Christmas Doctor Who

 

I hope all HPANWO readers had a merry Christmas and I hope you're all having a great Boxing Day. I ended up watching the Doctor Who Christmas Day special yesterday. This was not my intention. I have not watched Doctor Who seriously for many years, basically since the mid-David Tennant era. The reason is because it went downhill very badly after Christopher Eccleston's brief halcyon. Since then I've seen many trailers and clips that have reinforced my opinion. The phrase "horribly woke" has become a cliché and indeed I could talk for ages about this subject; and have done, see: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/08/political-correctness-portal.html, but it's true. I was at my daughter's boyfriend's house where I had been invited to spend Christmas Day and it was their idea to watch the new Who after we'd finished dinner. I settled down to join them. I was feeling very ill anyway and didn't really care (Not because of dinner; I've had a bad cold or flu). In the end I was surprised; the episode, called Joy to the World, was, despite my underlying criticisms, actually quite good. It is based around the common feature of hotel rooms, that they often have an extra door that is always locked. This is actually so that they can be converted into a suite with a neighbouring room, but the programme writers decided to have fun with the idea. What results is a scenario similar to the children's TV cartoon Mr Benn. The Doctor turns up at this timelords' hotel. He is played at the moment by Ncuti Gatwa, an ostentatiously gay black man; trying too hard to be like Chris Tucker's character in The Fifth Element with embarrassing failure. Yet he is supported by a likeable young woman who plays his one-time companion really well. He also forms a close platonic bond with a member of the hotel staff and that subplot is done really well. I also found it funny and clever to have him enter into a blazing row with himself, when he comes from the future to help his past self out. The script and storyline is really very well done. I was surprised that it was penned by Steven Moffat and not Russell T Davies. Although I thoroughly dislike the latter personally, I consider his screenplays superior. The episode includes the Silurians again. These reptilian humanoids date back to Jon Pertwee's first season; but in this episode they can disguise themselves as humans by shape-shifting... Where have we heard that before?, see: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2020/08/david-icke-portal.html. To my amazement this episode has a distinct open-minded spiritual theme. This is a first for Doctor Who, at least from what I've seen of it; in fact the series has often contained a lot of atheo-skeptic propaganda. The ending is even positive to Christianity. So, even if you agree with me about its politically correct millstone, it might be worth giving this one episode a chance. See here for the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-wN7V4x5P0. Does this mean I'll be eagerly tuning in to the upcoming 2025 season, I hear you ask?... Don't push it!