karenor | don't expect much coherency.

This going to be just a random list, I think.

-Ok, first of all. Who's going to be the first to make a motivational poster of "The Doctor is NOT a messianic figure / You're doing it wrong"??? I ask you. Because I laughed. And facepalmed. For seriously.

-All right, I accept it. Doctor/Astrid is adorable. Kylie is a passable actress at best(better than I thought, though, actually), but they had good chemistry. I could buy the Doctor's angst this time too, coming as it did after so many people died. Poor Astrid.

-I was surprised whatshisface the asshole didn't get killed off and all the nice people ate it.

-Really, Rusty, what's with all the angel-hate on this show?

-Nods to previous Christmases? Pushed a wee bit too hard, I thought. I liked the deserted street bit, though. It was a bit tough to concentrate during that scene because I was like WEEEEEE I know where that is (and it's a long way from London, y'all). Astrid's enthusiasm was really cute.

-Really big flying thing about to crash into Buckingham Palace? A bit in poor taste. But hey, if they can destroy Downing Street, I guess it's ok. I laughed at the Queen's dogs.

-The Doctor kicking all sorts of ass and taking names? Fucking spectacular. Especially when it happened to show off his very tight trousers. *fans self* Tie didn't come undone till 38 minutes in, but hey, that's almost half the ep with an undone bow tie!

-The dramatic bio speech was ruined a little bit for me because i had to rewind something right before to figure out what someone said. That hasn't happened in a long time. Big thumbs down on the audio editing on this ep, in general. More than once I gave up trying to figure out what someone said, and more than once the music/dialog/sound effects mix was a bit off. It's not an accent problem, either. I understood Astrid Pehth just fine. heh.

-That said, I loved the 903 years old bit of the bio speech. Also him being the highest authority on the ship. I wonder how the hosts recognized that after creepy Max died.

-superpleased they didn't draw out the wtftitanicbbq! thing. That they established it as a pleasure cruise from far far away early on (before the brand new themesong, for which i have lots of squee). Mr Whatshisface with his speech about Christmas was pretty awesome too.

-poor Balacafalata or whatever. That's when I started to tear up.

-hah, unlucky Tux.

-is a million pounds enough for Mr Whatshisface to get by for the rest of his life? I actually expected the Doctor to say it wasn't enough. He'd probably have to move out to the country or something to have anything left to live on after buying a house. Suppose he could rent.

-Why do i let reality intrude when thinking about the last scene? I fancy if you look really hard, you can see me in the background in those city lights. Seriously. Right before the Doctor says Merry Christmas and Mr Copper (i just rewatched the last bit) is about to dance off into the distance... And now I finally know why he (who we lovingly dubbed Old Guy) was dancing around. We would be somewhere to the right of the lights of Roald Dahl Plass, where the water ends.

um... there were a lot of great moments. All in all, i don't think it quite lived up to my expectations, but i've been FLIPPING out for like six months, waiting, chomping at the bit. Comparing it to past Christmas Specials, though? I think it relied a bit to much on the flash. I still give it like a 7 out of 10, mostly based on how quickly the characters were all realized with very little setup. Props to the actors in this, and the writing, at least on that front. I'm watching you, Rusty. *shifty squinty eyes*

Have I become too cynical? I only sound like it. I really am really really squeeing still.