{"id":512,"date":"2010-12-26T23:44:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-26T23:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/12\/appreciating-the-doctor-who-christmas-carol-fairy-tale\/"},"modified":"2010-12-26T23:44:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-26T23:44:00","slug":"appreciating-the-doctor-who-christmas-carol-fairy-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/12\/appreciating-the-doctor-who-christmas-carol-fairy-tale.html","title":{"rendered":"Appreciating The Doctor Who Christmas Carol Fairy Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Two reviews\/reflections on the Doctor Who Christmas Special, \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d, have appeared on blogs that I read regularly: Clayboy<\/a> and IO9<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Both agree on an important point \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

I wonder how many stories \u2013 from the Bible to the ending of LOST \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

Or to put it another way, let me quote Doug Chaplin<\/a>, whose whole post is worth reading, but one sentence from it sums it up beautifully in my opinion.\u00a0The\u00a0quote\u00a0that follows\u00a0could be considered a spoiler, so I feel I should say that \u2013 but it is one that won\u2019t make much sense until you actually see the episode anyway:<\/p>\n

I never thought I would be moved by seeing a woman singing \u201cIn the bleak mid-winter\u201d 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. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That pretty much sums it up.<\/p>\n

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Two reviews\/reflections on the Doctor Who Christmas Special, \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d, have appeared on blogs that I read regularly: Clayboy and IO9. Both agree on an important point \u2013 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAppreciating The Doctor Who Christmas Carol Fairy Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two reviews\/reflections on the Doctor Who Christmas Special, "A Christmas Carol", have appeared on blogs that I read regularly: Clayboy and IO9. 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