Christmas Who

I'm taking a break from the pressures of mince pie and turkey to post my thoughts on yesterday's TV.

Dr. Who's Xmas Special seemed really disjointed, and while it was entertaining it was nowhere near as good as last year's. This may have been my folks constant moaning, chatter and fiddling with the TV, but it seemed the plot was really disjointed and simplistic, and certainly the science was utterly nonsense. "Drink these particles..." and the hole going to the centre of the Earth in particular made me do a double take. Apparently evil alien spiders from the dawn of time climb holes really, really quickly, either that or a certain villain would have died of terminal velocity long before they became an issue. I also really didn't take to Catherine Tate - she seemed to play to too much like her bovvered alter-ego. Or the robot Santas. I'd assumed that their appearance this Xmas would tie in to their previous appearance, but again it came across as being Santas purely for the sake of it being a Christmas special.

However the Doc was surprisingly dark and vicious for a Christmas special and the ending with the snow and fireworks seemed similar to the McGann TV Movie from 10 years back - right down to asking the companion "D'ya want to come with me?" "No thanks." Only this time the show won't be cancelled.

Speaking of my favourite under-dog Doctor McGann, given this trailer I am looking forward to streaming the BBC7 season starting on New Year's eve on Listen Again.

I also finally caught this week's Torchwood, Combat, and it was really, really good. The script was by the guy that played Mickey in Doctor Who, and while it did seem reminiscent of another Angel episode and Fight Club it was sufficiently dark. I really don't like Owen, but that's a reflection on how well rounded the character is in this show. He's perhaps the most realistic of the Torchwood crew. Though that isn't saying that much.