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Doctor Who: The Snowmen
Interrupting my Yuletide readings for tv just a bit, I went for the DW Christmas special, because once I've watched the Merlin finale two parter, the show is over, and grumblings about the fifth season aside, I find I want to postpone that just the teensiest bit. So, the Moff's latest offering it was.
Complaint first: I'm still not that keen on the premise of the Doctor having quit world saving for a while in the wake of Amy's and Rory's departure. This being said, choosing Victorian England to hang out at and keeping in contact with Vastra, Jenny and Strax isn't the retirement to end all retirements; if he genuinenly wanted to quit, he'd presumably have gone somewhere where he would have been unreachable. Also, there is a climactic plot point which I hope will bury, no pun intended, the "angst and gloom follow companion departure" trope for a good long while. More in a moment.
Moving on to: a lot of likeable things. Starting with the fact that we now have a mystery I'm genuinenly curious about. One of the many, many problems with s6 was to me that the "the Doctor dies!" conundrum set up in the opener wasn't that good a mystery - after all, Matt Smith wasn't going anywhere, and the show wasn't about to end or get renamed, either. And I'm still not reconciled to the ooc behaviour required of the Doctor that allows Melody/River's life to develop (i.e. ignore the little girl in pain instead of searching for her at the end of the s6 two parter). However, this time around the "who is Clara Oswin Oswald?" question strikes me as a good puzzle, especially since given Moffat killed her off twice already right at the start of her story - once as Oswin and once as Clara - it means that death won't be at the end of it (third time lucky?), and we get, gasp, character development from the Doctor, who reacts distinctly differently than he did both when Ten met River (who also died on him on the first encounter) and when Eleven lost Amy and Rory, taking the puzzle of Clara-Oswin - how can she exist in two completely different eras, the far future and Victorian England? - not as a reason to brood and retreat but to investigate and find her a third time.
Well, that's what he does at the end of the story. At first he has to be dragged into world saving and companion-bonding, which, see above, the first part I have an argument with, but I'm basically reconciled to the second part because the getting-to-know-you formula worked so very well in this special. And Moffat gives us his fondness for doubles again - Clara is both a governess and a barmaid, and somehow she's also Oswin though that's hinted at first when she mentions soufflés and confirmed only in the moment of her second death when she remembers Oswin's last words to the Doctor (proving that this happens to her after Asylum of the Daleks, just as it does to him). Madam Vashtra and Jenny are Holmes and Watson, the originals, and Arthur Conan Doyle is using their adventures as his inspiration. (Couldn't resist that one, Moff, could you? Well, I'm all for it.) While the Doctor is only playing at being Holmes, but literaly, wearing the outfit to bluff his way into Simeon's house. The snow is doubling Simeon (and gaining Ian McKellen's voice instead of Richard E. Grant's, which is fine by me), there are two governesses (and Clara with the umbrella in the clouds of course evokes Mary Poppins, the governess of governesses), one of ice and one is Clara, and two children (which has Turn of the Screw vibes), and so forth.
The Tardis above the clouds makes for a visual somewhere between striking and daft, fitting for the show, for the isolated state of the Doctor at the start (though we didn't need it pointed out THREE times in dialogue, Moffat, sheesh) and of course the Doctor has to come down to (E)arth and re-connect with his heroic self in the most brutal way, by losing a companion the very moment he invites her in (both emotionally and literally) as she's falling to the ground - but, see above, as he takes this as a challenge to find her again alive, the fridging is turned around in its opposite.
Clara in her Victorian incarnation was brilliant like Oswin, but with a good period twist; she's startled by Vastra, as she should be, yet can adapt quickly, the one word replies Vashtra challenges her to are smart without being impossible for her state of knowledge, she has the essential Companion qualities of bravery, curiosity and unwillingness to let others suffer, and the scene in which she figures out what the Doctor is planning was just lovely. (Also, Mary Poppins visual, see above.) I think I'm going to get myself some new icons.
Call backs: most obviously "Pond", but also the gesticulating through windows - DONNNNNNAAAAA! - and just about every guest star ever when Clara grabs the Doctor's hand and pulls him instead of the other way around, and he points out he's usually the one to do that. And, um, we do acknowledge the intelligent low level telepathic snow has things in common with the Nestene Consciousness, don't we?
Long Term Big Bad: the Intelligence, is it? I just hope they're better than the Silence. The map of the London Underground in 1967 sounds like a point to be revisited in the second half of the season, unless it's a call back to The Invasion, or both? Anyway. Would love an adventure in the Summer of Love. Extra bonus for use of acid at some point in the episode, because, come on.
