Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

For the last few years, the revived Doctor Who television has been a staple of the Christmas Day broadcast on the BBC.

This year, Steven Moffat took the Dickens' A Christmas Carol and updated it to fit the inter-galatical work of the Doctor. Companions Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Davill) are enjoying an intergalatical honeymoon, when the ship they're travelling on falls into difficulty and it looks as though Christmas will end fatally for the 4000 passengers. Amy and Rory contact the Doctor (Matt Smith), and he decides to find a way to land the craft safely. Unfortunately, this planet's skies are controlled by Kazran Sardick (Michael Gambon), a bitter old man who hates Christmas and doesn't care about the pending doom of the people on the shuttle.

The Doctor decides to attempt to alter Kazran's past, having noticed that he is still living in the shadow of his father. He visits the child Kazran (Laurence Belcher) who is bemoaning the fact that he was off school on the 'Day the Fish Came', when the fish that inhabit the sky invaded the school, and he has been longing to meet one ever since. The Doctor manages to attract a shark to the boy's bedroom. When fleeing the shark, who has now eaten half of the sonic screwdriver, The Doctor follows Kazran into a chamber where numerous family members are kept on ice as 'security' for family loans, and discovers Abigail (Katherine Jenkins), whose singing voice soothes the shark. They proceed to meet her every Christmas Eve, until Abigail reveals her secret to an adult Kazran (Danny Horn), and he turns into the hardened man that the Doctor had been trying to undo.

But, of course, as this is a Doctor Who episode, the day is saved, through opera singing, sharks and snow. This is the first time I'd watched Doctor Who since Matt Smith took over as the Doctor from David Tennant, and I really enjoyed his performance. I'd previously liked his performances in Ruby in the Smoke and Shadow in the North, and he gives a quick, humorous and yet empathetic performance as the Doctor. Michael Gambon, is, as always wonderful as the miserly Kazran, desperately trying to hold onto his past and protect himself. Katherine Jenkins doesn't really have to do all that much, other than sing and look pretty, but she is surprisingly strong in the scenes that require her to act. A mention should also go to Laurence Belcher, for being a wonderfully unaffected child actor, and giving a good performance as a young Kazran.

I'm defiantly going to try and catch the return of this Doctor