2011 Christmas Trailer Breakdown
So let’s take a closer look at the first trailer for this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special, The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe.
The trailer opens with a bang. The Doctor running away from an explosion, which he’s surely used to it by now.
We then see Madge Arwell (Claire Skinner) who has spotted something.
Madge looks into a large crater in the ground. There’s someone in a space suit face down inside. We know from filming that the Doctor wears this at some point.
“England, 1941… and there’s a war on.”
Alexander Armstrong as Madge’s husband, Reg, an RAF pilot. During filming, Armstrong mentioned shooting a scene in a Lancaster. If Madge is the widow of the title, that would obviously mean Reg won’t make it out of this alive. Or at least she thinks he is dead.
This will be the “draughty old house in Dorset” mentioned in the synopsis then.
“Is it haunted?”
We see Madge’s children, Cyril (Maurice Cole) and Lily (Holly Earl).
“Who are you?”
“Usually called the Doctor, or the Caretaker, or Get Off This Planet!”
“That man is quite ridiculous.”
“I know.”
“We must stay away from him.”
Something draws Cyril out of his room.
“Why have you got a phone box in your room?”
“It’s not a phone box, it’s my… wardrobe”
A strange voice whispers, “Cyril…”
Cyril follows the voice into the sitting room.
A big blue box lays under the tree, but it’s not the TARDIS. Or is it?
The Doctor is fixing something and asks, “Your brother, where is he?”
Cyril has been transported to a snowy forest.
The whispering voice tells Cyril to follow.
The Doctor, now inside the blue box reaches out and tells Lily, “Quickly, come on!”
“Where are we?”
“In a forest. In a box. In your sitting room.”
Madge peers inside the box.
“What do they teach you in schools these days?!”
That one is for Narnia fans.
Something or someone appears to be tracking Madge in the forest.
A ‘space marine’ emerges.
They appear to be after Madge who surrenders herself.
Cyril opens a creaky old door.
“There is something very wrong with this forest… and your brother’s right in the middle of it”
Cyril shines his torch and spots…
…this creepy wooden ‘sculpture’.
The Doctor and Lily see something up high. A spaceship perhaps?
Bill Bailey as Droxil. Shortly after the trailer aired Bailey tweeted, “I am a Woodland Space Marine From the Future.”
Arabella Weir as Billis. Surprisingly she doesn’t ask, “Does my bum look big in this?”
The shadow of what looks like the wooden monster. It’s moving and making a lot of noise about it.
Madge points a gun at someone. Notice the console in the back. Could this be inside the marine ship?
The creepy wooden monster moves.
Moffat – scaring children since 2005.
“Best Christmas ever!”
“I know.”
