Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

by Courtney Hilden

Most of the episode's spoilers are unrevealed in this review.

By now, even Americans are well-aware that Doctor Who, the alien traveler who takes humans as companions, has their own Christmas special. This Christmas, the Doctor, Amy and Rory headed out to a strange planet where the clouds have to be controlled and where the sky swims with fishes and sharks. In an attempt to save a crashing spaceship, the Doctor has to work on the miserable old man who controls the sky by going back into his past and changing his childhood.
As usual, the crew who worked on set design deserve a huge award for the episode, which was beautifully constructed. The planet was phenomenal and strange. The fish were a wonderful touch to a planet that otherwise seemed like a vaguely steampunk remake of last year's Christmas speical Dickens-esque London.
The delightful episode had lots for older, sci-fi fans, like with the spaceship that was meant to emulate the Bridge in the most recent Star Trek movie. The nerd references continued, with discussion of how you can tame the sky (Firefly perhaps?) and with "Bored Now" (a classic quote from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)
Matt Smith gave a wonderful, energetic, manic performance. His bon mots were inspired and delivered perfectly. Casting him and his Doctor as the Ghost of Christmas Past (and later Christmas Future) was a good idea, because, more than any other character, he lives in the past. Smith works magic with children, and his interactions with child!Sanders was more of two children talking to one another than an adult (alien) and a child. David Tennant's Doctor, for all his silliness, gave off the air of being adult and filled with adult desires. There is something strangely adolescent about Smith's performance, one that has desire but is still terribly confused by it. This is a fascinating touch to add to a character, one that has made watching the Doctor more psychologically penetrating.
Michael Gambon's performance, unsurprisingly, was made of win. He made a great Scrooge-like character. Unfortunately, the only sad thing about this episode was how little we saw of Rory and Amy, and the complete lack of everyone's favorite character, River Song.
The trading of a woman's body was incredibly creepy. Anthropologists have documented the way in which women's bodies have been traded throughout societies, and the unanswered question of what Mr. Sanders would do with this young lady's body went unanswered. They showed us where they went (a frozen storage facility.) Sanders strange infatuation with Abigail taken as "security" also emphasizes the anthropological theory of women as a sexual trading object.
As a finaly note: Does anyone know where I can get a sonic screwdriver to float in my fish bowl?

Two Essays on The Wizard of Oz

by Courtney Hilden

Salman Rushdie, the author of books such as The Satanic Verses, writes about The Wizard of Oz, the movie that everyone loves in two short essays "A Short Text About Magic" and "At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers" in a short book called, naturally, The Wizard of Oz.
"A Short Text About Magic" explores the world of The Wizard of Oz comparing it, interestingly enough, with Bollywood films, with Rushdie, an Indian native, is familiar with.
Rushdie also gives the audience some fine trivia as part of his essay. He discusses the differences between the movie and book, including the ruby slippers originally being silver shoes. He discusses the story of the actors and actresses who played the Munchkins. He even tells the audience about how the tornado that transports Dorothy to Oz was made. (Muslin stiffened with wire, naturally.) The one detail he wishes the movie hadn't changed was the realism of Oz itself, explaining that within the original book, there was no question that Oz was a real place, but in the movie, it is simply make-believe. Rushdie believes this introduces "bad faith" into the audience, and is a pity that it did so. Rushdie here ignores the way most viewers construct the film: they ignore the suggestion it was all a dream and see it as a place that exists beyond what most humans can see, like other mythical places in modern literature, notably Hogwarts or Alice's Wonderland.
Rushdie also explores the women of the film, concentrating much of his time comparing the witches of the story. He notes that the Witch of the East (the one who dies in the beginning of the movie) was probably not much of a despot, since the streets were clean and homes well taken care of and that she didn't rely on soldiers of any kind to keep her world safe.
"At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers" is less an essay in the traditional sense and more a (possibly fictional) exploration of what the ruby slippers mean to an unnamed narrator. Rushdie is famously part of the magical realism movement within fiction, and this story/essay/whatever is not different, moving through with a dreamlike pace and tone. There are lots of details, but they feel random, as if plucked from a generator.
Both pieces feel strangely nice together in this tiny little package. It was a dream reading both of these essays, and both complement and contain the magic of their subject.

Hitting the Ground

by Courtney Hilden
Spoiler Alert!: Some of the surprises, though not the very last one, are revealed in this review.

First off, what a great opening. It was wonderful that we finally killed off one of the most annoying characters: Lorena. The blood was both delightful and perhaps a little too much, though it prepared the audience for the end of the episode.
It's a good and a bad thing that they changed this part of the story. In the original novel, Sookie rescues Bill by herself, which is a nice moment of girl power. But later on, she gets trapped in a car's trunk and raped by Bill, in the most anti-feminist moment of the series. Seeing that the show also fell into a similar trap was very disappointing. The only thing that was an improvement about this was that Tara was smart enough to dump Bill off and take Sookie to a hospital. (Characters should really spend more time there anyway, given the nature of this show.) But it's even more troubling that the only person who could 'save' her was her rapist. For a show that's suppose to be progressive, it seems fixated on women being helpless and submissive to men.
There's a lot of other moments where women are forced into very uncomfortable moments. Sophie-Ann has decided to take the marriage proposal of Russell, which might be more acceptable if she wasn't so clearly powerful herself. Even though she is a Queen, she is unable to control her own life.
Props for great performances this episode including Debbie Pelt for giving a scary monologue. She's going to be around for a little longer, and that monologue, with the light clearly out of her eyes, was great. Lafayette once again is the best character on this show. Watching him be the strength is this strange family is so uplifting in a very sad show. Lafayette is exactly who any sane person would want in their corner. Pam also gave the sort of performance that will stay with the audience for the next few episodes. Her sense of humor while being tortured was great.
It's nice that they're trying to give Jason more to do, but it doesn't really work. Jason trying to "evolve" just highlights how unevolved he is. Hoyt, on the other hand, is still adorable. His devotion to Jessica is so sweet. Which makes it all the sadder for Summer, who is probably going to get her heart broken.
In the disappointing category this episode was the heaven vision that Sookie had. It didn't actually give the audience or Sookie much information, other than her parents were not killed by water. (Could the writers not think of a more creative way to do this?) Even if this moment does pan out later in the story, this was the most trite way to deal with this.
As to what it is about Sookie Stackhouse, my theory is that she is some kind of rare supernatural creature, like the Maenad from last season, which is why she is always blasting other supernatural creatures with the power thing. It's also why she doesn't have a blood type, which makes her especially delicious to vampires (because she taste like no other human there is.)