Review: 'Doctor Who' - 'The Snowmen': Christmas with Clara
Jenna-Louise Coleman debuts (again) as the new companion (sort of)
Jenna-Louise Coleman and Matt Smith in the "Doctor Who" Christmas special.
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A quick review of last week's "Doctor Who" Christmas special coming up just as soon as I am a lizard woman from the dawn of time, and this is my wife...
"The Snowmen" was a fun Christmas outing, albeit one that felt more overstuffed than these specials sometimes get. (the snowmen ultimately felt more besides the point, for instance, than I think Steven Moffat might have wanted, but I understand why he'd prefer to write more material for Madame Vastra and Strax), and it proved once again that Jenna-Louise Coleman was a fine choice to play the new companion...
... except, of course, that we still haven't met the actual new companion. Oswin the talent manager and uber-hacker from the future is dead. So is Clara the the proper governess by day, blue collar barmaid by night. The final scene suggests that the ongoing version of the character will be a contemporary woman, who will presumably have the same cheeky confidence of the others. I understand that the companions are there in large part as point of view characters for the audience, and it's easiest to make that work if they're from the same period we are, but I think it would've been a nice change of pace for the modern era if we had the Oswin who was either used to outer space, aliens, etc., or the one who doesn't even have science-fiction movies to lean back on as the Doctor takes her on journeys through time and space.
In general, though, I've learned to trust Moffat, and am looking forward to the show's return in April.
What did everybody else think?
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupPaul F
December 31, 2012 at 12:01PM EST Reply to CommentThis trailer for BBC One in general seems to show another non-contemporary Clara (judging from her hairstyle and clothes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dzG_f_vEEs
I felt it was definitely the best Christmas special since at least the first Tennant one. Still love Strax and Vastra.
Brian
December 31, 2012 at 12:03PM EST Reply to CommentI think Coleman is great, but I think Moffat's scripts are getting increasingly disappointing. They always begin with a great flurry of activity and a great show of clever complexity, but by the end it always seems clear that he never stopped to figure out how the pieces are supposed to fit together. (The dreadful season 6 arc was the most glaring example of this.) So I fear that all the sense of mystery about Clara/Oswin is going to take up a lot of time, but is going to lead nowhere.
Kal +1. Giving him the benefit of the doubt but let's get more solid adventure and less disappearing-up-your-own-ass superfluous twists
December 31, 2012 at 4:19PM ESTStan +2. I like Smith as the Doctor, but it feels like a chore to watch Moffat's Doctor Who because the stories are so convoluted. And I realize that this has always been an element of Doctor Who, it just seems like this is becoming the main focus of Moffat's series. I feel like I need to start taking notes to remember how all the pieces fit together (especially from one season to the next.) Why can't Doctor Who just be fun again?
December 31, 2012 at 6:15PM ESTKal -1/2. Agree, agree, agree, but I do admire that he's done things with the series and time-travel stories that go beyond "oh, look...this week we're in merry olde England". I appreciate complexity and making it something for adults as well as kids but when the "timey-wimey" stuff takes center stage, it's making the trees more important than the forest (of Cheem)
December 31, 2012 at 6:30PM ESTTracey +1 I like the actress and I like the character, but when they killed her off and brought her back, I just groaned. Really? I don't want to spend a whole season solving the mystery of the new companion. It's starting to feel very Mary Sue-ish, the series resolving around the mystery of a newly-created character. Of course, I felt that way about River in The Library, and I loved her as the series went on, and the mystery ultimately did pay off in an interesting way (which I'm not sure entirely fits, but never mind...). But I just don't feel like going through those motions again.
December 31, 2012 at 7:30PM ESTKal Yeah, there's a weird "the Companion must be more interesting than the Doctor" thing that was never present before going on. I like interesting companions, but I still think there's good stories left in the old man to tell.
December 31, 2012 at 7:49PM ESTDJ Doena
December 31, 2012 at 12:07PM EST Reply to CommentI've been watching all the Christmas specials of the new show over the past few days and there's a pattern emerging that becomes kind of repititive when you watch them all in a row.
The lesson that the Doctor shouldn't travel alone has been pointed out time and time again and also that he becomes lonely and reckless if he does so.
