Christmas Special 2014 - "Last Christmas"

This year's Doctor Who Christmas Special wasn't too bad at all, particularly given my initial fears and misgivings. I feared the worst. When I first heard the title and saw the trailer with Santa Claus in it, I rolled my eyes and groaned in despair. I mean, a Christmas Special with the title of Last Christmas (strains of Wham! playing in the background)? And Santa, Rudolph and the rest of the gang flying around, delivering pressies? Please, not another piece of silly, irrelevant, soppy old Christmas nonsense! Oh God, spare us!

So I tuned into BBC One at 6:15pm on Christmas Day not expecting anything special, to be perfectly honest. Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad at all. Thankfully there was a reasonably intelligent story, which wasn't particularly fluffy or seasonal (despite the presence of Santa). It was even pretty dark and ominous in parts. Hell, there was even a (relatively) logical reason for the presence of Santa in the story. The aliens were pretty good, but derivative, right out of the film Alien. But Moffat managed to work a decent "facehugger" reference into the script as an acknowledgement of the original source, accompanied by a pretty funny scarcastic joking comment by Capaldi.

After all the rumours and the speculation about Jenna Coleman leaving the series ("will she or won't she?"), it was nice to find out that Clara will definitely be back as the Doctor's companion. Is it just me, or has there been a lot of Clara-hating going around in fandom circles? I know that she has taken a lot of criticism from fans, but I think that Clara has come into her own during Season 8, after an initial beginning as more of a plot device than a real character. In my opinion, she fits in better now with Peter Capaldi than she ever did with Matt Smith. I regard Jenna Coleman as a good actress, so I'm glad that she's staying with the show.

Overall, it worked out to be a reasonably good Christmas Special for 2014. Sure, it wasn't a mind-blowing entry in the annals of best Doctor Who episodes of all time, but it was definitely worth wasting an hour on.

50 Years in Space & Time (Part 11)

Here's the penultimate part of my look back at Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary:

• The Radio Times Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special
• The TV Times Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special

11. Radio Times 50th Anniversay Special

The Radio Times Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special is a real doozy, with no less than TWELVE variant covers featuring all of the Doctors, including "War Doctor" John Hurt.

There's also a Steven Moffat article, on set with Tennant, Smith and Hurt, a celebration of 50 Years of Radio Times Doctor Who covers, a detailed overview of all eleven Doctors, and even a competition to win the Doctor's bow tie. What's not to like about this? Another nice one.

12. TV Times 50th Anniversay Special

The TV Times had their own 50 Years of Doctor Who Anniversary edition, which was also pretty good, although they didn't go quite as overboard as the Radio Times, with only four variant Doctor Who covers.

There is a nice Classic Companions piece, interviewing Peter Purves (Steven) and Frazer Hines (Jamie), plus a mini-review of The Day of the Doctor. But the main piece of the Doctor Who anniversary is the five-page 50 Years of Doctor Who Special celebration, which includes interviews with not only David Tennant and Matt Smith, but also Tom Baker and Peter Davison.

However, my absolute favourite was the A Brief History of Time (Lords) timeline, which runs along the bottom of the entire five pages of the main 50 Years of Doctor Who Special section. Anyone who knows me knows how much I like my timelines. Lovely.

To Be Continued...

50 Years in Space & Time (Part 8)

Here's the next part of my look back at the Best of the Bunch from Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary:

• The reshowing of An Unearthly Child
• The Ultimate Guide to Doctor Who
• The Science of Doctor Who Special

5. An Unearthly Child

In fifth place was the reshowing of all four episodes of An Unearthly Child on BBC4 at 10.30pm on Thursday 21st November, right after An Adventure in Space and Time ended on BBC2, was also one of the highlights. These two together on the same evening provided a great night's viewing, a comprehensive overview of the beginning of Doctor Who.

6. The Ultimate Guide to Doctor Who

In sixth place was the two-hour The Ultimate Guide to Doctor Who, which aired on BBC3 from 8pm-10pm, on the night of Monday 18th November, was a fun, all-encompassing retrospective of all eleven Doctors, the companions, and the most popular monsters. I missed this one first time out, but was fortunate enough to catch it again on re-runs, when Part 1 of this was reshown on BBC3, on Sunday 15th December at 7pm, and Part 2 on BBC3, on Saturday 4th January 2014, at 7pm. I enjoyed it immensely.

7. Science of Doctor Who Special

In seventh place was the Science of Doctor Who Special, which aired on BBC2 on Thursday 14th November, at 9pm, and was hosted by Professor Brian Cox (with a guest appearance by none other than the Doctor himself, Matt Smith), was another excellent programming choice. It was a fun look at the science of time travel, through the lens of Doctor Who, in front of a studio audience made up of celebrities from science and many other areas of life.

To Be Continued...

