Doctor Who "Last Christmas" 2014

[shavedape]

Surprised no one started a thread on this one as we no doubt have members that watch the show. At any rate, here is this years Doctor Who Christmas special thread.

I'll keep it brief so as to not give out spoilers but suffice to say this one wraps up the loose ends from the end of last season. I liked that about it as I don't care for drawn out issues. Tackle them and move on I say.

That said, I must admit I found this Christmas special to just be sort of "meh". Perhaps I had high expectations because I've been so enamored by Capaldi in his first season as the Doctor. Aside from a witty, humorous turn as Santa by Nick Frost, the episode was pretty much just the usual "scream and run around" type of stuff that we've seen far too often on this show.

And don't get me going about dream sequences, oy!

In the end though my enthusiasm for Capaldi in the role of the Doctor hasn't waned and I'm looking forward to the next season with him in it. :encouragement:

 

[Gatefan1976]

You get Clara for all of S9 now as well.

 

[Joelist]

I had meant to post on it but I've been distracted of late preparing for surgery Monday hence the reduced activity.

When I read your take Shaved I smiled as I KNEW you would not like the whole nested dream states concept - you didn't like it in Z Nation either. Which is cool - not everyone likes that type of concept. That said, it was executed pretty well in this episode. Acting was good although the episode could have explained more about the crabs - as in how exactly did the other people get captured by them? The Doctor I got, and also that they got to Clara via him. But the others needed explanation, providing anyone in the episode save for the Doctor and Clara ever existed....

 

[ecgordon]

I may be wrong, but I thought they said something about the Dream Crabs being all over the Earth, and yet we only see the Doctor, Clara and the four others affected by them. Was it really just the Doctor captured, and everything else was his dreams within dreams?

 

[shavedape]

I had meant to post on it but I've been distracted of late preparing for surgery Monday hence the reduced activity.

When I read your take Shaved I smiled as I KNEW you would not like the whole nested dream states concept - you didn't like it in Z Nation either. Which is cool - not everyone likes that type of concept. That said, it was executed pretty well in this episode. Acting was good although the episode could have explained more about the crabs - as in how exactly did the other people get captured by them? The Doctor I got, and also that they got to Clara via him. But the others needed explanation, providing anyone in the episode save for the Doctor and Clara ever existed....

Good luck with your surgery.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of "trapped in a dream" sequences as they've been done to death in my opinion. The way I see it if a show is going to use that old saw they need to really do it well. Unfortunately this Doctor Who episode failed in that regard (in my opinion).

I'm glad they got resolution on the whole Clara/Danny thing, although I think there's always the chance they could still get him back.

 

[Gatefan1976]

I may be wrong, but I thought they said something about the Dream Crabs being all over the Earth, and yet we only see the Doctor, Clara and the four others affected by them. Was it really just the Doctor captured, and everything else was his dreams within dreams?

They *asked* if they were everywhere, but they never said they were. The Doctor did not seem to worry about it all to much though.

 

[Joelist]

The only thing I would fault the episode on is lack of sufficient explanation of some elements. We should have had the crabs explained more fully (as in how they got to Earth and so forth) and also whether anyone but the Doctor and Clara was actually real.

That said, I liked the overall tone, acting and direction. This is basically the first Christmas Special in years that did not feel like a fairy tale. If anything it was definite science fiction with some Christmas type elements inserted in the form of dream images by the characters.

 

[Gatefan1976]

Santa as a collective unconscious desire isn't fairy tale enough Joe?

 

[Joelist]

Santa as a collective unconscious desire isn't fairy tale enough Joe?

Nope, because it was explained as such. He was part of the dream state. The prior specials literally felt like fairy tales.

 

[Gatefan1976]

So what do you make of the Tangerine at the end?

 

[Joelist]

Just a silly macguffin.

 

[Gatefan1976]

So just a "thing" for parents to say "santa really is real, see he left a tangerine?"

 

[shavedape]

I had meant to post on it but I've been distracted of late preparing for surgery Monday hence the reduced activity.

When I read your take Shaved I smiled as I KNEW you would not like the whole nested dream states concept - you didn't like it in Z Nation either. Which is cool - not everyone likes that type of concept. That said, it was executed pretty well in this episode. Acting was good although the episode could have explained more about the crabs - as in how exactly did the other people get captured by them? The Doctor I got, and also that they got to Clara via him. But the others needed explanation, providing anyone in the episode save for the Doctor and Clara ever existed....

Good luck with your surgery.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the "trapped in a dream sequence" gimmick as it's been done to death. The way I see it if a show is going to use that old saw they need to do it really well. Unfortunately this episode of Doctor Who failed at the task in my opinion. It was long on mumbo jumbo but short on explanation as you pointed out. (As always there were some rather funny lines though.)

I'm glad they got the Clara/Danny thing resolved, for now at least.

 

[Gatefan1976]

Hmm
Do apes dream of electric apes.

 

[Annoyed]

I too thought they went to the "caught in a dream" well at least once too often.