Story: Last Christmas
Written By: Steven Moffat
Length: 60 Minutes
Year: 2014
I'm kind of disappointed in this Christmas special. It had some good character stuff, a nice mix of humor and sadness...and yet I was left underwhelmed by the whole affair. It has Santa, Elves, Reindeer, and the North Pole...as well as a neat new alien clearly visually inspired by the movie "Alien" - that messes with memories and the brain, all of this is good stuff, and yet the episode feels a tad dull. It improves a bit with time and a whole series having aired since I last watched it...but I still think it rests in the "mildly entertaining" area.
It doesn't help that the ending of Clara and the Doctor deciding to run off together for more adventures felt like an odd choice. Moffat just doesn't have the guts that Davies had when it comes to moving on from his characters. I like Clara, I've never been one to dislike her character. Even when she was underdeveloped in her lone season with Smith...I still liked her. Moffat wrote her story at the end of the previous season with a logical ending...but he has to bring her back...and now it feels like the corner the characters were written into has been reversed.
The show is about change quite often, and sometimes that means saying goodbye to characters we like. Moffat is now repeating the same thing he did to Amy and Rory...write them a logical ending, then keep dragging them back in past their logical endpoint. Now he is doing it again with Clara. He essentially wrote her an exit that fit perfectly with where her character had developed throughout the last series...and now because he probably personally enjoys working with the actress, he is forcing her backwards. She shouldn't want to continue on with the Doctor...time to move on, at least that was how it seemed.
I think Moffat can be better than this, he just fears real risks, in a way Davies did not. Martha was dropped after one year! That was crazy, but he wrote her character into a way where the only logical thing for her to do was leave. She showed up for a few guest spots, but he didn't just reverse her character arc because he liked Freema. Moffat can't let go. He would've kept Amy and Rory through Capaldi's entrance if he had the chance. He should've dropped them following the sixth series, but he brought them back for another half season, which hurt Series 7 on the whole.
So I disagree with this episode ending and more Clara. Again, I like Coleman and her performance of the character, but it just feels off for her character to ride off into the sunset for more adventures when the note she left the Doctor on just one episode ago worked quite well. I actually would have preferred if Clara was entirely a figment of the Doctor's imagination brought on by the monster in this one. It might have actually added a nice sad layer that mixed well with the story.
I think Moffat is not as strong with the Christmas specials as Davies had been. Sure he wrote a great one in "A Christmas Carol," but "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe" was boring and forgettable. I did like "The Snowmen." And while I like a lot going on in "Time of the Doctor" it feels like a bit like a muddled mess trying to tie up all the loose ends of Matt Smith's era that still crams in extra monsters and stuff. This one is just average. It isn't truly awful or boring, it just underwhelms me a bit.
NEXT TIME:The Master Returns
Written By: Steven Moffat
Length: 60 Minutes
Year: 2014
I'm kind of disappointed in this Christmas special. It had some good character stuff, a nice mix of humor and sadness...and yet I was left underwhelmed by the whole affair. It has Santa, Elves, Reindeer, and the North Pole...as well as a neat new alien clearly visually inspired by the movie "Alien" - that messes with memories and the brain, all of this is good stuff, and yet the episode feels a tad dull. It improves a bit with time and a whole series having aired since I last watched it...but I still think it rests in the "mildly entertaining" area.
The show is about change quite often, and sometimes that means saying goodbye to characters we like. Moffat is now repeating the same thing he did to Amy and Rory...write them a logical ending, then keep dragging them back in past their logical endpoint. Now he is doing it again with Clara. He essentially wrote her an exit that fit perfectly with where her character had developed throughout the last series...and now because he probably personally enjoys working with the actress, he is forcing her backwards. She shouldn't want to continue on with the Doctor...time to move on, at least that was how it seemed.
I think Moffat can be better than this, he just fears real risks, in a way Davies did not. Martha was dropped after one year! That was crazy, but he wrote her character into a way where the only logical thing for her to do was leave. She showed up for a few guest spots, but he didn't just reverse her character arc because he liked Freema. Moffat can't let go. He would've kept Amy and Rory through Capaldi's entrance if he had the chance. He should've dropped them following the sixth series, but he brought them back for another half season, which hurt Series 7 on the whole.
So I disagree with this episode ending and more Clara. Again, I like Coleman and her performance of the character, but it just feels off for her character to ride off into the sunset for more adventures when the note she left the Doctor on just one episode ago worked quite well. I actually would have preferred if Clara was entirely a figment of the Doctor's imagination brought on by the monster in this one. It might have actually added a nice sad layer that mixed well with the story.
I think Moffat is not as strong with the Christmas specials as Davies had been. Sure he wrote a great one in "A Christmas Carol," but "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe" was boring and forgettable. I did like "The Snowmen." And while I like a lot going on in "Time of the Doctor" it feels like a bit like a muddled mess trying to tie up all the loose ends of Matt Smith's era that still crams in extra monsters and stuff. This one is just average. It isn't truly awful or boring, it just underwhelms me a bit.
NEXT TIME:The Master Returns
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