For me this was expectantly sentimental and christmassy BUT a big let down. Dr Who did not look like the smartest person in the room on occasions ..which has always in my mind been the strength of the show even though he is goofy and random you know he is the smartest and mentally strongest person in the room, one scene in this episode didnt seem right, i understand why they did it but the plot and story could have been written differently to still keep that true.

I feel since matt smith.. it has become a children's program that adults watch when it used to be a adult program suitable for children..a very slight but noticeable distinction in tone and the reason why it used to be , hide behind a sofa and now its look at the product placement x mas toy excessive sonic screwdriver waving, seriously on several occasions he was waving it about for no reason what so ever.

I think its time for a re generation

I think you're being way too harsh. Dr Who has always been a children's programme, one that adults have latched on to (quality of acting, scripts, story lines, etc.) rather than it being the other way around.

As for this particular episode. Yes, I would agree that it appears to have been, unashamedly, pitched at the younger generation, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. The mashup of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and medieval folklore was a wonderful idea and there was spirit and humour throughout - it seems that unlike you I do rather like Matt Smith's other worldly charm.


PS
Alas, product placement is now a fact of life. I recently watched the truly dreadful "Horrible Bosses" (A Blockbuster freebie courtesy of the daughter) the only redeeming feature of which being the brief glimpse of some Meridian loudspeakers.

I believed it was supposed to be aimed at a Family audience , mary whitehouse complained about the suitability for children in the 1970's hence my opinion it was for adults but kids could enjoy it.
i think as the 1970's and 1980 series went on it went more and more for the children audience and now it is firmly a kids program.

The techno babble has lost all sense of being half true and is dumbed down with the doctor often now being more magic than scientific.

maybe i am being a bit too harsh .

Mary Whitehouse would complain about about anything and everything that didn't meet her rather narrow world view. I think it more than likely she was concerned about Louise Jameson's (skimpily clad) knife wielding Leela, than anything else.

now that's what I am talking about!!!

In what regard? A single character in a leather costume (as easy on the eye as she was) hardly turns a children's TV series in adult entertainment. We're not talking "Spartacus - Gods of the Arena" here.

I don't know what program that adults watch when it used to be a adult program suitable for children actually means. But I found the special entertaining. But in general (then again this could be because I only found out about the programme as a teen) that it is a lot darker now and I am thinking it could scare little kids (statues are monsters, the thing in the closet/darkness/under the bed are real...)

as for the special I do agree there where some weird notions in it (OK so somehow the trees have consciousness that can leave the body and float into some female in order to brought in space where it can just float around).

Perhaps it became a little more childlike (similar to the Sarah-Jane Adventures) during the the Peter Davison/Sylvester McCoy era. To say it's a lot darker now, merely suggests to me that it's returned to it's roots. Some of the classic 60's episodes were by no means lightweight, though o see them now one would, no doubt, have a bit of a giggle at the somewhat flaky sets.



This is science fiction; weird notions are par for the course. Do you know of anyone that's been influenced by someone tampering with their dreams?

it has nothing to do with weird notion. I am a big sci-fi fan, so I can accept anything. The issue I have is when the mythology created is not consistent in the content itself. If the souls/essence..... of the trees need a body/vessel in order to keep going (like a fish needs water) then they need a body, and that is what they said at first, but in the end somehow they don't need a body and they are just roaming empty space. Their essence left the trees went through the atmosphere then went into the ring and humans and somehow once the ship was in space they just left and are floating out in space. That is just shotty writing in my opinion, if they traveled somewhere and the essence was passed to something else, taht would have been OK, if somehow something was done and the essence left that too would have been OK, but just left for no reason and is floating in spcae does not work wiuth the notion that when it left in the trees it needed to float into a female in order to survive.

Too many cups of coffee, or not enough?

We don't know what really happened as the Doctor stopped mid-explanation, though I think if fair to assume they're not just floating around in space, that was just a general, non-specific (child's?) answer he gave to Madge as she simply wasn't taking in the real one.