Doctor Who:
The Snowmen
By Steven Moffat
“It's Smaller On The
Outside."
So here we are. It’s been months since the Ponds have left
and it’s time for annual Christmas Special. 2012’s special is titled The
Snowmen and boasts to having killer snowmen roaming around as the main creature
of the story. The Doctor Who Christmas
Specials have now become a Christmas tradition that you expect something
special to compliment the day of gift giving and enjoying the family
dinner. So was this edition of the Doctor
Who Christmas Special top notch or was it, as a certain Christmas fixture would
say, Humbug.
Well I found The Snowmen to be
absolutely entertaining and a whole lot of fun but a bit dark for a Christmas
Special. It did have a dark feel to it
as the Doctor was moping around and being negative and not his normal self. Not
really caring what was going on and not really wanting to get involved with
anyone or any situation. Sometimes the
Christmas stories can get a bit too silly but The Snowmen wasn’t as silly as I
feared it would be from the impression I got from the trailers. In fact the comedy relief was not overdone
and I really enjoyed the scenes with Drax and The Doctor as it brought a nice
touch of lightness to a story that seemed darker than normal for Doctor Who’s
Christmas romps.
The story itself was pretty
good. I enjoyed the way they got the
Doctor off the snide and back into action.
Really liked how the story moved along at a leisurely pace and kept you thinking what would happen next
and would The Doctor recover his senses and be his old self again and get
involved and save the day. Loved how
Clara just seemed to get attached to The Doctor and persisted on trying to get
him to help. I think the pairing of
those two will work as the pairing of Matt Smith and Jenna – Louis Coleman seem
like a great fit and we should be in for a great ride with those two in the
TARDIS.
I didn’t really mind that Madame
Vastra and Jenny were in this story as they were a nice touch. They weren’t in it all that much and their
scenes did help the story along and they weren’t overused which is a fault of
Steven Moffat sometimes overusing secondary characters but in The Snowmen I
believe he got it right this time. I do
like Madame Vastra and Jenny and think they would be good in their own
spinoff. It would be pretty interesting
to see their adventures in Victorian England.
It was wonderful to see the Great
Intelligence return to Doctor Who. Loved
the two stories it was in during Patrick Troughton’s era The Abominable Snowmen
and The Web of Fear and with the recent recovery of The Web of Fear fans can
now see what he was like back then.
Loved reading about the Great Intelligence in the Target book
novelizations and am glad that new fans and I can get to see this villain
again. What a wonderful surprise for the
fans and loved the killer snowmen he controlled. Plus The Great Intelligence
was voiced by Gandalf himself Ian McKellen so how cool was that. This brings me to Richard E. Grant and his
portrayal of Doctor Simeon. He was
really good in The Snowmen and Richard E. Grant made Doctor Simeon really
creepy. Such a wonderful performance and
one you’d expect to get for the Christmas Special and it was good to see him as
The Great Intelligence in the Series 7 finale The Name of The Doctor.
One thing that I did not care for
and which was not really explained all that well was the rain. We see the dying Clara crying and then it
starts to rain. Not really explained to
well and I’m guessing it is just part of the mystery that is surrounding Clara
but it did seem to dampen, sorry bad pun, the story just a bit. I mean it did
seem a bit convenient and an easy way to come about the conclusion but not all
that sure how it came about. It was a
pretty clever plot device though and we do know now why the rain was like that.
What really intrigued me about
The Snowmen was Clara. Who is she? We did find out that she is indeed Oswin
Oswald from Asylum of the Daleks or in fact some form of her. Now this revelation I did find to be really
cool and to leave off on a mystery was awesome and did breathe some new life
into the same old Doctor Companion relationship. It was interesting watching
this again knowing where Steven Moffat takes this in the second half of Series
7.
On a whole I really enjoyed The
Snowmen. I enjoyed it way better than
2011’s C.S Lewis homage. In fact I enjoyed it 100% more than 2012’s. It was a wonderful story that does a lot of
things different and surprising like killing off Clara and just making it a
traditional Doctor Who story for once with monsters and baddies to fight. It opens up a can of mystery for the fans to
ponder and that is a great thing to have happen. Plus I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on
the new theme and opening credits. I
loved it. It was good to see The Doctors face in the sequence again. Plus the theme sounded retro and harkens back
to the classic series in way while keeping it fresh. In all a wonderful story that makes it a
special Christmas day for all Whovians.
Grade A
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