Two reviews/reflections on the Doctor Who Christmas Special, “A Christmas Carol”, have appeared on blogs that I read regularly: Clayboy and IO9.
Both agree on an important point – there is an inherent implausibility about many aspects of the story, yet the story works on an emotional level. It is a fairy tale, and as such needs to be approached differently than other genres.
I wonder how many stories – from the Bible to the ending of LOST – could rightly have the same point applied to them, and be appreciated more as a result by many who find their lack of literal coherence frustrating at times.
Or to put it another way, let me quote Doug Chaplin, whose whole post is worth reading, but one sentence from it sums it up beautifully in my opinion. The quote that follows could be considered a spoiler, so I feel I should say that – but it is one that won’t make much sense until you actually see the episode anyway:
I never thought I would be moved by seeing a woman singing “In the bleak mid-winter” to calm a hungry Jaws-style Doctor-chasing shark lost in the fog. For a scene that on every rational level ought to have been ludicrous, it was astonishingly affecting.
That pretty much sums it up.
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