think about it, Christmas is about recognizable traditions. It's a ritual that re-stages the same story over and over again each year. In the cold, dark of the winter it's reassuring to have a narrative we know well that carries us through to the light. Conversely, each time we watch a new Doctor Who Christmas special we enter into the unknown. We judge it on all the strengths and merits of a regular Doctor Who story. We're too close to it and our judgment is often unduly critical. The Face of Evil has staying power and works brilliantly as the opener for several highly regarded stories. It offers hope and stability for the new year. Yes, I will attempt new things and stretch myself in ways that I never conceived. Unexpected events will test me, possibly set me back and force me to find new, creative ways to meet the future. But for this short period of time, during this "mid-winter feast" I can stop, catch my breath, and revel in the familiar, comforting stories of the past.

Merry Christmas and may the New Year be grand!

Original viewing date: December 18, 1983.

Wine: Sparkling wine + orange juice = Mimosas! Nothing goes better with Christmas morning or Doctor Who viewing.

Music: "Say, Say, Say" by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney.