The Next Doctor
Making me wish I'd posted my Christmas Dr Who predictions, because...
I've been saying for ages that David Morrissey wasn't *really* going to be a future incarnation of the Doctor in the Christmas special. There was too much emphasis on the idea that he was, it was too close to the River Song story (not that they never repeat an idea, cf Father's Day and a certain recent Sarah Jane adventure), etc, etc.
But anyway, I thought it was a brilliant episode - indeed, the best of the recent Christmas specials IMO. The story was pitched just right, I liked the Dickensian feel of it[1], it fitted nicely into an hour, and although some of it was a little predictable it kept my attention.
And wasn't David Morrissey brilliant in it as the fake Doctor, AKA Jackson Lake (or whatever his name was)? He was great as someone who wasn't the Doctor who had been convinced that he was (which is all I ever saw in him, because I never believed he was the real Doctor anyway), and he added a lovely, warm sympathetic strand to the episode, which is just what a Christmas special needs.
Oh, and have I ever mentioned that David Morrissey's sister was my games and biology teacher at school? :D Not that I got on with her particularly well (didn't really have very much to do with her, though her husband was my form teacher in 4th and 5th year), but from watching David Morrissey in DW (I hadn't watched him in anything before) I think he's lovely. It's nice to see a proper scouser becoming such a respected popular actor too, because, what with the stigmata[2] that are attached to being scouse, it's not something you see very often. But if you've heard him speak you'll know he hasn't lost his accent, despite living down south and being married to Esther Freud.
So, that puts me in very good stead for the six degrees of separation game - two steps to Dr Who, and two steps to Sigmund Freud ;)
But anyway, back to the episode. Let's just say it was brilliant and leave it at that.
[1] Victorian London, children in a workhouse, the industrial revolution, exciting metal things, a father parted from his family, and so on.
[2] That *is* the plural of stigma, really!
ETA: You know the fluffy Cybershades? Did they remind anyone else of the trolls in Willow?
I've been saying for ages that David Morrissey wasn't *really* going to be a future incarnation of the Doctor in the Christmas special. There was too much emphasis on the idea that he was, it was too close to the River Song story (not that they never repeat an idea, cf Father's Day and a certain recent Sarah Jane adventure), etc, etc.
But anyway, I thought it was a brilliant episode - indeed, the best of the recent Christmas specials IMO. The story was pitched just right, I liked the Dickensian feel of it[1], it fitted nicely into an hour, and although some of it was a little predictable it kept my attention.
And wasn't David Morrissey brilliant in it as the fake Doctor, AKA Jackson Lake (or whatever his name was)? He was great as someone who wasn't the Doctor who had been convinced that he was (which is all I ever saw in him, because I never believed he was the real Doctor anyway), and he added a lovely, warm sympathetic strand to the episode, which is just what a Christmas special needs.
Oh, and have I ever mentioned that David Morrissey's sister was my games and biology teacher at school? :D Not that I got on with her particularly well (didn't really have very much to do with her, though her husband was my form teacher in 4th and 5th year), but from watching David Morrissey in DW (I hadn't watched him in anything before) I think he's lovely. It's nice to see a proper scouser becoming such a respected popular actor too, because, what with the stigmata[2] that are attached to being scouse, it's not something you see very often. But if you've heard him speak you'll know he hasn't lost his accent, despite living down south and being married to Esther Freud.
So, that puts me in very good stead for the six degrees of separation game - two steps to Dr Who, and two steps to Sigmund Freud ;)
But anyway, back to the episode. Let's just say it was brilliant and leave it at that.
[1] Victorian London, children in a workhouse, the industrial revolution, exciting metal things, a father parted from his family, and so on.
[2] That *is* the plural of stigma, really!
ETA: You know the fluffy Cybershades? Did they remind anyone else of the trolls in Willow?