Major spoilers. The fourth Christmas special heralds another extra-terrestrial attack on London, but writer Russell T. Davies wisely bends his festive formula into a slightly different shape. Firstly, this is a steampunk-influenced adventure set in a Dickensian Christmas of 1851, involving classic villains the Cybermen. Secondly, with companion Donna Noble having had her memories erased in season 4's finale, The Doctor is ironically assisted by an amnesiac Victorian (David Morrissey), whom he believes is a future incarnation of himself..."The Next Doctor" is free of the bloat and silliness that sank last year's atrocious "Voyage Of The Damned", and generally kept things character-based and focused on the story, culminating in an effects-laden climax that earned its spectacle for once. Holding our interest through the comparatively subdued first half was the mystery behind the title; an enthusiastic, mildly arrogant, dandy adventurer calling himself The Doctor, whose indomitable spirit seems to recharge Tennant's Doctor.
Indeed, I don't quite remember previous Doctors being quite so enchanted by meeting their other selves, but the Tenth seems to relish it like a brotherly reunion (see also: Children In Need's "Time Crash".) Disappointingly, the joy of seeing two Doctors battling Cybermen on an equal footing didn't fully materialize, as Davies decided to answer the episode's identity riddle a tad early...
Around the time The Doctor was introduced to his other self's TARDIS (an impressive, but unremarkable hot-air balloon), the episode showed its hand: this future Doctor was Jackson Lake, an ordinary man whose wife had been killed by invading Cybermen, before he escaped the same fate by using one of their "info-stamps" as a makeshift energy weapon, that accidentally imprinted knowledge of The Doctor into his own mind.
A fuge state was certainly an unpredictable way to explain the central misunderstanding, but the downside to answering the mystery was how Morrissey's character accepted the truth. Morrissey's enjoyable performance wasn't allowed to upstage the hero as it threatened to -- and he swiftly became an affable, less compelling sidekick.
The Cybermen themselves are aesthetically perfect for the 19th-century, with their steampunk designed angles, but nu-Who still struggled to make the metal menaces a worthy threat. Essentially humanoid Daleks ("delete!" replacing "exterminate!"), they were also overshadowed in this outing by their human collaborator (Dervla Kirwan's icy Miss Hartigan) and the ill-explained "Cybershades" (subservient cyber-dog-apes?) Hartigan herself may be another lazy variant on a sci-fi pantomime Dame (blood-red dress, snow-white pallor), but Kirwan's glacial demeanour and cut-glass accent ensured Hartigan was an enjoyable cliché.
Once the double-Doctor mystery was satisfied, the seasonal special essentially reverted to full-on action mode -- involving a workshop of enslaved children building "The Cyberking"; an Iron Giant of Meccano that rose above Olde London and started flattening houses under its steel boot, once Miss Hartigan was installed as its brain. Only The Doctor, a scavenged piece of Dalek technology, and a rickety gas balloon could save the day, in an aerial stand-off high above the city... as Jackson drums up rare applause from the bewildered crowd below.
Overall, "The Next Doctor" was generally well-judged, nicely paced, and perfectly enjoyable Christmas Day entertainment for the family, laced with in-jokes (references to the Angels from "Blink", a gag involving a fob watch, a projection of the previous Doctors on a wall, etc.) As the first special of Davies' yearlong farewell, this did a solid job of foreshadowing his and Tennant's departure (note how The Doctor's taken to celebrate his victory at the Traveller's Halt) and we're left with the impression Davies will spend 2009 tying up other loose ends. Easter special "Planet Of The Dead" is already rumoured to revolve around Gallifrey; the Doctor's homeworld destroyed in the Time War that's served as the backdrop to nu-Who's mythology since Christopher Ecclestone first grabbed Billie Piper's hand in that Cardiff department store.
"Complete and utter wonderful nonsense!" was how Jackson Lake summed up the cavernous TARDIS interior. I wish I could say the same about "The Next Doctor", but this festive offering didn't come close to bettering "The Christmas Invasion" for compelling spectacle, or "The Runaway Bride" for pumping adrenaline. As far as regular episodes go, this was a sprightly and entertaining diversion; to be forgotten as quickly as the novelty toy in a pulled Christmas cracker.
25 December 2008
BBC1, 6pm
Writer: Russell T. Davies
Director: Andy Goddard
Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), David Morrissey (The Doctor/Jackson Lake), Dervla Kirwan (Miss Hartigan), Velile Tshabalala (Rosita), Ruari Mears (Cybershade), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Edmund Kente (Mr. Scoones), Michael Bertenshaw (Mr. Cole), Jason Morell (Vicar), Neil McDermott (Jed), Ashley Horne (Lad), Tom Langford (Frederic), Jordan Southwell (Urchin), Matthew Alick (Docker) & Nicholas Briggs (Cyber Voices)
