History Recap / DoctorWho2011CSTheDoctorTheWidowAndTheWardrobe

[[caption-width-right:350:Typical Doctor, with his [[BiggerOnTheInside dimensionally impossible presents]] . . .]]

* AskAStupidQuestion: When the Doctor wonders aloud about who would ever open their Christmas present early, Lily just stares at him. He answers his own question: ". . . Shut up . . . Everyone."

* ChekhovsGun: It gets lost in the Doctor's rapid-fire . . . Doctoriness, but the children's bedroom has a "selection of torches for midnight feasts or secret reading"; lo and behold everyone has their own torch when they pass through the portal.

** The Doctor's line about being fancied by a tree is a nod to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld "The End of the World"]].

* InternalHomage: This is the second time in ''Series/DoctorWho'' that a massive forest, killed off by industrialisation, seeks refuge inside a woman's mind. The first time was in the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho020LoupsGaroux "Loups-Garoux"]].

* NoAntagonist: None of the factions which appear in the episode are antagonists, even if it does not appear this way at first. The harvesters are unable to do anything to help the other characters, and the trees are only trying to save their race. The main characters even cooperate with them at the end and they part ways without either side being harmed. This is quite a contrast to all previous Christmas specials, as well as most other episodes. (This obviously ignores the big spaceship seen in the opening, but they barely have any effect on the main plot anyway . . .)

* OhCrap: The lead interrogator says that he knows there's no way Madge will ever shoot him. Then she tells him that [[MamaBear she's looking for her children]] . . .

** The opening of the ActionPrologue homages ''Film/ANewHope'' (the gigantic alien spaceship flying over the camera), ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' (the StandardSnippet of "Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra") and ''Franchise/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' (the aliens' message beginning "People of Earth . . .")

** "This is one of the safest planets I know! There's never any danger here . . . [[LampshadeHanging There are sentences I should just keep away from."]]

--->'''Madge:''' Not the war again . . . People keep reading about the war, then it will actually happen! ''Then'' where would you be?\\

->'''The Doctor:''' I can't see. I'm blind!
->'''Madge Arwell:''' Oh no, love, no. I think you've just got your helmet on backwards. How did you manage that?
->'''The Doctor:''' I got dressed in a hurry.

The one with talking trees.

* AdultFear: This episode involves a lot this. Imagine, your children are lost in the wilderness, with a very strange man you don't trust, and now people are telling you that the whole area is about to become horrifically dangerous and anyone within is doomed. When Madge pulls a gun on them, the workers don't believe for a second that she'd use it. Until she says the words "[[MamaBear I'm looking for my children]]." Then they know she is ''very'' serious.
* ArtMajorBiology: In contrast to the Doctor's slightly mystical technobabble explaining the plot twist, in real life, there's no universal "male" and "female" dichotomy in biology, and pine trees are themselves an exception to it, bearing both male and female organs on the same tree. Then again, these are ''alien'' trees so there might be a difference between them and the Earth variety.

* BlitzEvacuees: Madge and her kids are fleeing the war and enter an eccentric caretaker who takes them on a magical (ClarkesThirdLaw) adventure.

** The trees' plan to recruit a human as a pilot is similar to that of the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E11TheLodger Aickman road TARDIS-knockoff]].

** The Doctor's line about being fancied by a tree is a nod to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld "The End Of the World"]].

-->'''Head Soldier:''' There's nothing you could say that would convince me you'd ever use that gun.\\

'''Head Soldier:''' ''[[OhCrap [suddenly looks quite convinced he might get shot]]]''

* HairpinLockpick: Madge uses one to unlock the first police box she finds for her space suit angel. It's not the TARDIS.

'''Droxil:''' (''suddenly looks quite convinced he might get shot'')

* MotherhoodIsSuperior: The theme ranges from the sci-fi angle where the futuristic tree harvestors are outwitted and captured by motherly instinct to the fantasy angle where the tree people reject males (even the Doctor) as their vessel because "You are weak", but accept females -- Madge in particular -- as "the mothership". How else does life travel?

