The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe 15-episode set Region A/1 15-episode set Region B/2 Standard DVD 1-episode volume See below for purchasing options

(Doctor Who Story No. 230, starring Matt Smith) written by Steven Moffat directed by Farren Blackburn produced by Marcus Wilson music by Murray Gold 1 episode @ 61 minutes Story: After Madge Arwell helps to get a strange astronaut Doctor back to his police box, the Doctor returns the favour some years later by assuming caretaker duties for the country house that Madge and her children are evacuated to during wartime, and endeavouring to make this their best Christmas ever. What is the mysterious wintery forest world that his gift box opens onto? Will an economy-driven disaster soon wipe out all life here? And will Madge find the courage to tell her children the truth that they have lost their father to the war?

DVD Extras for this story on the 15-episode box sets include:

• Prequel scene (1 min.)

Christmas specials often seem at odds and at cross purposes with the main Doctor Who show, not to mention science fiction in general. Like its predecessor "A Christmas Carol" (story no. 218), this one appears to be abandoning Who staples and sci-fi credibility in order to do family-oriented feel-good holiday antics at all costs, at least for much of the beginning and middle of the story. But when it does finally figure out what it's really about at the climax and end, it greatly redeems itself by becoming profound and heart-warming.

I'm sure a lot of sci-fi buffs out there will rag on the ridiculousness of the Doctor chasing a spacesuit in the open vacuum of space during freefall towards the Earth. I'm going to let that go because: (1) Precedent for it was kind of set by "Four to Doomsday" (story no. 118) which was one of the first DW stories I ever saw and I've always liked it. Also (2) this spacesuit is not a familiar present-day NASA mock-up, it's a piece of survival gear designed by an advanced civilization, therefore why would it not have easy-to-activate extendable atmospheric shield bubbles similar to what the TARDIS has demonstrated since "The Beast Below" (story no. 209), and why wouldn't it have anti-gravity descent decelerators to assist in planetary freefall? After all, it's pretty advanced already with its medical rebuilding abilities. But, knock a point off of writer Steven Moffat's score for this episode for rushing through this segment without offering the audience any of these clues, and instead confusing them as to what constitutes real jeopardy in his story.

It's been so long since I read "The Chronicles of Narnia" book series that I can't really comment very much on how much this story has drawn from that series' most famous second book "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." I half remember how the first book related to a boy and a magic silver apple tree whose lumber was eventually used to construct the wardrobe, and in the second book, the wardrobe opening out into a forest. I also remember a line about the witch making sure that it was "always winter, but never Christmas." Never Christmas. And now it's a Christmas story? Hmmmm. I also remember loving these books, but not whether I actually finished the full series.

The Doctor, of course, calls his TARDIS a wardrobe in this adventure, but Moffat chose not to go down the obvious route and have it open out onto a new world. Instead, we get a specially designed Christmas present to do the trick. Well, I guess it better allows all of our protagonists to go through at separate times, rather than cramming them all into the console room during flight where the mother would probably have insisted upon aborting the adventure before it starts. We wind up without any TARDIS interior at all in this story. But in some ways, you have to wonder if the creation of the TARDIS itself wasn't inspired in part by the wardrobe in the Narnia books. Perhaps Moffat missed a classic opportunity here to have one mirror the other more directly.

Middling Doubts

Madge is about the only one that has a clear issue to work through, in dealing with the death of her husband and specifically in letting the children know. The second time I watched this through, I was reminded of something mentioned often about the film "Mrs. Doubtfire", in that it was praised for not putting a false fairy-book ending on the divorce between the two parents, and it managed to maintain a certain level of reality to the consequences of dealing with it. Was this Christmas Special about to cheat the consequences of dealing with a death in the family? One might think so.... if that was what the heart of this tale was really all about. But it doesn't quite put a stamp on that concept as its main thread. Get ready to rethink what this one is about.

After a long stretch of exploring this new world and figuring out its population, a section that doesn't quite rank as the most interesting or rewarding section of the tale, we finally get a glimmer of a central conflict to the story. Some refreshingly bizarre characters from Androzani Major (remember that place?) are here, about to inflict a ridiculous environmental catastrophe on the forest. Invoking the name Androzani immediately suggests that the motivation behind this is financial, and probably not the best way to use the natural resource. The name also suggests that this is an actual planet somewhere out in the universe in the future, rather than the odd realm of fantasy that it at first appears to be.

