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Last Christmas Grading and Discussion Thread

How do you rate Last Christmas?


  • Total voters
    142
I keep rewatching the scene with Clara going though the Doctor's time stream. I can't find any scene from Castrovalva in there. Neither at the start nor ending of The Name of the Doctor. The only once I can see that is Fifth Doctor era is Arc of Infinity . Inside the Matrix. With that and technically the Five Doctors during Pertwee's drive in Betsy. There is a scene that I can't place of Clara in near total darkness with some faint lights in the background...right after we see her overlooking the Tenth Doctor at the Library.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDxPGQQyD4g
(from BBC America)

You know, I've made a few complaints about Moffat scripts being too talky, and I think I even made that complaint specifically in my review of Name of the Doctor. Indeed, many times it seems like the characters drone on and on about what needs to be done before finally doing it.

But holy shit, I never realized how accurate that complaint was before watching that clip just now. Clara spends nearly two minutes talking about going inside the Doctor's timestream before finally doing it.

On a side note, is this the first time we've had the title of the first episode of the following season revealed at the end of the Christmas special?

Although it wasn't really a season premiere, The Next Doctor did reveal the title of Planet of the Dead in its end credits.
 
There's so much bile and bitterness around here, and so little joy and sense of fun. It's really disheartening. It didn't use to be like that.

I enjoyed the episode quite a lot.
 
There's so much bile and bitterness around here, and so little joy and sense of fun. It's really disheartening. It didn't use to be like that.
And Moffat didn't use to be the showrunner. Things change.
:rolleyes:

There's just as much hate for the show and showrunner now as there was during the RTD days.

As the poll shows, the people who didn't like the episode are more vocal. Nothing new here.
 
There's so much bile and bitterness around here, and so little joy and sense of fun. It's really disheartening. It didn't use to be like that.
And Moffat didn't use to be the showrunner. Things change.
:rolleyes:

There's just as much hate for the show and showrunner now as there was during the RTD days.

As the poll shows, the people who didn't like the episode are more vocal. Nothing new here.

I've been here for quite some time and yes, things are very different nowadays. A couple of years ago, we didn't "hate" or "despise" as many things, episodes, actors or characters as we do now. A couple of years ago, people didn't spend so much time watching and commenting a show they hated, they just moved on. Which is fine I guess. Things indeed change. As far as I'm concerned though, I find more to enjoy in the show, flawed as it may be, than I find in this forum, which is, often enough, filled with joyless and bitter banter.
 
Seen the episode 3 times now, and my enjoyment of it has grown. I wouldn't call it one of the best episodes they've ever done in the new series, but it's definitely a mix of classic elements and good Christmas cheer. So I voted "very good."

Also the first time Danny Pink didn't completely annoy me.
 
I just had one of those long, deep sighs thinking about how I want to cuddle up on the couch, and watch reruns with the Widow from a couple a Christmas episodes past... But then I couldn't take my eyes off her in Chef 20 years ago.
 
Remember the good old days when RTD was finally gone and Moffat was going to save Doctor Who excessive emotionality and meaningless plots?
 
Remember the good old days when RTD was finally gone and Moffat was going to save Doctor Who excessive emotionality and meaningless plots?

I remember when I heard Moffat was going to take over the show and I was overjoyed and couldn't wait to see what he had in store for us. And he hasn't disappointed me yet.
 
I actually really liked this one. It's seriously one of the Moff's better efforts. I also liked Danny in it (shocking, I know). The actor wasn't whiny at all, which was my main criticism.

So, is this going to somehow mean that the finale was all a dream?
 
I actually really liked this one. It's seriously one of the Moff's better efforts. I also liked Danny in it (shocking, I know). The actor wasn't whiny at all, which was my main criticism.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel. One of Moffat's better efforts, definitely; for me, since "The Girl in the Fireplace." I've been pondering why that is, and I think it's because it's self-contained.

As for Danny... I didn't really have any problems with Samuel Anderson's performance in series 8. I thought he worked well here, even though he wasn't really Danny. Rather, he was like Mal was to Cobb in Inception, a projection from Clara's subconscious, and he was speaking the things that Clara thought but couldn't give voice to or refused to look at.