50 Years in Space & Time (Part 4)

In my last post, I discussed the Doctor Who contents of the 50th Anniversary editions of both the Radio Times and the TV Times, and both magazines have pulled out all the stops for the 50th Anniversary. But when it comes to the magazines, nothing beats Doctor Who Magazine.

The November 50th Anniversary edition of Doctor Who Magazine is an extra-special bumper 116-page souvenir special issue, and comes inside a lovely hard-card "envelope", with lots of nice stuff both on back and front. The magazine itself is full of tasty anniversary articles and interviews, including:

• A massive preview of the 50th Anniversary Special, The Day of the Doctor
• Ghosts in the Machine, a behind the scenes feature on the prestigious An Adventure in Space and Time drama
• An Unearthly Beginning, featuring never-before-seen drafts of An Unearthly Child
• The Wonder of Who - what is the secret of Doctor Who's appeal?
• Who Was Anthony Coburn? Part 1
• The Fact of Fiction - The Five Doctors a detailed examination of the 20th Anniversary adventure
• The Watcher's Guide to Anniversaries
• The Watcher's 50th Anniversary Quiz
• Interviews with Matt Smith and David Tennant, Jenna-Louise Coleman (on how Clara coped with three Doctors) and Mary Peach (Enemy of the World)
• Reviews of Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear, The Complete Seventh Series, and various new releases on the books and audio drama front
• A nice comic strip John Smith and the Common Men
• Plus all the usual regular stuff that DWM gives us each and every month.

There are also some nice extras inside, in addition to the magazine. There's a very nice twelve-card series of collectable art cards featuring all twelve Doctors (Peter Capaldi is in there as well). And we've also got a special mini-magazine, a gorgeous little A5 1960s-themed "mini issue" of Doctor Who Magazine (dated November 1964. Only 2d!), with a really nice "Dalek on Westminster Bridge" cover.

This November 50th Anniversary issue of DWM is a real cracker, one of the best, ever. I'd advise all Doctor Who fans to snap up a copy while they still can.

To Be Continued...

50 Years in Space & Time (Part 3)

With the Radio Times celebrating Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary, with no less than TWELVE variant covers, the TV Times also got in on the act with their own 50 Years of Doctor Who Anniversary edition for the week of 23rd-29th November, with four variant Doctor Who covers. I have the 1963-1969 Cover #1, featuring Hartnell and Troughton, plus companions Jamie, Zoe, Steven and Dodo, and a selection of the favourite b&w era monsters. A very nice cover, although it's strange that all the background companions and monsters are Troughton-era. There's nothing from the Hartnell era, except the First Doctor himself, and maybe the Daleks, as they were from both eras.

Inside the magazine, we have:

• A mini-review of The Day of the Doctor
• A five-page 50 Years of Doctor Who Special celebration, A Very Special Birthday. This is a nice one, and includes an interview with David Tennant and Matt Smith, and interviews with Tom Baker (the 1970s) and Peter Davison (the 1980s)
• There's also a Classic Companions piece, featuring interviews with Peter Purves (Steven) and Frazer Hines (Jamie)
• And to crown it all, there's A Brief History of Time (Lords), a very nice timeline running along the bottom of the entire five-page feature, starting with An Unearthly Child in 1963, and taking us right up to the 2012 Christmas TV Special, in which the Matt Smith Doctor faces off against the Great Intelligence, in the shape of Richard E. Grant

Overall, a pretty good Doctor Who 50th Anniversary edition. It's well worth grabbing at least one copy of this one.

To Be Continued...

50 Years in Space & Time (Part 2)

Last time out, I talked about what TV has been dishing up for us to celebrate our favourite Time Lord's 50th birthday. This time, I'm having a look at what's been happening on the magazine front. In this first part, I'll be looking at the Radio Times.

The November 23rd-29th edition of the Radio Times is a Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special, with no less than twelve variant covers, each one featuring a different Doctor (including the "War Doctor" John Hurt, which is why there are twelve covers, not eleven). So far, I've got the Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee and Tom Baker covers, and to be honest, that's enough.

I honestly think it's going a bit overboard trying to collect all twelve covers, unless you're a reseller wanting to make a big profit, or a hardcore, dedicated fan or collector, who simply has to have every cover. I've always been a huge fan of the first four Doctors, so I've decided just to collect only the magazines with the covers of those four Doctors.

Inside the magazine itself, we've got:

• A golden celebration of Radio Times Doctor Who covers, with fifty covers for all fifty years
• A Steven Moffat article You Can't Destroy the Doctor
• On set with the Three Doctors (Smith, Tennant and Hurt)
• A detailed overview of all eleven Doctors
• And, finally, a competition to win the Doctor's bow tie

Oh, yeah, and don't forget that this issue is also interactive, if you happen to have an Apple or Android smartphone. Which I don't. Life is so unfair! :(

This one is worth grabbing at least one copy of.

To Be Continued...