Last Christmas (2014)

[P-90_177]

Whereas I thought it was said on a very recent documentary about sci-fi that one of the great things is they all have different personalities. [And I've just deleted it from the DVR...]

Sure you can have different personalities but that's about how a line is delivered rather than how a line is written.

[pjt]

The Moff lies. All the rumours of Jenna leaving then seeing her old was very scary. But the Moff lies, and it really wouldn't make any sense if the Doctor forgot about Clara for 63 years. It's not Peter Pan and Wendy in Hook. It would have been a very cheap end to her story.

[SGalisa]

"There's a horror movie called 'Alien'? That's really offensive, no wonder you keep getting invaded."

Loved that line!

The movie "Alien" was also the first item on Shauna's (sp?) Christmas wish list.
So, it seemed she sparked the whole monster in the dream sequence.

[rushy]

Is anyone else excited about Series 9?
The Magician's Apprentice is probably the best title I've heard in a heck of a long time.

[cosmichobo]

Back in grade 8 (1992, ie 14y/o) inspired by Battlefield (and Disney's The Sword in the Stone), I wrote a short story about the 7th Doctor, serving as an apprentice to a magician, before being renamed "Merlin"...

:}

So yeah, love to see S9's opener.

[rushy]

I just realised the reference to Time Heist.
My expectations flopped like a balloon emptying out. I was hoping for some proper purple magic(not real magic, I guess, but a magic-related plot).

[maneth]

Okay, but somehow underwhelming. I did like the softer Doctor, though.

[cosmichobo]

Okay, but somehow underwhelming. I did like the softer Doctor, though.

The softer Doctor was great... Only having one or two cringe-worthy moments was much better than that of the previous season in terms of the Doctor's brashness...

RE underwhelming.... I guess in several respects, the story itself really lacked any strength given that it was rehashing 2 sci-fi concepts from "recent" scifi movies...

[aintright]

Corny but great was the bigger on the inside zinger!! loved it!!


teehee!!

[Replicator Todd]

I'd love to have Nick Frost as Santa in every Capaldi Christmas special, it would be glorious!

[rushy]

I'd love to have Nick Frost as Santa in every Capaldi Christmas special, it would be glorious!

Me too, but without the "you're such an idiot" dialogue.

[Alex Edward]

Overall it's a good episode, but i was expecting bit more suspense. The previous special episode The Day of the Doctor was quite good!

[Blencathra]

I've just realised I didn't say what I thought of this episode at Christmas.

I really enjoyed it. I was a bit apprehensive about Santa being in Doctor Who, but I thought the explanation worked really well. I particularly liked dancing Shona and I hope that the Doctor and Clara will find her and she will be an additional companion. As Shona called the Doctor "a magician" and the next episode is called The Magician's Apprentice, I have hopes.

Does anyone else think that, at the end, the Doctor and Clara are still in a dream state?

It was Clara's house that got me thinking. In series 7 & 8 Clara lived in a high rise, in a normal flat, appropriate for a teacher.

But in Last Christmas she is living in a vast Victorian house, apparently all by herself. Now I know that most of it she was dreaming (and the Doctor even comments on the good details) - Santa on the roof, the meeting with Danny & elderly Clara were all in the same dream house. However, when she and the Doctor leave together in the TARDIS at the end of the episode, they are still in the same Victorian house. Did Clara come into a heap of money? Win the Lottery? I can't imagine a teacher in London being able to afford such a huge property by herself.

Then there is the business with Orson's toy soldier and the "3 months" Post-it notes in Dark Water. I am pretty much convinced that Orson is Clara & Danny's descendant but in Last Christmas there was absolutely no sign of a pregnancy or a baby. I was thinking having Clara in a dream for a while would be a good way of introducing a baby without having all the tedious business of a pregnant companion and the moral dilemmas of going off having potentionally dangerous adventures while leaving a child behind. Much in the same way it was handled with Amy.

So I'll be interested to see what happens at the beginning of S9. I don't know if Clara or the Doctor or both of them still have the dream crabs wrapped round their faces, but I guess they will have to hurry up & escape before their brains turn into soup - if that is indeed what happens when suffering from the crabs.

[Flyboy]

I've just realised I didn't say what I thought of this episode at Christmas.

I really enjoyed it. I was a bit apprehensive about Santa being in Doctor Who, but I thought the explanation worked really well. I particularly liked dancing Shona and I hope that the Doctor and Clara will find her and she will be an additional companion. As Shona called the Doctor "a magician" and the next episode is called The Magician's Apprentice, I have hopes.

Does anyone else think that, at the end, the Doctor and Clara are still in a dream state?

It was Clara's house that got me thinking. In series 7 & 8 Clara lived in a high rise, in a normal flat, appropriate for a teacher.

But in Last Christmas she is living in a vast Victorian house, apparently all by herself. Now I know that most of it she was dreaming (and the Doctor even comments on the good details) - Santa on the roof, the meeting with Danny & elderly Clara were all in the same dream house. However, when she and the Doctor leave together in the TARDIS at the end of the episode, they are still in the same Victorian house. Did Clara come into a heap of money? Win the Lottery? I can't imagine a teacher in London being able to afford such a huge property by herself.

Then there is the business with Orson's toy soldier and the "3 months" Post-it notes in Dark Water. I am pretty much convinced that Orson is Clara & Danny's descendant but in Last Christmas there was absolutely no sign of a pregnancy or a baby. I was thinking having Clara in a dream for a while would be a good way of introducing a baby without having all the tedious business of a pregnant companion and the moral dilemmas of going off having potentionally dangerous adventures while leaving a child behind. Much in the same way it was handled with Amy.

So I'll be interested to see what happens at the beginning of S9. I don't know if Clara or the Doctor or both of them still have the dream crabs wrapped round their faces, but I guess they will have to hurry up & escape before their brains turn into soup - if that is indeed what happens when suffering from the crabs.

Also of interest... recall the events of Dark Water, the volcano looks an awful lot like where The Doctor woke p at the end of Last Christmas... could that indicate that the entirety of Death in Heaven was a dream too? *hopeful*

[Blencathra]

You could be on to something there. Could Clara be in her flat and half way through her conversation with Danny gets attacked by a dream crab. Hmmmmmm.....