The Return of Doctor Mysterio

26 December 2016

Well that's another one over (Christmas specials, that is.)  I'm not sure yet what I think of The Return of Doctor Mysterio, having only seen it once so far.

On the plus side, it has returned to the Russell T Davies approach of a pastiche of a popular holiday blockbuster film (see The Christmas Invasion and Voyage of the Damned) rather than visiting yet another alien planet of the Dickensian Christmas people (see A Christmas Carol, Time of the Doctor and The Husbands of River Song.)  On the negative side, I'm not a great fan of superhero movies.

Another good point is that Matt Lucas' Nardole was considerably less annoying than I had anticipated.  In fact, I found myself looking forward to his appearances. I was less pleased to see the reappearance of the aliens with the zip-up heads and gloopy brains.  I think that they are uncalled-for when the nation is digesting its Christmas dinner.

I'll need to see it again a few times to come to a final conclusion, but I watched The Christmas Invasion again afterwards, and I can exclusively reveal that it is still number one.

My Top Ten Christmas Specials: No 3

No 3: A Christmas Carol

The first Steven Moffat Christmas special, which manages in typical Moffat fashion to be very clever, a bit timey-wimey (how he must regret having written that line!) and very Christmassy.

Like many non-Who Christmas specials, it is basically a rip-off of the plot of the Dickens story, but with the Doctor (and Amy) in the role of the ghosts.  Unlike many non-Who Christmas specials, it is set on a foggy mock-Victorian cyberpunk planet. With fish.  There is an added twist in that reforming the central character is ultimately not sufficient to solve the problem. What the situation really needs is Katherine Jenkins singing to a shark.

Christmassy Factor: 8/10
Victorian/Dickensian Factor: 8/10