-->'''The Doctor:''' Oh, aliens made of ''wood''! ''*mutters at sonic screwdriver*'' This was always going to happen, you know.

** The walker [[Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds has three legs.]]

(''most tragic GilliganCut ever'')

** What happened to the other crew aboard Reg's plane?
** What happened to the people Madge was expecting to be waiting for them at the house? Although it isn't mentioned in the episode, Maurice Cole mentions in an interview that they won the lottery, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion which the Doctor]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime often]] [[Recap/DoctorWho2010CSAChristmasCarol arranges.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Typical Doctor, with his [[BiggerOnTheInside dimensionally impossible presents]]...]]

* ActionPrologue: The episode begins with the Doctor escaping an exploding spaceship. [[LeadIn While this leads to him meeting Madge]], it's otherwise unconnected with the plot of the episode. It also serves as a bit of a LampshadeHanging / TakeThat to the Christmas specials of the Creator/RussellTDavies era, essentially condensing the entire plot of each (large spaceship ready to attack Earth, the Doctor saves the day) into a five-minute prologue before getting on with the real plot.

* AskAStupidQuestion: When the Doctor wonders aloud about who would ever open their Christmas present early, Lily just stares at him. He answers his own question: "...Shut up...Everyone."

* ChekhovsGun: It gets lost in the Doctor's rapid-fire... Doctoriness, but the children's bedroom has a "selection of torches for midnight feasts or secret reading"; lo and behold everyone has their own torch when they pass through the portal.

** The trees' plan to recruit a human as a pilot is similar to that of the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E11TheLodger Aickman road TARDIS]].

* MotherhoodIsSuperior: The theme ranges from the sci-fi angle where the futuristic tree harvestors are outwitted and captured by motherly instinct to the fantasy angle where the tree people reject males (even the Doctor) as their vessel because "You are weak", but accept females - Madge in particular - as "the mothership". How else does life travel?
* NeverFoundTheBody: Madge's telegram notes that Reg is lost at sea rather than being confirmed dead. This provides the means of preventing his death; the tree people's ship provided a beacon.
* NoAntagonist: None of the factions which appear in the episode are antagonists, even if it does not appear this way at first. The harvesters are unable to do anything to help the other characters, and the trees are only trying to save their race. The main characters even cooperate with them at the end and they part ways without either side being harmed. This is quite a contrast to all previous Christmas specials, as well as most other episodes. (This obviously ignores the big spaceship seen in the opening, but they barely have any effect on the main plot anyway...)

* OhCrap: The lead interrogator says that he knows there's no way Madge will ever shoot him. Then she tells him that [[MamaBear she's looking for her children]]...

* PresentPeeking: The widow's younger child gets curious and has to peek at the Doctor's big present.

** The opening of the ActionPrologue homages ''Film/ANewHope'' (the gigantic alien spaceship flying over the camera), ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' (the StandardSnippet of "Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra") and ''Franchise/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' (the aliens' message beginning "People of Earth...")

--->'''Madge:''' Not the war again... People keep reading about the war, then it will actually happen! ''Then'' where would you be?\\

* YouLookFamiliar: Arabella Weir once played the Doctor in a ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' WhatIf story.

** "This is one of the safest plants I know! There's never any danger here....[[LampshadeHanging There are sentences I should just keep away from."]]

->'''Doctor:''' I got dressed in a hurry.

It’s Christmas Eve, 1938, when Madge Arwell finds a crater with a man in it. The man is wearing a space suit with a his helmet on backwards and can't see a thing. He got dressed in a bit of a hurry, what with free floating in space and a ship exploding behind him and all. The woman tells her children, Lily and Cyril, that she'll be off for a bit: she has to take a man with a backwards helmet who may or may not be an angel to find a phone box. When they find the TARDIS (after several false starts), he tells her that he'll thank her properly someday, once the suit is done healing him.

