I was only saying to my better half today, whilst watching Scrooged, that A Christmas Carol must be the most adapted novel in all of history. So there was a big concern that Doctor Who's take on it might be dry, boring and old hat. Surely there's only so many ways to tell a story, after all. Yet I felt that this episode took the heart of the traditional Dickens story, and put a wonderful twist on it meaning it seemed fresh, and unpredictable.
I particularly liked the fact that as Kazran Sardick (this episode's Scrooge) was changed through the "Ghosts" process, there were unintended consequences blending the best of the old with the best timey-wimeyness one can expect from Doctor Who.
The acting was initially worrying but got stronger and stronger as the episode went on, the flying fish were an excellently alien but still charmingly kitsch addition and the flying shark was basically added just to please me. Surely a flying shark in a Christmas themed Doctor Who episode is as close to realising my ultimate dream as there can be?
The romantic/depressing subplot was played out with an unfamiliar subtlety. Whereas Russell T. Davies would have bashed us round the head with it, here it was allowed to just be and was all the more touching and upsetting for it.
And, as someone who hasn't particularly warmed to the Eleventh Doctor during the fifth/two hundredth and ninty first/twelth series of Doctor Who, I was mightily impressed by Matt Smith's performance and finally feel like I can accept him as our favourite Time Lord.
All in all an absolutely top notch episode of modern Doctor Who with the series 6/five million/-5 trailer looking totally epic!
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