Doctor Who delivers the atheist skewed sci-fi horror we all need at Christmas

[rug]

Last edited Mon Dec 29, 2014, 05:37 PM - Edit history (1)

After the real-life Hunger Games of the Christmas shopping season, it was Doctor Who that packed the biggest festive punch with a moral message to boot



Nick Frost as Santa Claus and Peter Capaldi as the Doctor in the Doctor Who Christmas special. Photograph: Adrian Rogers/BBC

Jazz Twemlow
Sunday 28 December 2014 21.13 EST

Television is nothing more or less than a survival tactic during the festive season.

The phrase “Oh look, The Hobbit’s on” can momentarily distract a loved one from their Yuletide quest of waterboarding themselves with cranberry jelly and stuffing. Telly is also a good way to wind down from the real-life Hunger Games that is Christmas shopping, a sport that drops you, totally defenceless, into a shopping mall and demands you scale a mountain of produce – ahem, presents – by garrotting your fellow contenders with weaponised Christmas ribbon.

Perhaps that is television’s other appeal at this time of year: a chance to mentally detach yourself from the madness and stop asking so many questions. Why are we celebrating a humble baby’s birth by trying to gastronomically outdo Henry VIII between bouts of retail fever that would make Imelda Marcos blush? You might as well celebrate the life of Buddha by pouring gravy on an orgy.

Of course, the most traditional televisual offering of them all is the carol concert. Nothing quite captures the glory of God-made-flesh than two hours of singing punctuated by the occasional spruik for the network. Channels Seven and Nine were so keen to shoehorn participants from their various reality TV shows into their respective concerts this year, you’d be forgiven for thinking Jesus Christ was the first ever winner of Bethlehem’s Got Talent.

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/dec/29/doctor-who-delivers-the-atheist-skewed-sci-fi-horror-we-all-need-at-Christmas

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/dec/29/doctor-who-delivers-the-atheist-skewed-sci-fi-horror-we-all-need-at-christmas

It will be broadcast on BBC America on New Year's Eve.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/schedule/

[n2doc]

1. link doesn't work n/t

[rug]

3. It's just the BBC America schedule.

The episode will air !2/31/14 at 6:30 pm. Check your local listings.

[n2doc]

5. No, The Guardian link doesn't work for me n/t

[rug]

6. That's odd.

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/dec/29/doctor-who-delivers-the-atheist-skewed-sci-fi-horror-we-all-need-at-christmas

This one works but it's the same link.

I added it to the OP. This one works but the first, identical, one doesn't.

[n2doc]

7. ok thanks! n/t

[d_r]

2. I thought it was ok

But a little monotonous

[rug]

4. Where did you see it, BBC America?

[d_r]

8. yes

It was on Christmas night

[Gothmog]

9. I enjoyed the Christmas special

[rug]

10. That's good to hear. I'll watch the rerun on NYE.

[daleo]

11. The British have a genius for a sort of secularized religiosity, at Christmas

A Christmas Carol is an obvious example, as are the Dr Who Christmas shows.