Doctor Who Goes Through The Wardrobe

I have a confession to make: I'm not really a Doctor Who fan. I did watch when I was little with my Dad and although I loved Tom Baker with his crazy scarf and wild hair as the Doctor (yes, I'm showing my age!) certain episodes gave me nightmares and I didn't continue watching on my own. Fast forward through many years and a few attempts to see why people still loved it and... nothing.

Until now, that is.

Like many fairy tale lovers the idea of anyone walking into a wardrobe makes my ears perk up and my heart quicken with expectations of winter wonderlands and magical Narnian* creatures waiting on the other side of a bunch of old coats. In fact, I was in the middle of restoring a rickety but "magical looking wardrobe"(complete with dryad shadows in the wooden sides!) when I got the call to move to the US. Not being hugely well constructed in the first place, I knew the wardrobe wouldn't survive a trip on a boat to join me on the other side of the world so I sadly gave it up, though I think about it often and wonder where it ended up.

What does this have to do with Doctor Who? Well, I'm not calling myself a fan yet but when I heard Doctor Who was "heading into Narnia" (or at least a Doctor Who version of Narnia) I made sure I DVR'd the episode. I'm so glad I did!

Description from Coventry Telegraph:

It's called The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe and beyond the obvious hints towards the Narnia classic, we know Steven Moffat's tale is set during the Second World War when a widow and her two children flee London for Dorset. There they meet an eccentric caretaker and discover a portal into a winter wonderland.

I finally got around to watching it today and... it's a must see for fairy tale people. Wonderfully and smartly written but with such a childlike spirit and it truly embodies the Christmas/season spirit - I'm impressed. Not only did the episode include plenty of magic, humor and a little sci-fi on the side but it managed to blend all the different season celebrations wonderfully and celebrate them all and their true meanings. No matter if you celebrate Yule, Hanukkah, Christmas or other old year/new year celebrations, this episode managed to pay a beautiful tribute to them all. 

You can get more of an idea of the episode HERE which is actually spoiler free. Though some of the visuals will give you clues it shouldn't take any of your enjoyment away from seeing it for the first time.

Fairyland is mentioned (see below) and looking at some of the visuals you can see why. And I love the two lines from the episode that are written below. How can you not love the Doctor after he says something like that?

Lily: Is it Fairyland?

The Doctor: Fairyland?! Oh grow up Lily! Fairyland looks completely different. 

This episode gently nods to many different tales and classics but most of all it puts the viewer in that time in your life when you once believed many more things than you would admit and it didn't take much nudging to see the world in a different and magical way (if you're lucky - sometimes you still feel like this!) I watched this again with my young son (not yet five years old) and he really enjoyed it - for many reasons. The only problem is that he now wants a Christmas tree next year just like the one the Doctor made... lol

Of course, now I need to go check out the Doctor Who tribute to Dicken's A Christmas Carol just to see how flying sharks might fit into a story and end up pulling a sleigh...

Here's the trailer for The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe:


And if you've seen the episode and wish there were more to explore, there is! You can check out the current content at this site HERE - as of this writing it's all about the Christmas special - or start HERE which should be kept in the Doctor Who archives "for all time".


* Narnia - specifically The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, recently made into  a lovely film. The BBC had a series made many years before but doing it again big budget style was worth it. I was pleasantly surprised by the film and loved seeing so many fairy tale creatures and connections on screen (eg The White Witch is easily inspired by the Snow Queen).

The Buzz on SyFy's Neverland Continues But Will It Truly Be Family Friendly?

 

The HEA (Happily Ever After) vs Horror aspects in the newly launched Fairy Tale TV series Once Upon A Time and Grimm are definitely provoking thought amongst the viewing public on what fairy tales really are, as are the battling SnowWhite movies in production. With new shows, miniseries (eg SyFy's Neverland) and movies are winging our way and because it's now clear the use of "fairy tale" as source material is not a G-rating guarantee, one of the pressing questions has become what shows/movies are Family Friendly?

