Doctor Who: 2011 Christmas Special (DVD)

A London family flees the bombing of World War II and comes to a country estate, where two children and their mother discover a doorway to another world… but what lies on the other side is definitely not Narnia. Instead, it's a wintry forest planet on the brink of destruction, and only the infinitely clever time-and-space-traveling alien being known as the Doctor (Matt Smith) can figure out how to save it. The Doctor, the Widowand the Wardrobe doesn't have the complex story of the last Doctor Who Christmas special, A Christmas Carol, and the Doctor coming into a family's life and making it better veers perilously close to Touched by an Angel territory--but what makes up for it is the rich creepiness of the snowbound forest and the eerie creatures who live there. As with any Steven Moffat script, the dialogue is smart and sprightly. And Matt Smith, with his deep-set eyes, gangly body, and effervescent fusion of whimsy andintelligence, continues to develop a multilayered incarnation of t