Who’s on First for Christmas
Paul Cornell reveals a true horror story hidden inside a mystery, and writes a Dr. Who story of the season for the London Telegraph.
Newsarama has previews of the upcoming series from IDW. A very Brady Christmas indeed.
And it took a little longer than I predicted, but the first of the Dr. Who Christmas episode segments (featuring David Tennant and Kylie Minogue) are now up. Here’s part one of a promised eight-parter by an enterprising Whovian:
One in-joke that’s probably not really an in-joke but which I appreciated tremendously is the appearance, about three minutes in, of Geoffrey Palmer, probably best known on this side of the pond as Lionel in As Time Goes By (co-starring Dame Judy Dench), but who also did a terrific reading of A Christmas Carol a couple years ago.
The new theme was quite a shock – I liked it, but I can't say it's quite right for the show.With Sir Derek Jacobi and Ardal O'Hanlon last season, Who's becoming quite the show to get a role on. I'd say Geoffrey Palmer was far better known from Butterflies, not to mention Reginald Perrin. And Clive Swift (the tourguide) was the suffering husband of Cynthia Bucket on Keeping Up Appearances. And that was Bernard Cribbins (legendary british comic) as the newsagent. Richard Briers (The Good Life / Good Neighbors) will be in an episode this season, his second appearance on Who (I want to say Paradise Towers or Happiness Patrol, I'm trying to remember without looking it up. –I looked it up, it was Paradise Towers after all) Debbie Chazen (Foon Van Hoff) is a regular on new britcom Tittybangbang, and Gray O'Brien (Rickston Slade) is on Coronation Street.The Fact File (http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/episodes/2007/fact…) lists where a lot of the actors in this one appeared in classic Who episodes.A delight from start to end. Note perfect disaster movie story; assortment of chracters from all walks of life, check. Make you care about characters then kill them, check. Inexperienced person alone on the bridge, check. All made better at the end by The Doctor, check.The tourguide's description of Earth customs was just hilarious. And he got a great ending as well. And I gotta admit, Catherine Tate isn't turning me off nearly as much as she is the British fans. I have a feeling she'll go through quite the character arc.Just a couple weeks till Torchwood now. I've said it before – with Sarah jane added to the mix, we're damn close to year-round Who.