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Two Doctors vs. the Cybermen, and where is Jonny Sokko when you need him?

In his first post-Donna Noble adventure, the Doctor lands the TARDIS in a remarkably clean-looking Victorian England, and almost immediately finds himself replaced by an apparent successor (David Morrissey) who calls himself the Doctor, has a pretty assistant called Rosita (Velile Tshabalala) and even a sonic screwdriver. Is it a future regeneration or just some poor sod with delusions of Doctor-hood? The answer isn’t too hard to figure out, and while writer/producer Russell T. Davies is up to some of his old tricks again, “The Next Doctor” is a generally enjoyable yuletide tale that is better than most of the DW Christmas Specials, although that’s really not saying much.

Released to DVD out of order, “The Next Doctor,” as noted, was the 2008 Christmas Special, and broadcast several months before “Planet of the Dead,” which nevertheless made it’s DVD debut first, in July. As we begin, the Doctor lands on Christmas Eve, 1851, and is almost immediately embroiled in a plot involving the Cybermen, and is confronted with a man calling himself the Doctor (Morrissey). At first suspecting this is a future regeneration (based on the man’s knowledge and bravery), he begins to suspect something more ominous. Meanwhile, Victorian lady Mercy Hartigan (Dirvla Kirwan, wonderful) has colluded with the Cybermen, and taken control of the administrators of several orphanages, in order to supply her masters with a kiddie workforce. As with all things involving the Cybermen, however, things are never quite as simple as they seem. It climaxes with a gigantic Cyber-robot stomping his way, Godzilla-style, across London.

“The Next Doctor” is nothing if not freewheeling, and writer Russell T. Davies makes good use of the emotional turmoil Morrissey’s character is experiencing. Wisely not stretching out the “is he a Time Lord or isn’t he?” question beyond the first fifteen minutes or so, the story has a nice forward thrust that keeps the proceedings fairly breathless. Which isn’t to say that it doesn’t have it share of dumb stuff, because it does. Exactly what the children are doing is never made clear; it’s something to do with generating power for the robotic Cyber-King, but most of them are recruited seemingly about five minutes before the robot rises from the Thames – is it really that quick of a job? And given that the Cybermen clearly have mind-control facilities, wouldn’t it be more effective/efficient to draft a small army of adults to do the work? Victorian London certainly had its share of disaffected men and women that would scarcely have gone missing were they recruited to the cyber-mines. The so-called “Cyber-shades” are apparently supposed to be the Cyber version of a guard-dog (or possibly a more mobile version of the old Cybermat critters) but they just look like what they are: a guy in a shaggy suit wearing a slightly modified cyber-mask. They aren’t in the least bit frightening or effective, they’re just dumb. And of course, there’s absolutely no fallout from a gigantic robot stomping its way across Londontown, and that minor fact never seems to have made its way into the history books. Funny that.

Director Andy Goddard – making his Who debut after helming some of the less-awful episodes of Torchwood, gets the most out of Russell’s goony script, and pretty much saves the day. The period details – while ridiculously non-grimy/gritty/dirty, definitely an idealized “TV” version of Victorian England – are sumptuously rendered, and he forges some sublime imagery, especially making the most out of the idea of Cybermen invading a snow-covered graveyard (which also hearkens back to their very first appearance, in William Hartnell’s final story, “The Tenth Planet,” where they first appeared emerging from a snowstorm), and the Cyber-King giant-robo is just too retro-goofy-cool for words. The pace never flags, and all the performances are perfectly tuned. It looks so good and moves so well that you’d be forgiven for dismissing the script’s shortcomings and excesses (well, mostly – the “let’s all thank the Doctor” moment is just too cringe-worthy for words). Let’s hope that the Goddard is retained in the new Moffat era of the series.

Surprisingly, there is no sign of the ubiquitous Doctor Who Confidential associated episode on the DVD, and in its stead is the oddly-named Doctor Who Proms, an in-concert performance of much of the series’ incidental music, so named because it is part of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral concerts held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington, London, hence “Proms” for short. Hosted by the always-lovely Freema Agymen, this hour-long special is really only for hard-core fans of Murray Gold’s music, although there are some cute bits, such as monsters from the series wandering around in the audience (mostly just creature suits like Cybermen and Judoon, but at a couple of points some of the actual actors – including Julian Bleach as Davros and Dan Starkey as Sontaran Commander Skorr – show up to lend some verisimillitude) and a brief pre-filmed bit with David Tennant in character as the Doctor (his only appearance in the special) introducing a segment called “Music of the Spheres.” As concert films go, this is reasonably well-filmed and non-objectionable, but may be better as background entertainment rather than requiring your full attention.

“The Next Doctor” is fairly middling NuWho in the grand scheme, but is undeniably gaudy and entertaining, and apparently that’s all the Brits want out of their Christmas specials. It’s certainly better than the subsequent “Planet of the Dead,” and doesn’t have quite the “Is David Tennant still hanging around?” vibe that seems to have settled over the series for many fans. Ten bucks for a single episode seems a little steep (especially given that there is almost certainly going to be a collected set of these interim “specials” once they’ve all aired), but if you need a NuWho fix, this one gets higher marks than “Planet,” for what it’s worth.

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