Christmas TV & Movie Round-up

We began the Christmas break on the 24th by not leaving the flat and enjoying the time together. This trend continued through the big day itself - we plan to go out today and visit the sales for a bit - and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Our Yuletide viewing began on Christmas Eve by popping in the DVD of Home Alone (1990), a festive classic that I've not seen for years. What struck me on this watching was how little of the film is actually made up of Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) fending off the hapless burglars (Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci). Even though I must have seen the movie lots in my youth there was plenty to enjoy, and it had us laughing out loud at the hilarious set ups and prat-falls. A great way to ease into the festive mood.

The only TV Christmas special we watched that same night was Outnumbered, which saw the unlucky Brockman family trying, ultimately unsuccessfully, to go away on holiday. It was a nice little piece, with superb performances from Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner, who would pop up again on Christmas Day. We happened to catch and laugh uproariously at a Best of Les Dawson 25 minute special too, just before bed.

As usual, I was up first on the 25th, excited to open my presents. While Andrew had his breakfast we watched the Disney animated TV special Prep & Landing (2009) and the two shorts on the DVD. The 22 minute piece sees elves Wayne and Lanny teaming up to prepare a house for Santa's visit, almost causing a disaster and then saving the day. It's a good natured film, with the highlights being the modern takes on the old-fashioned Santa scenario. So technology is imployed to scan for 'creatures stirring', to test the temperature of Santa's milk, and to knock out waking animals and children - this ingenuity is what the Tim Allen movie The Santa Clause only began to address. I enjoyed the piece, and the Operation: Secret Santa (2010) short as well, especially as the latter featured Betty White as Mrs Claus.

As with most recent years, the TV didn't stray away from BBC1 all evening. Following a successful and tasty lunch of chicken, potatoes, veg and all the trimmings, we podged out on the sofa with the festive edition of Top of the Pops, sadly still fronted by personality vacuums Reggie Yates and Fern 'Amazing' Cotton. Again, as usual most of the best songs of the year (for me) were either skipped through in the round up sections or completely missed out - where's Melanie C, goddammit!? There was a memorably weird performance from Will Young and his dancers, the women holding their pony tails aloft, and a nice albeit brief set of clips featuring the late Sir Jimmy Savile, and some atrocities from Olly 'punch me' Murs, some new group called Little Mix and the massively over-rated Jessie J. All in all a pretty piss poor effort.

Much better was her majesty The Queen in her usual 3pm slot, talking about the importance of family and doing her mother of the nation bit. Thank goodness Prince Phillip didn't take a turn for the worse.

Full of food and not really having the need or want to move from the sofa, we settled down with the rest of our fizzy rosé to watch Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), a movie we first saw on its release in 3D at IMAX. Even without the bells and whistles and size of a barn door extras, this is still one of the best non-Pixar CGI movies, full of loving sci fi references, subversions of cliches and utter randomness - an example of the latter being the President's decision to play a little of the Axel Foley theme, and later, the alien spaceships' password/dance machine playing Aqua's 'Roses Are Red'. The voice cast are excellent and the action is non stop, as are the laughs. A perfect way to unwind on Christmas afternoon.

Later on that evening we saw the sequel to 2009's animated TV special, The Gruffalo's Child, in which the titular protagonist goes on a hunt into the dark woods to find the mythic, scary creature of the Mouse, only to encounter Snake, Owl and Fox. It was pretty much the same storyline as The Gruffalo, except with the roles of Mouse and Gruffalo switched. I didn't feel that this special was quite as magical as the original, but it was sweet enough.

Another sweet Christmas special came in the form of Doctor Who: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, which wasn't as beautifully realised and pretty as A Christmas Carol, yet still had so much heart and warmth, mainly as a result of Claire Skinner's peformance as a strong minded mother dealing with the loss of her husband in wartime and the disappearance of her children along with the Doctor in a snowy winter wonderland where the trees are alive. She also comes across an odd group of people intent on culling the forest, and the extended cameos from Arabella Weir, Bill Bailey and some other bloke are dotty and wonderful. I'd quite happily see Skinner joining the Doctor on his travels once he leaves Amy (and sadly Rory) behind - he needs a strong willed older woman to counter his youthful (looking) exuberance.