This is initially a bit tricky to navigate. Once Upon A Time is clearly more family friendly with its fantasy sequences and glitter but it also has very dark moments that are quite unapologetic (I'm including the "battle of the better mother" and twisted alliances aspect in this too). Grimm, on the other hand, is a procedural, complete with crimes, more-than-moderate crime scene visuals and brought-to-life monsters that I don't think little kids should see but the approach is often comedic and it's clearly a "catch the bad guys-save the good guys" show that kids have an easier time understanding.

Snow White and the Huntsman? Clearly teen+ with a largely dark overtone. Mirror Mirror on the other end of the spectrum is going for highly stylized comedic family fun.*

But in our immediate future we have SyFy's Neverland, airing December 4th & 5th for a two-night special event - apparently a 'prequel' to the Peter Pan and Neverland stories we're familiar with. Is this family fodder? After all SyFy isn't Hallmark or ABC/Disney and have a better reputation for the dark rather than the light.

 

The source material and website would suggest yes but perhaps not in a "Disneyesque" manner. One of the things Disney and ABC have proudly branded themselves with is making it clear when things are family and/or kid friendly (yes, they're different things). Generally when you see the Disney brand you know it's safe to walk out of the room to reheat your cocoa, leaving your kids glued to the screen by themselves for a few minutes. The Hallmark Channel has a different feel-good guarantee - happy endings are 99% likely with a minimum of direct gore or violence. SyFy is still a bit of a gamble.

 

Originally, the SciFi Channel was predictably dark, akin to B-movies and inevitably gory but since the re-branding to SyFy (as much as I'm not partial to their new spelling) the channel's original properties have had smarter writing, better acting, less gore and more critical acclaim. The website and marketing for Neverland are certainly aimed toward family but, as fairy tale enthusiasts who know what fairy tales are capable of exploring, it's important not to assume.

Neverland has attracted a stellar cast and has some seriously nice production and effects work. This alone says how much SyFy has developed in their programming. With Neverland looking to be a good viewing pick for the average family it's still worth preparing oneself ahead of time, just in case there are little people about - humans in your family, that is. ;) [If that ginormous and scary-looking crocodile does take Hook's hand off on-screen or Tink does get viciously-murderous I want to be there to cover my kid's eyes or make a dive for the remote - whatever seems most prudent.] There are a number of trailers out already which give a different emphasis on the story's aspects. The one below is my favorite:



This article HERE has made an attempt to summarize things for people wanting to know. Unfortunately their rating system is a little misleading at a glance. Using apples instead of stars makes it seem like the series are being rated overall as opposed to the compatibility with family viewing time but nevertheless it's worth a read.

Note: The following is a tangent but one I feel is appropriate for this topic. You may want to grab your thinking cap...

On the subject of "family friendly" I recently read an interesting on the Told This Time fairy tale community website, discussing an interview with Jack Zipes on the topic "Are Dark Fairy Tales More Authentic?". A few comments down the discussion begins to focus on whether or not we should expose children to 'dark' things and how appropriate many of the ideas in fairy tales really are.

Here's a quote from one of rave_blue's comments to get you thinking:

Real fairy tales, those traditional tales from Europe and Asia and indeed even America were often very dark to modern readers but then, we live in a world of light. Darkness can be banished with the flip of a switch but our ancestors lived in a very different world. Theirs was a world where darkness closed around them with all the menacing threat of the bogeymen they believed haunted the wilderness. So for them a "dark" fairy tale wasn't really dark at all because it was a perfect mirror for the real world surrounding them.

A child dying startles modern sensibilities but child mortality was so commonplace to our ancestors that it was taken in stride. Sure they mourned the death of a child but that mourning was not mingled with a sense of injustice the way it is today. Children died, it was a fact. People were maimed in surprisingly large numbers losing limbs in simple tasks. Wild animals stalked the forest. Robbers lurked behind trees ready to kill for a little coin. Darkness was not psychological the way so many modern interpreters would have us believe. It was both literal and symbolic because for the people who were listening to them when they were new it was the way of the world.