Interestingly though, there's not one companion who's had more than one special if you don't count cameos and short visits:
First Rose, then Donna, then Astrid, then the New Doctor, then Wilfred, then the Ponds (but even they were guest stars in their own Special), then the wardrobe family and now Oswin.
milaxx
December 31, 2012 at 12:15PM EST Reply to CommentI like Clara Oswin Oswid (SP?) _I Just hope Moffs doesn't keep killing her off.
Bill On the other hand, if they turn her into Dr. Who's version of Kenny, it could be amusing for at least a little while.
December 31, 2012 at 1:25PM ESTmilaxx @Bill - they already did that with Rory
December 31, 2012 at 3:02PM ESTQuantum Leopold
December 31, 2012 at 1:58PM EST Reply to CommentI didn't interpret the trajectory of the Oswin/Clara story the same way. I thought Moffat may be setting up a character that is Doctor Who's answer to South Park's Kenny--Oswin/Clara's consciousness/soul/whatever keeps popping up throughout time and keeps getting killed in connection to the Doctor's adventures, and he will be trying to figure out why it's happening and how to finally save her. Whatever the answer is, I like the mystery of it so far.
J
December 31, 2012 at 2:25PM EST Reply to CommentReally like the conceit of Clara, just the sort of companion-as-puzzle that would intrigue Moffat's idea of the Doctor (and will hopefully re-focus Moffat).
And I guess I can still be charmed by Moffat's self-conscious redundancies. I thought it was sort of nifty how, in a mild echo of the way Amelia Pond's memories got used to construct traps/reconstruct the universe/etc., a little redheaded girl's memories of her governess were the key to whatever Gandalf & Richard E. Grant (who also played the Doctor in a parody special Moffat wrote) were trying to pull off. (Plus, of course, "Pond.") And while the self-nodding Sherlock stuff would have been merely cute on its own, working in Mary Poppins as well nodded toward a larger toying-with-tropes thing. Or something.
As for the kiss, hey, isn't this Time Lord still married? I am surprised this bothered me, but it did.
The Noble Robot That scene made absolutely no sense to me, from either a narrative or character angle, but the Doctor kisses all his companions these days, so I suppose it's best to get it out of the way immediately.
December 31, 2012 at 3:48PM ESTodessasteps I expected more irate online fan outrage over the Sherlock gag.
December 31, 2012 at 4:26PM ESTI wonder if the Doctor's marriage to River will be downplayed now that the Ponds are gone.
Tracey Yes, the kiss really bothered me too. I've seen a lot of comments from people who hated River and who insisted that they weren't "really" married, but I think they made it abundantly clear that the Doctor's feelings for River were very real and very serious. His sudden attraction to this new mystery girl annoyed me.
December 31, 2012 at 7:26PM ESTodessasteps Admittedly, that's to timey-wimey, we don't know how long he has been moping since losing the Ponds in the last episode or how long it's been since he's seen River.
December 31, 2012 at 7:32PM ESTThat said, personally not a fan of the new Doctor regarding emotional/romantic attachments to companions.
The Noble Robot I don't mind a little pseudo-romantic stuff from time to time, so that wasn't exactly my problem.
December 31, 2012 at 9:46PM ESTMy problem with it was that it comes out of nowhere and is never brought up again. It isn't really part of the plot, and doesn't seem to line up with the development of either character, or their relationship.
It's almost as if it was designed as a test, to see if the fans would make a big deal about it (each time the Doctor kisses one of his companions there are fewer cries of blasphemy from fans than the previous time).
ed w I don't think that was ever a serious marriage or that he ever had real feelings for River other than as a friend. The show made it perfectly clear last season that his real "wife" is the Tardis.
January 1, 2013 at 3:03AM ESTTracey There were a number of things last season that made it clear this was supposed to be serious. Nurse: She'll be fine.
January 1, 2013 at 9:38AM ESTDoctor: No, she'll be amazing.
Dorium: And Doctor Song? In prison all her days?
Doctor: Her days, yes. Her nights... well, that's between her and me, eh?
He took Stevie Wonder back to the Victorian Era to sing to her on her birthday. And their behavior throughout Angels Take Manhattan was very couples-like. People want to pretend that this is some one-sided thing, Psycho River imagines that she's his wife, but that's just not the way it has played out on screen.
ed w Those were jokes. I wasn't aware till recently that some people actually think they are really married in any meaningful way other than as a lark.
