A Christmas Carol

Chapter The 215th, is this where the Doctor Who Christmas specials finally jumped the shark? (No.)

Plot:

It's Christmas Eve in an unspecified future era. A spaceship with over 4000 people on board, including Amy and Rory in the honeymoon suite, is imminently going to crash into the planet Steampunk. The planet has a thick cloud belt of ice crystals where various examples of sea life (sky life?) swim (fly?), and this is interfering with the ship's instruments and whatnot. The only person on the planet that can control the cloud belt and save the ship is Space Scrooge, Kazran Sardick, using a machine built by his father that only works for Kazran (although legend has it that singing can calm the sky too), but he refuses to help. The Doctor senses that there is some compassion buried in Kazran, and tries to inspire him to save the ship using a plan based on the Dickens story A Christmas Carol. The Doctor travels to Kazran's past and meets him as a boy; they both have a close encounter with a flying shark that bites the Doctor's screwdriver and swallows half of it. The shark is grounded and will die if they can't find a suitable container to keep it alive for a TARDIS trip into the clouds. The young Kazran shows the Doctor a chamber in his home that contains rows of coffin-like boxes. In each one is a person in suspended animation; anyone to whom Kazran's money lender Dad has given a loan has had to provide a family member as security and they're all kept on ice.

Kazran chooses one casket with a girl called Abigail in it, and they unfreeze and release her. This is lucky as she has a great singing voice, which mollifies shark when it wakes up. They transport it to the sky, and have a Santa's sleigh-like ride, having hitched a small carriage to it. When they return Abigail to her ice casket, Kazran promises that they'll come back to her every Christmas Eve, which they do for the next six years. They have comic adventures in time and space, Kazran grows up, and he and Abigail fall in love. They even visit Abigail's Bob Crachit-alike family for a festive meal. After each Christmas Eve, though, an ominous counter on Abigail's casket ticks down closer and closer to zero. On the last of these regular trips, Abigail tells Karzan a secret (she's suffering from an illness that means she's going to die next time out when the counter goes from one to zero). This turns Karzan cold again, and he stops the Doctor from visiting.

The older Karzan will still not be moved to save the ship even when a holographic Amy (as Ghost of Christmas Present) shows him all the people on the ship, who are singing carols in the hope of affecting the cloud belt. Finally, the Doctor shows Kazran the future in an unexpected way: he brings the young Kazran to the present to see what he turns out like as an old man. That finally wins him over, but he can no longer use his father's machine - he's changed so much that in this timeline, his father never programmed the machine to respond to him. The Doctor figures out that with his half of screwdriver able to signal to the half swimming around in the cloud belt they could broadcast a frequency that they know resonates there: Abigail's singing. This means that the older Kazran has to release her, and finally spend Christmas Day with her before she dies. With the ship and everyone on it saved, the old Kazran and Abigail have another shark ride in the sky.

Context:

I took a random selection of the remaining Christmas specials I haven't yet blogged, and this one came up. On an evening in late December 2021, I popped it on from the new series 6 Blu-ray box set (though I bracket it in my head with series 5 as it followed on more or less directly from that run, showing Amy and Rory on honeymoon after they got married in previous story The Big Bang). I was - for the first time in a while for an old episode - accompanied. The youngest (girl of 9) sat down to watch the whole thing; the eldest (boy of 15) wandered into the living room a few times but didn't stick around. Most remarkable of all, the Better Half, who hasn't watched any Doctor Who new or old for months, came in half way through, watched for a bit, and then stayed put (it's a bit tragi-romantic, and she's a sucker for stuff like that). The youngest said right at the beginning "Are you sure this is Doctor Who and not Star Wars?" which must mean the CGI work for the crashing space ship was pretty good; in the later scenes with the shark, she went full on Panto with repeated "Behind you!"s, and after the credits rolled she watched the trailer for series 6 and screamed "I wanna watch all of that!!!!!". I got the BH up to speed with the first half of the plot, but just could not help her to get her head round the Steampunk aesthetic. The conversation went round in circles something like this: "Why are they wearing Victorian clothes if they're from the future?" "It's steampunk - science fiction stories with historical trappings." "But why are they wearing Victorian clothes if they're from the future?"

First Time Round:

Watched on the evening of the 25th December 2010, after its BBC1 broadcast on the big day. I can't remember specifics of that particular Christmas, but based on the usual pattern from around then, we'd have had the Better Half's family round for lunch and into the evening. They would have gone home around eight p.m. after the kids (only two at the time, and both under five) had been put to bed. The Better Half and I would have then watched the story from the PVR. Looking at the BBC schedule for the day, I can't see anything that brings back any clear memories. It was nice to see that the then recently broadcast Death of the Doctor episode of spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, guest starring Matt Smith and Jo Grant actor Katy Manning, was repeated on BBC1 early on Christmas day - it was perfect festive viewing for that slot. I don't think any of the family tuned in, though.