I didn't write a full post on Strictly Come Dancing this year, mainly as I only dipped into it here and there, and only watched a couple, including the final, from beginning to end. I do wish I'd watched more though, as I particularly became entranced by Harry Judd's performance. And it seems the judges and rest of the public were too as he won over the dumb blonde Chelsee whatnot from something or other. Judd impresses with his well-toned body, polite demeanour and stunning dancing ability. I did watch the whole of Strictly Come Dancing Christmas which saw the return of all of the 2011 contestants in a disappointing finale, following one-off performances from Charlie Brooks, Simon Webbe, Debra Stephenson, Barry McGuigan and the deliriously potty Su Pollard. It was a camp spectacle that out-gayed even the series proper.

Final treat of the evening was the first return of Absolutely Fabulous (following an hour's break from the TV as Eastenders came on to depress the shit out of an undiscerning audience). The first two series of Ab Fab will never be beaten, and indeed I'd lost faith with the show so much I didn't even see Series 5, but I was hopeful for a return to form for this revival. I was pleased with the result. It may not be a classic, and the plot involving Saffy's ex-prison companion / Patsy's drug dealer was uninvolving stuff, yet the performances from all the J's (Jennifer, Joanna, June, Jane and Julia) were as if the show had never been away and the jokes on modern celebrity were well aimed. The highlight was of course the unnecessary yet somehow essential dream-cameo from Sofie Gråbøl as The Killing's Sarah Lund. Wearing her trademark jersey and hunting around Edina's bedroom for evidence, she made me ache for more (my thoughts on The Killing II will follow at a later date). The main annoyance with this and the next two Ab Fab specials is that now my 'complete' DVD boxset is no such thing! 

All in all a rather wonderful day's viewing complemented a peaceful, loving Christmas day with the man I love.

Doctor Who: Series 32 (2011)

basics...
Matt Smith returns as Doctor Who for a series split in two (There's no time poetry corner!). Opening with the Doctor's supposed future death, witnessed by Amy, Rory (full time companion now!) and River Song, the first part of the series ends with Amy giving birth and a revelation about who her daughter actually is. The second part of the series builds to the Doctor's inevitable end... or does it?

brilliant...
The on-going saga concerning the identity of River Song gets a whole lot of answers this series, some of which I really should have seen coming, but mostly you only realise they were obvious moments before they are revealed. The increased presence of River and of the excellent Rory meant that the Amy-Doctor love story got less screentime, a good thing, and even better everytime you thought Amy was pining for her raggedy Doctor she actually wanted her loving husband. Aside from the ongoing story there were some top notch 'monster of the week' episodes, from the chilling minotaur/hotel/purgatory one, to the funny James Corden one, and all those ones back at the beginning of the year that have slipped my mind. It was good to see new monsters pushed above series favourites, such as the Gentlemen-like Silence, effectively creepy, and the sinister lady with the eye patch. The whole 'Amy's not really with the Doctor' bit in the first part of the series was audacious and I'll need to rewatch those episodes, like I will a lot of these, to fully grasp what's going on.

but...
One of the problems with Stephen Moffatt at the helm of Doctor Who is his propensity for time travel stories that completely confuse and discombobulate. I'm utterly baffled as to how River's time stream works. The rapid fire delivery of explanations by Matt Smith don't always have time to sink in before another explosion's happening or someone cracks a joke. Of course, watching Doctor Who one already has one's disbelief suspended, but sometimes you want to try to make some sense of the story!

briefly...
A return to form after last series, where I felt grumpy Amy dominated, proves that Doctor Who needs non-young-female companions to truly soar. Splitting the series in half made for effective, suspensful cliff-hangers too.

Torchwood: Miracle Day (2011)

basics...
Captain Jack (John Barrowman) and Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) are called out of retirement when 'Miracle Day' happens... and everyone on earth becomes immortal, except for Jack. Cue CIA assistance, a death row paedo, incineration units and a whole host of bad guys and evil stuff for international Torchwood to deal with.

bollocks...
Torchwood's first and second series were patchy affairs at best, with unlikable characters, gratuitous plots and a general air of trying too hard to be 'adult' in comparison to Doctor Who. Series 3, Children of Earth, was properly brilliant, a serialised, single story, with real menace and heart. Miracle Day, the first Torchwood American-UK co-production has a bigger budget than the previous series, and mixes the best and worst of what has gone before - so there's an imaginative, genuinely intriguing plot catalyst, with lots of interesting ideas (what would be the implications for society and the planet if no one died anymore?), but played out with more unlikable (American) characters, streaks of nastiness and a whole lot of nonsensical explanations. 

