Now that everything's out in the open-including Clara's dream-crush on the Doctor-it feels like business as usual. It was such a tender moment.įinally, it feels as though the Doctor and Clara's relationship is on an even keel again.
It was the perfect reversal of Clara helping Eleven pull his cracker back in 'Time of the Doctor'. And I just loved the Doctor helping an aged Clara pull her Christmas cracker. And how adorable was it that the Doctor couldn't see that she'd aged? She had to give him the numbers before he could comprehend just how much time had passed.
The Doctor's trepidation at asking Clara to travel with him, coupled with Clara's unbridled excitement on accepting, made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So I positively whooped with delight when the Doctor rushed in to save her a second time (take that, 'Clara always saves the Doctor these days' whiners), and they ran hand-in-hand to the TARDIS. And then later on Santa's sleigh, when she chose to rest on Santa's shoulder rather than waking up, I was certain that it was all over. The way her eyes jittered across the Doctor's face as he told her that Danny wasn't real, completely comprehending, yet uncaring about the consequences of staying, really moved me. I thought Jenna did some excellent work during the dream sequences with Danny. When an episode's called 'Last Christmas' you can be forgiven for thinking the ending might be bleak. I can pretend that he did something noble.Īt one point I thought Clara wasn't going to make it. And now I don't have to remember him as the prick who dumped some ex-dead kid on his girlfriend, thus forfeiting his chance to come back from the dead. At least his memory was able to provide Clara with one last perfect Christmas. Although dream-Danny wasn't real-Danny, I'm still glad we got to see him again. Instead, Clara and the Doctor were forced back together, and through a dream state Clara was able to find a modicum of closure. If the Kantrofarri hadn't attacked when they did, Clara's story would've been over. ( Not the Hound.)Īfter losing Danny last episode, the focus of tonight's story was on Clara coming to terms with his death. They were just a shop assistant with a GoT obsession, a perfume account manager with mad morning hair, a grandma in a wheelchair, and a man who loved to eat chicken. They made utterly unconvincing scientists because none of them really were. The fact that Moffat spent time giving his supporting characters semi-decent back-stories, really paid dividends. The realisation that the scientists were just ordinary people, with ordinary lives, was also skilfully done. If Santa had been real throughout, I dare say I'd have found their sleigh ride through London as whiffy as a particularly pungent Pont-l'Évêque, but the dream-like nature of the episode meant that Twelve's joy at taking the reins was absolutely contagious. What a treat to see Dan Starkey sans prosthetics. They were so massively over-the-top that once they'd been established as fake, Nick Frost and his shit-talking elves quickly became my favourite part of the episode. After an episode which ended with Clara and the Doctor lying to each other, it seems only fitting that the theme of tonight's story was the uncovering of lies, and what bigger lie to have as a centrepiece than old Beardy Weirdy himself? What I loved about this episode was the sheer scale of the Christmas trimmings. (And lots of other things beginning with an F that I won't go into.) Thankfully, 'Last Christmas' served as more of a season eight finale than it did a Christmas stand-alone. It's no secret that 'Death in Heaven' was a disappointment for many. Clara deserves more than being abandoned for 62 years, only to pull a cracker that doesn't bang. I'm not sure how I feel about that ending. Clara was supposed to have grown old and died at the Doctor's side. If the Radio Times is to be believed, Jenna had a last minute change of heart about leaving the series, necessitating a eleventh hour script rewrite. For my money, those last ten minutes were best consumed with the possibility of Jenna leaving in mind. so I almost vomited from the stress.Įven if Moffat didn't actively disseminate any misinformation, I can see why he and Jenna were keen to keep the news of her non-departure vague. Unlucky for me, I believe any old horse shit. The possibility of Jenna's departure transformed it into a tense tale of multiple fake-outs, and the more cognisant you were of the rumours, the more harrowing it was to watch. This was an episode which benefited greatly from the media confusion surrounding it. Clara: 'Every Christmas is last Christmas.'