Memorable, crazy movie

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

It is inevitable that there will be certain Doctor Who stories that will only really work upon a single viewing. There's the hype that surrounds the story or the plot twists that, once they occur, mean that the story will never be the same again. Due to those things, the 2008 Christmas special The Next Doctor was perhaps destined to be one of those stories.Thinking back nearly five years to 2008 is hard to do now: David Tennant had recently announced he was leaving alongside Russell T Davies, which left both fans and the press in particular speculating about who the new Doctor would be. In that atmosphere, The Next Doctor was a perfect fit especially once both the title and the Children In Need preview of the special's teaser sequence had been released. Hype though can be a double edged sword as can time itself, for with the perspective of time, the weaknesses of this special are all to apparent.Perhaps the biggest of those would be the conceit that lies behind its title. With the perspective of time, The Next Doctor feels like a story where the title came first and the script followed suit and both the weak plot as well as the aforementioned weak ending bare that out. The central conceit, that the tenth Doctor is meeting some amnesic future incarnation, quickly falls apart as Davies gives not so subtle clues about what's going on. So quickly does it fall apart that Davies gets rid of the whole notion less than halfway through, something else that perhaps speaks to his own acknowledgments of the weakness of it.From there, the other weaknesses are made more apparent. Driven by that central conceit, the story rushes along at a great pace with everything else falling by the way side. Beyond the character of Jackson Lake, roles such as Rosita and Miss Hartigan end up becoming caricatures rather than characters, one a caricature companion and the other a caricature villainess. Even the Cybermen, whose return was much trumpeted when the "Next Time..." clip was shown at the end of Journey's End, are reduced to being caricatures of themselves.There's the fact its got a weak ending. The Davies era was driven (by his own admission) by spectacle, of trying to top whatever had come before. While the idea of a giant steam punk Cyberman (sorry Cyberking) marching through Victorian London may have done that trick on the page at least in theory, the unconvincing CGI creation we got to represent it says otherwise. It's Undermining that weak idea is a weak ending. The ending consists of the Doctor in a hot air balloon first causing Miss Hartigan, whose controlling the Cyberking, to effectively go insane before using the rifle like Dalek Dimensional Vault to disperse the Cyberking in the time vortex before it comes crashing into Victorian London. It's rushed, it's covered by clichéd Who technobabble and it simply doesn't work. Indeed, there's something rather telling about the fact Davies himself has since acknowledged the problem of the ending and indeed suggesting an alternative version which might actually actually have given Miss Hartigan a chance to be more than the caricature we ended up with.That isn't to write off this special entirely however. There's David Morrissey's excellent performance first as "The Next Doctor" and then as Jackson Lake. It's his performance more than anything else that carries the conceit as far as it foes. Morrissey captures in a couple of scenes a potential future Doctor full of both the enthusiasm and the hints of pain that the Doctor's of the New Series have all had. It also helps that Morrissey and David Tennant share an excellent chemistry together with the two of them really carrying the story right up to its lovely final scene.Looked back on with a perspective of time, The Next Doctor feels like a missed opportunity. Not only would Morrissey have made a splendid Doctor (if his performance here is anything to go by) but given when this first aired, this could have been the perfect place to have introduced a new Doctor. Instead it feels like a one trick pony trotting around a publicity stunt. It's a shame really for it could have been so much more.

The "Next Doctor" while perhaps an adequate episode, is for me the least effective and the least memorable of the "Doctor Who" Christmas specials.The story has a familiar Christmas setting with shades of Dickens, from the Victorian setting to the orphans and the work houses, but it doesn't really seem to have the essence of the Christmas Spirit.The performances overall are OK, David Morrisey is good as the next doctor but David Tennant is a little too subdued in my opinion.The baddies for this episode just aren't inspired, we have seen plenty of Cyberrmen by now and the new Cyber creatures really do look just like guys in suits (harkening back to the classic series). Perhaps the biggest flaw lies in the lead antagonist Miss Hartigan. Her motivations while possibly working well to define the character do very little for the story.As with most of the specials that would make up the following season I really felt the lack of a companion affected the formula and chemistry of the show, there were some strong guest stars who sometimes filled the companion role to a lesser or greater degree but it wasn't enough.The "Next Doctor" seems to have all of the necessary ingredients to create a compelling episode but they just don't add up to what they could have.

this is a good episode and i enjoyed it but the dialogue was poor yet again by Russel t Davis and the direction was sloppy at times. this is essentially hard times but with a few twists; instead of a business man it's a cyberking and the setting is Victorian Britain, there's a labour force a lot like hard times and the new doctor is being hunted down by cybermen, a lot like gradgrind Jr. being hunted down by the business man. the performances are exceptional, considering the rushed and badly plotted script. David tenant plays his part to a tee and despite the previous comment it was consistent with his other performances and not over the top. morissey stood out and plays turmoil really well and his character resembles the turmoil of Louisa from hard times.if you like doctor who then this is a good story but if you don't and are just passionate about the art of film then avoid at all costs as this wasn't the serial's best. also in my opinion the best scripts of the series are written by Steven moffat even though some of his plots are flawed.

The Tardis lands in Victorian London at Christmas. Hearing someone calling his name, the Doctor rushes off, to find a young woman cowering in terror from something behind a locked door. A young man ( David Morrissey ) in Dickensian clothes appears, proudly announces himself as the Doctor, and takes charge of the situation...Another Christmas, another 'Dr.Who' Christmas Special. I enjoyed this one, but for a change I'll start this review by stating what I did not like about it. Firstly, the Cybershades were awful, reminiscent of the sticky tape and cardboard box monsters of the classic series. It was impossible to be unnerved by creatures that looked exactly like what they were - blokes in gorilla suits wearing coal scuttles. Worse, there was no need for them to be there. Cybermats could have been used instead. Secondly, the mystery of the 'next Doctor' was unnecessarily protracted. All the Doctor had to do was to whip out a stethoscope and listen to Lake's heart ( apparently such a scene was filmed but deleted from the finished broadcast ) to see if he was a Time Lord. Lake believed himself to be the Doctor after being exposed to a backfiring info stamp. Now we know Morrissey will not be the eleventh Doctor - thank heavens for that. Colin Baker was wrong when he said the role of the Doctor was 'actor proof'. The wrong person in the role would kill the show forever. Morrissey was hammy as 'the Doctor' yet first-rate as 'Lake'. Loved his 'sonic screwdriver'! His 'companion' was called 'Rosita' in a nice homage to Billie Piper's 'Rose'. The Cybermen seemed a bit wasted, getting to do little more than march about and look menacing. The scene in which they attacked funeral mourners was brilliant though, emerging through a snowstorm just as they did back in 1966's 'The Tenth Planet'. The real villainy came from sexy Dervla Kirwan as 'Miss Hartigan', easily the best female villain in the show for some time. She had joined forces with the Cybermen to help them construct a 'Cyber King', a giant Cyberman who proceeded to stamp Godzilla-like on poor old London Town.Why did the Cybermen need children to work in their factory? Surely adults could have done the job more efficiently.Tennant as ever performed wonders with what was basically an average script. The appearance of the earlier Doctors was nice, and there were some good jokes. As I said earlier, I liked this very much, and, following its repeat at Christmas 2010 ( presumably to take away the bad taste left by the appalling 'A Christmas Carol' ) enjoyed it even more. The Russell T.Davies era of 'Dr.Who' looks more and more impressive with each passing year.