As the acid rain starts, all hope seems to be lost, but the giant mecha comes stumbling out of the forest and towards the tower. It's piloted by Madge. The thing falls over, of course, but Madge manages to get out of the mecha and into the tower with only a ''few'' gaping acid holes in her coat. The trees latch onto her immediately. She's the strongest creature there is: a grown mother. As it turns out, the trees are speaking the universe's base language: "weak" means male, and "strong" means female, simply because females beget new life. "How else does life travel but the mothership?" Madge is quite happy to serve as the vessel for the trees and power up their transportation. The souls of the entire forest are absorbed into her head. She takes it extremely well. With the powerful thought of "home" to lock onto, the heroes and the tree collectively depart into the time vortex.

The Doctor decides to give the family some privacy while Madge explains to her kids what happened to their dad. She's interrupted when the Doctor rushes back in again, rambling about something outside that they need to see. Outside on the grass is a plane. Madge's husband gets out, very confused, but happy to see his family. When Madge moved through the time vortex, locking onto her husband in thought, the guiding light of the trees' vessel was able to guide his plane to safety right through time and space. Madge and her family cry, and the Doctor smirks at their all-too-human happy tears.

* AskAStupidQuestion: When the Doctor wonders aloud about who would ever open their christmas present early, Lily just stares at him. He answers his own question: "...Shut up...Everyone."

* ChristmasEpisode: Madge is determined to make this "the best christmas ever" so her kids don't think that Christmas is what took their father away from them.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: The Doctor is in rare form; he "repairs" the house with spinning cars, includes the ''magna carta'' in a kid's bedroom and neglects to put in beds, and when introducing himself, goes off onto a tangent about planets where he's PersonaNonGrata.

** The Doctor's line about he once knew a tree-woman who fancied him was a nod to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld "The End Of the World"]].

* EskimosArentReal: Whenever Cyril uses a long word like "astronomy," Lily accuses him of making it up.

* EverybodyLives: Not only that, but everybody gets what they want! The Androzani get their fuel, but the trees' spirits live on, Madge finds her children and unintentionally saves her husband, and the Doctor learns that he does have people who care about him.

* GreenAesop: Though surprisingly understated for a story about deforestation, this episode's plot is about trees evacuting their homes before they are melted down.

* HairpinLockpick: Madge uses one to unlock the first police box she finds for her space suit angel. It's not the Tardis.

* HypocriticalHumor: Of course it's not fairy land, Lily, grow up. Fairy land looks completely different.

* ItsALongStory: When his father asks where mum is, Cyril wisely summarizes her mother's message about taking an injured spaceman to find a police telephone box as "Out."

* LighterAndSofter: Compare this ChristmasSpecial to the first ones and you notice it: EverybodyLives, presents, christmas theme etc.

* NeverFoundTheBody: Madge's telegram notes that Reg is lost at sea rather than being confirmed dead. This provides the means of preventing his death; the tree people's provided a beacon.

* NonIndicativeName: The title. "Widow?" [[EverybodyLives What widow?]]

* OutrunTheFireball: The Doctor is running away from big expolosions while escaping the spaceship in the opening.

* PlantAliens: The Adrozani trees turn out to be sapient.
* ThePowerOfLove: Madge flies the forest through the time vortex, and gets her husband home, by focusing on the power in the concept of "home" which includes family.
* PresentPeeking: The widow's youngest child gets curious and has to peek at the Doctor's big present.

** WordOfGod[[invoked]] has it that the overall Creator/TimBurton-ness quality was a deliberate shout-out.
** Cyril looks an awful lot like Ralphie from ''A Christmas Story'', which may or may not be intentional.

* SleepingDummy: Cyril sets one up when he sneaks downstairs to open the present early, so Lily won't realise he's gone.

** What happened to the other people aboard Reg's plane?

* WomenDrivers: Madge bump into lots of things while driving the Doctor to the phone box. She doesn't fare much better when she hijacks a HumongousMecha; the Doctor calls it a total write off. She does pretty well at traversing the time vortex, but accidentally goes further into the past then she needed to before landing in the right era.