While most of us are privileged to not live in a society that must deal daily with such realities, we nevertheless have our own "wolves, maimings and darkness" so it's no coincidence that a familiarity with fairy tales is still proving to be one of the best defenses against them. The harder question, as I see it is how much is too much and what contexts are appropriate for different ages/maturities? Once you see something you can't simply 'unsee' it but parental response to the unfortunate and unexpected** is an additional key to children's coping mechanisms too.

I should add a disclaimer: if your family is anything like mine, being very familiar with fairy tales of all kinds and on monster-friendly side, it's very likely you'll take the chance and sit down with your kids just to check out that giant crocodilia and watch them nod wisely at just how devious fairies really are. That said, I'm going to make my pot of cocoa ahead of time and keep it in the living room with me. ;)

*In the same vein of family friendly comparison, Lily Collins (playing Snow White in Mirror Mirror) was interviewed on the two movie versions of Snow White - something she has the inside track on, as she apparently auditioned for both Snow Whites. You can read it HERE.
**eg. Whoever hacked the Sesame Street YouTube channel a few weeks back and uploaded a graphic porn video in place of a Cookie Monster clip deserves punishment by law well beyond a fine.

Stories for the Season: Fire & Ice

Here's a story that most of you won't know. It's actually a full length 'ice-ballet' devised by world champion skaters Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean and Australia's most famous contemporary choreographer Graeme Murphy.

It's called "Fire & Ice" and has gorgeous sets, costumes and scenery for both the Fire land and the Ice land (in which most of the story takes place) as well as a lot of inventive and beautiful choreography. While it isn't specifically about Christmas it definitely has that seasonal feel- music included. I don't think it was out of convenience or by coincidence that saw this film originally have a Christmas release.I'm positive I've read fairy tales similar to this (Japanese? Russian?) but time is against me to research this properly. If you know of any tales please do add a comment with the title and/or link.

Here's a story description of "Fire & Ice" from Wikipedia:

Fire and Ice is a full length company piece creating narrative ballet on ice. Set between the Planet of Fire and the Planet of Ice, it tells of a love story between a Prince of Fire and a Princess of Ice. It is a full set piece with visual designs and effects depicting different locations on the two planets and telling the story.

The piece opens with Dean performing actually ballet within the catacombs of the Plant of Fire, while seeing Torvill in the blue flames of their alter. Upon diving in he finds himself upon her planet. He meets her, and after taking some time to adapt to her planet, they fall in love. She gets called away to a Royal Ceremony but she rejoins him later. The following morning they are discovered and a violent attack is carried out on the Fire Prince by her own people. She pleads with her father to have mercy on him but he banishes her from his sight and the Fire Prince is left trapped in a prison of ice. Later the Ice Princess sneaks back to him and melts the ice with all her strength, leaving her close to death. The Fire Prince revives her and they are together once more. Meanwhile the Prince’s own people have witnessed his fate in the flames and have arrived on the Planet of Ice. A war breaks out which ends in the death of both the Prince’s and Princess’s fathers. Devastated and alone, they find each other once more and grieve. As time heals their wounds and their love endures a distant archway appears, touring over the icy mountains. We watch them make their journey towards the arch and finally enter and make their break for freedom and a new life together.

Torvill and Dean devised Fire and Ice in Australia with Graeme Murphy, sold it to LWT (London Weekend Television – part of ITV). It was written by Tom Gutteridge and Carl Davis and rehearsed and filmed in Germany ready for its UK television premier in Christmas 1986.

You can find out more about the production HERE and occasionally DVDs surface like the one below and become available to own (yay!). I gather it's also available on the 'Dancing On Ice' DVD from 2006.Some lovely person put up the whole ice-ballet on YouTube (in 19 very short parts - between 30 seconds and 5 minutes each) and I've made a playlist so you can press "go" and watch them all automatically play in order. Just press play.

Enjoy!