horacethegrey
First Post
Hrm. Well, just watched this. And my reaction to it is a bit... meh.
I'll start off with the negatives first. While Russell T. Davies can occasionally pen a dramatic and witty script, he often frames said scripts with some of the most half assed scifi concepts I've ever seen (for the record, I still haven't forgiven him for his half assed vision of the End of Time in last season's Utopia). A humanoid alien race goes vacation cruising on a space luxury liner so they can witness the time honored Earthly tradition of war and genocide that is Christmas? Riiiiggghhhhtttt... Of course, there's also the ill fated attempts at lighthearted cheekiness here that come across as belabored and quite silly (and not in a good way). Davies now seems to have a difficult time balancing the comedic and dramatic tones, unlike before in the earlier seasons.
On to the positives though, the dramatic moments here were quite effective. I was quite surprised by how many of the Doctor's band of survivor's were killed. Made for some rather dark proceedings in what should be a lighthearted holiday special. The performances I have no real complaints about. David Tennant was excellent as always, though he occasionally roamed into silly displays of character from time to time (another peeve I have with Davies' writing), holds the thing together with an arresting performance. But the real surprise was Kylie Minogue, who holds her ground quite well and has real chemistry with Tennant. That farewell she and the Doctor shared was quite touching, truly.
So there you have it, while I wouldn't say it was terrible, this special felt quite lackluster and utterly uninspiring. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Davies should take a reduced role in penning the big series episodes and leave them in the hands of capable writers like Paul Cornell or perhaps even Steven Moffat (c'mon, who didn't like Time Crash? ).
Still, can't complain. We got that big preview of the new season at the end, plus a preview of Torchwood season 2 as well which I must say looked quite intriguing (just hope the writings improved a lot :\ ).
Anyways, Happy Holidays everyone. Peace.
I'll start off with the negatives first. While Russell T. Davies can occasionally pen a dramatic and witty script, he often frames said scripts with some of the most half assed scifi concepts I've ever seen (for the record, I still haven't forgiven him for his half assed vision of the End of Time in last season's Utopia). A humanoid alien race goes vacation cruising on a space luxury liner so they can witness the time honored Earthly tradition of war and genocide that is Christmas? Riiiiggghhhhtttt... Of course, there's also the ill fated attempts at lighthearted cheekiness here that come across as belabored and quite silly (and not in a good way). Davies now seems to have a difficult time balancing the comedic and dramatic tones, unlike before in the earlier seasons.
On to the positives though, the dramatic moments here were quite effective. I was quite surprised by how many of the Doctor's band of survivor's were killed. Made for some rather dark proceedings in what should be a lighthearted holiday special. The performances I have no real complaints about. David Tennant was excellent as always, though he occasionally roamed into silly displays of character from time to time (another peeve I have with Davies' writing), holds the thing together with an arresting performance. But the real surprise was Kylie Minogue, who holds her ground quite well and has real chemistry with Tennant. That farewell she and the Doctor shared was quite touching, truly.
So there you have it, while I wouldn't say it was terrible, this special felt quite lackluster and utterly uninspiring. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Davies should take a reduced role in penning the big series episodes and leave them in the hands of capable writers like Paul Cornell or perhaps even Steven Moffat (c'mon, who didn't like Time Crash?
).Still, can't complain. We got that big preview of the new season at the end, plus a preview of Torchwood season 2 as well which I must say looked quite intriguing (just hope the writings improved a lot :\ ).
Anyways, Happy Holidays everyone. Peace.