So, is this going to somehow mean that the finale was all a dream?

Not necessarily, though I noticed that, at the end of the episode, the Doctor and Clara still don't have wounds on their temples where the Dream Crab would be feeding.
 
I was waiting for a mention about the Afghan kid that Danny handed over to Clara. She didn't mention him once. I have read reviews and articles about this episode, and not one person has mentioned this. The death of this kid had a major influence on Danny, and he sacrificed his chance of returning to life by giving that chance to a kid he killed. Instead, I am reading about the big house that Clara is living in. I am like, who cares? Tell me about the child.
 
I don't care what excuse they used. They showed Clara in Adric's place in Castrovalva. That's shoehorning a modern companion into a story where she has no business being, for some dumb reason that makes no sense.
Reminds me of that time when some of these new fancy Trek shows not only inserted forehead Klingons into a TOS episode, but put Sisko in the place of Lt. Marlena Moreau. I had to take a quadruple dose of canonexiphan. Why sit and enjoy a fun episode, when I can spend the time throwing darts at a group picture of DS9 cast, and hate them for how much they ruined my beloved show? I could nail all of them by the forehead in my sleep – take that, robot of Sherwood.
You are preaching to someone who hasn't really liked DS9 since Worf joined the cast.

And no, I didn't care for the cheat that was Sisko inserted into "Mirror, Mirror" and pretending it was the Tribbles episode. I guess they counted on most viewers not noticing.
 
I was waiting for a mention about the Afghan kid that Danny handed over to Clara. She didn't mention him once. I have read reviews and articles about this episode, and not one person has mentioned this. The death of this kid had a major influence on Danny, and he sacrificed his chance of returning to life by giving that chance to a kid he killed. Instead, I am reading about the big house that Clara is living in. I am like, who cares? Tell me about the child.

It's a long story...
 
I was waiting for a mention about the Afghan kid that Danny handed over to Clara. She didn't mention him once. I have read reviews and articles about this episode, and not one person has mentioned this. The death of this kid had a major influence on Danny, and he sacrificed his chance of returning to life by giving that chance to a kid he killed. Instead, I am reading about the big house that Clara is living in. I am like, who cares? Tell me about the child.

It's a long story...

I thought at the end of "Death in Heaven," Danny tells Clara to send the boy back to Afghanistan. (It's possible he didn't; I don't think I was ever what Danny was saying at that moment.) So, months later, the Afghan boy isn't an issue any longer.
 
You are preaching to someone who hasn't really liked DS9 since Worf joined the cast.

And no, I didn't care for the cheat that was Sisko inserted into "Mirror, Mirror" and pretending it was the Tribbles episode. I guess they counted on most viewers not noticing.

Who said all the clips had to be from TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES? DS9 Production people never said that. They never said all the scenes we used in this episode are from TwT. I don't see a problem with it since they wanted to add the Sisko/Kirk scene.
 
Funny Worf is the only reason why I kept watching DS9.

Honestly I wouldn't care if they totally forgot about the boy from the finale. That is the only part I didn't like about the finale. It seems like you are causing more heartache for the boy and his family. How does the family explain oh guess what Our son who has been dead for years is back from the dead.

I think it was supposed to be a awwww moment for us and a sad moment to. I don't think we are meant to remember or think about it.
 
I was waiting for a mention about the Afghan kid that Danny handed over to Clara. She didn't mention him once. I have read reviews and articles about this episode, and not one person has mentioned this. The death of this kid had a major influence on Danny, and he sacrificed his chance of returning to life by giving that chance to a kid he killed. Instead, I am reading about the big house that Clara is living in. I am like, who cares? Tell me about the child.

It's a long story...

I thought at the end of "Death in Heaven," Danny tells Clara to send the boy back to Afghanistan. (It's possible he didn't; I don't think I was ever what Danny was saying at that moment.) So, months later, the Afghan boy isn't an issue any longer.

I think he said something like, "Find this boy's parents."

And then it's three weeks later when Clara and the Doctor meet up in the diner, so I assumed the boy had been taken care of.
 
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