Doctor Who/Recap/2011 CS the Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe: Difference between revisions

[[File:The_Doctor_the_Widow_and_the_Wardrobe_7883.jpg|frame]]

 

 

[http://youtu.be/ieR9QumN-UE Has a prequel].

 

 

The Doctor is blowing up a space ship. This is a bad idea, [[Captain Obvious|because space ships are]] [[Department of Redundancy Department|generally in space]], so he has to quickly improvise with putting on a space suit ''after'' being thrown out of the ship by the explosion.

Of course, little Cyril sneaks out of his hammock and into the giant present a day early. He ends up in the [[Whoniverse]]'s equivalent of [[The Chronicles of Narnia|Narnia]]. It's wintery and gorgeous, and the trees look very Christmas-like, including decorative balls. Well, eggs. One of them bursts open, and Cyril follows whatever came out of it.

 

 

 

 

The statues in the tower are made of wood. Cyril is invited to sit on their throne and wear their crown. He's discarded, however, because he's "weak". When Lily and the Doctor arrive, the Doctor is quickly discarded by them as well, but Lily is considered "strong".

Bill Bailey informs Madge that they're a harvesting crew. The wood from the forest is the universe's best power source, and they're about to go melt the forest. With acid rain. Madge is shocked and tells them that they need to save her children before it's too late, but it's impossible: the mechanism is already in place and can't be stopped now. As a last-ditch resort, Madge begs to be allowed to pilot the mecha towards her children. She doesn't care that it takes years to learn: she was in her husband's plane once, and she's a [[Mama Bear]], and with those two things combined she can do ''anything''. The crew tell her that she's mad, but she absolutely insists.

 

 

As the acid rain starts, all hope seems to be lost, but the giant mecha comes stumbling out of the forest and towards the tower. It's piloted by Madge. The thing falls over, of course, but Madge manages to get out of the mecha and into the tower with only a ''few'' gaping acid holes in her coat. The trees latch onto her immediately. She's the strongest creature there is: a mother. As it turns out, the trees are speaking the universe's base language: "weak" means male, and "strong" means female, simply because females beget new life. Madge is quite happy to serve as the vessel for the trees and power up their transportation. The souls of the entire forest are absorbed into her head. She takes it extremely well. With the powerful thought of "home" to lock onto, the heroes and the tree collectively depart into the time vortex.

[[The Fast Show|Arabella Weir]] and [[The Sarah Jane Adventures|Alexander Armstrong]] have guest roles.

 

* [[Action Prologue]] / [[Lead In]]: The episode begins with the Doctor escaping an exploding spaceship. While this does lead to him meeting Madge, it's otherwise unconnected with the plot of the episode.

* [[Big Red Button]]: In the prequel, the Doctor has his finger on one. When he takes it off, the ship will explode.

* [[Blind Idiot Translation]]: Turns out that "weak" and "strong" are simply poor translations of {{spoiler|"male" and "female"}}.

* [[Big Brother Bully|Big Sister Bully]]: Lily comes across as one to Cyril at times.

* [[Call Back]]:

* [[Casting Gag]]: Alexander Armstrong (one half of the ''Armstrong and Miller Show'') is [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clips/p00cnssw/the_armstrong_and_miller_show_raf_pilots_enigma once again a WWII RAF pilot].

* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: Madge is able to drive the robotic walker to the lighthouse because the control panel resembles that of a plane, which Reg taught her to fly once.

* [[Christmas Episode]]

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Madge comes across as a bit of one, and the Doctor is in rare form.

* [[Cool House]]: The Doctor "repairs" the estate in several ways. The sitting room has bumper car chairs, the kitchen has a lemonade faucet, the kids' room has everything but beds (can't fit everything, after all, so it has hammocks), and the Christmas tree is motorized in several places. Oh, and he set up a portal to a forest of living trees inside a box as a present.

* {{spoiler|[[Everybody Lives]]}}

* [[Genre Savvy]]: All of the soldiers at first don't take Madge holding a gun on them very seriously, [[Oh Crap|until she mentions that]] [[Mama Bear|she's looking for her children]].

* [[George Jetson Job Security]]: The Doctor royally screws up his caretaker job with the present portal (although in his defense he didn't count on Cyril opening the present early). Leads to this:

'''Doctor''': Oh. }}

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: When the Doctor mentioned he can't take off the impact suit (which is on backwards) because it's repairing him, Madge asks if it might accidentally repair him backwards as well. The first thing he checks is his crotch.

* [[Happily Married]]: Madge and Reg.

** {{spoiler|Amy and Rory, who are still together after two years.}}

* [[Indy Ploy]]: The Doctor gives advice to the effect of "hold on and pretend it's a plan."

* [[Just Plane Wrong]]: Avro Lancasters did not see active service until 194''2'', while the special is set in 1941.

* [[Little Miss Snarker]]: Lily.

* [[Mama Bear]]: Madge. (And to an extent, Lily.)

'''Head Soldier''': (suddenly looks quite convinced he might get shot) }}

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: The montage of the Doctor showing Madge and her kids the modifications he made to the house (which is almost magical in a way) comes to an abrupt end when Madge yells at the Doctor. And then, after she and the Doctor talk in private, ''that'' is interrupted when the children become overjoyed when seeing the Christmas tree the Doctor set up.

* [[No Antagonist]]: None of the factions which appear in the episode are actually antagonists, even if it does not appear this way at first. The harvesters are unable to do anything to help the other characters, and {{spoiler|the trees are only trying to save their race. The main characters even cooperate with them at the end and they part ways without either side being harmed}}. This is quite a contrast to all previous christmas specials, as well as most other episodes.

** This obviously ignores the big spaceship seen in the opening, but they barely have any effect on the main plot anyway...

* [[Oh Crap]]: The lead interrogator says that he knows there's no way Madge will ever shoot him. And then she tells him that [[Mama Bear|she's looking for her children]]...

* [[Outrun the Fireball]] / [[Out of the Inferno]]: The Doctor, when escaping the spaceship in the opening.

* [[Reality Ensues]]: After his spacesuit helmet gets stuck the wrong way round, the Doctor instructs Madge to simply help him get to a police box. After she does so, he remembers that it's the 1930s and there are ''real'' police boxes around.

* [[Running Gag]]: The Doctor looks great in a hat.

** The foot of the walker landing in front of Madge is reminiscent of the leg of the AT-AT landing near Luke in [[The Empire Strikes Back]].

** Cyril looks an awful lot like Ralphie from a Christmas Story, which may or may not be intentional

* [[Sleeping Dummy]]: Cyril sets one up when he sneaks downstairs to open the present early, so Lily won't realise he's gone.

* [[Tempting Fate]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|"There are sentences I should just keep away from."]]

** Madge, upon seeing Reg reading about the war looming in the paper:

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: Even before Madge takes over the [[Humongous Mecha]] to save her children, she pulls a gun on her three interrogators. "Crying's so useful, isn't it?"

** What happened to the other people aboard Reg's plane?

'''Billis:''' Doesn't mean there's no visual. }}

* [[When Trees Attack]]: The Wooden King and Queen who live in the forest. Ultimately a subversion, as {{spoiler|all they want is to save the souls of their race.}}

** [[Inspiration Nod]]: The Doctor directly quotes Professor Kirke: "What ''do'' they teach in schools these days?"

* [[Women Are Wiser]]: The female interrogator, while still bumbling, seems slightly more logical and calm under threat. Madge chats with her passively while insisting the other two can't be trusted.

 

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[[Category:Recap]]