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locker_monsterFirst off, Merry Christmas! Or Merry Whomas if you prefer. :-) Seriously, this is the best part about Christmas. Not the gifts or hanging out with family. It's new Doctor Who to enjoy.
And it wasn't that bad this year. Definitely an improvement over last year's episode. I find it hard to enjoy the Christmas episode sometimes, though. It has to be this big, frolicking adventure so the plot has to hit certain points and it always has to have Christmas, so there will be times when these two elements do not go together.
And it kind of has that going on here. If Christmas wasn't shoehorned into the plot, I think this would have been a wonderful episode. It's certainly creepy and it has all of these twists and turns, but when you have Santa and elves and flying reindeer, you sort of lose that horror movie atmosphere. But at least there's a reason why Santa is around.
Before I get to the stuff I did like, I'll get the stuff that I didn't like out of the way. So why did the Dream Crabs create a shared dream for everyone? I mean, sure, it kind of makes sense for the four random people, but the second you throw the Doctor in, you know things are going to end badly for the bad guy. Yes, he has a crisis to sort through so that will keep him distracted, but while he's figuring that out, he's also figuring out how to actually escape the Dream Crabs' hold. So that's the part that didn't really make sense. I think if the Dream Crabs had kept the Doctor and Clara separate, then it might have worked, but then, of course, we wouldn't have this big Christmas adventure. And why were all the victims from the UK? If the Dream Crabs can prey on people from across time and space, you'd think there would be people from all over the world. So the horror plot was a bit thin, but there's enough hand waving that it kind of gets by.
But ugh, that sleigh ride at the end. It felt totally unnecessary. Yes, you need some Christmas joy in the episode, but it didn't work for me. That is not Twelve's thing.
Really, all I cared about was seeing the Doctor and Clara together again, so that helped me get through the story. I will admit that the two of them together, I just love it. I don't know what it is. I mean, I didn't hate Clara when she was with Eleven, but the two of them never really clicked as a Doctor / Companion team for me. But this season, with her and Twelve, they complemented each other so well. It reminds me a lot of Sarah Jane, when she transitioned from Three to Four. She was a fine character when she was introduced and she and Three got along, but she became this awesome and iconic character when she was paired with Four. So when a Companion gets a chance to start again with a new Doctor, most times there's going to be a spark there, and I definitely see that with Clara and Twelve.
I'm glad they got to deal with some of the angst that was left over from "Death in Heaven". By the end, I was so happy to see the two of them running back to the TARDIS. The Doctor and Clara were not in good places after the finale, so it will do them some good to hang out and heal. I wonder if Clara will join the Doctor full time on the TARDIS? It's amazing how fierecely protective the Doctor has become of Clara. The shift really came after "Kill the Moon". After that episode, you start to see the Doctor caring more about Clara's emotional well being as well as her personal safety and by the time we get to "Dark Water", that's all he cares about. So he's less prickly now, but still impatient and my god, if you mess with Clara, you'll have the Oncoming Storm on your hands. And it's so cute that he puts up with Clara's hugging now. When she just glomps onto him in the sleigh, he sort of scowls but then he just goes with it.
I had actually convinced myself that Moffat was writing out Clara in this episode, so when they did the fake out with Old!Clara I almost believed it. As a way to write her out, it would have made sense. Because how do you write out the Companion who always wants to travel with the Doctor? Old age is the kind way to go. You don't have to kill anyone. Though, Twelve running around with an eighty year old Clara would have been something to see. Plus, with the way that scene is played, it does feel final. And, oh man, you get that call back to Old!Eleven and Clara and the Christmas cracker from "The Time of the Doctor". I wonder if the screener copies for this episode ended on that Christmas cracker moment, as to keep Clara's fate a secret. I wouldn't be surprised if the true ending was not shown to the press. I will freely admit that I'm glad Clara is hanging around for season nine. It will give Moffat time to craft a decent exit for her, rather than having something that would be tacked on to an episode. As for whether she'll be around for all of season nine? Well, we'll see... The title of the first episode of season nine is "The Magician's Apprentice" so maybe we pick up another character who can transition over into the new Companion.
Random: I'm sad this episode was not actually set in the North Pole. It was our one chance to have an episode set in Canada. ;-) But this episode reminded me of "The Seeds of Doom". You have a cold setting and an alien found in the ice who later starts attacking the base personnel. Whose house was Clara staying in? Because it's certainly not her flat. I thought maybe she was back home in Blackpool? Or was Clara in a home? Because she seemed very willing to stay in the dreamscape; maybe she was having issues coping with her loss of Danny? Alien reference! The Doctor getting Clara to do sums to distract her was totally a reference to "The Claws of Axos"; Three got Jo to do the same thing. And on a kind of related note, I'm kind of bummed that they didn't work in Katy Manning. When she was doing her set visit, they totally could have thrown her into the episode. It's one big dream after all; it wouldn't have been that left field to have Jo show up. It was nice to see Danny one last time. So Clara's not pregnant I guess. Does that mean that Orson Pink doesn't exist in the future? Oh, and a nice twist on the horror cliché. It's the white guy who dies but all of the women survive. No "last girl" nonsense here. As usual, I watched this episode with my sister and her husband and we all agree that someone on the Internet will mash up Twelve's "Yippee ki-yay" with one of Malcom Tucker's "Mother f*****".
