The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe
Story 225, Episode 784, 2011 Christmas Special
Doctor: The Eleventh Doctor
Companions: Amy Pond, Rory Williams
Despite a shaky middle plot, the emotional punches of The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe are some of the most satisfying in all of Doctor Who.
The Review
The two stars of this episode just want their family back at Christmas, starting with Madge Arwell. The Doctor in a spacesuit (hilariously with backwards helmet) crashes near her and she drives him to a TARDIS in 1938. In 1941, her husband is a pilot in World War II, and she’s received a telegram that he’s been lost over the Channel. She takes her kids to an old country estate house for Christmas while lying their dad will make it, and is surprised to see the Doctor has made ‘some changes’ like hammocks for the kids and lemonade on tap. Claire Skinner is great as Madge, when the Doctor and her kids disappear through a portal she holds her one against the Androzani miners here to destroy the forest. The Doctor does say things ‘got clinch-y’ in the middle, and this plot does too. It’s like Moffat came up with the idea of ‘Christmas tree planet’ and worked backwards from there. Essentially, a forest of sentient trees and they’re trying to escape getting burned down. The only other characters: the miners, are pretty one-note.
The issue with this story is it kind of gets uninteresting during all the speculation about the trees and what’s going on. Ultimately, an environmental story has been done plenty of times and the only new things here are small gags like the Doctor telling his sonic that aliens made of wood were inevitable. We get a bit where men = weak and woman = strong, which the Doctor takes an embarrassingly long time to figure out. The climax is heart-wrenching as Madge flies the trees’ souls through the vortex but then sees her husband’s plane and breaks down admitting he’s dead. When they land, Madge has to finally tell her kids, but we have a miracle: she guided her husband home for Christmas. Yes it’s almost tanked by the Doctor saying ‘humany-wumany’ which causes severe cringe, but I’d genuine and emotional and you can’t help but me moved.
Madge’s reunion pulls on the heartstrings, but we just met her this story. The prequel has the Doctor sending a message to Amy in the TARDIS, but of course it’s been centuries since she’s traveled with him. Madge asks if the Doctor has people who care about him, and he says they all think he’s dead. After he gets scolded, we get one of the most emotional moments in all of Doctor Who, where the Doctor surprises Amy at Christmas. She briefly yells at him for leaving her for two years (creating another dating issue), but gives him an emotional hug and Rory invites him in for dinner. The story ends with the Doctor shocked to see he is actually crying, and there’s nothing like seeing someone as strong as the Doctor cry. Yes, the plot is pretty basic, but a hug between the Doctor and his mother-in-law makes it all wash away.
This is the Christmas special I like to watch most around the holiday, just because of how emotional it is.
9.5/10 Muddled plot keeps it from a 10, but it’s great
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