C+Q - The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe (2011)

When we last left our heroes, the Doctor had just got married to River Song and, after seeing the armies that were brought together in fear of him in A Good Man Goes to War, he vowed to use his fake death on the shore of Lake Silencio as a way of retreating back into the shadows, once again becoming a wanderer through time and space for fun, not to be a hero, and only engaging in low-profile adventures. Which is why The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe begins with him blowing up a spaceship in Earth's atmosphere. Wow, I like this brave bold new direction. Clearly this opening is in stark contrast to how "noisy" he was being in the past. Incidentally, only a diehard fan would know that Time Lords can survive the vacuum of space longer than humans, but for normal people with social lives who wouldn't have known that, there really should've been some mention of it when Madge was helping the Doctor find the TARDIS.

As the title would suggest, this special is based on C.S. Lewis' classic novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, or, The Only Narnia Book Anyone Seems to Care About. However, while 2010's A Christmas Carol is more of a direct remake of the original with some new interesting twists, The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe seems to only partially reference its source material by borrowing certain elements, such as the child characters, WW2, a snowy forest, and trees which can talk to each other. The comparison between the TARDIS and a wardrobe seems a little forced for the sake of the title and to fit in with the Narnia motif, although it does give us some brilliant dialogue ("It's not a phone box, it's my wardrobe. I've just painted it to look like a phone box." "Well, what are you doing?" "Rewiring." "Why would you rewire a wardrobe?" "Have you seen the way I dress?"). The plot itself is pretty basic and doesn't have the impact of past Christmas specials. If anything, it feels like a standard filler episode of Doctor Who that just so happens to be set at Christmas. The most substantial thing in the episode happens during the last few minutes when the Doctor is reunited with the Ponds, which doesn't actually do that much for the overall plot of the show except let you know that the Doctor will be back with the Ponds in Series 7.

Matt Smith as the Doctor is the highlight of the episode and his performance is solid as always. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for all of the supporting characters. For one thing, a big part of the episode focused on Cyril Arwell exploring the forest silently, and the actor Maurice Cole, as good as he is, just isn't up to the challenge. Conveying a large amount of the plot with expressions alone is a massive task for even a veteran actor, so I have no idea how anyone thought a child could pull it off. The character as written is pretty bad too. He makes some really stupid decisions despite being established at the beginning as intelligent and interested in learning about the universe. I guess he's supposed to be a bookworm type who knows the theory but is awful when placed in a real practical situation but still, how stupid can you be? Despite having a whole tower to run around in, he somehow gets backed into the throne and the relay is placed on his head by one of the slowest moving monsters that the show has ever produced.

Clearly, Cyril has inherited his quick wit and emotional range from his mother, Madge Arwell. Sometimes she can't drive a car without crashing into everything in the way, but other times she can figure out how to control an Androzani walker despite it apparently taking years of training. She's taught herself survival skills like how to pick a lock with a hairpin and she carries a gun in her dressing gown in case of a Nazi attack, but she's naive enough to think that the relay is harmless and allows it to be put on her head by strange alien creatures without any resistance. I mean, I know it does turn out to be relatively harmless in the end, but how could she have known? The fact that Cyril and Madge, two vital characters, don't have the best actors behind them, combined with the script seeming confused as to who exactly these people are, only adds to the overall blandness of this special. If the actors aren't invested in what's going on, how are the viewers expected to care?

Luckily, some charisma is injected into the story for all of about two minutes with the appearance of the Androzani soldiers, who are arguably the best thing about the episode. In the little time they're actually on-screen, you get a real sense that these three have a history. The chemistry between them is wonderful and they deliver by far the funniest lines in the special. These three are great fun and it's honestly a mystery to me why they weren't in the episode for longer. They brought with them such a sense of fun and energy which really livened up the second act, and I feel like a lot more should have been done with them. Although they only existed in the story to provide exposition and to introduce the threat of the acid rain, they left such an impact and disguised the exposition so well in amongst hilarious lines. The episode looked stunning, from the location work, to Farren Blackburn's direction, to the design and performance of the main villains. Just like with the Androzani soldiers, I wish we got to see more of the wooden king and queen, but I suppose if your only complaint about something is that there should have been more of it, that's not a bad thing.

Despite what many say, I personally don't think The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe is necessarily bad; it's just sort of bland. It's a harmless filler episode for Christmas audiences with some overall above-average writing and below-average acting. It makes for fun easy viewing but there's nothing that will really stick with you. So, in conclusion, 'meh'.