Re: Doctor Who
9.X - "Last Christmas"
(Christmas Special)
(Contains
spoilers,
so you might want to skip the review if you haven't watched the episode yet.)
You know characters have overstayed their welcome when most of the people want it to disappear from a TV show. In my mind, this time, it is a bit cruel to Jenna Coleman - currently portraying Clara Oswald, the Doctor's companion. She has been given a role that she has endorsed perfectly. She is, technically, but still arguably the most competent actress that has had to play the Doctor's companion. So what's to blame? WHO's to blame? The fact that she stayed for way too long? She's been around for a season and a half; Billie Piper (probably
the favourite NuWho companion to date) stayed for two whole seasons; Amy and Rory for 2 seasons and a half. As a result, you can cast out the argument, even though Coleman is set to make at least one more season (I do not seriously believe Clara will be given her send-off in the middle of a season, Ă la Amy). Should we accuse Moffat for overusing time-wrapping, wobbily-wobbly timey-wimey... stuff? Because, indeed, as extraordinary as Clara's role is, she definitely
almost has had more influence on the Doctor than the latter has had on her. As a consequence of the events on "The Name of the Doctor", she was even seen influencing - or at least trying to communnicate with - the Doctor in all of his 12/13 regenerated forms, like a ghostly presence. And that is precisely where Clara's character could irritate some Whovians. A bit like Rory Williams who kept dying but never really dying. Beautiful, but soap-operatic much? Remember, all of it has been brilliant, for the most part. But, maybe, it all lacked subtlety and maybe it started giving the Doctor a way too fragile sense of superiority, an intelligence almost
created or renewed by a simple human being. It doesn't come as a surprise that "Last Chritsmas" will not be highly favoured by the masses. But the masses are a bit foolish at times because, clearly, Clara was meant to stay for longer. To let go of the Doctor with two of the most terrible lies (one from the Doctor, one from her)... Nah. She couldn't leave like that. And not in a Christmas episode either, not in a familial episode. For all those reasons and for the time being, let Clara be.
As I said, this probably will not be remembered as the best episode of
Doctor Who - which isn't too bad and pretty understandable. But to dislike it would be a crime. As a matter of fact, this was one of the best, if not the best Christmas episode of the show. The cast was very good (especially the 2 main characters and Nick Frost as Santa Claus), the production was alright (somewhat disappointed by the make-up work for Clara as an old woman though), and even more mysteries were added: for instance, why did the Doctor wake up from his dream for the last time in what looks like the same place as he and Clara were found beforehand, in the beginning of "Dark Water"? I am slightly worried and I've started imagining crazy scenarios. Like, 'Has
all of this happened?' And I'd like to insist on the 'all' thing, hoping Moffat wouldn't dare telling us that many of the past events actually have never happened, but only in the Doctor's dreams. Could many of the things about to happen, if not all of them, be the product of the Doctor's nightmares? Did the Doctor actually wake up for real? And here, I'd be joining the anti-Moffat forces and say: let this not be true! Seriously though, I think Moffat is a lot more clever than that and won't create a story arc out of this. For two reasons: for one, it would be pushing things way too far; playing with the audiences so much is not healthy at all. Then, it would be a waste of a story arc (who said we needed another story arc, by the way?), the scenario wouldn't be meaty enough. The only negative I could find is that the monsters/vilains of this episode had the kind of powers used by the Weeping Angels or The Silence; the ones linked to the Humans' senses/abilities. Typical Moffat monsters, really. I absolutely appreciated the different nods to the (relatively) recent events of the Twelfth Doctor, like the chalkboard writing that we could easily associate with the extraordinary episode "Listen" or Dany making an appearance (the last, hopefully, though), showing that dreams are just a work of the subconscious, the latter playing with actual events and giving them a new dimension, a new meaning, with the help of
imagination and the barriers of the consciousness breaking. (But again, sorry for insisting: a common dream? Even with people that have no connection with the Doctor and Clara? Or was this the aliens' more specific trick?)
Although the episode's reputation will suffer from the typically cynical nay-sayers diminishing its intrinsic qualities, by using the various reasons I gave (and add to that the fact that the show made a tribute to legendary Sci-Fi films like "Alien", "The Thing" or "Inception"; some will say it was just lazy writing), I personally believe this episode was pretty well written and kept all the recent mysteries intact without going overboard, was a very well conceptualized and remained very 12th Doctor-ish with the dark, thoughtful, deeply emotional tones.
8.0/10