Chris Jordan reviews this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special, which sees the return of Alex Kingston as River Song.
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| "I've been looking for a good spoiler-free review site, sweetie!" |
For Doctor Who fans,
the show's annual Christmas special is one of the presents we most
look forward to every year. Each special sees Doctor Who
find a new sort of offbeat,
usually snarky and tongue-in-cheek twist to put on classic
Christmas-movie tropes, like last year's episode which put Santa
Claus (played by Nick Frost) in the Kurt Russell role from The
Thing. The specials also give
the series a unique chance to do something narratively interesting
between seasons, outside the confines of an ongoing year-long story
arc. Sometimes this means examining The Doctor's psyche after a
particularly traumatic season finale, sometimes this means exploring
the dynamic between The Doctor and his companion without having to
worry about furthering an arc, and sometimes this means taking a
break from the usual stuff altogether to do a sci-fi riff on a
holiday-related literary or cinema classic. The unconfined,
let's-try-something-completely-different nature of the Doctor
Who Christmas specials has lead
to some unpredictable if occasionally uneven experiences: they've given us one of
the show's very best episodes (Last Christmas)
and arguably its very worst (The Runaway Bride),
and they've ranged from very Christmasy (Doctor Who: A
Christmas Carol) to only vaguely
having to do with the holiday (Voyage of the Damned is
fantastic, but could have been set at any time of year). But they are
certainly never less than interesting, and they really benefit from
the extended running time (an hour or more, instead of 45 minutes)
that BBC gives them. This year's episode, with the tantalizingly
mysterious title The Husbands of River Song,
takes all the possibilities discussed above and does some truly great
things with them. It delves wonderfully into the dynamic between The
Doctor and River in a way we haven't seen since series six, and it
does it with a sense of humor that riffs on the theme of Christmas in
some very funny ways while also creating an episode that works well
outside of the holiday context. As both a holiday special and an
episode in general, The Husbands of River Song
is excellent.
As is only appropriate for a Twelfth Doctor Christmas special, it is extremely snarky in its treatment of the holiday: after trading insults with Santa Claus last year, Capaldi's Doctor begins this episode by hanging a sign on the TARDIS with a harshly-worded rebuke to any potential carolers. It's the perfect holiday for Twelve to show off his endearing crankiness; he is a character who seems to be aggressively out of place in a Christmas special, and the episode derives much humor from exactly that contradiction. That said, only the opening minutes are particularly Christmasy, and that is ultimately just fine: an episode so important to the ongoing arc of The Doctor and River's relationship should be enjoyable at any time of year. It is an important episode for them for a few reasons: most obviously, it is the first time the Twelfth Doctor and River have gotten an episode together, and is also the only episode in which the Doctor and River have starred in an episode alone, without another main character or two sharing the screen. Since they finally get a chance for some rare one-on-one time, it is only natural that this is a big character-development episode for them, as a couple and individually. Beyond that, there is not much else I can say, because, in the words of River herself, “spoilers... sweetie.” As all of that should make clear, this is not just some one-off holiday special, but a very important episode for Doctor Who's ongoing story. As such, this is definitely one that fans need to watch, even if you're not so much in the Christmas-movie mood now that the holiday weekend is over. It has a shelf life beyond December, believe me.
As is only appropriate for a Twelfth Doctor Christmas special, it is extremely snarky in its treatment of the holiday: after trading insults with Santa Claus last year, Capaldi's Doctor begins this episode by hanging a sign on the TARDIS with a harshly-worded rebuke to any potential carolers. It's the perfect holiday for Twelve to show off his endearing crankiness; he is a character who seems to be aggressively out of place in a Christmas special, and the episode derives much humor from exactly that contradiction. That said, only the opening minutes are particularly Christmasy, and that is ultimately just fine: an episode so important to the ongoing arc of The Doctor and River's relationship should be enjoyable at any time of year. It is an important episode for them for a few reasons: most obviously, it is the first time the Twelfth Doctor and River have gotten an episode together, and is also the only episode in which the Doctor and River have starred in an episode alone, without another main character or two sharing the screen. Since they finally get a chance for some rare one-on-one time, it is only natural that this is a big character-development episode for them, as a couple and individually. Beyond that, there is not much else I can say, because, in the words of River herself, “spoilers... sweetie.” As all of that should make clear, this is not just some one-off holiday special, but a very important episode for Doctor Who's ongoing story. As such, this is definitely one that fans need to watch, even if you're not so much in the Christmas-movie mood now that the holiday weekend is over. It has a shelf life beyond December, believe me.
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| "I am the re-animated cyborg head of Douglas Adams, and I wish you a merry Christmas!" |
There is another reason why this needs
to be on your essential-viewing list: this is a very funny, very
well-written entry in the series. It does something that Doctor
Who rarely does, and even more
rarely does really well: it gives us a straight-up comedy episode.
The Husbands of River Song
feels like it was written from beyond the grave by the late,
brilliant Douglas Adams, of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy fame. We have a crazed
robot dictator with interchangeable heads, we have an intergalactic
luxury cruise ship that only caters to the universe's most violent
mass-murderers and war-criminals, and we have a restaurant that may
not be quite at the end of the universe, but it's pretty close. Like
much of the stuff in The Hitchhiker's Guide,
it's absurdist comedy that also manages to work well as sci-fi,
thanks to just the right level of snarky writing. Adams himself was a
script editor for Doctor Who
in the late-70s and early-80s, and Steven Moffat's script for this
episode is reminiscent of the best of his era on the show. It is also
able to shift gears and provide strongly-written dramatic moments
without any awkward feeling of an abrupt change in tone. Giving us
some of the strongest comic writing he has done for the show, and
also giving us the more serious drama that The Doctor and River
deserve, Moffat has written a very solid episode.
With
such a strong Christmas special coming just a few weeks after the
excellent series nine, 2015 has been a great year for Doctor
Who. The Husbands of
River Song is a fitting end to
that year: an episode that makes a very good Christmas special while
also being a great entry in the series in general. Its well-written
mix of character drama and Douglas Adams-style sci-fi comedy works
extremely well, and the strong development of its characters'
relationship ensures it an important place in the Doctor
Who canon. For fans of the
series, and particularly fans of the Doctor and River Song story arc,
this is a must-see.
Score:
-
Christopher S. Jordan