12.13: Last Christmas
In which they woke up and it was all a dream.
Broadcast: December 2014
Watched: March 2022
“There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive, no wonder everyone keeps invading you.”
Alien meets Red Dwarf: Better Than Life meets Santa Claus: The Movie. After all, if Robin Hood is real, why not Santa? (Actually there are good, logistical reasons aren’t there. Though “I’ve got a second sledge” is a great joke.)
It is sort of playing the same game though – it starts from the idea that Santa isn’t any more ridiculous than Doctor Who, so why can’t they co-exist? The layers of dreams within dreams allows it to ask whether the guy with the magic box or the isolated Arctic base with monsters in it (“It’s a long story”) are really any more ridiculous than the guy who delivers presents to all the world’s children in one night.
The dream stuff also works brilliantly as an excuse to not bother fixing any plotholes (the way the rescue comes slightly too slow to make sense; the way Santa and the elves drift in and out of the narrative at random). Moffat has definitely read that Red Dwarf book: the “dying” on the Doctor’s chalkboard stands in for the one seared into Lister’s arm, the Doctor going in after Clara is Lister being drunk and convinced he can go in and get the Cat out.
The clever bit is that Moffat doesn’t just do the obvious. Dream Danny doesn’t try to talk her into staying, he tells her to go - it’s a comment on who Danny is and how Clara remembers him, AND the clever twist, albeit the same clever twist as Auton Rory being real too.
Oh, and at the end, even though he definitely doesn’t exist either, that doesn’t stop Santa from saving everyone from the brain melting crabs (“They’re a bit like Facehuggers, aren’t they?”), or letting the Doctor have a go on his sleigh. It’s lovely.
Other things:
The idea that the Dream Crabs wake up when you think about them is quite weeping angel-y.
Big clue it’s all a dream: Clara now lives in a massive house. Yeah, right.
LOVE the elves mocking Clara for believing her mum and dad brought all the presents (“Yeah, but it’s time to start living in the real world, yeah?”). Also the way Santa’s arrival to save the day is presaged by a tangerine rolling in followed by some toys. Dan Starkey (Strax), getting his face out for once, is carrying a balloon animal for a gun.
While we’re on the guest cast – Nick Frost is really not quite right for Santa. He’s charming and all, but he is very obviously a 40 year old playing up. Presumably, since he weirdly seems to be big in America now, he’s there for the name (also, I wonder if his busy schedule is another reason Santa drifts in and out of the narrative?). Faye Marsay (Shona) is great in everything – the bit at the beginning when she’s dancing to avoid thinking about the monsters is lovely. Oh look, another Troughton. This one’s Michael.
Clara’s “strict ban on hair products” is funny, given she ended up doing Boots ads.
The sleepers turning out to be the crew, and then including the Doctor and Clara too, is the same Time’s Crucible twist used in Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, I think.
Shona ticking “forgive Dave” is great. So is the Doctor thinking the older woman with a Scottish accent is the sexy one.
The old Clara epilogue feels extremely weird – I guess this was what replaced Danny coming out of the dream, when Coleman decided to stay? But the “Can you really see no difference in me” bit foreshadows the portrayal of cyberBill.