• I’m not quite sure where I’m going to land on this one, as I have decidedly mixed feelings upon rewatching for this. I had thought I was going to defend the story as a sweet enough bit of Christmas fluff, but upon rewatching the episode, I have a few more problems with it than I remembered.
• The first 20 minutes are, for my money, pretty much perfect. People who complain about the silliness of the Doctor catching up to spacesuit, or the concept of the impact suit are, as far as I’m concerned, going into Doctor Who with the unreasonable expectation that it should be a scientifically accurate show. The episode is going for the same kind of tone and genre as the Harry Hill starring “Professor Branestrawm” Christmas specials, and the first act of the episodes (everything before Cyril goes through the portal in the box) works perfectly.
• Also nice is the Doctor taking on the new name of the Caretaker: it’s a nice follow up to his decision stepping back into the shadows, now trying to be “the man who takes care of people”, a kinder alternative to the dark legends that have built up around him. Instead, he chooses to help a family through a difficult Christmas, helping them through a hard time with the joy of silliness, as a way of thanking a woman who did him a kindness when he was in need. It’s genuinely lovely, and ties the tone that episode is aiming for to the Doctor’s ongoing character arc very neatly.
• Which takes us to the “Because they’re going to be sad later” sequence, a beautiful scene: the idea that it is vital to embrace happiness while it lasts being one of the wisest moments in any era of Doctor Who. But the bit that gets me every time, and doesn’t seem to be that commented on, is Claire Skinner’s broken delivery of “I don’t know why I keep shouting at them”, a moment that is utterly heartbreaking, and gets at the core of Madge’s characterisation in this episode: she is a woman desperately trying to carry on and keep her family together, even as her grief threatens to reach the surface.
• But then we reach the Christmas forest, a nice idea in and of itself, and the plot sits still for the second half of the episode. This is best exemplified by the scenes in the tower, which are far too slow, and fail to really capture a sense of the stakes escalating in any meaningful sense.
• And then we come to the ideological critiques of this episode, which I think ring true. For me, Moffat does pretty well from a feminist perspective on the whole, in spite of the critique he faces from some parts of fandom. But in this instance, a major problem that runs through his writing – his gender essentialism (which I think he has curbed over the years, without completely getting rid of) – derails a script with well intentioned goals (because intent, sadly, isn’t magic). I don’t think Moffat actually thinks women who are unable to biologically have children are weaker or worth less than women who can (indeed, I think Amy’s plotline in the next episode was an attempt to rectify the flaws of this episode), but the implication is there, largely because Moffat hasn’t, in this instance, questioned the essentialist assumptions underpinning the script. This is then followed up with a background for Madge and Reg that comes across as uncomfortably stalkerish: Reg “following Madge home” was clearly conceived as set up for the script’s resolution, once again, without thought for the implications. I think the women at Verity Podcast put it best: Moffat has an old fashioned Romantic streak, that at (relatively rare) times leads to some unfortunate subtext. This is one of those occasions.
• And the followed her home aspect also leads us to the episode’s refusal to kill off Reg, another controversial part of the conclusion. On the one hand, it seems harsh to object to the desire to give a Christmas special a sentimental happy ending. But on the other hand, the episode handles the story of death at Christmas in a genuinely sensitive way, capturing Madge’s desire not to ruin Christmas for her children beautifully, only to then decides to bring him back, which is ultimately more than a little crass: real families who lose a loved one over the festive period don’t get that easy happy ending. On the whole, I appreciate the Moffat era’s approach to death: he doesn’t kill off characters cheaply, and still generally addresses mortality in an intelligent and mature way (see the last Christmas special as an example of this). But here, his lack of willingness to kill off characters has some unfortunate implications that don’t benefit the script.
• The ending is perfect, though: Madge’s scolding of the Doctor and pushing of him to come clean to Amy and Rory is a lovely way to pick up on the lingering moral issue of the Doctor’s actions in the season finale: his attempt to deceive his best friends. The reconciliation between the Doctor and Amy is beautifully written and played, and the callback to the Doctor’s comment to Lily about happy tears is a genuinely moving emotional beat on which to end the episode.
• So overall, this is an episode that is best watched knowing that it is Moffat in “Christmas special autopilot” mode, which for all that he talks about Christmas episodes needing to be Doctor Who for a tipsier and larger audience, is only something he does for this episode. It’s perfectly enjoyable if you accept that and watch out for the good bits, which are genuinely brilliant. But it’s also important to acknowledge the more problematic aspects underpinning the episode, rather than to give them a free pass just because it's, ultimately, paper thin Christmas nonsense. They're still problems.
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