Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe

[Patrick Buck]

Personally i'm disgusted by the whole franchise now. The Doctor is supposed to be somewhere between 700 and 900 years old but displays shocking naivete and is constantly given life lessons by ordinary people who seem much wiser than him. Also the whole family focus and how the series just recently has become 'The Rory and Amy show, also starring the Doctor' since Stephen Moffat has taken charge. Just compare this weak and spineless Doctor (honestly, a Time Lord wouldn't have checked that the forest was about to be destroyed) with the more authoritative Doctors of the past.

Tennant could skim by due to massive charisma and better writing but Matt Smiths doctor seems to be an insult to old time fans.

Yes. This. I loved the old series. I really did. The storys were better written, the characters were better, and the Doctor was beliveable. I really don't like Matt Smith, but everyone else I know adores him. Watch an episode with David Tennent, or better yet, a classic episode, then watch one with Matt Smith. Not even half as good. I'm not blaming the Actor, I think the writing is at fault. Moffet has overstreached himself.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Personally i'm disgusted by the whole franchise now. The Doctor is supposed to be somewhere between 700 and 900 years old but displays shocking naivete and is constantly given life lessons by ordinary people who seem much wiser than him. Also the whole family focus and how the series just recently has become 'The Rory and Amy show, also starring the Doctor' since Stephen Moffat has taken charge. Just compare this weak and spineless Doctor (honestly, a Time Lord wouldn't have checked that the forest was about to be destroyed) with the more authoritative Doctors of the past.

Tennant could skim by due to massive charisma and better writing but Matt Smiths doctor seems to be an insult to old time fans.

Yes. This. I loved the old series. I really did. The storys were better written, the characters were better, and the Doctor was beliveable. I really don't like Matt Smith, but everyone else I know adores him. Watch an episode with David Tennent, or better yet, a classic episode, then watch one with Matt Smith. Not even half as good. I'm not blaming the Actor, I think the writing is at fault. Moffet has overstreached himself.

I'd agree with that...though I wasn't much of a fan of Tennant's run either.

You'll also note that with the Moffett written Tennant stories, RTD was script editor. Nowdays, when he writes something, he's writer and script editor...there's nobody there to say "hang on, this is over the top".

 

[Necroid_Neko]

Amy's leaving? Oh happy days! I found that the mother's reuniting with her husband, who were both very badly characterised and had only been in that one episode was much, much more touching than the Doctor going to see Amy. I hope the next companion will be more interesting - and less of a cow - than Karen's character.

 

[Duruznik]

They took a shortcut! Through the everything!

Man, I loved it. Soppy and sentimental, true, but it was a Christmas episode. I expected as much. At least we now get The Doctor back with Amy and Rory! I swear, he's just not the same without them. The chemistry those 3 have going is something else.

 

[Rednog]

I didn't like it at all, the male kid had the same stupid expression throughout the whole episode. Happy, shocked, scared the same poker face; I wondered for a period whether the kid was either just a terrible actor or just autistic.

The mother pulling a gun was just absolutely stupid, I'm sorry but there's a war going on is somehow an excuse that she pulled a gun out of her arse?

Also I'm a bit sick of characters acting in no way that a normal person would. The little kid had been walking for what 20 minutes when the doctor and his sister went in, what kid in their right mind walks through dark woods chasing a creature that is getting bigger and bigger. Damn near any kid in their right minds would've pissed themselves and ran back to the entrance after like 5 minutes. Seriously the kid damn near craps himself when the ornament hatches yet he is completely fine chasing after it? Why?!

The mother pulling the gun on the people who are actually sympathizing with her, because it's to save her children? She doesn't know her kids are in danger, these people haven't shown or done anything to warrant pulling a gun on them and holding them hostage. Hell at this point she pretty much become an unsympathetic character, I don't care about her plight anymore, she isn't a good person. She is willing to slaughter these people for no good reason.

Her driving the giant mech, so her husband took her up in a plane once and that is enough for her to be able to pilot the damn thing? Yes she crashed in the end, but considering they show her using 2 joysticks and moving like she was boxing is absolute bull.

Finally, she is the one to light the way for her husband? How?! His plane was lost, obviously some time would have passed for the military to declare her husband dead/lost. So how is it them returning to the proper time line co-insides with the same time her husband is flying the plane? It shouldn't!

Also the whole tear jerking moment fell really sour on me, as a person who has watched a good chunk of the old Doctor who and all of the new series its one of those moments that really screams out "Hey we tried to reboot the series without you guys noticing, but not really". Seriously why is this bringing the doctor to tears? He's had closer companions which he pretty much abandoned completely and they're still alive and kicking in the world, but nah screw it the people who move his heart and are the "bestest" ever are these new guys.

