Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

hurricane_san Cheap unimaginative plot full of holes. What did happen to Dr Who ? Over the years the stories got progressively worse. Or maybe most of the money has been funneled from "script" to "special effects" ? On this season, only the "Heaven Sent" episode was okay-ish (ruined by a stupid ending)Is there any writer out there that want to keep the protagonists "in character", respect the lore and write consistent plots base on anything else than cheap feelings?It's a bit sad that Capaldi got served such bad stories. The few good scenes showed he was perfect for the role.In any event, avoid.

Barbara Schmidt Moffat really tries too hard sometimes. The first half hour is a comedy and then he tries to introduce some drama and deep mono-/ dialogues which really doesn't mix well. In my opinion, the depth of the story itself suffers a lot when he tries that and actual sci-fi elements get glossed over or ridiculous conclusions. Who turns more and more into a fi-soap and buries the science, which is very sad. I liked that the Doctor had a proper adventure for a change. And yes, that has been neglected a lot lately. It was also great to have a story to River's "goodbye" of Forest of the Dead. Capaldi and Kingston harmonize very well and it was fun watching them together. However, there's again some of Moffat's (by now) famous issues with continuity. In Forest of the Dead, River didn't know she was going to die. She also mention several times that the Doctor gave her HIS screwdriver on Darillium. Now, she knows it's the end and he gave her her own screwdriver as a Christmas present?! As others mentioned before, the way the Doctor defeats the robot-body is just lazy and stupid. I'm not one of the RTD vs SM folks, both of them had SOME great episodes. I think the better mark to hold any of them to would be Sydney Newman, Terry Nation and Robert Holmes.

bob the moo I think for the majority of people the most recent season of Doctor Who was not all it could have been – although the reasons are different depending on whom you are speaking to. Part of this is due to the season feeling ill at ease with what it is trying to do – delivering plots that ask for a knowledge of episodes from decades ago, but yet still very much being 'Nu Who'; having darker elements but yet still copping out of them, and so on. It was a season that I found as much to like as I did to dislike and it was rather uneven in its tone and content. So the usual Christmas Special was a worry – particularly since it is always a bit of a dice-roll in terms of quality.To be fair though, the special is the opposite of the season that had gone before it; not because it was lighter and easier to enjoy (although it was) but simply because it seemed to know precisely what it was doing, how it wanted to do it, and how long it wanted to do it for. The plot is a solid adventure one; it has comedy, danger, some silliness, and it ends on a nice note which doesn't totally overdo the sentiment. Of course the plot is somewhat daft, but this is Doctor Who on Christmas Day, so the important thing is that it has enough about it to support the daftness, the comedy casting, and the Christmas clichés being worked into it. Personally I though it did, and the material kept things moving along with a sense of fun but not being stupid enough that I didn't care.And this is not to say that I wasn't tested by some of the convenient or silly writing (for instance the robot being defeated by the moneyball which the Doctor happened to have drop into his lap at that second), but it does carry itself with enough energy and fun to more or less forgive it these weaknesses. The performances are a big part of this happening. Capaldi seems to enjoy himself, and his sarcasm and slightly dour edge is nicely used (the scene where he gets to do the 'wow, its bigger on the inside' thing is a lot of fun). Although I am not a great fan of her character all the time, Kingston works with Capaldi very well here, and the two enjoy themselves. Outside of them everyone else is support and does decent jobs – even Lucas was a lot less annoying than I had assumed he would be when he first popped up.I'm not really sure anymore what I want Doctor Who to 'do' as a show, and the whole modern era seems quite uneven and changeable when you look back over it – so I will not draw any big conclusions or make sweeping statements following this special. That said, although I would not want every episode to be like this, I did enjoy the energy and commitment of this special; it seemed to know what it wanted to do and, although it came with all the usual problems, it mostly sold them and made it work by virtue of being entertaining – which is really good enough some times.

Tweekums As this Christmas special opens Matt Lucas asks The Doctor if he is 'the surgeon'; he replies 'close enough' not realising that the man is actually looking for a surgeon. He is taken to a flying saucer and is somewhat surprised to be met by River Song… and equally surprised that she has no idea who he is. She take him to her husband; Hydroflax; a tyrant whose head is attached to a robotic body. She wants The Doctor to remove a diamond from her husband's brain… and would be happy if the procedure killed him… she claims to have married the diamond not the man. They remove his head but that doesn't kill him. Soon they are running with the head in a bag and the robotic body in pursuit. They escape to an intergalactic liner where the universe's least pleasant characters have assembled to bid for the diamond. Will The Doctor and River survive; will River realise that the man she is with is The Doctor and will they get to have dinner together?!The trailers for this seasonal outing didn't fill me with optimism; fortunately the episode proved to be much better than the trailer suggested. It was amusing to see The Doctor dropping hints as to his identity and River constantly failing to realise… this is of course explained by the fact that she hasn't seen his current faced and believed that he had used all his regenerations. More laughs were provided by Hydroflax's head screaming threats from inside a bag. It isn't all laughs; the potential buyer of the diamond is one of the series most disturbing looking characters; I can imagine that the scene where he literally opened his head would have had some viewers looking away. The ending is bittersweet as it looks as if it will be the last time we see River Song. Peter Capaldi and Alex Kingston put in fine performances as The Doctor and River and Matt Lucas provides an amusing cameo. Overall a solid episode that was much better than I'd expected.