In conclusion: bring on the Clara/Oswin/Third incarnation adventures!
Complaint first: I'm still not that keen on the premise of the Doctor having quit world saving for a while in the wake of Amy's and Rory's departure. This being said, choosing Victorian England to hang out at and keeping in contact with Vastra, Jenny and Strax isn't the retirement to end all retirements; if he genuinenly wanted to quit, he'd presumably have gone somewhere where he would have been unreachable. Also, there is a climactic plot point which I hope will bury, no pun intended, the "angst and gloom follow companion departure" trope for a good long while. More in a moment.
Moving on to: a lot of likeable things. Starting with the fact that we now have a mystery I'm genuinenly curious about. One of the many, many problems with s6 was to me that the "the Doctor dies!" conundrum set up in the opener wasn't that good a mystery - after all, Matt Smith wasn't going anywhere, and the show wasn't about to end or get renamed, either. And I'm still not reconciled to the ooc behaviour required of the Doctor that allows Melody/River's life to develop (i.e. ignore the little girl in pain instead of searching for her at the end of the s6 two parter). However, this time around the "who is Clara Oswin Oswald?" question strikes me as a good puzzle, especially since given Moffat killed her off twice already right at the start of her story - once as Oswin and once as Clara - it means that death won't be at the end of it (third time lucky?), and we get, gasp, character development from the Doctor, who reacts distinctly differently than he did both when Ten met River (who also died on him on the first encounter) and when Eleven lost Amy and Rory, taking the puzzle of Clara-Oswin - how can she exist in two completely different eras, the far future and Victorian England? - not as a reason to brood and retreat but to investigate and find her a third time.
Well, that's what he does at the end of the story. At first he has to be dragged into world saving and companion-bonding, which, see above, the first part I have an argument with, but I'm basically reconciled to the second part because the getting-to-know-you formula worked so very well in this special. And Moffat gives us his fondness for doubles again - Clara is both a governess and a barmaid, and somehow she's also Oswin though that's hinted at first when she mentions soufflés and confirmed only in the moment of her second death when she remembers Oswin's last words to the Doctor (proving that this happens to her after Asylum of the Daleks, just as it does to him). Madam Vashtra and Jenny are Holmes and Watson, the originals, and Arthur Conan Doyle is using their adventures as his inspiration. (Couldn't resist that one, Moff, could you? Well, I'm all for it.) While the Doctor is only playing at being Holmes, but literaly, wearing the outfit to bluff his way into Simeon's house. The snow is doubling Simeon (and gaining Ian McKellen's voice instead of Richard E. Grant's, which is fine by me), there are two governesses (and Clara with the umbrella in the clouds of course evokes Mary Poppins, the governess of governesses), one of ice and one is Clara, and two children (which has Turn of the Screw vibes), and so forth.
The Tardis above the clouds makes for a visual somewhere between striking and daft, fitting for the show, for the isolated state of the Doctor at the start (though we didn't need it pointed out THREE times in dialogue, Moffat, sheesh) and of course the Doctor has to come down to (E)arth and re-connect with his heroic self in the most brutal way, by losing a companion the very moment he invites her in (both emotionally and literally) as she's falling to the ground - but, see above, as he takes this as a challenge to find her again alive, the fridging is turned around in its opposite.
Clara in her Victorian incarnation was brilliant like Oswin, but with a good period twist; she's startled by Vastra, as she should be, yet can adapt quickly, the one word replies Vashtra challenges her to are smart without being impossible for her state of knowledge, she has the essential Companion qualities of bravery, curiosity and unwillingness to let others suffer, and the scene in which she figures out what the Doctor is planning was just lovely. (Also, Mary Poppins visual, see above.) I think I'm going to get myself some new icons.
Call backs: most obviously "Pond", but also the gesticulating through windows - DONNNNNNAAAAA! - and just about every guest star ever when Clara grabs the Doctor's hand and pulls him instead of the other way around, and he points out he's usually the one to do that. And, um, we do acknowledge the intelligent low level telepathic snow has things in common with the Nestene Consciousness, don't we?
Long Term Big Bad: the Intelligence, is it? I just hope they're better than the Silence. The map of the London Underground in 1967 sounds like a point to be revisited in the second half of the season, unless it's a call back to The Invasion, or both? Anyway. Would love an adventure in the Summer of Love. Extra bonus for use of acid at some point in the episode, because, come on.
In conclusion: bring on the Clara/Oswin/Third incarnation adventures!
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