 

[Encurtidos]

I didn't like it at all, the male kid had the same stupid expression throughout the whole episode. Happy, shocked, scared the same poker face; I wondered for a period whether the kid was either just a terrible actor or just autistic.

The mother pulling a gun was just absolutely stupid, I'm sorry but there's a war going on is somehow an excuse that she pulled a gun out of her arse?

Also I'm a bit sick of characters acting in no way that a normal person would. The little kid had been walking for what 20 minutes when the doctor and his sister went in, what kid in their right mind walks through dark woods chasing a creature that is getting bigger and bigger. Damn near any kid in their right minds would've pissed themselves and ran back to the entrance after like 5 minutes. Seriously the kid damn near craps himself when the ornament hatches yet he is completely fine chasing after it? Why?!

The mother pulling the gun on the people who are actually sympathizing with her, because it's to save her children? She doesn't know her kids are in danger, these people haven't shown or done anything to warrant pulling a gun on them and holding them hostage. Hell at this point she pretty much become an unsympathetic character, I don't care about her plight anymore, she isn't a good person. She is willing to slaughter these people for no good reason.

Her driving the giant mech, so her husband took her up in a plane once and that is enough for her to be able to pilot the damn thing? Yes she crashed in the end, but considering they show her using 2 joysticks and moving like she was boxing is absolute bull.

Finally, she is the one to light the way for her husband? How?! His plane was lost, obviously some time would have passed for the military to declare her husband dead/lost. So how is it them returning to the proper time line co-insides with the same time her husband is flying the plane? It shouldn't!

Also the whole tear jerking moment fell really sour on me, as a person who has watched a good chunk of the old Doctor who and all of the new series its one of those moments that really screams out "Hey we tried to reboot the series without you guys noticing, but not really". Seriously why is this bringing the doctor to tears? He's had closer companions which he pretty much abandoned completely and they're still alive and kicking in the world, but nah screw it the people who move his heart and are the "bestest" ever are these new guys.

I'm sorry, but if you don't like the show that much, then don't WATCH it!!

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Decent episode, though I'm getting tired of all the power of love solves everything this series. And the what the hell Bill Bailey gets barely any lines what a waste of great guest actor.

 

[Flight]

It was alright, but the plot was pretty "meh". And I'm sick of Amy showing up continuously. She had a beautiful goodbye scene last season, and all these returns she's getting on the show is ruining that. I wish she'd just go away already, as much as I've grown to like her. I'm more than ready for the Doctor to take on new companions.

On another note, I wish Moffat would knock off the literary plot references for his Christmas Specials. I know he's only done two of them so far, but it's already old hat.

 

[Albino Boo]

The biggest problem that I had was after I saw Alexander Armstrong I had this going on in my head






Warning : does contain swearing

 

[lord.jeff]

I enjoyed it at first but about half way through I figured everything out and was just waiting for the ending to happen.

 

[MaximumCrux]

As an adult viewer I was sorely disappointed. This was a complete failure in terms of writing and direction. Would add badly acted, but given Smith has proven his mettle in the past I can only fault the material he had to work with. A massive step down from the last Christmas special but sadly in line with the latest crop of episodes written by Moffat. However I imagine most children would find this quite entertaining and at the end of the day it is a children's show.

 

[Sylocat]

On the off chance Moffat is reading this, let me just give him a message: Okay, we get it, you think women should be generically-spunky wives and mommies, you've made your point. Now will you PLEASE go back to writing female characters like Reinette again?

(or was "The Girl in the Fireplace" RTD's doing all along? It would explain a lot)

Okay, okay, after last year's Christmas Special, this one was bound to be a letdown ("A Christmas Carol" is the best thing Moffat's written since he took over the show), but this one was also following right on the heels of the excruciating "The Wedding of River Song," so it should have come as a breath of fresh air as well.

And it's certainly better than the season finalé that preceded it. And this one did have its moments (Madge pulling a gun on the Space Marines), but I'm getting a little tired of Moffat's fixation on motherhood and how Special? it is... and the silly "caretaker" skits, while funny, dragged on too long.

True, the shameless emotional manipulation in the obligatory "think of home" bit did bring tears to my eyes, and as for the absolute-MacGuffin-ish "threat," some of the BEST episodes of this show have had villains that make far less sense and have less to do with the plot... though I'd noticed far more thematic consistency in many of the recent episodes. And the child actors were pretty good, by child-actor standards... though by halfway through the episode I had forgotten that the boy was supposed to be a genius.

So yeah, mixed feelings.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

Oh God this episode was a disappointment.
I hated last years special with shark chariots, time paradoxes and rehashing an already old and overdone story and dammit I hated this one too.
I'm really getting sick of all this "Power of love" crap it's seriously pissing me off to no end.