* BlindIdiotTranslation: Turns out that "weak" and "strong" are simply poor translations of "male" and "female". [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation It could also be simply stating that females are more capable of flying the ship]].

* MamaBear: [[InvokedTrope Madge uses his to prove that she's serious.]]

* GenreSavvy: All of the soldiers at first don't take Madge holding a gun on them very seriously, [[OhCrap until she mentions that]] [[MamaBear she's looking for her children]].

-->'''The Doctor:''' Oh yes, aliens ''made'' of wood. ''*yells at sonic screwdriver*'' This was always going to happen!

-->'''The Doctor:''' Oh yes, aliens made of wood! ''*yells at sonic screwdriver*'' This was always going to happen!

* HairpinLockpick

* EverybodyCallsHimBarkeep: The Doctor. He introduces himself as "The Doctor, or the Caretaker, or Get Off This Planet", but throughout the episode, everyone calls him "Caretaker". It's probable that this is his intention, as he is supposed to be going incognito from this point.

* GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity: The Doctor royally screws up his caretaker job with the present portal, Leads to this:

* GreenAesop: Though surprisingly understated for a story about deforestation.

** Madge and Reg.
** Amy and Rory, who are still together after two years.
* HerHeartWillGoOn: Madge. [[TimeyWimeyBall At]] [[BackFromTheDead first]].
* HypocriticalHumor: Of course it's not fairy land, grow up, Lily. Fairy land looks completely different.

* LighterAndSofter: Compare this ChristmasSpecial to the first ones and you notice it.
* LittleMissSnarker: Lily
* MamaBear: Madge. (And to an extent, Lily.)

* MoodWhiplash: The montage of the Doctor showing Madge and her kids the modifications he made to the house (which is almost magical in a way) comes to an abrupt end when Madge yells at the Doctor. And then, after she and the Doctor talk in private, ''that'' is interrupted when the children become overjoyed when seeing the Christmas tree the Doctor set up.
* MotherhoodIsSuperior: There's a thumpingly unsubtle message, especially when the tree people reject males (even the Doctor) as their vessel because "You are weak", but accept females - Madge in particular - as "the mothership". British journalist Caitlin Moran figured that having spent the day corralling the family and making Christmas dinner for everyone, mothers would appreciate the boost "Yeah, we're the ''[[Franchise/StarTrek USS Enterprise]]''".
* NeverFoundTheBody: Madge's telegram notes that Reg is lost at sea rather than being confirmed dead. Naturally, this means he's actually still alive.
* NoAntagonist: None of the factions which appear in the episode are actually antagonists, even if it does not appear this way at first. The harvesters are unable to do anything to help the other characters, and the trees are only trying to save their race. The main characters even cooperate with them at the end and they part ways without either side being harmed. This is quite a contrast to all previous Christmas specials, as well as most other episodes. (This obviously ignores the big spaceship seen in the opening, but they barely have any effect on the main plot anyway...)

* OhCrap: The lead interrogator says that he knows there's no way Madge will ever shoot him. And then she tells him that [[MamaBear she's looking for her children]]...
* OutrunTheFireball / OutOfTheInferno: The Doctor, when escaping the spaceship in the opening.
* PhlebotinumBreakdown: The Doctor's sonic screwdriver [[RunningGag still doesn't do wood]]. WhenTreesAttack, this is a bit of a problem.

* ThePowerOfLove: How Madge flies the forest through the time vortex, and gets her husband home.

* SoulJar: The tree people's escape plan.

* StalkingIsLove: Reg kept following Madge home until she agreed to marry him. She didn't want to cause a scene.

* TearsOfJoy: [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Very humany-wumany of you, Doctor.]]

** [[LampshadeHanging "There are sentences I should just keep away from."]]

* VaderBreath: The "stormtroopers" that appear in the forest. May double as a ShoutOut.

* WhenTreesAttack: The Wooden King and Queen who live in the forest. Ultimately a subversion, as all they want is to save the souls of their race.
* WholePlotReference: Pretty clearly to ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia: Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''.

