Advent Calendar Day Eighteen: Who Retrospective

The Sun are offering a free DVD compliation of last year's Doctor Who Christmas Special "The End of Time" and the Season Five opener "The Eleventh Hour" with today's paper, and bearing in mind the upcoming premiere of "A Christmas Carol" on December 25th, I returned to these three stories for a second viewing. The most noticable difference here is in tone: "The End of Time" opens as an epic movie in all but screen size with Part One, as the Doctor (David Tennant) races against time (literally!) to find old foe the Master (John Simm) while attempting to fathom what might be the cause of his impending regeneration, as an omniscient narrator speaks of dark events folding around the Earth. Tennant gives it his all here, from the comedy scenes on the Ood Sphere to his emotional breakdown speaking in a cafe to Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins), while Simm portrays a Master on his hinges as death inevitably beckons, launching a terrible scheme to turn humanity into him. The cliff-hanger is a little too melodramatic for this reviewer, but Part Two compensates by providing the ultimate send-off for the Tenth Doctor. There are admittedly a lot of chase scenes in Tennant's final adventure involving the classic repeating corridors of old, so at times it can feel like Part Two is simply moving back and forth; however, move to the confrontation between the Doctor, the Master and the Time Lords (led superbly by Timothy Dalton) and we have some of the best television of the year, as our hero must choose whether to save his own race or humanity. As I was saying about tone, after heartwarming visits to his old friends and an explosive regeneration, Matt Smith steals the show as the new Doctor in "The Eleventh Hour", an altogether lighter 60-minute romp where Smith proves he's in a league of his own, manically trying to find his favourite food then ultimately save the world from a Face Tendril (though the animation of this creature did leave a lot to be desired). All three episodes on the disc make for an essential package if you don't own the box-sets but want some great (non-repeat) television this Christmas!