Watch Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The Capaldi era of DW has been an especially dark and morbid one, and DW Christmas specials in general tend to be grim, heart-rending and horrific, so it came as a surprise that this one turned out to be such a comparatively lighthearted (if gruesome) story full of slapstick and corny jokes. Despite the fact that the episode continued the miserable Capaldi-era convention that the Doctor must be continually enthralled and tormented by a swaggering dominatrix, I was enjoying the fact that at least it was a different one this time, since I was good and sick of Clara by the time we were dragged through that last heavy-breathing farewell scene between her and the Doctor. But then the fun hit the wall and we were back in angsty death territory, with River begging the Doctor to extend her waning lifespan. I guess the Doctor's compensation for having to play the straight man to a cadre of saucy female female impersonators is that he gets to play God and have them pray to him. This show has definitely strayed into unhealthy territory. There are kids watching!

The first 35 minutes of this episode are so so. As the episode goes, it improves until about the 36-37 minute mark where things begin to really look up in terms of quality. This all builds to a marvelous, brilliant, and tear-jerking finale. Hearing music from Silence in the Library, the doctor gifting River the screwdriver from the aforementioned episode, and the implied sentiments at the conclusion, create an amazing end to what would have otherwise been a mediocre episode. It leaves me wishing that the rest of the episode had been as brilliant..... If it had, it would have been one for the ages. The episode was well scored, filmed, and the dialog was, for the most part, great. All in all, one of the better Christmas specials.

I think for the majority of people the most recent season of Doctor Who was not all it could have been – although the reasons are different depending on whom you are speaking to. Part of this is due to the season feeling ill at ease with what it is trying to do – delivering plots that ask for a knowledge of episodes from decades ago, but yet still very much being 'Nu Who'; having darker elements but yet still copping out of them, and so on. It was a season that I found as much to like as I did to dislike and it was rather uneven in its tone and content. So the usual Christmas Special was a worry – particularly since it is always a bit of a dice-roll in terms of quality.To be fair though, the special is the opposite of the season that had gone before it; not because it was lighter and easier to enjoy (although it was) but simply because it seemed to know precisely what it was doing, how it wanted to do it, and how long it wanted to do it for. The plot is a solid adventure one; it has comedy, danger, some silliness, and it ends on a nice note which doesn't totally overdo the sentiment. Of course the plot is somewhat daft, but this is Doctor Who on Christmas Day, so the important thing is that it has enough about it to support the daftness, the comedy casting, and the Christmas clichés being worked into it. Personally I though it did, and the material kept things moving along with a sense of fun but not being stupid enough that I didn't care.And this is not to say that I wasn't tested by some of the convenient or silly writing (for instance the robot being defeated by the moneyball which the Doctor happened to have drop into his lap at that second), but it does carry itself with enough energy and fun to more or less forgive it these weaknesses. The performances are a big part of this happening. Capaldi seems to enjoy himself, and his sarcasm and slightly dour edge is nicely used (the scene where he gets to do the 'wow, its bigger on the inside' thing is a lot of fun). Although I am not a great fan of her character all the time, Kingston works with Capaldi very well here, and the two enjoy themselves. Outside of them everyone else is support and does decent jobs – even Lucas was a lot less annoying than I had assumed he would be when he first popped up.I'm not really sure anymore what I want Doctor Who to 'do' as a show, and the whole modern era seems quite uneven and changeable when you look back over it – so I will not draw any big conclusions or make sweeping statements following this special. That said, although I would not want every episode to be like this, I did enjoy the energy and commitment of this special; it seemed to know what it wanted to do and, although it came with all the usual problems, it mostly sold them and made it work by virtue of being entertaining – which is really good enough some times.

OK so after last year's Christmas offering I will admit my expectations for this year's were rather high, coupled with the return of Professor River Song I had high hopes. The serious tone of Series 9 was scrapped in favour of a more upbeat, comical outing for Capaldi. Whilst the story itself isn't one that will make you want to put it on frequently, it did have the festive spirit. Commedians Matt Lucas and Greg Davies delivered their lines with good humour, but it was the scenes between Capaldi and Kingston that shone, the last 5-10 minutes or so I thought were fantastically well done, truly moving and beautifully acted, the pair combined beautifully together. The biggest disappointment for me was that there was no mention of the next series, that omission left me a little flat. Overall a great way to enjoy the mice pies and a glass of brandy. 7/10