Doctor Who: 10 Brilliant But Overlooked Moments In NuWho
4. The Doctor’s Whistle-Stop Tour - The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe
The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe is one of Steven Moffat’s most unpopular Doctor Who episodes. Back in 2011, its fairytale-feel, C.S Lewis inspiration and the absence of a physical villain underwhelmed many Whovians, who were banking on some exploding Daleks to make their Christmas Day.
However, the episode is heartbreaking and heartwarming and deserves some love.
In particular, the sequence in which the giddy Eleventh Doctor gives the Arwell family a tour of the house should be praised for how it contrasts the unadulterated joy of Christmas with the sorrow of losing a loved one.
The Doctor’s whistle-stop tour is packed with humour and is elevated by the delightful chemistry Matt Smith has with child actors. Everything is bursting with energy and, hats off to Moffat, the concept of a lemonade tap is ingenious.
The chaos diffuses when Madge sends the children downstairs and tells the Doctor that her husband has died in the war. This moving interaction between the pair features some of the best dialogue Moffat ever wrote for the show and a performance from Claire Skinner which proves how spot-on the casting was for this episode.
Madge’s Theme introduces an air of fragility and pulls on our heart strings, as we tear up over the Doctor’s brief speech on the children’s happiness.
In a nutshell, this sequence makes us both laugh and cry… and isn’t that exactly what Doctor Who at Christmas should do?