Very pretty snow in space (if implausible) and now it's Victorian England and Walter is building a snowman. W: "I don't want to talk to [the other children] they're silly."
Snowman: "They're silly. Don't talk to them. They're silly. You don't need anyone else. I can help you."
W: "How?" And fifty years later he has an army of people colelcting snow from an army of snowmen. Okay? And a giant snowglobe whose voice is Gandalf?!?!
And Walter . . . calls the snowmen visistors, and is fine with executing the people who helped him collect the food. He . . . killer snowmen. W: 2I said I'd feed you. I didn't say who to."#
And now: The Rose and Crown. A saucy tavern wench in red. Oswin to be precise. And she asks the Doctor who built the magically appearing snowman with evil teeth and eyes.
D: "Maybe [the snow] can rememeber how to make snowmen." And he's still wearing Amy's glasses. Then refuses to talk with Oswin, and walks off. Still grieving. Irked by this she chases after him.
D: "Those days are over."
Hello Mme. vastra! And Oswin caught up with the Doctor and asks, again, "Doctor who?"
Oh. I don't know if I like the new title.
Now Walkter's talking about someone dying in a pond, "but it is growing." And it will belong to him with it is ready.
JENNY AND MME. VASTRA. And the Veiled Detective
is the Great Detective. "And her suspiciously intimate companion."
They're married by the way. LOVE.
The snow is memory snow. "V: "Snow that learns."
W: "I think Winter is coming." And then I think
Game of Thrones and decide that I will put my Christmas money towards buying the show. Look, it's a very distracting saying nowadays.
AND STRAX!
D: "When you find something brand new in the world, something you've never seen before, what's the next thing you look for?"
S: "A grenade!"
Laser monkeys. Dude. Strax. Love. S: "Sir. I am opposed to your current apathy." Hey, don't call Strax a potato dwarf! And you know something's wrong when a
Sontaran (who you yourself just called psychotic) is asking you to be reasonable.
And Strax still can't tell the difference between boys and girls. "Two genders is a bit more than he can count."
Strax I love you. Also, he keeps getting affected by the neuraliser (memory worm) because he forgets the shades (gauntlets). Oswin refuses to leave and then she makes a snowman.
With her mind. Repeatedly. And they grow teeth.
D: "[...] Picture them melting.
Picture them melting!" Ingenious. Also, even when he's being apathetic and grieving and helps her. Just before ordering her to forget about him, the encounter and so on.
The Doctor can whistle.
Round yon virgin mother and child
The Doctor has an invisiTARDIS again. Shame Oswin followed him and saw it happen. Did I mention I love the choral music in the background? And Oswin's dress. And boots. And the Doctor's outfit.
I think I should just say I like all the clothes here, and the TARDIS effect is rather good indeed.
It's not an invisi-TARDIS. It's an invisible staircase. A very tall one. It goes above the clouds. And
there's the TARDIS (visible version) And -
no -
She's literally walking in the air! Obligatory
The Snowman reference complete. Then she knocks and runs.
On the TARDIS floating in mid-air. And the Doctor answers. Cue the usual sneaking around the TARDIS avoiding each other thing, then Oswin legs it. And left behind her . . .scarf? Which the Doctor then finds and sniffs. That bit's a bit creepy.
And now Gandalf sounds like Death. "Tomorrow the snow will fall and conquer mankind. She is coming." A snowchild?
Oh yeah. Oswin's a governess in this episode. And hello stripping. Ugh, Modesty cut away scene. And now she's Mary Poppins. In blue and green. And a small bustle.
Okay, Francesca's having nightmares, so Franny's the snowchild person. She's also doing the Mary Popins thing of advising the father to
talk to his children.
Also: Digby.
Seriously.
Ah, children.
F: "I did seven drawings!"
D: "And saw a dead cow." That's kids for you.
Oh. The dead governess in the pond is the . . . Snow Queen? And no one got her out of the ice? D: "I hated her. She was cross all the time." And in Franny's dreams she's waiting to come back.
