Another Christmas Day, another festive slice of Who for fans to gobble up post Turkey. Whereas last year the festive focus was all about 'the event' surrounding the departure of David Tennant and the return of the Time Lords this time the emphasis was purely on the storytelling.
To do that Steven Moffat decided to re-imagine Dickens' classic Christmas tale with a modern/Who slant - a combination that proved an entertaining mix.
Matt Smith was, as ever, excellent as the Doctor - enjoying the chance to have fun without the seriousness of story arcs etc. He also enjoyed more of the focus here - with companions Amy and Rory sidelined on a soon-to-be-crashing spaceship. The Ghost of Christmas Past line was too heavily trailed and spoilt a very clever idea.
With a bit of timey-wimey jiggery pokery we folloed the Doc's progress to change Sardick, the ersatz Scrooge, via a string of Christmas Eve jaunts, encounters with flying fish (ticking the monster/Christmas Day kids thrill box nicely) and warbler Katherine Jenkins.
All that was littered with the usual array of Moffat wit, some Doctor-y tomfoolery and Michael Gambon stepping up to the plate with a memorable one-off role.
Unfortunately, and predictably, Katherine Jenkins had to sing. At least her song gave the viewer chance to pop out for a top up to the sherry.
All in all a nice Christmas tale that was just that. I'm not sure how it will stand up to repeated viewings (although I'm not adverse to giving that a try) and there was a lack of a real edge to elevate this beyond being 'good'. That's being ultra critical of course - compared to the snooze fest of Strictly and some of the other Christmas tosh this was, as always, a welcome burst of quality telly on Christmas Day.
7/10
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