Doctor Who: Best And Worst Story Of Each New Who Doctor
5. Eleventh Doctor - Worst: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe
The Eleventh Doctor's era is not without its rocky periods. While it is filled with fantastic episodes like “The Eleventh Hour”, “The Pandorica Opens” and “The God Complex”, it is also home to several episodes that would have been good choices for this spot. “The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood” is a disappointing and derivative reintroduction to the Silurians, “The Power Of Three” has good comedic moments but a bafflingly awful ending and “The Wedding Of River Song” which is so forgettable it is almost as if season six has no finale.
Ultimately though, the lowest point of the Eleventh Doctor is his second Christmas special, “The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.” Matt Smith is in full-on overacting mode in this performance to a point where his usually charming mannerisms are painful to watch. In theory the episode hinges on an incredibly emotional pivot; the death of Madge’s husband and her reluctance to tell her children, but somehow the emotional beats don’t quite hit. None of that matters ultimately as the whole tragedy is eventually reversed through the power of wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimyness.
Along with “The Long Game” this episode also wasted its guest stars who appear briefly as a team of Androzani soldiers who warn Madge that the forest is about to burn in a storm of acid rain and then promptly teleport out of the episode.
“The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe” does get one plus though for the emotional reunion between The Doctor and the Ponds at the end of the episode.