S00.E142: Last Christmas

[alrightokay]

I loved him from the beginning.  I've also found it kind  of baffling that the show seems to think that I'm not supposed to find him sexy WHEN HE SO CLEARLY IS.  

Taking my response to this to the Twelve Thread.

[Eolivet]

Wow, Moffat -- you make it way too easy for your feminist detractors (including myself): In an episode about dreams turning into nightmares, an older man wakes up to find his beautiful young Companion is now old! Eww, what a nightmare, am I right? So, he wishes really hard and when he wakes up, she's young and beautiful again.

 

I realize the episode had to be rewritten at the last minute, but I wish the whole thing had been Clara's dream (reversing their roles so she had to go find the Doctor and rescue him -- that she made the wish to be young again, not the Doctor). I know the show can be too Clara-centric, but dreaming that she grew old waiting for the Doctor to return, and then realizing she hadn't missed a day would give her impetus to come back and not take a moment with the Doctor for granted.

 

Instead, it became "My pretty girl got old, boo! Help me, Santa!" Insulting to the Doctor, Clara and Santa Claus.

Edited December 30, 2014 by Eolivet

[cardigirl]

I just rewatched the episode again, and I loved it even more.  That usually happens for me, it takes two or three viewings to see and hear everything that's going on.  Santa and dreams and second chances!  Loved it.

 

 

To address the issue of Clara aging, the Doctor says he can't tell if she is young or not, she looks the same to him always.  Which rather contradicts River's warning to Amy about the Doctor not liking endings and not wanting to realize his companions are getting older.

Never let him see the damage. And never ever let him see you age. He doesn't like endings.

 

But before Santa asks him if he really does regret not coming back for her sooner, they show Clara as young as if showing her how the Doctor sees her.  So I am a bit confused about that.

 

Still, I thought it was a lovely show, and the ending was just perfect.

 

Clara: Well, look at you, all happy. That’s rare.
Doctor: Do you know what’s rarer? Second chances. I never get a second chance, so what happened this time? Don’t even know who to thank.

 

 

[RedHackle]

Mostly I liked this episode.  Previously I've defended Clara when others were hating on her, but this past season has been mostly a problem for me.  It just felt like there was negative chemistry between this Doctor and Clara. This ep felt very much like a take-back, and Moffat and company have figured out what went wrong with the past season and have found a way to fix it all.  I hope.

 

Loved Frost's Santa - perfect: naughty and nice, just how I like most things.  Liked (ish) the Inception/Alien hybrid.  Maybe not the most original plot but entertaining anyway. 

 

And this is pretty much the first episode (besides the first one with Capaldi) where I've enjoyed the relationship between them.  Who knows, maybe we got a much needed reboot of the reboot.

 

I still miss Matt Smith.

[MrHufflepuff]

I just re-watched it.  But I only re-watched the scenes with Santa and the scene with Shona dancing.  Lol.

[voiceover]

I'm not supposed to find him sexy WHEN HE SO CLEARLY IS.

 

Seriously!  but since I'm nearer to death then you are*: dibs.

 

*based on assuming I'm nearer his age than you are.

[tv-talk]

I'm going to have to watch this one again, but at face value...Moffat used the entire special to basically repair Clara's relationship with the Doctor, and while I wasn't entirely opposed to that it did leave a faint bitter taste in my brain when the realization hit.

 

 

Yeah that's exactly it, episode was a complete reboot for Doctor and Clara. Now all her bossiness and general awfulness should be gone and the show can try and proceed with less suffocating negativity between the characters. She'll still boss him around and fuss but it will come off more lighthearted now. I'd much have preferred she really was old now and that was that...but of course that wasnt going to happen.

 

What may bug me the most is the Doctor cant get one damn episode completely off Earth and without Clara. I mean they want you to feel all the bittersweet emotions between the two who haven't seen each other in who knows how long and then apart again for several decades...but it terms of the actual show there is no separation whatsoever. It's just so contrived. 

Edited December 31, 2014 by tv-talk

[shapeshifter]

Wow, Moffat -- you make it way too easy for your feminist detractors (including myself): In an episode about dreams turning into nightmares, an older man wakes up to find his beautiful young Companion is now old! Eww, what a nightmare, am I right? So, he wishes really hard and when he wakes up, she's young and beautiful again.

I realize the episode had to be rewritten at the last minute, but I wish the whole thing had been Clara's dream...

...To address the issue of Clara aging, the Doctor says he can't tell if she is young or not, she looks the same to him always. Which rather contradicts River's warning to Amy about the Doctor not liking endings and not wanting to realize his companions are getting older....

