Overall this was a funny, entertaining and clever episode. The episode is rather copied in some respects from the great episode from a couple of years earlier, Amy's Choice (as well as its influence from Alien) which is a shame in a way but it is just different enough to still work in its own right. Thankfully he is not a huge issue in this story. Moffatt just cannot let characters die! I strongly disliked Danny and was glad to get rid of him so that compounds his unnecessary return. I also was not a fan of bringing Danny Pink into the episode. Why and how were they there and isn't there a likelihood they would be elsewhere on Earth rather than just those few random places? Some explanation or resolution would have been nice. I was not a huge fan of how the dream crabs turn out to be in random people's homes and just disintegrate and we move on.
#Doctor who last christmas movie
The dream crabs are creepy and menacing (their resemblance to creatures from the movie 'Alien' is amusingly referenced) and the serious themes raised work well. The darker and more dramatic elements mostly work really well too.
It is lovely to get Michael Troughton, son of 2nd Doctor Patrick Troughton, in the cast. All the guest characters have depth and quality and all the acting is of high standard, including Jenna Coleman. Capaldi is, as always, terrific with both humour and depth. The comedy works brilliantly and there is smart dialogue throughout. Nick Frost is great as Santa, he is funny but also grounded with a more serious side. The showy stuff like Santa, elves, reindeer etc are made to fit into the context of the episode in a way that makes them work within the world of the show and they are used to great comic and dramatic effect. This episode makes enough sense so that the confusing dreams within dreams and seemingly unrealistic events have some internal logic. In a lot of this era the complications end up turning out to be illogical and the showiness is out of control. Moffatt has managed here, as in his other best work, to balance things so that the complications are clever. It has the usual Moffatt obsessions of the 'darkness' of the Doctor, lots of complicated storytelling and over the top bits but it is one of the occasions where he gets it to mostly work. 8/10 'Every Christmas is last Christmas.'ĭespite the contrived fantasy nature of creating a Christmas special featuring Santa (following on from all the other slightly contrived fantasy Moffatt era Christmas specials - one based on A Christmas Carol, one based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and one featuring a snowy town called Christmas) this episode, like A Christmas Carol, manages to rise above its contrivance to be a thoroughly enjoyable story. It's not my favourite Christmas outing, but it's definitely inside the top 3, excellent in parts, and I am loving Peter Capaldi.
Shona could be such an interesting character. I always wanted Sally Sparrow to become a regular. I can see why there's still talk of Shona joining the Doctor, she was good. Danny Pink is back once again, proving that it's very difficult to leave a character go, can you imagine if he did an Agatha Christie? The corpses would all be up and at 'em. The joke about the face huggers and Alien was great. Lots of real silliness throughout, mainly provided by Santa and his elves, but it was Christmas I guess. I loved the Christmassy opening credits, they looked rather good. It's a traditional format really, base under siege from monster. Fans of Inception will get the vibe I mean, they're in a dream, in a dream. At no point can they be sure they are fully awake, that they're not being devoured and anaesthetised by the crabs. They land at a base on the North Pole, where they encounter a group of scientists under siege from Dream crabs.
Clara wakes up on Christmas eve and finds Santa and his elves dropping presents off on her roof top, The TARDIS materialises and the Doctor makes Clara go inside, Santa tells the Doctor he'll soon need his help.
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