BOOK OF LISTS: CHRISTMAS SPECIALS FROM WORST TO BEST: PART 2

With Christmas Specials now a thing of the past, I've decided to list them all in order of preference. In the first entry,we tackled the Specials that weren't to my liking at all. That, in my opinion, were genuinely poor. I felt kinda bad for spewing such vitriol and am glad that I can list some stories that I like a bit better. 


PART 2: WEAK, BUT STILL ENJOYABLE

There still won't be a lot of glowing praise for the next few stories I'm listing. But I am, for the most part, quite happy with them. They are problematic in places. But not so bad that they are completely ruined.  



The Runaway Bride 

I'm pretty sure a lot of you would have put this one in Part One. It did not garner a lot of admirers when it first came out and hasn't, necessarily, aged well either. I can even see why so many dislike it.

It's not so much the fact that Runaway Bride goes for a lot of laughs that makes it difficult to enjoy. I feel it's more the fact that it's trying too hard to go for a lot of laughs. A lot of the comedy - particularly in the first few minutes - seems a bit too forced. Tennant and Tate are pushing their delivery a little too hard to be funny. The loud farty music that Murray Gold is playing in the background doesn't help in the slightest. The score, like the acting, feels ridiculously overdone. The story is really off to a bad start because of this.

Admittedly, when Donna becomes more melancholy, she becomes more likeable. The interaction between her and the Doctor improves and we're no longer feeling annoyed by what we're seeing on the screen. We can even sense some of that chemistry emerging that will make them such a great duo during Series Four.

Runaway Bride does still feel quite clumsy in places. It seems to misfire a lot. Moments of comedy happen when it might have been better to go serious. And it actually tends to become dramatic during times when it might have been better to go for a laugh. The writing does come across as very counter-intuitive, in places. This is definitely another big problem that makes me see why some fans are so displeased with it.

There are a lot of really enjoyable moments to the story, too. The kids cheering from the backseat as the Doctor saves Donna from the cab. The Doctor summoning the TARDIS just before evil robots pepper them with bullets. Donna telling the Doctor he shouldn't travel alone cause he needs someone to ground him. I find these moments are strong enough to drag Runaway Bride out of the Bad category and into something more passable.

Overall, it is a fun romp. It just tries a little too hard in places to be fun. 



The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe 

For the most part, I find Moff did a much better job with Christmas Specials than RTD. Oftentimes, he was much more careful about just how "Christmassy" the Specials would be. He tended to write something that just happened to involve Christmas a bit but still told a decent story. Many of RTD's scripts seemed to suffer at the expense of the Christmas theme. Runaway Bride is a good example of this. It would have been much easier to just have it be about a woman who is accidentally abducted from her wedding because of an alien plot gone wrong. Much of the Christmas stuff that's actually in it feels very shoe-horned. Which mars our enjoyment of the whole thing.

The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe is the one exception to this rule. Moff misfires quite a bit, here. It's difficult to determine what exactly hurts the story the most. The plot is, perhaps, a bit too threadbare. While the comedy in Bride feels forced, I find there are both funny and dramatic moments that come across as quite unnatural in this Special. And then, of course, there's "humany wumany". I wonder if Moff actually wishes he could travel back in time and stop himself from writing that line....

I also think the story suffers from a sort of Caves of Androzani/Twin Dilemma Effect. A Christmas Carol was a pretty damned amazing Christmas Special (you'll eventually see where it ranks on my list). Whatever had to follow it the next year was just going to tremble in its shadow. It's almost as if Moff tried too hard to write a script that was equally moving when, maybe, he should have just gone for something different, altogether. Maybe just make something light and fun that had a strong plot. Or maybe an action and/or horror piece. Basically, anything but what we actually got.

Who can say for sure what exactly makes this story fall so short. But I shouldn't harp on the problems too hard if I'm claiming the story is still enjoyable. Matt Smith does very well with what he's served. We like him just as much here as we did in Carol. He does a great job at being a big kid who is over-excited that it's Christmas. That does a lot to save the story.

Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe also does a similar thing that Hand of Fear did in the Classic Series. It has a really good ending that helps us to forget a lot of the problems that existed in the rest of the story. The Doctor making the decision to go back and find Amy and Rory was very touching. Particularly when he sheds that tear of happiness. We're also really damned happy that Amy and Rory have returned to the show. They were great companions that weren't quite ready to be written out. We needed just a bit more of them. This particular Christmas Special stands up a bit better because it brings them back into the TARDIS. It's definitely a saving grace.


Voyage of the Damned 

Things are almost starting to get pretty half-decent on this list. Voyage of the Damned has a nice pace going on. There's just about enough plot, too. I know Christmas Specials are always trying to stay pretty light and uncomplicated - but they don't have to be pure spectacle. As we move up this list, we'll see more and more concentration actually being paid to the story. And that concentration does seem to start here.

The ending has some nice twists to it, too. Max Capricorn is certainly highlighted quite nicely throughout the tale - but I still didn't see it coming that he was the mastermind behind it all. I also like the courage RTD showed by killing off certain likeable characters and allowing nastier ones to survive.

Probably the biggest problem with Voyage is its dedication to pay tribute to a series of popular disaster movies that came out in the 70s and early 80s. It certainly does a good job of emulating them. My question is: do you want to imitate something that was really quite awful and cheesy? Just by virtue of this, the episode feels very "off". Even somewhat bad, in places. Its original source material could be quite crude and tasteless - so now Voyage of the Damned, itself, takes on that tone.

The camp sensibility of it all goes a little too far in places, too. Like a simple plot, another core element of any Christmas Special is to go a bit for the laughs. Some stories go for it a little too much, though. And we're left with something that we almost don't want to admit is a part of canon because it's just a bit too silly. There will be other Specials higher on this list that will also do this - but not to the extent that this particular adventure does.

There are some pretty vocal fans that detested this story, but I'm pretty happy with it. There's some good fun with the angel androids (that didn't turn out to be Axons!) and it is great that the Doctor found his Alonzo.



Well, that's three more off the list. There are quite a few Christmas Specials so we still have a ways to go. But my reviews will start sounding more and more favorable from hereon in. The Truly Bad and the Somewhat Weak are over with. Now we'll be moving into the Pretty Decent... 

Here's Part One: 
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-of-lists-christmas-specials-from.html