Miracle Day wasn't a complete disaster, but it was also no where near as good as Children of Earth. Jack and Gwen were reliably ballsy and funny, when they got a chance to be. There was far too much time spent with angry, shouty Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) and pathetic Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins). And then there was the utterly pointless story of Oswald Danes (a creepy Bill Pullman), a convicted child killer - were we ever supposed to feel sympathy for this character? He got grandiose speeches about not very much and kept popping up at odd times - and once the whole purpose behind the miracle was explained... well there still didn't seem to be any point in his manipulation by the Blessing. Likable Dr Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur) was dispatched far too early on, while sledge-hammer subtle Rex and useless Esther hung around til the end, and sadly one of them remained. 

but...
Ok, it wasn't all bad, and that was mainly down to the Welsh/British sense of humour that didn't appear often enough, and some great guest casting, chief among them Lauren Ambrose as Jilly Kitzinger. A world away from Six Feet Under, Ambrose lit up her every scene and made her character much more interesting than she had any right to be - especially when, like Danes, there appeared to be absolutely zero point in her being co-opted by the families, except perhaps to act as a way in for the viewer. It's implied she'll come back should this mess be given another series, so that's potentially good news. Kai Owen's return as Gwen's long-suffering husband also offered a welcome breath of light air in his too-few scenes, as did new character Allen Shapiro (John de Lancie) - so naturally the funny, likable CIA guy was blown up. Torchwood doesn't like to keep personable characters around, just the obnoxious ones.

briefly...
A truly original premise that promised big things is let down by traditional Torchwood nastiness and hokey explanations. If this comes back, and I'm not bothered if it doesn't (I mainly watch it for Doctor Who continuity!), lets hope lessons will have been learned. 

Doctor Who: The Daleks (1963)

The second ever Doctor Who story saw the introduction of his most enduring arch nemesis, the Daleks. It's a William Hartnell story, with companions Barbara, Ian and Susan and as such the quality of the surviving footage isn't amazing, but it's still an imaginative romp, with lots of running down corridors, scary Daleks and wooden Thals, the race who is/was at war with the Daleks on the planet Skaro. The Doctor and his companions land on the planet sometime after a nuclear war has wiped out much of the population, and the Daleks are living in a vast underground city with metal floors to enable them to glide around. 

It's amazing how fully formed the Daleks are, and how little they've changed decades later. They don't want to 'exterminate' and show some compassion and structured thought missing from the later killing machines, but they look and sound the same, and this is the first time they learn not to mess with the Doctor. Hartnell feels like a supporting player here, with Barbara and Ian taking centre stage - Ian carrying out most of the hero duties while Barbara proves she's made of stern stuff when exploring the jungles of Skaro. Susan screams a lot and is generally fairly irritating, while the Doctor is grumpy and variously unconcerned about helping the Thal race, and even pretends the TARDIS is broken in order to keep everyone on a planet that has dangerous radiation levels. 

The Daleks felt more exciting than the first story, An Unearthly Child with its warring, unfantastical cavemen. The accompanying featurette on the creation of the Daleks was also fascinating and covered everything from inception to design.

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010)

One of the only programmes I could truly have claimed to be waiting for this Christmas season was the special of Doctor Who. Thankfully the TV wasn't saturated with trails for it as it was last year when David Tennant was bowing out, and also appearing on QI, Buzzcocks, TOTP, The Queen's speech... well maybe not, but it felt like he did. 

Doctor Who has never looked better than A Christmas Carol, with a massive filmic quality to it. Michael Gambon played the Scrooge character who the Doctor must manipulate by interfering in his past in order to imbue him with good will enough to prevent a spaceship carrying Rory and Amy which is currently hurtling through thick fog surrounding this particular planet. This planet also features fish who swim in the air, in a bizarre yet very Who twist on normality. The Doctor meets young Gambon as a 12 year old and older as well as a singing beauty played by Katherine Jenkins. What follows is a touching story of love and loss, and the meaning of Christmas, but not in any cloying way.

