butterfly | Doctor Who: Christmas Episodes Poll

Shame on me!!!! I forgot "The Unquiet dead"!!! One of my favourite episodes!!!!!
*tries to regenerate into a little mouse*

Well, it's not a proper Christmas special, so that's understandable!

I miss Nine & Rose so much!
Snif!

It did take place at Xmas technically, but I've never put TUD in the Xmas categories, but if I were too, it would easily rank first as I ADORE that episode. I'd go with TRB next, followed closely by TCI and then very, very closely TND. VotD is the only I was meh on, but I did think Astrid was delightful.

Oh, yeah, I mostly added TUD because it was nice to have something with Nine up. And it is set at Christmas, so I'm willing to roll with that.

i didn't think The Unquiet Dead was a Christmas Special, even though it's set during Christmas. i love that episode to pieces though. i think my order would go (if you count The Unquiet Dead): TUD, TND, TCI, TRB and VotD. I love love love the first 4 I listed and was sort of ehhh about VotD

It's definitely not a Special, but I wanted Nine to get some representation in the poll.

I'd say for me, first place is really a tie between TCI and TRB. The reason TCI gets a slight edge is because while TRB has some truly awesome moments, in a way I feel drowned by the emo. TCI still makes me smile like a loony even now (I rewatched it yesterday and it's just as wonderful as it ever was).

Might get back to you later, though, since TRB rewatch is likely to happen today! XD

That's one of the reasons that I picked TCI for my favorite as well. It makes me happy, just simply and plainly happy, and that's a very valuable thing.

Huh, looking at the poll I see that my dislike for VotD is not so unique after all!

Hee. Yes. I'm the only person so far to give VotD above a three.

*pets poor, hated episode*

I hate VotD so much I had to write fic to remove it utterly from canon and replace it with something much awesomer (and way, way dirtier).

Link please? ;)

Dirty. DIRTY. I'm a very naughty girl. (http://the-tenzo.livejournal.com/18079.html)

Apart from polls, I’m curious about how you’d place the episodes in relation to each other.

Well, I liked “The Unquiet Dead,” “The Christmas Invasion,” and “The Runaway Bride” so much that it was hard to choose between them. But in the end, I went with “The Unquiet Dead,” mostly because it’s the only one that has ~~the Ninth Doctor~~ real snow.

P.S. I know you can’t edit polls, but I thought I’d mention that I rated “The Next Doctor” as a three because “I didn’t watch it” wasn’t an option.

P.S. I know you can’t edit polls, but I thought I’d mention that I rated “The Next Doctor” as a three because “I didn’t watch it” wasn’t an option.

That's one of the reasons that, when I posted results from the poll, I made 'three' the null (0) choice. Are you planning on watching it or have you broken up entirely with the show as a result of the ending of S4?

Probably the latter. I’ve thought about watching “The Next Doctor,” but I can’t seem to find the energy. All the characters I cared about are gone. All the storylines are finished. Besides, most of the people I know in the Doctor Who fandom are planning to stop watching after the specials, so… *shrug*

My favourite is without a doubt The Christmas Invasion if only for all the Rose/Ten that was going on (and dude, Ten was quoting the Lion King at a bunch of aliens). Closely behind is The Unquiet Dead, if only for all the Rose/Nine that was going on (and Welshies!). Then The Runaway Bride, almost tied with The Next Doctor (I absolutely adored both Davids and Dervla, just the plot was absolutely ridonkulous). Last is Voyage of the Damned- I love Kylie something fierce, but the episode was pure drivel.

I ship Rose/Ten as if my life depends on it, so I guess my liking of any episode is mostly based on how much I can link back to that (even though Blink is my favourite episode of all time...). And I just really don't like it when RTD wants to rub our noses in the fact that the Doctor is supposed to be this lonely god.

Rose/Ten is made of awesome! I love together so much. They are definitely one of the reasons that "The Christmas Invasion" is my favorite.

I had to come over here from your other post and support you on the VotD front. Although, I think I've proved to myself once again that I can't really be a "true" Doctor Who fan, because not only did I really like VotD, but I think I liked it better than The Next Doctor (not that I hated TND by any stretch-- I just really liked the epic disaster movie-ness of VotD).

I just honestly don't get what's supposed to be wrong with VotD-- it's not perfect, and I can see that for some people it just won't be their thing, which is fine, but I don't understand why it inspires so much hatred. But then again, I like Love and Monsters too and Russell T Davies in general-- I can't be a "real" fan because I like the show too much! :P

I don't really get it either! It was a lot of fun to watch for me.

But then again, I like Love and Monsters too and Russell T Davies in general-- I can't be a "real" fan because I like the show too much! :P

Sometimes it does seem like some people feel like 'real' fans have to be dissatisfied with the show!

This.

******************

Oh, I had my problems with LoM, mostly the ending, but otherwise found it an interesting show in the same way that Lower Decks did for Next Gen--we get to see the main cast from the POV of other characters in the story, when we are usually seeing the show from the POV of the main characters. A fascinating premise that gives the viewers new insights into the characters that they thought they knew so well.

