Every year I look forward to two things on Christmas. One of these thing is dinner with my family and the other is the Doctor Who Christmas Special. This year The Doctor travels back to 1941 to help some children deal with the tragedies of war in an adventure very much inspired by C.S. Lewis’ The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe. With some of The Doctor’s biggest adventures having taken place on Christmas, including the final moments with David Tennant’s 10th Doctor, can this possibly stand up to previous specials? Yes and No.

While I love almost every Dr Who journey, this particular special seemed to have issues with pacing, direction and most of all it had an issue of urgency. In past specials The Doctor has been in true peril, but I never got that feeling here. Instead I felt as though I was along for the ride in an incredibly safe and whimsical adventure, which is how I felt about last year’s special, but this time it lacked that sci-fi twist, that little bit of something special that made it stand out. Over all it felt as though I’d seen all of this kind of story before.

My issues with the story would most likely ruin the entire adventure for you so let me be vague and explain in a way that will not take from your viewing experience. There are themes at play in this Dr Who adventure that have come up in previous episodes. Episodes like The End of the World and Silence in the Library come to mind. Most of all is that while they have Wardrobe gimmick as a main story plot point, most of it doesn’t make sense as an idea from the very start. The wardrobe is a giant present that when opened lets people go through from their 1941 manor like estate and then into the woods very much like when Lucy went through the wardrobe and found Mr. Tumnus in the beginning of the Narnia series. Sure it completely diverges from there, but after a while you question why this was a present when it puts everyone in mortal danger and The Doctor had no idea that it would.

The Doctor seems to play a strange role here, not being the lead, nor being the guide either. He’s just as clueless as anyone as to why certain things are happening and so many of the actions in the episode are separated by great distance, the story pieces don’t seem to fit together at all. In the end it’s not all bad as The Doctor is still hilarious and Matt Smith plays him perfectly aloof while trying to be as impressive as possible. It feels as though there is much going on behind the scenes, like we just missed everything important that happened just before the story starts up.

But that’s not why we watch The Doctor week to week. Sometimes it’s these little adventures, these bits of filler that get us to where we truly want to go and this special doesn’t disappoint. We all know what we want The Doctor to do in the end and writer Steven Moffat gives it to us in a beautiful moment that will make long time Whovians smile, and maybe shed a tear.

Lacking the peril of specials like Voyage of the Damned or the Christmas filled whimsy of A Christmas Carol, The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe does a good job of entertaining even if it is with old ideas made new through a new writers prose. Not spectacular but enjoyable We give it four out of five stars. Note that because it is Dr Who and we love it so much, it gets away with a little more than we’d let other franchises (looking at you Harry Potter).

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