It's Children in Need time in the United Kingdom, and while that hopefully means much money will be given to the very worthy cause, it also means a Doctor Who update. The record-breaking science fiction show has been a part of the yearly charity drive since the Russell T. Davies brought the program back from the dead in 2005. This year is no different, as Matt Smith strips naked and offers a teaser of this year's Doctor Who Christmas special.
It's For Charity!
In a brief (two minutes!) clip written by Steven Moffat, the Doctor offers the very clothes off his back to raise money for Children in Need. The clothes are deceptively innocuous: an infinity jacket which would be ruined by a bullet or a laser hitting it; a shirt that looks like an ordinary shirt and feels like an ordinary shirt, and is, in fact, an ordinary shirt; and three boots. Yes, in addition to having two hearts, Time Lords apparently wear three boots.
But once the naughty viewer uses the red button on her (or his) remote to start zapping the Doctor's clothes away, we see what the 2011 Christmas special, "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" will bring us.
The Doctor Goes to ... Narnia?
It's England, 1941, and a mother and her two children come to a large house, where the Doctor introduces himself as "the Doctor, or the Caretaker, or 'Get off this planet.'" There are explosions and alarms, the Doctor running and waving his sonic screwdriver at something, a voice whispering out of a forest. There's a young child with big glasses at the center of the mystery, people in bulky yellow spacesuits, and a creature that looks like a tree with a very, very cross face.
Could this be the "best Christmas ever"?
Christmas Classics Through Time and Space
Once everybody stopped squealing at the sight of a half-naked Matt Smith (which hopefully raised as much money as it did heartbeats), it seems we're in for another one of Steven Moffat's Christmas stories. Last year, he updated Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and made the Doctor the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future. This year, C.S. Lewis is the target, with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe becoming a part of Doctor Who canon. As the Doctor himself explains in the trailer, "[We are] in a forest, in a box, in a sitting room."
What next? 2012, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Doctor"? 2013, "Doctor the Snowman"? 2014, "Doctor Who Is Coming To Town?"
The Doctor Travels Alone?
Most notable in the trailer is the absence of Amy Pond and Rory Williams. The conclusion of "The Wedding of River Song" seemed to imply that their adventures with the Doctor were at an end, and while drawing conclusions from a trailer is rarely a good idea, the lack of any Karen Gillan or Arthur Darville in the trailer makes me wonder if, after two years, their tenure has come to an end (for now, anyway).
Church in the Morning, Turkey in the Afternoon, Doctor Who in the Evening
The Doctor Who Christmas special has become a tradition ever since the show returned. To Steven Moffat's credit, his two seasonal offerings have had more to actually do with Christmas than Russell T. Davies' efforts, which generally just took place during Christmas. To that end, a re-telling of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe might fit very nicely with the holiday theme, even if it amounts to nothing more than a simply passable episode like last year's "A Christmas Carol".
Also, I had no idea that The Simpsons' Comic Book Guy was influencing British wartime vernacular. "Best Christmas Ever"?
Wait, don't tell me, don't tell me - wibbley-wobbley, timey-wimey.
Michael Perera - The only rule in writing is honesty. If you're honest, the words will write themselves.