And RTD gave us a lot with New Who. I suspect that many Moffat fans might be doing a re-think a couple years down the road, because DW will change a lot under his showrunning. (It's done this with every change of producer in the past.) I like Moffat and I hope that he will be good for the show, and I've liked the episodes that he has written, for the most part. At the same time, I had major problems with all of them. I really think that Paul Cornell has been overlooked when it comes to awards time for his scripts for the show. A DW Moffat-penned episode has won the Hugo Award in its category for the last three years, for example. But I would love to see Cornell write more for DW. :)

Paul Cornell is, hands-down, my favorite writer for Who! Of course, he's only written two stories, but both were so beautiful, used the companions so well and so knowledgeably and were just so overall excellent that I can't help but adore his work.

Out of the "Christmassy themed episodes," the Unquiet Dead is my favorite. I have fond memories of falling in love with the whole Doctor Who phenomenon during the first disk.

Of the Christmas Specials, I think its TND, VOTD (I love disaster movies - and it really was perfect), TCI (b/c by the end of the episode, I realized I loved The Doctor, not just one particular version of him, and I suddenly wanted to watch the Classic series) and those three are really quite close. It depends on my mood which is my favorite.

Between the earth being formed around a space spider's nest and a screechy sidekick, TRB is the one I'm least likely to rewatch apart from doing a full series start to finish viewing.

VotD was such a good Who-disaster movie. It makes me sad that it's so disliked!

I think it's because it wasn't your typical Christmas film. Which is fine by me - I like the Who Christmas specials because of the monsters and robots and the Doctor saving the earth from certain doom. :)

Not counting TUD (I don't think it's quite fair to put it up against the now-traditional Xmas Blowout Extravaganza episodes) my ranking goes:

1. TCI (I love Rose and Ten and everything but mainly TCI always wins for me because of the amazing way the script manipulates the viewer without the viewer even being aware of it--this was Ten's first episode and it could have made or broke the show--that could have been the end of the DW franchise--and RTD just worked this incredibly bit of magic with that script)
2. TRB (I never had a problem with Donna, even in her TRB incarnation I always thought she was hilarious and fab)
3. TND (Something felt off to me in this, not intimate enough, missing something)
4. VotD (I haaaaaate the complete OOC-ness of Ten in that and even sexy Tennant in a Tux can't even save it for me)

Out of curiosity, what do you find out of character about the Doctor in VotD? Is it the speed of his connection with Astrid (I've heard people mention that) or something else?

Yeah, that is pretty much it. And at the time when I watched it I wasn't really as invested in various ships as I am now, it just seemed...really off, even as someone who at the time was a much more casual viewer than I am now. Like, okay, he's a people person so he makes friends easily but why her and why that deep of a friendship so quickly?

I also really can't abide the whole lifted by angels bit. I mean, I looooove cheesy corny Who as much as the next person but I think that sequence defined my outer limit for tolerance of that sort of thing. And the glowy snog at the end defined the limit of my tolerance for...well, glowy snogs.

Which Christmas episode is your favorite?

1. The Unquiet Dead :) Dickens and ghosts and some great characters and some lovely plotting make for a great story. The only problem (and it's a small one) that I have with this story is that Rose's Victorian garb is not that of an upper-class lady, but something more like what might be worn by a lightskirt or an opera dancer (period slang for "ladies of the night"). Other than that little costuming mistake (surprising, as the BBC is well-known for their historical costume dramas and epics), I found TUD to be a great introductory episode to time-traveling in the past for Rose. The "I'm glad I met you" speech is one of the best moments ever in any DW episode. And Dickens' reaction to the TARDIS leaving is just wonderful and priceless! :)

2. The Next Doctor is just a lovely story of quiet character moments interspersed with some exciting action scenes. After watching this special, I find it too bad that David M. won't be the Doctor, as I think that he could have turned in a great performance, based on this one show. He cares about people and isn't afraid of things, he's up for heroics, and always wants to do good. :) And Rosita would have made a kick-butt companion! :)

3. Voyage of the Damned starts off with a bang and never lets up! Once again, the Doctor inserts himself into a situation fraught with potential trouble, and finds a way to save the day, and a cute possible new companion in the process. However, the Doctor's authority does get questioned (and does so again in Midnight), a realistic thing to see that probably ought to happen more often, and the possible companion who wants to have an exciting life instead sacrifices herself to save a planet and a people she barely knows anything about. Lovely but so sad.

4. The Christmas Invasion. Nice to see UNIT and Harriet Jones, but that UNIT doesn't stand up to past deeds and the PM does what she thinks is right but isn't, but happening it topple her from power in the end, are depressing actions. The Doctor's not very present in this special, and the statement of "no second chances" was a bit discouraging to this viewer as a look at the then-Tenth Doctor's character in the process of hardening. Rose does mourn a lot, and understandably so, since Nine never bothered to inform her about regeneration. At the same time, it's as though she missed Nine so much that it seems in the beginning that she's not willing to give Ten a chance. By the end of the special, all that has changed, of course. I liked this special when I first saw it, but it has fallen somewhat in my estimation.