Reaction:

Anyone literate in television (which certainly describes Steven Moffat, writer of this story and showrunner of Doctor Who in this era) would hesitate putting an airborne shark in their programme. Getting close to anything that approximates to sharks and jumping is asking for trouble from the headline writers. Moffat is ever bold though, and was perhaps at his boldest in 2010, planning story arcs to play out over the next three or four years. He clearly went into the scripting of his first Christmas special making no compromises. In A Christmas Carol, he breaks a general piece of wisdom I've heard shared regarding the writing of science fiction or fantasy: only ask your audience to make one imaginative leap. A planet and its populace that has developed to be similar to Victorian London is one leap (see above for how hard the Better Half found it to accept the logic of this); someone on that planet very closely matching the circumstances of the fictional Ebeneezer Scrooge is probably another half a leap too; but then there's clouds made of ice crystal, and there's fish that swim through the air, and there's flying sharks that you can hitch a cart to as if they're horses. It's a very weird selection of elements to present to an audience that's liable to include the less forgiving given the festive slot, and it could end up alienating them. A challenge is being made, similar to Russell T Davies with The End of the World, but that wasn't shown at Christmas and was a very simple storyline - Moffat throws timey-wimey stuff into the mix too. To paraphrase some comments by Dalek creator and Doctor Who writer Terry Nation, it's Moffat's planet, and if he wants to make the rocks talk or give everyone twelve eyes, he has that freedom within Doctor Who's format. When I first heard Nation say that in a documentary, I did think it sounded a bit presumptuous. The writer has to take the viewers along for the ride. Moffat does this with aplomb in A Christmas Carol, but how he manage this?

One thing that helps is borrowing a near bulletproof structure from Charles Dickens. The redemption arc in three acts reviewing a character's past, present and possible future has been used and reused and abused so many times in different stories since Charlie Boy built it in a moment of exquisite creativity in 1843, and I don't think it's ever broken. It's simple but effective, and far ahead of its time in its alignment with science fiction, particularly a time travel show. Moffat manages to work in a couple of nice twists on the concept, both of them stand out moments in this show, and some of my favourite moments in the whole of Doctor Who. First is when the Christmas Past section starts and Kazran is watching a home movie of himself as a child that the Doctor has dug up. The Doctor leaves him, and a few seconds later - by the power of TARDIS - appears in the background of the projection of the still running film. The second moment is so clever, but also appropriately emotionally charged. This is Moffat's take on the glimpse into the Christmas yet to come. Taking the older Kazran to see his own death would have been possible, but probably a step too far away from the programme's usual time-travel ethics (and the Doctor is already somewhat gleefully rewriting an individual's timeline in the story without any worries about the consequences). Instead, in a dramatic reveal, the younger Kazran has been brought to see the present day Kazran that he'll become and mistakes his older self for their abusive father. This also vaults over the one potential flaw in the Dickens structure, that the Christmas Future section can take too long, when one wants to get to the redemption. Instead, this climactic section zips along.

Another factor pulling the different elements of Moffat's A Christmas Carol together, and keeping it moving at a good rate, is the consistently sparkling dialogue. Basically, every line is a gem, but I have to call out some. The Doctor and the older Kazran's exchange: "Better a broken heart than no heart at all." "Oh, try it. You try it." The Doctor's advice on a first kiss: "Well, try and be all nervous and rubbish and a bit shaky... you're going to be like that anyway, might as well make it part of the plan..." very quickly followed by "It's this or go to your room and design a new kind of screwdriver - don't make my mistakes!; "Time can be rewritten..." "...People can't"; the nice gag that the Doctor being described as mature and responsible is a lie so big it breaks his psychic paper; everything to do with the Doctor and Marylin Monroe accidentally getting married (Smith looks very dapper in his sharp 50s togs). There are great visual moments also, like the Doctor's entrance coming down the chimney, or the old Kazran suddenly realising he's wearing a bow tie. Lots of in-jokes too. The confidence that this new set of regulars are now established shows with the moments like the words "COME ALONG POND" appearing on the spaceship screen, or Amy and Rory revisiting old costumes for some honeymoon fun (given that this took a year to set up and linked in to specific plot points in the previous series, it's presumably only a coincidence - and not a Steven Moffat masterplan - that the Ponds are spicing up their love life in precisely the same way as Rodney and Cassandra in a Christmas episode of Only Fools and Horses from a few years earlier. There's also a Tom Baker scarf and a joke about Isomorphic controls (cf. Pyramids of Mars) in there for old school fans.

