Fairytale endings.

 Sorry, Christmas Eve, on a rooftop, saw a chimney, and my whole brain went, "What the hell..."

The Doctor, A Christmas Carol

My last post dealt briefly with Christmas traditions, and as such, well, of course I downloaded the Doctor Who Christmas special today, what would Christmas be without that?

As its title would suggest, A Christmas Carol deals with a hateful, bitter, old miser on Christmas Eve, a man lost to love and compassion, and the process by which he is changed through views of the past, the present and the future.  And, of course, who better to provide those views than a man with a time machine?

The writers provide a useful incentive for the change.  After all, when you think about it, the character of Scrooge is being saved for his own sake.  In this case, there is a far more concrete necessity for this character's redemption:  he is the only person with the means to save 4,003 people on a starship which is plunging to its doom.  

The joke is that as the story evolves and the mechanics of time travel unfold, we watch the miser go from being blighted by his father's influence to being saved by love, and then back to being bitter and cynical, but now due to the very events that were created by the Doctor in order to save him.  He returns to being a miser, but now a miser of time, a miser for the sake of love.  The final twist is the inevitable revelation by the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come - I won't give away the plot, but let's not forget, an old man's present is also a boy's distant unsuspected future. 

This year's seasonal special admirably continues the concept of Doctor Who as a fairy tale,  with elements from Sleeping Beauty, the additional mythic touch of a yearly awakening from slumber, and its own unique keynotes such as fish who live in the clouds, fish that can be enchanted by songs.  The singing love interest is played by Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins in her acting debut, who presumably also performs the songs featured in the episode. 

For those of us in the audience who are hopeless romantics, the story has a particular resonance which far outweighs any seasonal theme.  If you could only spend one more day with the one you love, which day would you choose?

- Sid