Xmas doesn't come early

Not to get into a habit, but I seem to be damning things with faint praise this season, and Xmas is no real exception. Disappointing after the excellent finale to season 3, but maybe to be expected - since when could Kylie Minogue have topped John Simm in the great guest star stakes?

The main thing I recall about the episode is that the effects and the pacing are brilliant. Truly they are, but at what sacrifice? The story, the acting and point all miss the mark and were decidedly average. Not bad, not terrible and not the end of the world. Just average. A victim of great expectations. Previous specials were good, even great compared to what I expected. I thought, wrongly that Catherine Tate would be the ruin of '06 yet she was not - I really enjoyed the Runaway Bride. So I expected it to be bad because of the Kylie's presence, which I then translated to mean they would save it from being crap like before. And they did, they stopped it being crap, but not from being bland.

The survivial instinct of the supporting cast became lemming-like at the drop of a hat. What a bodycount there was this year, and mostly unecessary. The pantomine villain was not threatning, the angels looked a bit too much like they belonged as a gay-bar background prop. Perhaps this was more to make Kylie at home rather than fit the story?

And the historical accuracy and the inaccuracy were ludicrous. They make a pitch perfect Titanic replica, but stuff up the meaning of Xmas? Literature, movies, books etc would have provided a million times more information on Xmas over the ill-fated cruise ship, so why the obvious culture jokes? It did not sit that well, and felt lazy.

The lovable fat people, the detestable rich snobs, the professor and the young seaman hero (who gets a crippling gunshot would and recovers remarkably well to do loads more) were all cardboard cutouts. Even the red dwarf (an in joke perhaps?) was silly, as they tried to do the whole android rights/gay marriage thing in such a short time that it was stuck on with gaffer tape. The Queen was equally unecessary and trite.

The ship, beatifully rendered, the action shot well and delivered in a cracking pace. David Tennant was great and you can see why he goes back for Donna in Season 4, it's painfully obvious and thankfully overdue to return to a distance of the relationship with the companion. Oh and Bernard Cribbins, 40 odd years later in Dr Who again, nice cameo.

Disappointing for all the wrong reasons.

Oh well, only a couple of weeks to Torchwood.