But even as we now have a conflict ripe for producing a good Doctor Who save-the-alien-planet plot, the Doctor rather listlessly never rises to the occasion here. He seems a bit too keen to run away safely with his new family of friends and let the forest burn. Why is Moffat keeping him in run-away mode instead of hero mode? Of all of the misdirections in this story, this is the one that misfired most for me. Though this nicely becomes the first in a long line of alien planets that the Doctor visits during the following Season 33, it also seems that this story has initiated a bit of a running gag throughout that season regarding the ill fates of all those planets. Not sure what was going on in the writers' heads there, in terms of whether this was deliberate, or just a series of accidents coming together by coincidence.

Space Time Victory

Steven Moffat has often got very bad marks from me regarding his handling of space time mechanics. This time, he gets 10 out of 10, as we wind up with an onscreen version of space/time navigation very reminiscent of those often described in the Montauk phases of the Philadelphia Experiment, in New Age channelings and literature, in reports of flying saucer operation, and elsewhere. If it challenges some members of the audience, then good. Think on it.

We also get a pretty darned good set of pointers on how to create your own reality, which is even more poignant than usual when done during a major space/time navigation event. Everyone's probably heard the mantra that thoughts create our reality, but many dismiss it because they miss out on steps like maintaining both a sharp focus, and a powerful emotional charge, much less taking appropriate action to insert oneself as a participant. The Doctor demonstrates really good coaching skills here regarding those points, a section which also allows him to reveal one of his own issues which we'll be coming back to.

And perhaps this story wasn't really meant to be so much about dealing with loss as it is about having the courage to share the truth with loved ones, and not place emotional investment in secrecy for fear that the truth will hurt them or disappoint them. This is a very critical fourth density principle, and Madge faces this firstly with herself and then with her children. And having resolved this issue, while going through a space/time warp, it's just conceivable that your wildest dreams might tag along and catch up with you. It all works well enough for my practiced New Age belief structure.

Only in the final coda does the Doctor deal with one of his own issues, making amends with Amy and Rory. How could this not move me, since I pretty much had the identical experience about a month prior to seeing this for the first time? Two friends I had not seen in a long time invited me into their home, and showed me great hospitality. Emotions I had forgotten how to have started coming back to me. Matt Smith really nailed that final scene perfectly for me, and it will always remind me of the great feelings of family and friendship that are worth pursuing and preserving and celebrating. And that's really what Christmas always should be about at its heart, should it not? This story goes out on a high that no other Christmas story has come close to yet.

Though this story is probably just a bit too aimless and frivolous in earlier portions to rank well in the grand scheme of Doctor Who, I'll gladly give it a lot of good points for cramming so many worthy elements into its climax, and happily give it a thumbs up. And to all, a good night!

International Titles:

Deutsch: "Sternenhimmel"

Magyar: "A Doktor, az Özvegy és a ruhásszekrény"

Français: "Le Docteur, la Veuve et la Forêt de Noël"

Русский: "Доктор, вдова и платяной шкаф"

Italiano: "Il Dottore, la vedova e l'armadio"

Season 33 Box Set 15 episodes

U.S. NEW for Sept. 24, 2013.

Canada NEW for Sept. 24, 2013.

Blu-ray U.S. NEW for Sept. 24, 2013.

Blu-ray Canada NEW for Sept. 24, 2013.

This 5-disc DVD box set includes 13 regular episodes, 2 Christmas specials, 4 audio commentaries, documentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and additional scenes. The Blu-ray version has identical content in high definition spanning 4 discs. This Region A/1 version (U.S. & Canada) is new for September 24, 2013.

Season 33 Box Set 15 episodes	U.K. NEW for Oct. 28, 2013.	Blu-ray U.K. NEW for Oct. 28, 2013.	The Region 2 box set has identical content to its North American counterpart, except that it also has one additional extra feature called: As Good as Gold This Region B/2 version (for the U.K.) is new for October 28, 2013.
The music CD is new for October 21, 2013. Check out this companion 1-disc Audio CD as well: Doctor Who: Original Music from "The Snowmen" and "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" (Christmas Specials 2011 & 2012) by Murray Gold More info & buying options (1-disc album)

Standard DVD: NTSC Region 1 - U.S. NTSC Region 1 - Canada PAL Region 2 - U.K.

Blu-ray: Region A/1 - U.S. Region A/1 - Canada Region B/2 - U.K.

DVD Extra features include: Prequel scene (1 min.) Documentaries discussing the previous 2 seasons, featuring actor Mark Sheppard (Canton Delaware) and no one else who is a part of the show: "The Best of the Doctor" (56 min.) "The Best of the Companions" (51 min.) "The Best of the Monsters" (44 min.)

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