Why so much hype?

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It's Christmas Eve 1851, and the Doctor lands, with no companion, he encounters Rosita, searching for her Doctor, who turns out to be David Morrissey. The Doctor thinks he's his future self, but certain things don't quite make sense, a pocket watch may hold the key. New Doctor explains the Cybermen are at work in the area, aided by local Miss Hartigan. At the funeral of the local Reverend Miss Hartigan turns up wearing a bold red dress, and a Cyber attack takes place on the gathered guests, killing some and rounding up select members. They then round the children into the workhouse, with one aim, re birth of the Cyber king.There are quite a few surprises in store, the Cybermen pop up in some unexpected ways.I think the scene when Miss Hartigan attends the funeral in that red dress is one of the most visual I can think of in the show's history, it looks so good. The episode rather a fun romp. Dervla Kirwan is rather brilliant as Miss Hartigan. I must applaud David Morrisey, no wonder he was touted to play the Doctor, he was so brilliant, I loved his performance. A slight tease as Morrisey was tipped to take over the reigns of the TARDIS at the time. A Christmasy Oliver feel, the Children, the Workhouse etc. Not so sure about the Cyber King, it's a little bit over the top. Overall it's fun and quite heart warming. 7/10

It is inevitable that there will be certain Doctor Who stories that will only really work upon a single viewing. There's the hype that surrounds the story or the plot twists that, once they occur, mean that the story will never be the same again. Due to those things, the 2008 Christmas special The Next Doctor was perhaps destined to be one of those stories.Thinking back nearly five years to 2008 is hard to do now: David Tennant had recently announced he was leaving alongside Russell T Davies, which left both fans and the press in particular speculating about who the new Doctor would be. In that atmosphere, The Next Doctor was a perfect fit especially once both the title and the Children In Need preview of the special's teaser sequence had been released. Hype though can be a double edged sword as can time itself, for with the perspective of time, the weaknesses of this special are all to apparent.Perhaps the biggest of those would be the conceit that lies behind its title. With the perspective of time, The Next Doctor feels like a story where the title came first and the script followed suit and both the weak plot as well as the aforementioned weak ending bare that out. The central conceit, that the tenth Doctor is meeting some amnesic future incarnation, quickly falls apart as Davies gives not so subtle clues about what's going on. So quickly does it fall apart that Davies gets rid of the whole notion less than halfway through, something else that perhaps speaks to his own acknowledgments of the weakness of it.From there, the other weaknesses are made more apparent. Driven by that central conceit, the story rushes along at a great pace with everything else falling by the way side. Beyond the character of Jackson Lake, roles such as Rosita and Miss Hartigan end up becoming caricatures rather than characters, one a caricature companion and the other a caricature villainess. Even the Cybermen, whose return was much trumpeted when the "Next Time..." clip was shown at the end of Journey's End, are reduced to being caricatures of themselves.There's the fact its got a weak ending. The Davies era was driven (by his own admission) by spectacle, of trying to top whatever had come before. While the idea of a giant steam punk Cyberman (sorry Cyberking) marching through Victorian London may have done that trick on the page at least in theory, the unconvincing CGI creation we got to represent it says otherwise. It's Undermining that weak idea is a weak ending. The ending consists of the Doctor in a hot air balloon first causing Miss Hartigan, whose controlling the Cyberking, to effectively go insane before using the rifle like Dalek Dimensional Vault to disperse the Cyberking in the time vortex before it comes crashing into Victorian London. It's rushed, it's covered by clichéd Who technobabble and it simply doesn't work. Indeed, there's something rather telling about the fact Davies himself has since acknowledged the problem of the ending and indeed suggesting an alternative version which might actually actually have given Miss Hartigan a chance to be more than the caricature we ended up with.That isn't to write off this special entirely however. There's David Morrissey's excellent performance first as "The Next Doctor" and then as Jackson Lake. It's his performance more than anything else that carries the conceit as far as it foes. Morrissey captures in a couple of scenes a potential future Doctor full of both the enthusiasm and the hints of pain that the Doctor's of the New Series have all had. It also helps that Morrissey and David Tennant share an excellent chemistry together with the two of them really carrying the story right up to its lovely final scene.Looked back on with a perspective of time, The Next Doctor feels like a missed opportunity. Not only would Morrissey have made a splendid Doctor (if his performance here is anything to go by) but given when this first aired, this could have been the perfect place to have introduced a new Doctor. Instead it feels like a one trick pony trotting around a publicity stunt. It's a shame really for it could have been so much more.

... And that is the DOCTOR WHO specials are festive frivolity lacking in hard drama and substance .I'm sure everyone was looking forward to this Christmas special especially when it was announced beforehand that David Tennant would be leaving the show . Somewhat intriguingly the underrated David Morrisey was one of the bookies favourite to succeed Tennant in the title role and with a title of The Next Doctor this special must be a type of turning point for the series right ? . Add to this the return of the legendary Cybermen and what could go wrong ? Quite a few things actually First of all was RTD's script which is just basically a runaround with several aspects involving an ice maiden villainess , modified Cybermen , a Cyber-king and children from the work house . But none of this really jells . In many ways the plotting resembles that of a Hollywood blockbuster with spectacle overkill replacing everything else . A giant Cyberman stomping across Victorian London might be a good concept on paper but on screen it can be surprisingly dull There's also an aspect of cheating too when it's revealed that Morrisey's " Doctor " isn't in fact a future incarnation of the timelord but is something entirely different . It's interesting to note how perceived fan wisdom preferred the " doctor " performance of Morrisey but I disagree since he just comes across as an equally irritating version of Tennant's mockney geezer which I dislike . Morrisey performance improves when his character realises he's a mere mortal human DOCTOR WHO Christmas specials have quickly become national institutions since December 2005 but while they are welcome , and not to mention are massive rating success , they lack substance and I hope the next special the intriguingly named Planet Of The Dead will live up to the title of special

The Next Doctor as a whole was "okay". The script was very dull. The saving grace was David Morrissey playing the said 'Next Doctor'. His performance was astoundingly good - really exceptional - he gave it all he had; but definitely wasn't OTT (like his counterpart). Mr Morrissey exhibited a quality well above this production, and it blew me away. I shall certainly be looking out for him in future. The stand-out factor of the show was the giant robot at the end rising from the Thames and stomping on Olde Worlde London; it really did look fantastic and the CGI dept did a very fine job indeed. The big aspect of the show that genuinely upset me was their use of a REAL graveyard to shoot a Cyberman group attack scene; it was covered with paper snow and the actors were running/falling all over the graves, which for me personally isn't acceptable for any production. The graveyard could easily have been constructed in a studio, thus negating this most disrespectful behaviour. Overall, not a bad show; however it was just the talent of David Morrissey and the giant robot that saved it, otherwise it would have been totally forgettable.