Doctor Who: Last Christmas

Still loving the posters

"There's a horror movie named Alien? That's really offensive. No wonder everybody keeps invading you."

It's Christmas! And what does Christmas mean? That's right; a Doctor Who special.

Following on from the Doctor's encounter with an unexpected Santa Claus at the end of 'Death in Heaven', the Fat Man puts in an appearance on Clara's roof, presaging the Doctor's arrival to whisk her off to an adventure in a research station at the North Pole. It's the usual lighthearted stuff - terrifying psychic parasites which home in on your thoughts when you perceive or think about them and possess the body of their host like a cordyseps fungus or Half-Life headcrab - but with the trust between the Doctor and Clara has been broken by lies. With reality in question, belief is everything, so a lack of trust could prove fatal, and the most vital question in a situation fraught with uncertainty might just be 'do you believe in Father Christmas'?

The Good

• Nick Frost as Santa, from beginning to end, refusing to wink at the camera even when he's winking at the camera. 
• The emergent dream logic of the situation is present brilliantly, and hinted just enough for the audience to stay a step ahead if they're trying. 
• The pathos of the penultimate scene is breathtaking in a series that had been showing signs of going distinctly stale, helped by the production's absolute silence on the future of Clara. 
• Danny Pink's dream self manifesting his protective nature by essentially breaking character to save her from her own mind. 
• The fact that Clara is given agency without taking it away from the Doctor. 
• The tangerine running gag, used sparingly and effectively.

This is basically the definition of a Hail Mary.

The Bad

• The problem with undercutting a well-played tragic denouement is that it interrupts the catharsis, and is never quite as satisfying as the real thing, even if it is more feelgood.

The Ugly

• There is no outstanding ugly in this one.

Top Quotes

• Various: It's a long story.
• Shona: I will mark you, Santa!
• Shona: I’m scared.
  Doctor: Congratulations. That means you’re not an idiot.
• The Doctor: There are some things we should never be okay about.
• The Doctor: You know what the big problem is in telling fantasy and reality apart?
  Ashley: What?
  The Doctor: They're both ridiculous.
• The Doctor: Clara, could you fetch me the dead one?
  Clara: Maybe I could fetch you a cup of tea while I'm at it.
  The Doctor: Oooh. Yes and a punch in the face, too.
  Clara: My very next suggestion.
  The Doctor: Fair enough.
• Danny: Do you know why people get together at Christmas? Because every time they do, it might be the last time. Every Christmas is last Christmas, and this is ours.
• Santa: I can commit several million housebreaks in one night, dressed in a red suit with jingle bells. So, of course I can get back into the infirmary.
• The Doctor: These are Christmas hats. I've seen people use them. You put them on and absolutely everything seems funny.
• Shona: You’re a dream who’s trying to save us?
  Santa: Shona, sweetheart, I’m Santa Claus. I think you just defined me!
• Santa: You are deep inside this dream, all right, and it is a shared mental state, so it is drawing power from the multi-consciousness gestalt which has now formed telepathically …
  Doctor: No, no. No, no, no. Line in the sand. Santa Clause does not do the scientific explanation!
  Santa: All right. As the Doctor might say, “Aw, it’s all a bit dreamy-weamy!”
• The Doctor: Do you know what I hate about the obvious?
  Clara: What?
  The Doctor: Missing it!

The Verdict

There is a long-standing tradition that at the end of each series of Doctor Who, the production team hash out a slightly disappointing special with a tooth-achingly sweet Christmas theme, full of effects and spectacle and signifying nothing. Perhaps it is apt then that the ugly, struggling first series featuring the Twelfth Doctor should be one of the best Christmas specials they've ever done. Oh help me, I like the Twelfth Doctor. Hell, I like Clara. I like their interaction. It feels as if they've finally got it and decided what they're doing with them. The Doctor is a more rounded and accessible character, and the magical balance that they hit so rarely in the series is note perfect.

The first half of Last Christmas is full of flaws and sloppy writing, pretty much all of which turns out in the second half to be the result of dream logic and entirely deliberate. It's a proper Doctor Who episode that happens to be disguised as a whimsical holiday adventure with Nick Frost as Santa Claus, and yet it manages a more genuine Christmassy warmth and good cheer than most. I was looking forward to Clara going at the end of this, but by the time it got there I had a genuine lump in my throat. Why couldn't they have managed that level of investment in the Clara/Danny relationship with an entire series to work with?

Score - 9/10