So I guess season nine will premiere in August? Seems likely, if they start filming in January. Well, at least there won't be any major spoilers for a couple of weeks.
And it wasn't that bad this year. Definitely an improvement over last year's episode. I find it hard to enjoy the Christmas episode sometimes, though. It has to be this big, frolicking adventure so the plot has to hit certain points and it always has to have Christmas, so there will be times when these two elements do not go together.
And it kind of has that going on here. If Christmas wasn't shoehorned into the plot, I think this would have been a wonderful episode. It's certainly creepy and it has all of these twists and turns, but when you have Santa and elves and flying reindeer, you sort of lose that horror movie atmosphere. But at least there's a reason why Santa is around.
Before I get to the stuff I did like, I'll get the stuff that I didn't like out of the way. So why did the Dream Crabs create a shared dream for everyone? I mean, sure, it kind of makes sense for the four random people, but the second you throw the Doctor in, you know things are going to end badly for the bad guy. Yes, he has a crisis to sort through so that will keep him distracted, but while he's figuring that out, he's also figuring out how to actually escape the Dream Crabs' hold. So that's the part that didn't really make sense. I think if the Dream Crabs had kept the Doctor and Clara separate, then it might have worked, but then, of course, we wouldn't have this big Christmas adventure. And why were all the victims from the UK? If the Dream Crabs can prey on people from across time and space, you'd think there would be people from all over the world. So the horror plot was a bit thin, but there's enough hand waving that it kind of gets by.
But ugh, that sleigh ride at the end. It felt totally unnecessary. Yes, you need some Christmas joy in the episode, but it didn't work for me. That is not Twelve's thing.
Really, all I cared about was seeing the Doctor and Clara together again, so that helped me get through the story. I will admit that the two of them together, I just love it. I don't know what it is. I mean, I didn't hate Clara when she was with Eleven, but the two of them never really clicked as a Doctor / Companion team for me. But this season, with her and Twelve, they complemented each other so well. It reminds me a lot of Sarah Jane, when she transitioned from Three to Four. She was a fine character when she was introduced and she and Three got along, but she became this awesome and iconic character when she was paired with Four. So when a Companion gets a chance to start again with a new Doctor, most times there's going to be a spark there, and I definitely see that with Clara and Twelve.
I'm glad they got to deal with some of the angst that was left over from "Death in Heaven". By the end, I was so happy to see the two of them running back to the TARDIS. The Doctor and Clara were not in good places after the finale, so it will do them some good to hang out and heal. I wonder if Clara will join the Doctor full time on the TARDIS? It's amazing how fierecely protective the Doctor has become of Clara. The shift really came after "Kill the Moon". After that episode, you start to see the Doctor caring more about Clara's emotional well being as well as her personal safety and by the time we get to "Dark Water", that's all he cares about. So he's less prickly now, but still impatient and my god, if you mess with Clara, you'll have the Oncoming Storm on your hands. And it's so cute that he puts up with Clara's hugging now. When she just glomps onto him in the sleigh, he sort of scowls but then he just goes with it.
I had actually convinced myself that Moffat was writing out Clara in this episode, so when they did the fake out with Old!Clara I almost believed it. As a way to write her out, it would have made sense. Because how do you write out the Companion who always wants to travel with the Doctor? Old age is the kind way to go. You don't have to kill anyone. Though, Twelve running around with an eighty year old Clara would have been something to see. Plus, with the way that scene is played, it does feel final. And, oh man, you get that call back to Old!Eleven and Clara and the Christmas cracker from "The Time of the Doctor". I wonder if the screener copies for this episode ended on that Christmas cracker moment, as to keep Clara's fate a secret. I wouldn't be surprised if the true ending was not shown to the press. I will freely admit that I'm glad Clara is hanging around for season nine. It will give Moffat time to craft a decent exit for her, rather than having something that would be tacked on to an episode. As for whether she'll be around for all of season nine? Well, we'll see... The title of the first episode of season nine is "The Magician's Apprentice" so maybe we pick up another character who can transition over into the new Companion.
Random: I'm sad this episode was not actually set in the North Pole. It was our one chance to have an episode set in Canada. ;-) But this episode reminded me of "The Seeds of Doom". You have a cold setting and an alien found in the ice who later starts attacking the base personnel. Whose house was Clara staying in? Because it's certainly not her flat. I thought maybe she was back home in Blackpool? Or was Clara in a home? Because she seemed very willing to stay in the dreamscape; maybe she was having issues coping with her loss of Danny? Alien reference! The Doctor getting Clara to do sums to distract her was totally a reference to "The Claws of Axos"; Three got Jo to do the same thing. And on a kind of related note, I'm kind of bummed that they didn't work in Katy Manning. When she was doing her set visit, they totally could have thrown her into the episode. It's one big dream after all; it wouldn't have been that left field to have Jo show up. It was nice to see Danny one last time. So Clara's not pregnant I guess. Does that mean that Orson Pink doesn't exist in the future? Oh, and a nice twist on the horror cliché. It's the white guy who dies but all of the women survive. No "last girl" nonsense here. As usual, I watched this episode with my sister and her husband and we all agree that someone on the Internet will mash up Twelve's "Yippee ki-yay" with one of Malcom Tucker's "Mother f*****".
So I guess season nine will premiere in August? Seems likely, if they start filming in January. Well, at least there won't be any major spoilers for a couple of weeks.
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