Day 9: "Doctor Who: Series 6" Reviews (Part 1)

On Christmas, I was given the sixth season of Doctor Who. As any other Whovian would do, I watched the entire series in less than a week.

Honestly, I have no idea what really happened in Series 6...
I mean, I watched it, I remember (some) of the episodes, but as an overall plot structure...

I have no idea what happened.

With this reminder, I've decided to take some time out of my life to re-watch Series 6 and to share my thoughts/opinions on each episode I revisit. This will take a while because a. I am not the type of Whovian who can watch entire seasons in one day, more like 1 1/3 disk a day/night, b. I need sleep, and c. that pesky life of mine has other plans than sitting on the couch, munching on popcorn while going through a Doctor Who binge (as lovely as that sounds).

So, as the old saying goes, allons-y! ;)

"DOCTOR WHO: SERIES 6" REVIEWS:

A CHRISTMAS CAROL:

Honestly, there's nothing negative I can say about this episode. Really. This is one of the best (if not the best) Doctor Who episodes in, like, forever. I was immediately captured by how the world of Sardicktown functioned, where the Sardick family was in control of everything and had always been on top since the founding of the town while the rest of Sardicktown had to suffer in poverty. I was drawn to the steampunk design of Sardicktown, how it was vaguely Dickensian/Victorian, but had all this technology that helped to define it as a settlement in the future. I loved the characters and their charismatic connections between each other (with Kazran and Abigail's connection and Kazran and the Doctor's connection the strongest, mainly because they're really the only main focuses in the entire episode). I loved how the main focus character of the episode, the Scrooge of this Doctor Who remake named Kazran Sardick, had a genuine heart that was clouded by fear, regret, and anger over what his life had been built up to (and eventual heartache), and how that made him a more complex and more likable character than when we're first introduced to him.

Another thing that I like about this episode is how this shows who the Doctor really is: he is just someone who will do anything and everything to help make someone's life better. He even adds his own quirkiness and positive energy to help make things better, while sometimes he can take some time to just sit, wait, and take things in a serious tone. This episode shows the Doctor (in this case, Eleven) in his true nature, which makes all the difference.

The last thing that I'm going to comment on is the thing that sold this episode for me: the flying fish. When I saw them clustered around the light post in the streets, I was entranced. By the time we saw them "swimming" around in the higher altitudes of the sky, I was hooked. This is the kind of thing that I could only dream about in the most peaceful, vivid, and serene of dreams and this made the whole episode even more magical for me.

Actually, that's what I would describe "A Christmas Carol" as: a wonderful, passionate, magical Christmas dream. Everything about it was wonderful, passionate, and magical: the characters, the story, the adaptation, the music, the world-building, the character-development, the flying fish, EVERYTHING. I will never get tired of watching this episode over and over and over again...

Although, I do have some questions:

1. Why is Kazran the only one with the exotic name? Everyone else in Sardicktown has a normal name: Abigail, Isabella, even his own father was named Elliot...
2. Why did the portrait on the wall shift from Elliot Sardick to Abigail, then back to Sardick Sr. during Kazran's process of "remembering"? I know it was to show how important Abigail was in his life and built up the hope that she would live with him until they grew old together and died, but was this necessary in the grand scheme of things? Wouldn't the process of Time have just kept the portrait of Elliot Sardick since Abigail wasn't well enough to live for very long?

Anyway, I loved this one, and I hope I'll continue to love it more in the future.


That's all I can get to tonight, due to time/energy losses. There will be more to come, don't worry.
Goodnight, my darling pumpkins.