Doctor Who 2011 Christmas Special: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

Another year gone and another Doctor Who Christmas Special. We fans are so used to these Christmas Specials by now that it's easy to take them for granted, but it's very impressive that the show is still a key part of BBC scheduling during the busy Christmas period.

Steven Moffat has once again drawn inspiration from classic literature for the plot of his Christmas episode. This time around the source is C.S Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Moffat borrows the visual imagery of the wartime setting, a family visiting an old country house and a portal to a snow covered world, but uses it to tell a completely different tale.

The relationship between parent and child is a common theme in many of Steven Moffat's Doctor Who stories, but this was the first one to focus on motherhood. Madge Arwell is determined to look after her two children after their father died in the war. She may not be a River Song-style superheroine, or an important historical figure like Madame De Pompadour, but she is still strong enough to hold her own against Androzani soldiers and come to the aid of her children. After all the timey wimey antics of Series Six, it was nice to see a smaller, more personal tale, and to remember that Steven Moffat CAN do emotion. It only tripped up towards the end when the father survived. The death of the father was a chance for Doctor Who to engage with children whose parents had been lost in war and would not be able to spend time with them at Christmas. I know this is supposed to be an optimistic holiday adventure, but it felt as if allowing the father to come back to life through a time travel plot device trivialized the struggle of those fighting in real wars.

With the focus on the Arwell family, there was little time to develop other characters.  Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir were fun to watch as the  Androzani soldiers, Droxil and Billis, but had very little screen time. The Wooden King and Queen were less monsters more like strange guides. I like the idea of a Christmas Special telling us to be ecologically friendly to Christmas trees!

There's little to say about Matt Smith himself, as he continues to give a brilliant performance as The Doctor. We see the full range of the Doctor, from his zaniness to his friendliness. The scene where the Doctor reunites with Amy and Rory Pond was not quite as a good as it could have been, since Amy's grumpy attitude towards Carol singers made her seem like a Scrooge. Nevertheless, the Doctor accepting an invitation to have Christmas dinner with his old friends made me feel all warm inside. My friends will know that this is not an easy thing to achieve.

A story like this was never going to challenge the foundations of Doctor Who, but then, I never expected it to. It's a decent filler story, in common with The Next Doctor or Voyage of the Damned, that will hopefully keep fans sustained until Series Seven airs, whenever that may be.

Next: Who knows? Lets wait and see what 2012 brings