Matt Smith is convincingly the Doctor now, and his fast talking, quirky behaviour is endearing. His inability to understand human relationships is also very funny, particularly when his advice is sought on how to speak to crying girls or kiss them generally. Amy and Rory are relegated to the sidelines in this show, and really the star is Michael Gambon, who's performance draws you through the story. It's nice to see Arthur Darvil's name in the opening credits though, this bodes well for Rory being a main character next series. A Christmas Carol lived up to expectations, and surpassed them on several levels, and has certainly whetted my appetite for the Doctor's return in 2011.

Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child (1963)

Aside from the new series starring Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith, and the Paul McGann TV movie, I've only ever seen bits of the old Doctor Who from my Dad's videos. I wanted to go right back to the beginning, where it all started, and see what it was all about back then, so I recently settled down to watch the first ever, 4-part story that introduced William Hartnell's Dr Who to the BBC viewing public, An Unearthly Child. 

It's hard to compare a black and white, cheaply made 25 minute per episode multi-part drama with the modern, self-contained 45 min episode that is full of special effects and excitement. However, the first Dr Who story still stands up as an enthralling drama, at least so far as the first episode goes. The first episode follows teachers Barbara and Ian as they share their concerns for the slightly weird 15 year old Susan, and they trail her to an old warehouse where she supposedly lives with her grandfather, who turns out to be a cantankerous old man who appears at first to have Susan kept prisoner in a police box... Of course then the TARDIS doors open and Ian and Barbara, and the viewer, learns that things are not always what they seem...

Episode 1's Cliffhanging Ending...

As an introduction to the basic tenets of Dr Who lore, the episode succeeds admirably. There's not too much jargon, and each character is given time to be introduced, with the teachers forming a focal point as a proxy for the audience watching at home. At episode 1's end the TARDIS transports the 4 characters across time and possibly space to a land of cave dwelling people, who do not know how to make fire. It's here that things slow down a bit, with lots of eloquent actors in furs and dirty faces talking over and over about making fire, while they stand huddled around a small cave set. As opening adventures go, being captured by cavemen, escaping, being recaptured and escaping again, it's not that exciting, but already the Doctor and his companions are carving out roles. Susan's the screamer, Barbara is quite practical, and Ian shows a brave streak, while the Doctor is more difficult to pin down. 

It would probably have been easy to jet the Doctor off to a futuristic location for the first episode, so I like that the prehistoric setting (though it's by no means certain the story takes place on Earth, or indeed in the past at all - the TARDIS time display read out is broken) suggests that this series will be more than just aliens with laser guns. 

Barbara and Ian sneak up on the Doctor

Alongside the episodes, I also watched the special features - the Doctor Who DVDs are excellent for these - which included a different, longer version of the first episode, with enlightening commentary by producer Verity Lambert and director Waris Hussein, and a collection of comedy sketch parodies starring Mark Gatiss and David Walliams. And then I read about the story in About Time, an unauthorised guide to the series, with fascinating background and analysis. This gave me a full experience with which to enjoy the story and I look forward to seeing more of the chronological adventures of the Timelord, in his earlier incarnations. 

Doctor Who: Series 31 (2010)

It's a couple of weeks since the Doctor Who finale, and there's a gaping hole in the Saturday night TV schedule. This series seemed to pass fairly quickly. My verdict on the new Doctor and his show then... 

Matt Smith has been great as the new Doctor, initially there was more than a hint of David Tennant in his portrayal, but as the series has gone on he made the role his own, with flashes on anger and panic that never troubled the previous incarnation. I've enjoyed the numerous references to his old faces too, and Steven Moffat, the new show runner, has done an excellent job in making the series feel fresh yet familiar. 

There have been some really strong episodes, mostly towards the latter half of the series, including the one with Vincent Van Gogh, 'Amy's Choice' and the two-part finale - the first half of which was among the best TV I've seen. Rory, the new semi-companion, was good fun, and the way all of the adventures tied together at the end was great. There were also a few ho-hum episodes such as the obligatory Dalek one and the drawn out two parter with the Silurians.

I've not been convinced by the new companion Amy Pond though. She seems permanently set to shout mode, and doesn't have a great range of expression. I'm sick of the sight of her legs too - why are they trying to sex up Doctor Who? I must add a caveat actually - adult Amy Pond as played by Karen Gillan I find a little annoying, young Amelia Pond as played by Caitlin Blackwood in the cracking season opener and finale was a joy to behold. I and others I know would much rather watch young Amelia than Amy. But towards the end of the season Amy got a little less annoying, though she never became as good as Donna Noble. 

