Doctor Perseus Reviews: "Last Christmas" *SPOILERS* · 4:46am Dec 26th, 2014
In this year's Doctor Who Christmas special, Clara awakens to find both Santa Claus and the Doctor on her roof on Christmas Eve. The Doctor and Clara soon find themselves caught in a fight for survival in a research facility at the North Pole. However, two important questions tower over the Doctor, Clara, and the others: is what's happening real and do they really believe in Santa Claus?
Going into this Christmas special, one important question was at the forefront for me: was Clara staying or leaving? Of course, I was equally excited about seeing Peter Capaldi's first Christmas outing as well as Nick Frost's role as Santa Claus. So what did I think about this year's Christmas special? I found it to be very odd...but I really liked it.
We got to see a somewhat more lighthearted Twelfth Doctor in this special. Of course, he still had his usual Twelve moments (yep, Capaldi's Doctor already has his recurring moments) and he had several great lines that made me laugh out loud. His interactions with Santa (more on him in a bit) were fantastic. Peter Capaldi and Nick Frost bounced off each other extremely well. At the emotional core of the episode, there were the Doctor's scenes with Clara. By the end of the episode, it's clear to me that the Twelfth Doctor and Clara have gotten past a fair amount of the bumps that were in their relationship during the course of Series 8. The Doctor flying Santa's sleigh was definitely one of my favorite scenes in this episode from just how joyful and ridiculously fun it was. It was entertaining to see the Twelfth Doctor let his childish side shine for a little bit.
Now let's talk about Clara. YES! SHE'S STAYING! And it's been confirmed that she's staying for all of Series 9! YES! I get to see another full season of my second favorite TARDIS team in action! So, to all you Clara Oswald haters, I say this:
Okay. I'm done gloating.
Moving on, I found this to be a very great episode for Clara. In relation to Clara's story, I think this acted as a fitting follow-up to what she went through in the Series 8 finale as well as a nice conclusion to Clara's arc with Danny. Since I'm apparently one of the five people in the fandom who liked Danny, I found the dream sequence with him and Clara very touching and emotional. It was nice to see them together one last time and have Clara's last vision of Danny be a positive one. The scene with old Clara really threw me off and, for a moment, I (like many others probably) came to the conclusion and accepted that this was Clara's outing. The makeup was really well done and I loved the cracker moment shared between Clara and the Doctor. It was a nice throwback to the cracker moment shared between Clara and the Eleventh Doctor last year. Overall, as you can probably guess, I'm really happy that Clara's staying on and I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing another season with them together.
Nick Frost was a lot of fun as Santa Claus and, as I stated earlier, his interactions with the Doctor were great. I liked the reveal that he was simply the manifestation of the part of everyone's brains that was fighting against the dream crabs' influence. However, with that tangerine being shown at the end, I think the episode implies that Santa Claus is in fact real. Is he? Guess that's up for the audience to decide and I'm totally cool with that.
The rest of the supporting cast was enjoyable. Nathan McMullen and Dan Starkey (Strax!) gave good performances as the two elves (Wolf and Ian), even if they were mostly throwaway comedic characters. I also really liked Shona (Faye Marsay) and Ashley (Natalie Gumede). The episode seemed to give a lot of hints about Shona possibly returning and meeting the Doctor and Clara again (in real life, that is). In all honestly, I'd be totally up to seeing her again in the future. I think it would be interesting if she returned in Series 9 and we got to see the Doctor and Clara traveling with Shona for all of Series 9. I liked the twist with Fiona (Maureen Beattie) turning out to be a grandmother in a wheelchair in real life. Sadly, Michael Troughton (the son of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton) kind of gets the shaft in this episode. All I remember about his character was that he was somewhat perverted, he ate a drumstick, and then he died. No offense to Dan Starkey and Nathan McMullen, but I think it would have been better to scrap the two elves so that we could have gotten some more meat added to Michael's character of Albert. I mean, come on. This is Patrick Troughton's son we're talking about! The other Troughton son got a pretty noticeable role back in Midnight. Oh well.
This episode had a very nice mix of emotion, comedy, and horror. The dream crabs reminded me a lot of the Wallmasters from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The scene where the crab attacked Clara in the lab was extremely suspenseful and scary. The final attack by all of the Sleepers towards the end was also a really frightening scene.
I liked the reference to Alien. I especially loved the Doctor's response to Albert bringing the movie up. I also really enjoyed how the whole special was a tribute to Inception. However, this time, we got a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream. The running theme of "every Christmas is Last Christmas" was also a really poignant, thought-provoking message that really drives home the importance of families spending time together during the holidays. The constant references to the Doctor being a magician were also enjoyable and acted as nice hints for Series 9's first episode: The Magician's Apprentice.
Overall, I found Last Christmas to be a great first Christmas outing for Capaldi's Doctor. While it's not my favorite Christmas special (that slot is still held by The Snowmen), it's definitely one of my favorites. Again, I'm glad that Clara's staying and I'm really excited for what waits in store for us in 2015! I give Last Christmas an 8.5/10, a great Christmas special!
Now, let the long wait for Series 9 begin. But, first, let us Bronies and Pegasisters look forward to the return of MLP in spring of 2015!
I'm also glad Clara will be staying on for the next season. That scene at the end with elderly Clara I thought was a fitting send off... were it not a dream as well. I also liked Danny Pink, and this was a fitting final scene for him. (I still think Clara is pregnant with his child. It's the only logical explanation to me for how Danny has that descendant in "Listen".) I also thought it would be nice if we saw this Shona girl again. Perhaps we shall.
I also liked how this episode was so much like Inception. (That film actually inspired certain elements of my story Snowy Night.) The one thing I didn't like about Inception was how they briefly discuss the idea of escaping one's harsh reality by effectively living in a dream. Last Christmas basically does that. The various levels of dreams do have a certain element of wish fulfillment. The only thing though was that all the levels of dreams within dreams seemed a bit excessive. And the tangerine in the window. I know there are plenty of logical explanations for a tangerine being outside Clara's window like Santa Claus being real like you said. But to me, it felt a lot like the spinning top at the end of Inception. Perhaps it means the Doctor and Clara are still dreaming. It would be kind of a jip if a chunk of Season 9 ends up being a dream.
Santa Claus being a manifestation of the part of everyone's mind fighting against the dream crab was kind of a let down for me. It felt like they were doubling down on the conceit of Santa Claus being real and working alongside the Doctor. But I still enjoyed Santa's interactions with the Doctor, and I thought Nick Frost was great in the role.
The idea of every Christmas being the Last Christmas I also found rather touching. Couldn't help thinking about my mom who is spending Christmas with her family in Colombia.
Overall, I'm just glad we know for sure that Clara is back for the next season.
Mm'kay, that just happened.
Also, when the Doctor and Clara woke up from an extra layer of the dream crabs' illusion, it made me wonder if the other three would also need to wake up out of another layer to actually be back to the real world, which was never shown happening...
2679835 Yeah, I forgot to mention the My Little Pony name drop in my comment.
It took four years. Four years of Doctor Whooves before Doctor Who decided to make some reference to MLP.