By Gina, with an assist from tempestsarekind
A spaceship hovers above a foggy planet where music-loving fish swim through the atmosphere, with the passengers' lives hanging in the balance until the man who controls the sky will agree to let it through.
How does any of this relate to Charles Dickens?
Glad you asked. The Christmas Carol episode of Doctor Who took the story of Scrooge -- or Sardick, as he was known here (played by the great Michael Gambon) -- and made it into a fascinating space-age tale with lots of time-traveling twists.
As some of you know, this was my first time watching Doctor Who. Yet I'm acquainted with so many adoring fans of the show, and have read so many of their online discussions about it, that I felt almost as if I were watching old friends. (I've asked one of those fans, who goes by the screenname tempestsarekind, to help me with this review. Special thanks to her for her insights!)
Regular cast members Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Arthur Darvill all performed as beautifully as advertised. Gambon and his fellow guest star, singer Katherine Jenkins, were excellent as well, with her sweetness providing a sharp contrast to his dourness. (Child actor Laurence Belcher, playing Sardick as a boy, got almost more screentime than Gambon did, and fortunately was up to the challenge.) Jenkins even got to favor us with a Christmas carol or two during the episode, as it turned out the fish -- including the occasional shark -- were especially drawn to her singing. You kind of had to be there. . . . Anyway, her voice is lovely and I enjoyed it as much as the fish did.
As for the story: Sardick is the sort of man who loans people money and then takes one of their family members as security, to be kept frozen in an underground chamber. You have to admit, this is even worse than the kind of thing the original Scrooge used to do.
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