Two years after fan favorite David Tennant was changed over for the 11th Doctor Matt Smith, The seventh Doctor Who Christmas special "The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe" features surprises both pleasant and unwelcome.
Though learned on my behalf through research and not having time to read the book, it is clear the writing in the Christmas special is loosely based around C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, The Which, and The Wardrobe.” As in that there are only three similarities: A snowy world in a big blue present, an early 1940s setting, and an allegory figure saving the life force of a forest in the form of widowed mother Madge Arwell (Claire Skinner). The rest remains show writer Stephen Moffat’s original writing, which may please Doctor Who fans and disappoint C.S. Lewis enthusiasts.
Matt Smith emerges from this episode with many funny and heart-warming lines showing he has matured into the role of the 11th Doctor. What this means is simple; Matt Smith fans will remain pleased and Smith skeptics/Tennant loyalists could go either way as Smith emotes and recites his lines better than in seasons five and six. However, he is still Matt Smith and sometimes has a very wooden delivery on his acting style.
Speaking of wood things, the main “monsters” in the special are two tree statues shaped like a king and queen. The king and queen are looking to save the forest from acid rain coming from an intergalactic mining company looking to gather the forest as a fuel source. The CGI used to animate the statues looked very convincing and was only lacking in the scene where Skinner was piloting the mining walker looking very fake due to it’s sluggish movement. The costumes look very convincing with only the misplaced Battle Star Galactica (BSG) reference of the Miners space suits looking like Cylons from the original BSG series being a bit silly.
The final surprise came in the form of a happy ending in which Skinner was no longer a widow as she saved her husband’s plane from crashing over World War II Germany via a light provided on the space-ship she was piloting to guide his plane through the “time vortex.” The happy ending being a rare surprise as normally Moffat era Doctor Who has been ridden with tragic endings. The special ends with Smith refusing dinner with the Arwell family as a nice nod to Russell T. Davies era Doctor Who and shows Smith meeting up with his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvil).
Fan reception of the special has been largely positive with four out five comments and the Doctor Who fan page praising Smith and the Christmas special calling it very emotional and well written, which remains true as an episode of Doctor Who. But as a reference to C.S. Lewis leaves more to be desired as the many fiction references seem out of place and are adapted too poorly making the title of the episode misleading. 
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