** And the tree people have a magic crown that, when somebody wears on their head, allows them to absorb the forest's life force. It rejects Cyril and the Doctor, works slightly for Lily, and completely works for Madge, as the tree people consider her the [[StealthPun "mothership"]].
* WomenDrivers: Madge seems to bump into lots of things while driving the Doctor to the phone box. She doesn't fare much better when she hijacks a HumongousMecha. But she does pretty well at traversing the time vortex.

When they arrive at the house, the regular caretaker has been replaced by the Doctor, who simply introduces himself as the new caretaker. He's very much playing TheWonka, and he's turned the house into a fantasy playground for the kids. The furniture moves, the beds are hammocks, the Christmas tree is beautiful. There's one giant present underneath it. When the Doctor realises what has happened to Madge's husband, he agrees to help her give her children a wonderful Christmas.

The Doctor and Lily quickly follow. The Doctor is confused -- this is supposed to be the single safest planet in the galaxy. He had planned a nice holiday for the kids here, without any danger, and definitely without growing footsteps leading out of giant Christmas tree eggs. The Doctor's sonic screwdriver [[RunningGag still doesn't do wood]]. WhenTreesAttack, this is a bit of a problem.

Madge, of course, has followed them by now. She's greeted by Droxil (Music/BillBailey) and his crew, wearing power suits and standing near an industrial HumongousMecha from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani Androzani]] (Major, not Minor). Droxil votes to shoot her. His crew disagree -- one of them has mommy issues and starts to involuntarily cry, and the other simply refuses to shoot an unarmed shivering civilian woman. Madge is not unarmed, however, and forces the crew to let her inside their mecha.

Droxil informs Madge that they're a harvesting crew. The wood from the forest is the universe's best power source, and they're about to go melt the forest. With acid rain. Madge is shocked and tells them that they need to save her children before it's too late, but it's impossible: the mechanism is already in place and can't be stopped now. As a last-ditch resort, Madge begs to be allowed to pilot the mecha towards her children. She doesn't care that it takes years to learn: she was in her husband's plane once, and she's a MamaBear, and with those two things combined she can do ''anything''. The crew tell her that she's mad, but she absolutely insists.

As it turns out, the tree statues are not statues: they're the souls of the trees that are about to be murdered. The tower is not built, but grown, as their safe haven. They've left their tree husks to go find a new world somewhere else. The Doctor loves it, and tells them to hop on inside his head and get on with it. Trees are good, he loves trees, one of them [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld fancied him once]]. But the trees refuse: it has to be someone who's "strong", and Lily isn't mature enough yet.

As the acid rain starts, all hope seems to be lost, but the giant mecha comes stumbling out of the forest and towards the tower. It's piloted by Madge. The thing falls over, of course, but Madge manages to get out of the mecha and into the tower with only a ''few'' gaping acid holes in her coat. The trees latch onto her immediately. She's the strongest creature there is: a mother. As it turns out, the trees are speaking the universe's base language: "weak" means male, and "strong" means female, simply because females beget new life. Madge is quite happy to serve as the vessel for the trees and power up their transportation. The souls of the entire forest are absorbed into her head. She takes it extremely well. With the powerful thought of "home" to lock onto, the heroes and the tree collectively depart into the time vortex.

But the thought of "home", for Madge, includes her husband. And as her thoughts are projected before her eyes, she realises that she will also need to remember her husband vividly if she wants to get the trees to safety. She has to see him die, and his final minutes on his plane will be shown to her kids as well. It can't be helped, the Doctor says, and as they make it to safety and the trees leave her mind again, Madge breaks down into tears.

The Doctor decides to give the family some privacy while Madge explains to her kids what happened to their dad. She's interrupted when the Doctor rushes back in again, rambling about something outside that they need to see. Outside on the grass is a plane. Madge's husband gets out, very confused, but very happy to see his family. When Madge moved through the time vortex, locking onto her husband in thought, the guiding light of the trees' vessel was able to guide his plane to safety right through time and space. Madge and her family cry, and the Doctor smirks at their all-too-human happy tears.