Cue audio flashback. Telepathic ice is going to ressurect an abusive governess to . . . conquer earth? (And as an aside, Oswin's faking being posh)
S: "Do not attempt to escape or you will be obliterated! May I take your coat?" I want a Sontaran butler. He works for Mme. Vastra who pulls a Sherlock scan. Ish. Oswin has to restrict herself to one-word answers, and is bitter because "he prefers isolation" to helping people.
Why does a Silurian have eyelashes?
I
like this exchange and wish to talk more. Stupid liveblog.
Mme. Vastra will convey her message,
if she can convey it in one word. I bet it's 'children'. No. It's "Pond".
Wut.
V: "Strax has already gone out to start investigating." Sorry, Dr. Simian - like monkey?
Sorry what. The Doctor's just rocked up to Walter dressed as the stereotypical Sherlock Holmes and failed the Sherlock scan perfectly (and that music sounded familiar . . .
Sherlock). Then he beats the snowglobe with a walking cane.
G: "You are not of this world."
D: "Takes one to snow one." And he knows it's bad. Then techno
Treknobabble saying fake alien snow. And calls Gandalf!snowglobe Moriarty. And the snow is his army. An army of ice people.
And where does one find a perfect example of human DNA in ice? Darkover House where the governess froze to death in a pond.
S: "Mme. Vastra wondered if you were needing any grenades."
D: "Grenades?"
S: "She might have said help."
He rambles about not needing to help a girl because she smiles, "Who do you think I am?"
S: "Sherlock Holmes." Marvellous! And then he tells Strax not to be clever and stuff and he
still calls the Doctor Mr. Holmes.
Also, the Docot'r in such denial about wanting to help people. He wants to say no, but his hand says he'll be up in five minutes.
Oswin tells "absolutely true stories" such as how she invented fish and was born behind the clockface of Big Ben. I love Oswin.
Also, the footsteps that were the Doctor weren't. It's the abusive bitch of a governess. In ice. And she can't make the woman melt.
So the Doctor - hiding in a Punch and Judy theatre sonics the snow lady into exploding. I'm just waiting for the compulsory Dickens reference.
Also, the Doctor's seen himself sans glasses, but with bow tie. Coming back from grieving. D: "An old habit."
O: "It's cooler."
D: "It is isn't it? Bow ties are very cool." O: "I was talking about the room." She learned not to melt.
D: "It okay1! I am your governesses gentleman fiend and we have been upstairs. Kissing!"
The maid screams.
V: "Good evening. I am a lizard woman from the dawn of time, and this is my wife."
More screaming.
S: "Remain calm you are under attack! [I missed the rest." More screaming and fainting. And meanwhile the father's just given and and can only think "gentleman friend".
D: "If the snow gets hold of that creature on the stairs it will learn. It will build an army of ice. And it will be the last day of humanity on earth." He tells people to stay in the stufy, so Oswin leaves.
Ugh. Oswin just kissed the Doctor. Don't like it. He did blush though. Still don't like it.
The Doctor wants to fight people off with a brolly (also five minute deadline). And the Doctor really does do the hand holding.
Also innuendo about taking clothes off. And good grief, Oswin
can talk a
lot. And faster than the Doctor.
Hey, the Doctor's staircase is "taller on the inside" - like the tower at Bugarup University.
Oh. Oh I lie the TARDIS interior. Is that Gallifreyan circle writing on the console. D: "Go on, say it. Most people do."
Oooh, new interpretation of Eleven's theme.
O: "It's smaller on the outside." He says that's a new thing to say, but I don't think it is. Maybe new to
him.
O: "Is there a kitchen. [...] I don't know why I asked that; I like making souffles." Oswin is Clara. And the Doctor took the umbrella so she could follow if she wanted. And then he gives her a key.
O: "Don't know why I'm crying."
D: "I do. Remember this. All of this. Because this is the day. This is the day everything begins!" And then irony. The ice lady drags Oswin out the TARDIS and off the edge of the cloud. And dies.
Father: "We have to get her inside! She's hurt!"
V: "She's dead." Then the TARDIS vworps around her body in order to bring her in. And now she's alive, but seriously injured. Because Strax is a nurse from space.