January 1, 2013 at 1:32PM ESTTracey So, when River said she'd rather destroy the world than kill the man she loves, she was just joking around? Thanks for clearing that up.
January 1, 2013 at 6:59PM ESTed w Oh yeah she is into him, but she's also crazy. I think he just finds her an amusing cougar and the daughter of someone he has more affection for.
January 2, 2013 at 3:14PM ESTWhat you said doesn't contradict anything I said, there's a long way between one person being obsessed with another and a serious marriage.
bryan I'm pretty sure this is all after the Doctor saw River for the last time. Which we did see a part of in a webisode. Actually maybe she is River. Transmitting her consciousness to different receptacles through space and time using the library's infrastructure.
January 2, 2013 at 4:55PM ESTA guest A couple things:
January 29, 2013 at 12:48PM EST1. The Doctor ASKED River to travel with him. She DECLINED in Angels Take Manhattan.
2. River told him not to travel alone.
3. The wedding... what wedding? In River's own words it was in "a world that never was." Clever of Steven Moffat to twist that one up and quite a number of fans ate it up.
Does The Doctor care about her? Sure. But is he really in love with River? Well looks more like she's in love with him than he is with her!
For the record I wasn't annoyed with Clara kissing the Doctor and looking at the Doctor's excitement in the end he's looking forward to finding Clara and seeing her again.
The Noble Robot
December 31, 2012 at 3:45PM EST Reply to CommentAs I was watching Clara on her deathbed, I was convinced that the memory snake thing we saw earlier meant that when Clara died in this episode, it was because this was the end of her time with the Doctor, who would then go find her in the present, have a ton of adventures with her, then reluctantly drop her off in Victorian London after wiping her memory.
A little like how he met River Song. Let it be said that Moffet has never been afraid to reuse a good idea (see: Madam de Pompadour/Amy Pond).
The hints were all there, it seemed, and her saying "you clever boy" (or whatever) as she died seemed to confirm it, as it seemed like she was regaining her memories.
But of course, my theory didn't explain Oswin's death earlier in the season, and in any case, the end of the episode seemed to totally discount the notion altogether.
Shame, it seemed like a good idea.
odessasteps
December 31, 2012 at 4:25PM EST Reply to Commentfirst, thanks Alan for writing this, even a few days after it aired.
Boy, Victorian Clara was "one of the dads." Have we seen such a buxom companion since Peri?
I enjoyed the episode, but am growing weary of Moffat's consistent "companion with a mystery" story arcs.
Richard E. Grant (unofficial former Doctor in 2 mediums) was wonderfully hammy.
Also, new Who fans should do some googling about the Great Intelligence to learn about the possible return of an old school monster not yet seen in the reboot.
Looking forward to some of this year's episodes.
Casting and Credit News don't count as spoilers right? So I can say looking forward to another Neil Gaiman episode and a Mark Gatiss episode starring Diana Rigg.
Ugh Can't say I'll ever look forward to a Gatiss episode. Consistently terrible, including the hands-down worst episode of the new series, "The Wire".
January 2, 2013 at 5:41AM ESTAshley
December 31, 2012 at 9:51PM EST Reply to CommentI actually interpreted Clara's role a bit differently. To me, it didn't seem as though it was one actress playing different companions vaguely related to one another. I think her roles are all the same character, the same soul, we just don't have all the pieces to the puzzle yet. I mean, she broke the 4th wall in "Asylum" and "Snowmen" by winking/staring at the camera and her last words to the doctor were a clue to find her. My biggest evidence to this theory is that all the time we spent with her in Snowmen showed us that she likes to take on completely new personas for seemingly no reason - a barmaid AND a governess. Why can't that be some sort of cosmic, timey wimey personal mission? The minute the doctor put the puzzle together at the end of the episode, he stopped being sad about Clara being dead- I think that he's pretty sure she's not.
Scott Rosenberg
December 31, 2012 at 10:58PM EST Reply to CommentThis was perhaps the single worst A-Plot of the Moffat era, but as a character piece for our friends from Demon's Run and a bridge-gap between companions it was successful, with a fair amount of heartfelt depth.
