The Guardian: The Next Doctor

The Next Doctor: the first review
Gareth McLean

Having rushed to judge last year's Doctor Who Christmas special – and praised what I subsequently thought on second viewing was overblown and a little empty – I realise that you may view any critique of this year's offering with something approaching suspicion. I further realise that drawing attention to my misjudgment, made in the giddy afterglow of a razzy screening, may also lower your opinion of my opinions. Obviously, I'd say that admitting I may have made an error is actually a sign of strength rather than weakness. But then I would say that, wouldn't I?

Enough with the navel-gazing. Let us instead look to the stars and The Next Doctor, in which Davids Tennant and Morrissey battle Evil Dervla Kirwan (in a big red frock) and the Cybermen in snowy Victorian London. Needless to say, this special is a lot better than last year – a lot – and not just because David Morrissey is a magnificent actor and a lot easier on the eye than Kylie Minogue. For a start, The Next Doctor is about something. It has a proper story (as opposed to a surfeit of CGI), some lovely sharp lines and self-referential moments that, mostly, aren't self-indulgent. It also has a mean villainess in Kirwan's chilly Miss Hartigan, and did I mention that David Morrissey is magnificent? Well he is. Seeing him and Tennant together made me want to watch Peter Bowker's brilliant Blackpool all over again.

I would say The Next Doctor is pared down, but it would be difficult for it not to be after the frustratingly busy finale of the last series, which featured Rose, Martha, Donna, Sarah Jane, Captain Jack, Mickey and Jackie (and is surely available in a special And the Kitchen Sink box set). Indeed, the restraint of The Next Doctor – I realise that restraint isn't really a word you'd readily associate with the big, bold visions of Russell T Davies, so let me remind you that context is everything – could perhaps be a sign of things to come in 2009. Davies has said that in the next special the Doctor will be without a companion and without the Tardis – though how David Tennant's back injury will affect filming, which is supposed to begin next month, is anyone's guess.

Of course, The Next Doctor has flaws. Davies is expert in pushing emotional buttons and does so ruthlessly, which can get a little wearing. There are some extraordinarily sentimental moments, far too many urchins, holes in the plot plugged with lumps of expositional dialogue and then there's the overpowering music which, lest you're unsure, tells you precisely What To Feel and When. Furthermore, as baddies go, I'm not terribly fond of the Cybermen. I know they predate the Borg but as hive-mind villains go, Star Trek's are more terrifying, not least because they're uglier. That said, the sculptural Cybermen knock Voyage of the Damned's Max Capricorn into a cocked hat and global domination certainly beats insurance fraud as an evil raison d'etre. Meanwhile, those familiar with Buffy may be reminded of the climax of season six. (Make of the Hartigan/Hannigan interface what you will).

Those reservations notwithstanding, The Next Doctor is the best Doctor Who Christmas special yet, or is at the least on a par with The Christmas Invasion. It doesn't have the emotional scope of the Doctor and Rose's farewell in Doomsday but it's moving, funny, impressive and has a big, beating heart. Possibly two, in fact.