Evengyny
Thanks for the memories!
SpecialsTarget
Disturbing yet enthralling
Ava-Grace Willis
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
gridoon2018
As "Doctor Who" Christmas specials go, it's doubtful whether any of them will ever match "A Christmas Carol" for sheer magical seasonal spirit, but "Last Christmas" is one of the better efforts. It's a mixture of humor, sadness, creepiness, wonder and cynicism, all served up with characteristic Steven Moffat quirkiness. This may be an episode that you need to watch twice: one for the ride, and one to be clear on the (quite complex) story. It has some ingenious ideas, but it is also (deliberately) derivative of "Alien", "Nightmare on Elm Street", and "Inception". Nick Frost is a funny Santa Claus, and Faye Marsay is endearing in a role that might have been intended as a new companion for the Doctor until it was confirmed that Clara would stay on board. Some of the visual effects (the flying sleigh at the end) are a little shoddy. *** out of 4.
mks099
I am not sure what to think of season 8. At times I am watching and confused on Clara and the Dr. I keep asking myself a lot of questions like What happened to River? I thought the Master was dead. etc and so forth. Dr. 12 is really morbid, sad and cranky! However, then I realize you can not always think too hard with Dr. Who. Lol! I am still not sure I like the new Dr at all. He seems so different and well, pun intended, Alien compared to the others. With that said, I really, really and thoroughly enjoyed this special. It was touching, sweet, funny, sad and scary. Kudos! Enjoy watching. I do believe in miracles, Christmas cheer and Hope!
kevinmorice
Dr Who does Inception. It is a dream within a dream within a dream, and if you don't work that out 20 minutes before the cast then you are probably asleep yourself.Keep asking "Who you gonna call?" but no-one puts in a Ghostbusters joke?Throw in some facehuggers, but make them such blatant rip offs that you have to mention Alien to avoid a copyright infringement claim. Stuff the posthumous Danny Pink in yet again. Why bother killing him off if he is going to still be in every episode?!And at the end tie some nonsense knots of time loops that don't make any sense at all but give an excuse for Clara to mention a couple of more times that this is her last Christmas episode so we know her character is leaving this year. I thought Capaldi was doing a decent job of fixing Dr Who after the poor Matt Smith years but this effort is a disappointing return to the lazy writing and shoddy stories that even he and Jenna Coleman can't save it.
tlfirth
It's hard to imagine how Steven Moffat came up with this one, but it is clearly something quite extraordinary. He himself even claimed it to be "the strangest episode I've ever written". From the truly terrifying moments with dream crabs sucking characters' brains to the light-hearted sleigh ride over London, this is definitely one of the most bizarre episodes of the series, but definitely a clever one.To begin with, I would like to praise the cast for their performances, especially the two mains and guest actresses Faye Marsay and Natalie Gumede who provided convincing portrayals. Capaldi was his own Doctor in this one, continuing to build on the success of his performance in Series 8. Coleman was, as usual, on form, with genuine emotional development throughout, and her "older" character matched the emotional feelings we felt with older Matt Smith in the Time of the Doctor. Of the guest cast, Faye Marsay's dance number was hysterically great.In terms of the story, there was an evident contrast between the scary Arctic base and Clara's Christmas dreams. This provided some great dark moments and helped to progress the story in a very original way. The Doctor's messages were of great importance and really transformed the light-hearted scenes into an intense story. Of the good points, I enjoyed most of the Arctic scenes, especially those where the Doctor asked each of the scientists what first words they had on their log books. It had a very nice Steven Moffat touch that I always admire in an episode of Doctor Who or Sherlock. The Doctor and Clara revealing their lies was a nice lead-on from the finale. Also, Clara's aging scene was quite emotional and it seriously made me believe that she would be leaving altogether.But it was trickery, of course. This was one of the few gripes I had with the episode - a false ending. In addition, the sleigh ride was a little cheesy, and was too reminiscent of Matt Smith's A Christmas Carol, but younger viewers will certainly enjoy it.Overall, a strong outing for Christmas with a impressive cast and clever, albeit confusing, story. Let's hope this leads us directly and nicely into Series 9, where I hope to see some big changes. Isolation has been a big problem with recent episodes and they haven't been allowed to explore further than the Earth or the Moon. Perhaps it's time to take the show a step further into science fiction.8/10
