Christmas Carol Special

First of all…NO NEED to wish me Merry Christmas as I am not Christian and therefore don’t celebrate Christmas …but Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it

Now…if I don’t celebrate Christmas, why do I make a Christmas Carol special? Well, the answer is because of Caroline @ Beauty Is A Sleeping Cat. She and Delia @ Postcard From Asia are hosting a Dickens in December. The idea is to read books by Dickens or watch movies based on his books. Well I am now reading A Tale of Two Cities, I hope I can finish it as I gave up with Oliver Twist years ago.

 

Today, December 21, is a Christmas Carol readalong event…unfortunately I couldn’t read one so I just shared two Christmas Carol specials…One is very funny while the other is very sentimental…and funny thing is both are Doctor Who related!! One played by the ninth Doctor and his companion while the other one is Doctor Who special.

Catherine Tate – Nan’s Christmas Carol

 

 This Christmas Carol special is taken from The Catherine Tate Show (2009).

Catherine is playing as Nan, a bitter and foul mouth old woman. Nan has no compassion at all toward other people, even one of her own relatives. Just like all Christmas Carol movies, Nan is visited by 3 ghosts; Ghost of Christmas Past (Ben Miller), the Ghost of Christmas Present (David Tennant), the Ghost of Christmas Future (Roger Lloyd-Pack). There’s nothing much to say about the story as we all know how it all goes. Nan is only touched by the Ghost of Christmas Future and decides to change her behavior.

What’s interesting about this Christmas Carol special is the comedy…it’s really funny without mocking the idea of Christmas itself. I was laughing so hard even on my second viewing. Nan keeps making fun at the ghost. She is a difficult person to convince. The ghosts also appear in a funny way. I love the way the ghosts appear, each has their own funny way.

I like Catherine ever since I saw her as Donna in Doctor Who (2008 series). She was the companion of the Tenth Doctor, who was played by the Ghost of Christmas present – David Tennant. Seeing Catherine as a bitter old woman is really fun and seeing David Tennant add extra fun. I love how David turns into a character who is obsessed with trendy clothes. He sort of reminds me of Noel Fielding with his tight jeans and outlandish outfit. David is soooo different to his Doctor Who character.

Nan (Cath Tate) and the Ghost of Christmas Present (Tennant)

I can easily say this is one of my favorite Christmas Carol adaptations…hilarious and still delivers the message. Fortunately I found the full video in youtube for you to enjoy

 

Doctor Who – A Christmas Carol

 

What can the Doctor do to save Christmas in the cold heart of Kazran Sardick?

I have promised that I will not touch Doctor Who till 2013 in order to give myself a chance to see other TVseries and movies. Once I see Doctor Who, I might find myself in difficult position to stop it…fortunately I managed to control myself last night

Steven Moffat is a GENIUS!!! He always fascinates me with his stories. When I know that this Christmas Carol special is written by Moffat, I straight away know that the show is going to be something unexpected and great. Moffat touched the emotional part of the corrupted character.

The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) has to help a spaceship caught in a strange cloud belt. The cloud is controlled by Kazran Sardick (Michael Gambon). Sardick is a cold hearted rich man who doesn’t care with other people. He lends money to people and as guarantee he keeps one member of the family in cryogenic state. The Doctor asked him to steady the cloud so that the ship with its 4000 passengers can land safely…but he doesn’t care if they all die.

Inspired by Christmas Carol by Dickens, the Doctor tries to change Sardick into a nicer man. He acts as the Ghost of Christmas Past. He visits the young Kazran and unintentionally makes him fall in love with one of the girls whom his father puts in cryogenic. But his love can’t change his decision to save the ship. As we all know, the Ghost of Christmas Future is the one who can change his heart…but it’s not Moffat if it all ends that simple. I love the way he presents the Ghost of Christmas Future…very unpredictable!!!

I can’t find the full episode in youtube, here’s the trailer:

Both TV specials are really good and I enjoy every bit of it. To be honest, out of all Christmas Carol movies I have seen…these two are my most favorite as they present it differently.

Have anyone else seen these two TV special?

Ps. Sorry I couldn’t join the readalong, Caroline. I hope these two specials can be a good excuse

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Update on my A Tale of Two Cities reading:

Unfortunately…I failed reading Charles Dickens for the second time. Language seems to be the barrier (again). I am the kind of reader who easily gets bored when the words do not transform into a kind of movie in my head. After 50 pages, all I had was words and those words wouldn’t stay together to create scenes in my head. They were like loose words on school text book. I think I am not cut out to read books from century where I haven’t been born yet.

So sorry Mr. Dickens…I guess it’s time for me to give up trying to read your book. But I still enjoy movies based by your books.

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