Didn't they even then show her looking still young from his perspective before switching back to old Clara? But is this part also a dream, and if so, are we sure it's The Doctor's and not Clara's? Or aren't they sharing the dream?

Anyway, let's not forget that he saw the middle-aged woman as "the sexy one."

ETA: Maureen Beattie is my age, so middle-aged is a fast disappearing status in the rear view mirror. But here is how The Doctor likely viewed her:

Edited December 31, 2014 by shapeshifter

[Llywela]

What may bug me the most is the Doctor cant get one damn episode completely off Earth and without Clara. I mean they want you to feel all the bittersweet emotions between the two who haven't seen each other in who knows how long and then apart again for several decades...but it terms of the actual show there is no separation whatsoever. It's just so contrived. 

That used to happen with Amy and Rory as well - we'd be told that X months or years had passed between episodes, from theirs or the Doctor's perspective, yet that gap was never apparent on-screen. They always seemed exactly the same, the Doctor especially, and I'm afraid I've never bought it.

 

I think Moffat is remembering some of the more iconic companions from his youth and trying to recreate/surpass their importance in the Doctor's life and the show's history, but he wants to achieve that artificially, by telling us that the Doctor keeps returning to these people again and again, so that they are his companions for hundreds of years of his lifespan, longer than anyone else has ever been part of his life...but he has to cram it into the scant few seasons he has to make his mark. And telling us that the Doctor is going back to these people after years away simply cannot achieve the same impact as, for e.g., watching his friendship with the Brigadier develop over multiple regenerations and 20 actual years of appearances as guest and regular. Plus, it comes across as disjointed. When the Doctor pops in to visit Amy/Clara and says that years have passed by for him off-screen, I don't think 'wow, how special this person must be that he's come back to them after all this time', I just wonder what he's been doing all that time and get annoyed because it is completely out of character for him not to have met someone else and gone travelling with them in the meantime. He just doesn't have that great of an attention span. And while he'd still love any companion he returned to after decades/centuries away, he'd have changed, they couldn't just pick up in exactly the same emotional place as they were because he wouldn't still be in exactly the same emotional place, he couldn't be. The showrunners are trying to give the impression of time passing without wanting to deal with the actual effect of time passing.

 

It would work better if he were allowed an episode of two without the companion - even picking up another companion along the way and then taking hem back to visit. But that'll never happen, because contracts.

Edited December 31, 2014 by Llywela

[Kalliste]

At least with Matt Smith the Amy/Rory didn't tag along for the christmas episodes. Rose is really the only one that has (I'm not sure Donna counts because that was pre companion - same as Clara in her original christmas episode).

 

Sometimes it's nice to get time without the seasonal companions.

[romantic idiot]

When I find out the Doctor's been without the companion for a while, I get worried, because wasn't the Waters of Mars all about how the Doctor doesn't do to well without a companion?

[supposebly]

So, I finally watched it. A first for me since NuWho not to watch right away. And, I barely remember what it was, the plot didn't trick me once and the only scene I liked was Old Clara. Mostly because it seemed like he abandoned her finally. And then she was back. Blegh.

 

I have to say, this was the first time I kinda didn't mind Twelve so much. So, progress there. Still, I'm not at all excited for the next series. I guess I will just have to take a break until Moffat is gone.

[tv echo]

Like others here, I liked this episode much more than I expected - up until the last 2 or 3 minutes. 

 

I loved Clara when she started showing up mysteriously, in that Dalek episode and then in that historic Christmas episode, and culminating in the reveal that she's the "impossible girl" when she jumped into the Doctor's timeline to be splintered throughout his lives.  That was the perfect ending for Clara.  Once they brought her back as an ordinary modern girl, her character started to go downhill (esp. this season).  "Last Christmas" should've ended with the old Clara having lived a long and full life, and a new companion should've been introduced going forward.

 

Actually, I'm surprised that River Song was allowed to be a mature looking woman.  I guess the ending of "Last Christmas" came across as offensive because the Doctor looked so appalled to see the old Clara and then so overjoyed to see the young Clara again.

 

Even though this is a British series, it's typical Hollywood that the hero can be in his 50's or 60's, buff or overweight, nerdy or studly, but the female companion always has to look young and attractive.  