Alex Kingston's River Song was probably the series highlight - whenever she appears in the Doctor's timeline ('spoilers!') she's always an enigmatic, charismatic bonus. I hope we don't learn too much about Song in coming series, and that she remains at least partly shrouded in mystery. If only she could be the Doctor's full time companion, having an older actress adds a bit more gravitas and a counterpoint to young Matt Smith's performance, and the chemistry between the two has been just great. Maybe she could have a spinoff of her own?? I'd certainly watch it (as long as it was better than the first two Torchwood seasons). 

So this series has been a big hit with me, with the only slight downside being that I've never really got behind Amy Pond. Hopefully she'll be a bit more 3-dimensional next series, and I'm hoping that now Rory is Mr Pond, Arthur Darvill will get promoted to star billing in series 32.

Doctor Who: The End of Time, Part 2 (2010)

I'm pleased to say that the second part of the festive Doctor Who, in which David Tennant said goodbye to the TARDIS, was head and shoulders above the muddled first part. I confess that this piece of TV actually caused tears to roll down my cheeks - I can't even remember I time when that has happened before. That's the power of the Russell T. Davies' script, and the impressive performances from Tennant and the revelation that is Bernard Cribbins's Wilf. 

The plot of The End of Time was pretty unimportant since this episode was really all about David Tennant's Doctor and his final time as the 10th incarnation of the time and space traveller. As it was, The Master's plan and the return of the Timelords was all a bit inconsequential, since it was obvious that the Doctor could never allow either party to succeed, but it wasn't obvious how exactly the Doctor would bow out. Timothy Dalton was impressive as the President of the Timelords - he really suits the villainous role, he has the perfect voice and gravitas for it (see Hot Fuzz for more!), and John Simm's Master was manically devious. It was a shame that the Timelords were so easily defeated by a bullet to some mechanical macguffin. The drama leading up this was electric though - the Doctor's moral dilemma as he moved his gun between the Master and the President, deciding who to murder, was very well played. 

There were a few laughs to be had scattered throughout - and I enjoyed the green, spiky-headed aliens who helped the Doctor and Wilf to save the planet! Bernard Cribbins was so funny, but he was also excellent at teasing out both an affecting performance from Tennant and tears from the audience. It goes to show that Doctor Who's companions need not be young women to contribute emotional conflict to the series, and I'd love to see Wilf as a permanent assistant, or at least see him return again with Matt Smith's Doctor. The brief glimpse of Smith at the end of the episode was tantilising, and already did much to clear my reservations of the actor.

The final 20 minutes of the episode, after the Doctor saved Wilf's life by sacrificing his own and get loaded up on atomic energy (or something, I wasn't really clear about that), was an emotional rollercoaster, as the Doctor was allowed the time to visit his previous companions and say goodbye. It's odd that no other Doctor was awarded this indulgence, but I don't begrudge Russell T. Davies' decision to let David Tennant go out on a high, as he has been a fantastic creation. There were nice bits of in-jokery for the fans during the Doctors' quick wander round the galaxy, and it was great to see familiar faces again (and a few questions were answered about where everyone else was when the Earth was once again under attack - after all of the companions, Torchwood and Sarah Jane crew came together at the end of the last series it always begs the question, why don't they all come together more often?).

So the Doctor saved Martha (who I miss!) and new husband Mickey from death at the hands of Sontaran; prevented Sarah Jane's son being run over; introduced Captain Jack (alone in a bar full of the series' previous alien creations) to Russell Tovey's character from the Xmas episode with Kylie; says hello to Jessica Hynes at a book signing (I had to look up why on Wikipedia); gives Donna a winning lottery ticket at her wedding; and finally visits Rose (and her mum!) in the shadows, the year she meets his 9th incarnation. I'm not sure at which point the tears fell, though I definitely laughed out loud at Captain Jack's seen. The Doctor's final words - 'I don't want to go' - were heartbreaking, but there wasn't long to grieve as the 11th Doctor immediately set about trying to prevent the TARDIS crashing into the Earth!! 

The David Tennant years have breathed new life into Doctor Who (Christopher Eccleston was OK, a bit odd though) and Tennant has done wonders with the role. Russell T. Davies has done great work too, although he's like The X-Files' Chris Carter, in that his genius can come and go, sometimes within the same episode. I look forward to the new Doctor, under the guidance of Steven Moffat, who has written some of The best episodes in recent memory. Allons-y!