Lancaster in the time vortex? Coolest thing on TV this Christmas! Anyway, before that, other things happened.
We’re introduced to The Doctor via a Star Wars homage (see the opening of A New Hope) who manages to escape to Earth by climbing into a spacesuit in orbit. It’s a mental visual to start off the episode, but it’s fun and that’s all that really matters. Turns out he manages to get dressed, but puts the helmet on backwards meaning he’s not identifiable by his rescuer, Madge. In return for her help, The Doctor creates the greatest house in the world for her and her kids. He also includes a blue box, which he should have known would end in some trouble.
The house The Doctor re-built was awesomely mental, just like The Doctor himself. I’m glad they didn’t spend too much time there though, as more and more crazy inventions being introduced there throughout an episode would have been boring after a while. I much preferred the forest as a location, it was much more Christmassy and beautiful.
Speaking of the forest, the CGI team outdid themselves this year with shear beauty in their visuals. The ‘stars’ over a snow filled forest of Christmas tree’s was stunning and was an image that was perfect for Christmas. They also made what should have been ridiculous, a Lancaster Bomber in the time vortex, look completely natural. The team that put together the tree King and Queen costumes deserve praise too. They were absolutely wonderful costumes. We’ve seen ‘living’ trees before, as mentioned by The Doctor, but they never felt like anything other than a person in makeup. These trees were amazing.
Bill Bailey was used really well, like other famous cameo’s in the Moffat era of Who. Having well known people not be overused is much better than building an episode around them, as the RTD era did, is much better and doesn’t make the show feel less like Who.
There were plenty of callbacks to previous episodes too. The forest of Cheem and the sonic not working on wood are two I enjoyed. The Doctor had a great line about having to need to use the sonic on trees eventually was bound to happen which made me laugh. Obviously the whole epilogue was also a callback to the previous season and was absolutely brilliant. Amy shooting The Doctor with a water pistol, refusing to hug him first and ruining his “I’m alive” surprise by telling him River told her was great. It was incredibly sweet that The Doctor cried with happiness at the end, but since we now know the Pond’s are leaving for good, it seems The Doctor’s new family will break his hearts soon. Still, it was sweet and touching and exactly what is needed at Christmas.
Overall I did enjoy the episode for the cool visuals, sweet characterisation and the general Christmassy feeling to it.
