Doctor Who: Last Christmas

God, can you believe that this is the tenth Doctor Who Christmas special? We've had TEN episodes of Doctor Who dedicated to Christmas, surely they've exhausted pretty much everything the show can say or do with the subject matter outside of I dunno, actually including Santa Clause himself? Oh wait...

Yep, the rather ominous sounding 'Last Christmas' actually includes Father Christmas himself in a major supporting role so I was skeptical from the off as there's quite literally a million and one ways this could have gone wrong. Thankfully (let's get this out of the way first) they didn't make him a cringe-worthy caricature at all, I'd even say Nick Frost's performance is one of favorite things about the episode. As for 'Last Christmas' itself it's a solid outing that's mired by unoriginal ideas and poor SFX. To quote writer Steven Moffat: 'This is the weirdest thing I've written!' 

The biggest downfall to 'Last Christmas' is that a lot of it's ideas have been done to death. Here the plagiarism is so blatant even the characters point it out. Look, just because you admit it's plagiarism doesn't make it okay! I mean look at this, it reads like a mish mash of five different movie plots: The episode takes place in a isolated Antarctic base (aka 'Thing From Another World') wherein a group of scientists are being attacked by dream crabs (aka facehuggers from 'Alien') that latch onto their victims faces and induce a dream state to hide the fact that they're slowly digesting your brain matter. Oh, and Father Christmas shows up and saves the day (aka 'Miracle On 34th Street'). Suffice to say if you've seen the enormously popular Christopher Nolan movie 'Inception' then you know EXACTLY what's going on here, right down to the dreams within dreams and aged-up characters. This episode is two things that I don't normally associate Doctor Who with: unoriginal and predictable. As a seasoned sci-fi fan this really took me out of the episode, I could see every twist coming. The fact that it's all over the place tonally didn't help either, Alien facehuggers and Santa Clause cracking jokes about his sleigh being bigger on the inside felt awesomely fun at first but the episode then wants to shove a few tearjerker scenes into the mix as well that don't really fit. 'Last Christmas' is a bit weird structurally, it decides to wrap up the core storyline of Clara getting over Danny's death half way through and then relies on it's series of twists to sustain itself for the second half. It felt weird, like it was playing for time. The Doctor himself thought everything was wrapped up and then....it just decides to keep on going? Um...Ok? The dream within a dream thing was neat but then you decide to do the same twist again? I just don't think it was needed and once again: INCEPTION.

Acknowledging you're copying something doesn't excuse you, Moffat.

Just like 'Into The Dalek' the special effects towards the end were so godawful it took me out of the scene completely. In theory the sleigh scene should have been delightful but in reality the Google Maps background really took the wind out of it. Yes Doctor, suuure you're flying the sleigh. The big emotional gut punch was also devoid of any emotions as old Clara looked like a muppet and Jenna Coleman didn't even bother to change her voice. Doctor Who, if you can't do old age make-up right then why do you keep slathering it over EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER?! I can't even....it's embarrassing, just stop.

All of this makes it seem like I hated the episode but in hindsight the special is undeniably fun. Two characters in particular really stood out: Shona and Santa. HOLY SH*T, I loved Shona. It was kind of ridiculous how much she stood out from the supporting cast, everything from the dancing to her love of all things geeky screamed fan favorite right from the start. Actress Faye Marsay did a tremendous job of embodying that character with likability.The only downfall of Clara staying for Series 9 is that we might not get Shona as a companion, because had things gone another way (Jenna Coleman changed her mind during production so they had to rewrite a few scripts) I am 100% certain Moffat was building her up to companion material. It's a shame she didn't get any meaty scenes with Capaldi because OHMYGOD that needed to happen! Look all I'm saying is that you either bring her back right now Moffat, or we riot. As for the big man himself I don't think it could have turned out better. Nick Frost was fantastic at balancing a very delicate line between the Santa we know and the somewhat blokey joe at the local pub who did nothing but poke fun at how absurd everything in this episode was. I also must applaud Moffat for writing him in in a way that made sense in the 'canon' of the show while also bringing to light everything that character represents. The episode makes a very good point *SPOILERS*: Santa doesn't have to be real to save them, in fact you can draw a lot of parallels between Santa and the Doctor himself, which is why Doctor Who is an oddly perfect fit for Christmas Day. 'Robot In Sherwood' also echoed this theme, they're both figures/icons that can inspire people to do good regardless of them being the product of fiction (you can also apply this theme to Danny, he saved Clara in a very real way even though he was just a figment of her imagination at the time). That's kind of inspiring, and that's without the nuanced performance Frost gave and the funny banter between him and Shona that made the episode. 

Just kiss already!

Santa and Shona brought the fun but this was still Capaldi and Coleman's episode. What else can be said here? Capaldi plays the Doctor slightly warmer here, he's become more of a lovable grump than an outright bastard. Kudos to Capaldi for the delivery on 'SHUT UP SANTA!' Clara also had some important scenes, Danny coming back seemed pure cry bait but again it was somewhat offset by one moment in particular: the explanation of the title 'Last Christmas' was really depressing because of how much it hit home, and his solution for Clara to only miss him for five concentrated minutes every day was lovely. It was another sad goodbye, albeit one we didn't really need. As for old Clara it was even more depressing to find out that she never got over Danny or the Doctor, even if she traveled the world as a teacher she never apparently never found happiness with someone else. Thanks Doctor Who, why don't you keep rubbing these unhappy endings into our happiness deprived skulls? Oh wait, none of that was real? So Clara's staying for another season?!! *REJOICES* I'm so happy she's staying, the duo between Capaldi and Coleman literally improves the show's quality by exactly 20%. I'd glad she didn't go via old age, they've already done that with past almost-companions and Amy and Rory. Funny how this feels like the THIRD possible exit we've had for the Clara this year, who knows how they're going to wrap up her storyline in Series 9 but it won't be due to her 1) getting mad at the Doctor, 2) dying of old age or 3) being abandoned by the Doctor as he goes to find Gallifrey. So that leaves what, just death outright? Hmmm...we'll see. All I know is that Jenna Coleman is an incredibly talented actress and I'm happy that this isn't the last we've seen of Clara. 

Positives:

+ Shona was awesome
+ Santa was awesome
+ Danny's speech to Clara about 'Last Christmas'
+ The Doctor and Santa bickering
+ Loved the Santa message 
+ Very weird episode
+ Clara didn't leave

Negatives:

- A ton of unoriginal ideas slapped together
- Blatant Aliens knock-off
- Potentially no more Shona
- Poor CGI, makeup effects

Overall Score: 7/10

So that's it then, Series 8 has officially wrapped up. Overall I think this has been an unusually strong season for the show. Outside of 'Into The Dalek' and 'In The Forest Of The Night' the episodes have ranged from good to great, and 'Listen' is one of my favorite episodes of the show ever. Capaldi makes for a wonderful Doctor and the dynamic between him and Jenna Coleman has been dynamite. Most importantly it was clear from the outset that the show-runners actually had an idea of where the show the going this time around, they made sure not to repeat the mistakes of Series 7b by focusing on character development and making every story count (I felt like series 8 was quite frankly just written better). With all that in mind I anticipate Series 9 eagerly and can't wait to see where Capaldi's Doctor goes next.