Review of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.
Let me say right up front that this was my favorite Christmas Special to date. Despite being fully engaged and along for the ride almost the whole way through, though, I found myself ripped out of the moment and slammed back into my seat with my Critic’s Hat jammed tight on my head by the predictable and saccharine crowning plot twist. But I’ll get back to that later.
TDtWatW got off to a strong start with a wonderfully irrelevant introduction sequence. It gave us yet another glimpse at what the Doctor gets up to when he’s not traveling with a Companion (or even just when we don’t see him on screen). Although it was patently ridiculous (as some of the best Who is), the Doctor’s “entrance” and our introduction to Madge give us a beautiful snapshot of her personality, and set us up to suspend our disbelief quite willingly through the rest of the hour.
Her eventual heartbreak at losing her husband (c’mon – that’s hardly a spoiler; the title says “Widow”!) and the way she choses to approach that with her children provide some of the most “real” and emotionally engaging television I’ve seen in a long time (again; more later). Thus we’re set up with another family separated by wartime, ready to walk into one of the Doctor’s good deeds gone wrong.