Specials, Episode 2 | 1 part | First broadcast: 25 December 2011 | Writer: Steven Moffat | Director: Farren Blackburn
Cast
- Matt Smith as the Doctor
- Claire Skinner as Madge Arwell
- Alexander Armstrong as Reg Arwell
- Holly Earl as Lily Arwell
- Maurice Cole as Cyril Arwell
Summary
Repaying a kindness from years earlier, the Doctor gifts a struggling wartime widow, Madge Arwell, and her two children a strange present, an old house containing a portal to a snow-covered forest world where trees are alive and harvested for their living energy. As Cyril goes missing in the frozen wilderness and the planet’s core begins to collapse, Madge must find an unexpected reserve of courage to save both her children and the world itself.
Interesting Facts
- The story draws loose inspiration from C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” reflected directly in its title.
- This special is largely a stand-alone story, featuring neither Amy nor Rory except in a brief coda appearance.
- The tree-people of Androzani Major, err, of the forest world, are depicted as sentient beings whose “souls” can be transferred into human hosts to survive extinction.
- Claire Skinner’s Madge Arwell drives much of the emotional plot, culminating in a reunion with her husband, presumed dead, through a rift in time.
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