Edited December 31, 2014 by tv echo

[RedHackle]

loved Clara when she started showing up mysteriously, in that Dalek episode and then in that historic Christmas episode, and culminating in the reveal that she's the "impossible girl" when she jumped into the Doctor's timeline to be splintered throughout his lives.  That was the perfect ending for Clara.  Once they brought her back as an ordinary modern girl, her character started to go downhill (esp. this season).

 

 

Oh this is just about the perfect summation of my feelings.  You hit it on the head.

 

Even though this is a British series, it's typical Hollywood that the hero can be in his 50's or 60's, buff or overweight, nerdy or studly, but the female companion always has to look young and attractive.

 

Grumblegrumblegrumble!  That is generally the truth about all other shows and movies, but this show is usually a strong exception; however that may just be my perception for a couple reasons.  One, to me, River always seemed older than the (Matt Smith) Doctor, and because Captain Jack turned on the wolf leer for Sara Jane Smith; it was also made clear that Doctor saw her as looking the same to him. That was echoed well with how (as other people have noted) he saw Clara as still looking young, and referred to the older scientist as the sexy one. Just one cranky old lady's opinion, here.

Edited December 31, 2014 by RedHackle

[alias1]

At least with Matt Smith the Amy/Rory didn't tag along for the christmas episodes. Rose is really the only one that has (I'm not sure Donna counts because that was pre companion - same as Clara in her original christmas episode).

 

Sometimes it's nice to get time without the seasonal companions.

Matt Smith had one Christmas Special without any companions (the one with the Widow).  In A Christmas Carol, Amy and Rory were on their homeymoon (gag) in a spaceship about to crash.  And The Doctor had to save them by getting Kazran Sardik to act less like Scrooge and become more compassionate.  Having "the Ponds" in that Christmas Special just seemed like a contrived way to include them in a Christmas Special.

[Kalliste]

Matt Smith had one Christmas Special without any companions (the one with the Widow).  In A Christmas Carol, Amy and Rory were on their homeymoon (gag) in a spaceship about to crash.  And The Doctor had to save them by getting Kazran Sardik to act less like Scrooge and become more compassionate.  Having "the Ponds" in that Christmas Special just seemed like a contrived way to include them in a Christmas Special.

I don't even remember Amy and Rory being a part of that episode :P That's why I didn't mention it :D So, Basically, since Moffat has been on board the companions come along for the Christmas episode.

 

Or.. maybe Ten just didn't like companions on christmas :P 

[Llywela]

I think it just worked out that the Davies era companions weren't around for Christmas specials after Rose, since Martha and Donna only did one season each and had already left before the Christmas specials attached to those seasons.

 

As for what River said about not letting the Doctor see you hurt or aged - that was River's issue, not the Doctor's. It isn't something he has ever been shown to care about, which makes her saying it the exception, not the rule. Moffat era characters more than perhaps any others like to come out with these soundbyte phrases that sound really deep and meaningful, but which rarely stand up to scrutiny, so the lesson there is to not take everything at face value.

[ketose]

One thing I don't like about the aging thing is that it tries to over explain the behind the scenes of the show. We know that companions were created because the Doctor needed a stand in for the audience to explain stuff. They also tended to be young because it was a kids' show with an old man in the lead. I assume that by the 70's producers figured that an attractive young female would keep the dads from changing the channel when the kids wanted to watch Doctor Who. That's just the way TV is. This Moffat-splaining of why women can't get old who travel with the Doctor was superfluous IMHO.

[MarquisDeCarabas]

Wow, Moffat -- you make it way too easy for your feminist detractors (including myself): In an episode about dreams turning into nightmares, an older man wakes up to find his beautiful young Companion is now old! Eww, what a nightmare, am I right? So, he wishes really hard and when he wakes up, she's young and beautiful again.

 

I realize the episode had to be rewritten at the last minute, but I wish the whole thing had been Clara's dream (reversing their roles so she had to go find the Doctor and rescue him -- that she made the wish to be young again, not the Doctor). I know the show can be too Clara-centric, but dreaming that she grew old waiting for the Doctor to return, and then realizing she hadn't missed a day would give her impetus to come back and not take a moment with the Doctor for granted.

 

Instead, it became "My pretty girl got old, boo! Help me, Santa!" Insulting to the Doctor, Clara and Santa Claus.

 

I saw it completely differently.  All through out the series the Doctor has been saying stuff about how he thought she was older than she was and this turned that on it's head in that he just sees her, he doesn't see her as young or old he just sees her.  

[alrightokay]

I saw it completely differently.  All through out the series the Doctor has been saying stuff about how he thought she was older than she was and this turned that on it's head in that he just sees her, he doesn't see her as young or old he just sees her.  