Despite all the crazy stuff going on, this is as heart just a story about two people (plus their Time Lord matchmaker), so a lot depends on casting. Michael Gambon is, probably unsurprisingly, excellent, but Katherine Jenkins in her first ever acting role comports herself well too. Obviously, her skills as a singer are well utilised, and there's a belter of an original song from Murray Gold for her to perform at the end. The two actors playing younger versions of Kazran are good too, as is the whole cast, regular and guest. It's not really a romance as such, but pulls a trick that many stories that are really self-actualisation plots do, of using a strong romance subplot to help bring the protagonist's inner journey to life. This is happening less in the genre of late, though, as it is problematic if a relationship (usually with a woman) is treated as a reward for the protagonist (usually a man). Abigail is literally a piece of property in the narrative, and doesn't get to choose her own last day of life. There's a sort of sleight of hand at the end to give her agency as you don't see Kazran open the ice casket; he's mulling it over, talking aloud, when she steps out and finishes his sentence, making it clear that she agrees to embark on her last romantic day (or, if one is more detached, assisted suicide). This is fake, though; she can't open the casket from the inside, so it isn't her choice. It's also a bit convenient that her fatal illness is such that she can be one day away from dying without any ill effects to her motor functions, beauty or ability to belt out an aria. How much you give the story a pass for these flaws depends on how much it's won you over, and I was pretty much won over. There's certainly many a rom-com that's done worse. As a Doctor Who fan, what got to me more was seeing the older and younger versions of Kazran touch each other without shorting out and causing a big explosion (google "Blinovich Limitation Effect" if you're confused, or maybe don't!).

Connectivity: 

Both A Christmas Carol and Planet of the Ood have a big song towards the end. 

Deeper Thoughts:

And so this is Christmas and how many more have you got left before you're done. When I first started this blog, I went in with a reckless enthusiasm, not doing any sums to work out how long it would take me (I rapidly realised and did those sums, and it was quite a shock). It is somewhat unbelievable to me that I'm imminently going to enter the blog's eighth year, and that I've now blogged 215 stories. I have one more story that I aim to complete and post about before the end of 2021. Without giving too much away, it's not really a random section - it's a mammoth undertaking that it wouldn't be feasible to do at a time when I didn't have some holiday from the day job, so I'm choosing to cover it in the Chrimbo Limbo period. I'll say no more. With that story identified, though, I can crunch the numbers and look at what is left. Including the final three Jodie Whittaker specials to be broadcast in 2022, and based on my own convoluted way of splitting episodes into stories and numbering them, there are 88 stories remaining of classic and new Who to blog. Based on my average rate of posts per year, and assuming that Russell T Davies doesn't massively up the number of episodes being produced and shown from 2023 onwards, that's enough to keep me going until round about the end of 2024. Three more years. I only have three more Christmas specials left (Voyage of the Damned, The Snowmen and The Time of the Doctor). Unless Davies wants to get the festive special moved back to December 25th, I'll have to ration them so I can have one to blog every December.

Of the 38 stories blogged this year so far, including this one, there was a reasonable spread across all eras. Every Doctor had at least one story covered (except Paul McGann, whose entire era - one story - was completed in the first year of the blog's existence). The odds are that the Doctors with few stories left won't get picked as often by random selection, but nonetheless there was a story apiece this year from the Doctors with dwindling remaining stock, Colin Baker (three stories remining after this year), Sylvester McCoy (four) and Christopher Eccleston (three). There were two Peter Davison stories blogged this year, which only leaves him with five. Any one of those four would be a good bet to be the next Doctor whose era will be completed, but one can only guess as to when that might be. Patrick Troughton only had one story covered (a partially missing but now animated The Evil of the Daleks), but he has a few left in the bank - seven stories. Jon Pertwee had two stories covered in 2021, and also has seven stories remaining. There was a three way tie at second place with four stories blogged for the two most recent Doctors, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker, as well as the very earliest, William Hartnell. Hartnell's crop was three complete stories and one that is wholly missing that was enjoyed as an audio presentation. He has eight stories left. Capaldi has the most stories left to blog, eleven in all, but Jodie will match that total once her final three specials have been broadcast.

 

There's another three way tie for first place, each with six stories covered in 2021: David Tennant and Matt Smith (who both have 10 remaining stories) and Tom Baker (leaving nine to go); getting the prodigious Tom Baker total down to single figures is definitely a milestone. This year leaned a bit more heavily towards new Who rather than old (a 21:17 split), but the remainder are pretty evenly divided (even with all Jodie Whittaker's 2022 stories included, it's only 51% new to 49% old). There should be a reasonable spread between eras through the years to come. Very few individual seasons have been completed; this year, the final outstanding season 8 (Jon Pertwee's second run) story was ticked off, making a total of only two seasons to date (the other being Colin Baker's Trial year, season 23). Without wanting to give too much away about that next story I'm going to blog, there is a very strong chance doing that one will mean the total of completed seasons goes up to three. It's all subjective, but looking at the titles remaining, it looks like an even split between classics and clunkers too; sometimes a fresh watch can surprise me, though, and change my previous opinion of a story one way or the other. Of the black and white stories left, there are still seven which have some or all of the video missing from the archives; audio exists for everything. With animations hopefully continuing to match new images to those soundtracks (we know at least that Patrick Troughton story The Abominable Snowmen is coming soon in cartoon form), that makes less of a difference. The remaining stories with gaps are disproportionately in Patrick Troughton's era. Hartnell only has two remaining stories with bits missing left to blog, Troughton has only two of his left which exist in full.

All in all, I'm looking forward to wherever the randomiser takes me in 2022. But 2021 isn't over yet...

In Summary:

Incidentally, a Happy Christmas Past, Present and Future to all of you at home!