Amy opens the door and sees her son-in-law standing there quite sheepishly. He's not ''quite'' sure how long it's been. Two years, she informs him, and they knew he was alive. Neither of them wants to give the first hug, but after about a minute, they both laugh and relent and hug each other. As Amy invites him in for Christmas dinner with her and Rory, the Doctor notices that his face is a bit wet and that happy tears may not just be a silly human thing.

* ActionPrologue / LeadIn: The episode begins with the Doctor escaping an exploding spaceship. While this does lead to him meeting Madge, it's otherwise unconnected with the plot of the episode. Also serves as a bit of a LampshadeHanging / TakeThat to the Christmas specials of the Creator/RussellTDavies era, essentially condensing the entire plot of each (large spaceship ready to attack Earth, the Doctor saves the day) into a five-minute prologue before getting on with the real plot.
* AdultFear: This episode pretty much invokes this -- your children are lost in the wilderness, with a very strange man you don't trust, and now people are telling you that the whole area is about to become horrifically dangerous and anyone within is doomed. When Madge pulls a gun on them, the workers don't believe for a second that she'd use it. Until she says the words "[[MamaBear I'm looking for my children]]." Then they know she is ''very'' serious.
* ArtMajorBiology: In contrast to the Doctor's slightly mystical technobabble explaining the plot twist, in real life, there's no universal "male" and "female" dichotomy in biology, and, ironically, pine trees are themselves an exception to it, bearing both male and female organs on the same tree.

* BlindIdiotTranslation: Turns out that "weak" and "strong" are simply poor translations of "male" and "female". [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Or it could be simply stating that females are more capable of flying the ship]].
* BlitzEvacuees
* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: In the opening scene, the Doctor seems to have no trouble breathing (and '''talking''') while falling through space towards Earth. Its been [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars previously]] [[ContinuityNod established]] that Time Lords possess a respiratory bypass that allows them to go long periods ''without'' breathing, and likewise are able to survive exposure to hard vacuum much longer. Counts as an especially powerful ContinuityNod, since the most significant instant of the Doctor using that bit of BizarreAlienBiology was on [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani Androzani]] ''Minor''. The entire scene seems to delve in SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay with much glee.
* BigBrotherBully: Or Big Sister Bully in this case -- Lily comes across as one to Cyril at times.
* ChekhovsGun: Gets lost in the Doctor's rapid-fire... Doctoriness, but the children's bedroom has a "selection of torches for midnight feasts or secret reading"; lo and behold everyone has their own torch when they pass through the portal.

* ChristmasEpisode
* ClarkesThirdLaw: Subverted by Madge, who cons the workers into putting down their guns by fooling them into thinking she's overcome by the futuristic and alien setting.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Madge comes across as a bit of one, and the Doctor is in rare form.

** The tree harvesters are from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani Androzani Major]]. And unfortunately, the citizens of the planet are still materialistic capitalists.

** The tree harvesters are from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani Androzani Major]].

->'''Doctor:''' [[{{Understatement}} I got dressed in]] [[OutrunTheFireball a hurry.]]

* CallBack:
** The Doctor's line about he once knew a tree-woman who fancied him was a call back to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld "The End Of the World"]].
** At the end, Amy informs the Doctor that [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong River already told her he was alive]].

->'''Madge Arwell:''' Oh no, love, no. I think you've just got your helmet on backwards. How did you manage

-->'''Madge Arwell:''' Crying's ever so useful, isn't it? \\
'''Droxil:''' If you say so. But there's nothing you could say that would convince me you'd ever use that gun. \\
'''Madge:''' Oh really? Well, '''I'm looking for my children.''' \\
'''Droxil:''' ('''[[OhCrap OH CRAP]]''')

'''WARNING! THERE MAY BE UNMARKED SPOILERS!'''