'Doctor Who' Christmas Special 2016 Review
SPOILER ALERT!
Christmas wouldn’t be complete without an alien invasion of one form or another, and the Doctor is always there to save the day. Except that this time, he has an actual superhero to help him out.
Peter Capaldi is back after a whole year away from our screens, along with a cast of familiar faces including Matt Lucas (‘Little Britain’), Charity Wakefield (‘Wolf Hall’), and Justin Chatwin (‘American Gothic’) in this year’s special, ‘The Return of Doctor Mysterio’.
Capaldi delightfully reminds viewers of his brilliant, eccentric twelfth incarnation of everyone’s favourite time-traveller, while also returning for the Special is Lucas' bumbling Nardole.
As viewers will remember, Nardole’s head was previously seen attached to the body of King Hydroflax in last year’s Christmas episode, ‘The Husbands of River Song’, but his return to full health is barely explained. Perhaps we’ll find out more soon, as Nardole will be continuing on in the Tardis into Series 10.
This time, the Doctor is in New York City trying to set up a device on a rooftop when Grant – a curious eight year-old, discovers him. Grant mistakenly eats a special gemstone meant to power the Doctor’s device, which incidentally manifests Grant’s wish to have superpowers.
Twenty-four years later, the Doctor teams up once again with a grown-up Grant (now code-named Ghost), an investigative journalist named Lucy, and his new companion Nardole to uncover and thwart a plot by brain-transplanting aliens to overtake the Earth.
Sounds like your standard Doctor adventure, doesn’t it? It’s true; though add to the mix a lot of laughs, plenty of those snappy Stephen Moffat one-liners that have been sparse in more recent seasons, and a number of subtle pokes at the current superhero movie trend.
The ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas episodes have a history of being hit-and-miss: at times too heavy, and at others rather gimmicky. This year’s however, is the perfect balance of adventure and light-hearted fun to brighten up the end of a dark year in pop culture history. And amazingly, it did so with little mention to Christmas at all.
‘The Return of Doctor Mysterio’ is a much-needed return to the adventure and spectacle of older ‘Doctor Who’ seasons; its story well paced, its action nail biting and references to previous events are perfectly timed and poignant.
The 2016 ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special serves as appealing to all Whovian generations, making it the perfect program for the whole family this Christmas.
Series 10 of ‘Doctor Who’ will return to our screens in April 2017.
The Christmas special is available on BBC iPlayer and ABC iView until 25th January, 2017.