5. The Runaway Bride had many exciting moments, but in the end I breathed a sigh of relief when Bride!Donna didn't take Ten up on his traveling offer. She was just too upset throughout the special and didn't re-act well to anything that was outside her expectations. But having her call the Doctor on his actions and telling him that he could stop now, that was a great moment. I've always felt that Ten needed someone to do this (Rose and Martha loved him too much to disagree, perhaps), so when it was announced that Donna was to be brought back, I was skeptical at first. But by the end of PiC, I had certainly changed my mind; Donna had had time to learn, to change, to grow, and develop, and made a great companion. TRB doesn't do her character justice, so that's why it's on the bottom of my list of the Christmas shows.

Thank you so much for such a thoughtful and thorough response! I really appreciate it.

And Rosita would have made a kick-butt companion!

Rosita was very awesome. And resourceful, using that axe to save the two 'Doctor's at the beginning. If the Doctor were in a more welcoming mood, she probably would have gotten an invite.

Voyage of the Damned starts off with a bang and never lets up! Once again, the Doctor inserts himself into a situation fraught with potential trouble, and finds a way to save the day, and a cute possible new companion in the process. However, the Doctor's authority does get questioned (and does so again in Midnight), a realistic thing to see that probably ought to happen more often, and the possible companion who wants to have an exciting life instead sacrifices herself to save a planet and a people she barely knows anything about. Lovely but so sad.

Someone else who doesn't hate VotD! Yay!

Rose and Martha loved him too much to disagree, perhaps

I think that they both disagreed with him when they felt in necessary -- Rose confronts the Doctor in TUD, "Dalek" and they have a huge blow-out in "Father's Day" -- they didn't really need to hash all that much out in S2 because they'd already argued about the things they disagreed about in S1 (though we still get a couple of confrontations -- Rose in SR about past companions in particular). Rose doesn't have all that much that she needs to disagree with him about in S2.

And Martha is a bit more blinded by the Doctor's image, but she still stands up against him when her family gets put in danger.

*grins* Really, I didn't mean to write an essay, so to speak, but asking an English major to compare and contrast "things" is too much of a temptation. :) Although I probably didn't do all that much of that.

Rosita was awesome, oh yes! As you say, very resourceful! She cared very much for her Doctor and was always there to help save the day. The one thing I meant to say about her and left out was that several of my costuming friends that I watched the special with on Saturday were, like myself, a bit surprised by her garb. To this old SCA hand, it had late Renaissance stamped all over it. :) Her hair as well. So when DM was unmasked, so to speak, I was a bit surprised, as I felt sure that she was from the 17th century!

I know that some Victorians were quite mad for King Arthur and even created an organization similar to the modern SCA. Used to have a book on this. I must now wonder if Rosita wasn't part of one of those reenactor groups? (Really, of course, just one of the few costuming mistakes the BBC makes from time to time.) Or maybe there's more to the story of Rosita?

I liked VotD and didn't really understand why it was so disliked by a lot of fans. The British public gave it the best ratings of any New Who show, but that had a great deal to do with Kylie, I suspect.

I see your points about Rose and Martha and stand somewhat corrected. But I suspect that this is why I adored Donna so much, after she came back, because she was, IMHO, so much more willing to stand up to the Doctor, but perhaps too much so at times? Certainly the chemistry was very different between Donna and Ten, and Ten and any other companion. Donna liked to argue, I suspect. :)

Going back to Rose for a moment, I must say that the little bet in Tooth and Claw bothered me from the very first time I saw the episode. They were perhaps over-reacting from the excitement of meeting a Queen of the British Empire, and this one in particular, but Victoria did lecture them at the end, perhaps too sternly, but at the same time, some of the joking around could be seen, as the Queen did, as a bit too much. I just compare it to James Bond's quips at seemingly the most bizarre moments, like right after a gun fight, and can only think that it's a way of letting off steam, discharging an emotional build-up, that sort of thing. Really, all the Doctors could say the most seemingly strange things at time, that we the audience perfectly understood, but some of those around him could not make head nor tails of, and therefore took it the wrong way. Some of the throwaway comments that the Fourth Doctor made were just in this style. :)

For Martha, I must say that I thought that the show did her character a disservice with the unrequited crush on the Doctor. Other than that, she was rather awesome. :) I really thought that Ten should have treated her better, because she did so much for him that we had not, to the best of my knowledge, ever seen another companion do. Working as a house maid in the early 20th century for a few months, dealing with the turbulent 60s era while the Doctor worked out a way to get them back to the TARDIS, spending a year traveling all over the Earth to spread the news of the Doctor and how he could save Earth from the Master, some just amazing stuff. Certainly Martha could hold her own with any companion. :)

And I even have one VotD icon--it was too pretty not to use. :)

Doctor Who: Christmas Episodes Poll

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