A dark Christmas in the Square -- and in the Tardis
- Publication: The Times
- Date: 2009-12-26
- Author: Tim Teeman
- Page: 9
- Language: English
Doctor Who BBC One ★★★★☆
For Doctor Who, this was never going to be a quiet farewell. Russell T. Davies, the writer who resuscitated the Doctor, and David Tennant, the most popular actor to have recently inhabited the role, are leaving the show but not before the time traveller has faced his biggest challenge yet — inevitable global apocalypse, the reappearance of his great foe, the Master (John Simm), and the return of the Timelords of Gallifrey. That's some triple whammy. Just in case you were in doubt, the National Orchestra of Wales belted out the swooshing incidental music at a foundations-rocking volume.
If you're an occasional viewer of Doctor Who, all that noise and dense plot may have left you grasping for immediate interne, or expert, back-up. The Master had died, but no, he hadn't, and he was summoned back into life by his widow, before she extinguished him again. But he came back anyway, ravenously hungry and leaping huge distances with a face that morphed into a skull. The Doctor tried to stop him, but by the end the Master had taken charge of an "immortality gate" — and used it to replicate himself as every person in the world, including Davies's most audacious character, Barack Obama. So Simm, roaring and spluttering between confusion, lunacy and power-craziness, is now the leader of a whole world of Masters, male and female, black and white, made in the image of himself — male, white and blond. June Whitfield and her OAP detectives, the Silver Cloak, dusted the drama with camp. One of their number, the wonderful Bernard Cribbins, played the Doctor's assistant, admonishing Tennant that the Tardis needed a good clean. Cribbins plays the grandfather of Donna (Catherine Tate), who must not see the Doctor again or she will die, but it looked as if some dangerous old memories are about to resurface for her. The New Year's Day episode will be Tennant's last. A cymbal-crashing, yet elegiac, end beckons for next Friday.
Caption: Tough future: Dr Who (David Tennant) in trouble
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- APA 6th ed.: Teeman, Tim (2009-12-26). A dark Christmas in the Square -- and in the Tardis. The Times p. 9.
- MLA 7th ed.: Teeman, Tim. "A dark Christmas in the Square -- and in the Tardis." The Times [add city] 2009-12-26, 9. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Teeman, Tim. "A dark Christmas in the Square -- and in the Tardis." The Times, edition, sec., 2009-12-26
- Turabian: Teeman, Tim. "A dark Christmas in the Square -- and in the Tardis." The Times, 2009-12-26, section, 9 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=A dark Christmas in the Square -- and in the Tardis | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/A_dark_Christmas_in_the_Square_--_and_in_the_Tardis | work=The Times | pages=9 | date=2009-12-26 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=12 March 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=A dark Christmas in the Square -- and in the Tardis | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/A_dark_Christmas_in_the_Square_--_and_in_the_Tardis | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=12 March 2025}}</ref>