I am, however, a bit leery of how charmed the writers seem with Coleman's ability to motormouth dialogue. In the two outings so far I haven't had difficulty understanding her on the first pass, but it seems like that could easily change, or worse, simply grow real old real quick.
odessasteps It's possible that Moffat also used the episode to sow the seeds for the next big bad. (new who fans, check up on The great intelligence from the classic show.)
January 1, 2013 at 12:28AM ESTed w
January 1, 2013 at 3:00AM EST Reply to CommentThis is one of those times where I agree with Alan word for word. I would have really liked this companion to stick around and am not particularly looking forward to what it appears we're going to get next.
In addition to everything else, it's difficult on TV to create a memorable introduction for a new supporting character, but the upside down carriage entrance was just great. To go through all that work and then just toss it away...
frank The upside down carriage entrance was just another special effect / clever shot. Those don't take the place of a good story or good characters.
January 22, 2013 at 3:54PM ESTkj_boldon
January 1, 2013 at 5:32PM EST Reply to CommentMy family recently re-watched some of the season 2, Tennant/Piper episodes, and I find them far superior to the Moffatts. Rose, Martha and Donna were all very real, very relatabable women. Not so model Karen Gillan, to whom Moffatt did abominable things (making her wait in a cursed house, leaving her on a planet, stealing her child...) and manic pixy dream girl Oswin. I miss Moffatt as the guy who wrote great episodes for Davies great characters. I hate how Moffatt writes women, though appreciate how well he and Matt Smith do with "funny Doctor" storylines, as opposed to scary or serious doctor storylines, which I don't think they are up to. I will keep watching, but am interested to see what the post-Moffatt era will hold.
Ian Grey
January 7, 2013 at 3:28PM EST Reply to CommentThis season's drop in quality is comparable only to BREAKING BAD turning into ONE AND A HALF MEN.
Gone are the wit, passion, intimacy and earned quirk that defined WHO since its reinvention. IN are splashy, inane high concepts (dinosaurs on a spaceship!) dumbed down for Stateside and lame-side audiences international. IN are gold standard CG and US location shoots along with stories where A is connected to B because we're *told* so, or simply not connected at all because whoah! Check out the new TARDIS! It looks like the Euro trash nightclub in a Luc Beson action movie.
Great.
Amy? Rory? Clearly their status as shiny objects dulled so Moffat dispatched them with weeping angels able now to to grow 20 stories and traverse the Atlantic ocean and Manhattan's financial district with nary a puddle stirred or observer's note.
But so what? It's Huge Angels! It's NYC location shooting! Look at this awesome poster we've commissioned! Look at this superior CG! And look--The Doctor looked gloomy for entire minutes!
Imagine if Willow just, like, died. And everyone was totally sad for at least 45 minutes and then BUFFY intro'ed a cute new *brown-haired* lesbian witch and all wounds healed because Xander said "Hey, that tree--it's a Willow tree!" And all assembled sighed and in one episode, happy hijinx returned.
That's precisely what Moffat has done here. After a season where Amy and Rory, the two most beloved WHO characters ever who were not DOCTOR WHO, spent a season being useless, or squabling in who-cares subplots, or helping nobody, and then Moffat whacks them, and then *tells* us about The Doctor being totally bummed out, or has other people *tell us* the same for must be at least 20 minutes of incoherent screen time, and then the word "Pond" is uttered and ta-da! Bowties are cool again.
The season was lousy. And this makes it official: Moffat has terminated DOCTOR WHO with extreme prejudice but hey! We're on the cover of TV Guide.
I'll trade any episode of ALPHAS lo-fi passion for this garish betrayal.
Frank
January 22, 2013 at 3:51PM EST Reply to CommentAwful...awful...awful. It was touchy feely rubbish. The Doctor didn't save the Earth, an emotional accident saved the Earth. This rubbish with multiple versions of the same person is...rubbish. The show increasingly relies on special effects and plot twists rather than a solid Doctor, solid antagonist, and solid conflict.
Greg
March 12, 2013 at 5:47AM EST Reply to CommentI really liked this episode, but I think it'd be better to just make Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax the companions and say the hell with it, because those three interacting with the Doctor and each other are *awesome.* Also, you wouldn't have to fall into the will they/won't they relationship pitfalls, and the power balance is a lot more equal--Vastra sure as heck isn't going to take any guff from the Doctor, and Strax might, but he can beat things up.