Ohhh, that's nice--it circles back to how Twelve asked Clara in "Deep Breath" to "Please ... just see me."

[HauntedBathroom]

I enjoyed this episode tremendously. I was amused by the explanation that Shona worked in a shop, up until that point I'd been thinking "Shouldn't a scientist be a bit more level headed?" But no, it was all throughly enjoyable - good Christmas fun!

[proserpina65]

Well that was pretty much the definition of 'eh'.  Not quite Planet of the Dead bad, but still one of the very lesser Christmas specials.

[ketose]

Every time I see the title, that song by WHAM! still gets into my head.

[darkestboy]

I actually watched this episode today for the first time since December and I really think had this been a Smith Christmas special, Moffat would've gone to town with Santa, we've had some cutesy, precocious kids and probably even a scene where Eleven, Clara and Santa were using both his sleigh and the TARDIS to deliver Christmas presents to all the kids of the world.

 

Somehow with Capaldi's Doctor and the general Inception/The Thing vibe, we managed to dodge that bullet.

[hnygrl]

When I think of the Doctor/Old Clara thing? I think (after several watchings) I see things differently: I think the Doctor wasn't really "appalled" at "old" Clara and wishing his companion was young again (enter SANTA! YAY!) so much as deeply saddened and "troubled" that he didn't come back for her SOONER. He probably had no idea how long it'd been since he last saw her (timey-wimey), and was dismayed that it's been over 60 years instead of the 6 months he'd assumed it'd been.

 

So when given a very rare for him second chance to do the right thing, he jumped at it and went right away and got his Clara back.

 

I think the new season's Clara/Doctor relationship will be more free and easy and "Companionable" than in season 8 since they've forgvien each other. Her for him not being Matt Smith, and him for Her not being Devoted to him and having an outside interest he disapproved of.

[Ringthane]

I think the new season's Clara/Doctor relationship will be more free and easy and "Companionable" than in season 8 since they've forgvien each other. Her for him not being Matt Smith, and him for Her not being Devoted to him and having an outside interest he disapproved of.

 

Well, that would be the third kind of relationship for them - first the Impossibe Girl thing, then last season's snoozefest, and then this.  They do say the third time's the charm...

[EC Amber]

Coming in so, so late on this. The first world problem of waiting on Netflix... 

Shona impressed me in that she seemed the youngest, but also the bravest and interestingly (for the general "station" Moffat put her) extremely critical in her thinking. While everyone was tripping over themselves dealing with the dream crabs, she was interrogating Santa. Granted, he was a projection of their minds (but was he, was he really?) - but she was at least hammering for answers and taking notes. For some reason that just charmed me. Ok, the dancing was pretty spectacular too. But her whole character was fun to watch. 

My (pretty well developed) feminist muscle was not in the least flexed over the whole perceived age issue. If anything I thought it was pretty clear that the Doctor didn't care about how old Clara was but devastated that there would be no more adventures with Clara and it was his fault for not coming back sooner. To me that was what the whole "second chance" was about - not that he got more eye candy, but that he got more time. Which is a rather lovely play with someone who has so much of it anyway. This was emphasized by the fact that the only two creatures the Doctor called sexy was the T-rex and Bellows. 

I didn't like that some of the "science team" saw the crabs after they woke up. Bellows woke up, shook off the dream, realized she was in her wheelchair, shrugged rather sadly and went right past the dust without a glance. If they all did that it would be more terrifying as the dream crabs really couldn't be realized in a conscious person. 

I think I'm in the minority but I liked Clara before and am especially looking forward to next season without the obstacles, lies and obfuscation. And while I liked the idea of Danny and the actor and the quality of acting - the actual relationship just never really gelled with me. Mostly I'm glad he's gone, but the whole great-grandson thing hanging out in the ether is annoying. Some questions and plot points should be dealt with by the end of a season and some can survive into the next season. Clara's great-grandson shouldn't be one of them. 

All in all I enjoyed this quite a bit and am looking forward to season 9. 

[Dobian]

I liked the episode, it was suspenseful and scary while also being fun and whimsical.  The scene with Dream Danny was a nice moment.  He got to have two exits from the show in a row where he got to be a hero.  My favorite moments though were the sleigh ride and when the Doctor asks her to join him again.  The look of joy and earnestness on his face was great, and it was nice to finally see them really be in sync with each other.  It took awhile for this Doctor and this pairing to click, but I like them as a team now, and I really like this Doctor.