So the Doctor is back in the TARDIS and with it comes dark and brooding background music and noises. Guilt y'know. And then things get vaguely romantic, or possibly just sweet, and he asks "[W]ill you come away with me?" Providing all goes well.
And here comes triumphant and dramatic music, complete with - that lunchbox has the London Underground on it - choral tones.
Mme. Vastra asks if he is saving the world in order to save her. He says maybe.
But that's boring. The snow is "a parasite feeding on the loneliness of a child and the sickness of an old man", it only ever echoed the mind of Walter.
And the memory worm comes back to suck all of those thoughts out of Walter, and in doing so kills the parasite. Well actually, "Did you really think it would be so easy?" The snow is back and the snowmen are growing.
D: "But you were just Dr. Simian and you outlived him."
G: "The dreamer outlives the dream. Once I was the puppet, now I am the puppeteer! I fill him now." Snerk. And thus reanimiated Walter beats Mme. Vastra and tries to freeze the Doctor from the outside in "Do you feel it? Winter is coming. Winter is coming!"
Oswin cries. There's a corny shot of a hungry snowflake making a nasty face, then the snow turns to rain. "It's mirrored something so strong it's drowing everything else. There was a critical mass of snow at the house. If something happened there. . . "
It is
literally raining tears. D: "A whole family crying on Christmas Eve" is strong enough to beat the snow. Oswin is drying see. Only moments left.
And then, "Run. Run you clever boy. And remember." Isn't that what she said to the Doctor when she
was Oswin?
The Great Intelligence Institute. It rings a bell for the Doctor. Clara. Oswin. Oswald. D: "It was Souffle Girl
again [...] It was her! The same woman! Twice! Something impossible's happening." So off he goes to find her.
This is pretty cool actually. The next half of the season is The Hunt For the Souffle Girl.
Scream out!
Preview: Monks, crashing planes, more Strax and Mme. Vastra and Cybermen and Oswin and "[Oswin's] not possible". Also Seven of Nine ripoff with the makeup?
Best Moment: Where it turns out that Gandalf!globe was actually a figment of his imagination inasmuch as it meant that all the plans and ideas were Walter's. At least to begin with. I like that idea and makes the little scene in the beginning even creepier. The boy is literally talking to himself, and because of it there's no way to rationalise or tone down the ideas.
Everything is perfect and should be just that way.
It's like having an imaginary friend who encourages you to murder people. Mostly because that's exactly what it is, and where a child can argue their friend into not doing something (or vice versa), giving voice to their own conscience, all they can do is egg one another on because there's no way to tell what is right and what isn't.
Worst Moment: NO KISS! We are not having another Rose/Martha. Especially as the Doctor is technically now married. I don't even care that I don't like the idea of a married Doctor; there will never be Oswin/Doctor. EVER. EVER. EVER.
Best Actor: I want to say Strax because everything he said made me smile, but really, it's the Doctor, with Richard E. Grant and Jenna-Louise Coleman coming a close second. Matt Smith does emotional torque very well, swinging between grieving and his normal effervescent self very well as he tries to restrain himself from once again hoping and believing and having adventures. Richard E. Grant does a chilling villain (I make no excuses) and reanimated puppet!self very well and, in spite of her Cockney accent I quite like Oswin.
Although in truth I find Clara!Oswin a bit grating, but that was only the scene on the rooftop (and the kiss), esewhere she was very enjoyable and it was nice seeing little flashes of Souffle1Oswin through Clara!Oswin. And I liked her as a governess very much too.
Worst Actor: I don't like children. It's Digby.
Best Special Effect: There is a TARDIS on a cloud I'd like to go there and visit, Aren't any floors for me to sleep, not in my TARDIS on a cloud.
Worst Special Effect: The snowmen look corny and the Gandalf!globe looked half-done. Still nice, because it's an obvious makeshift whatsit, but it wasn't very good.
Most Punchable Character: Oswin for the rooftop scene, but otherwise, I didn't really want to punch anyone. Maybe stick Digdy in the corner for half an hour and
make Walter go socialise with children, but no punching.
Does an ice facsimile of an abusive governess count? If so then her.
Death Count: About a dozen workers.
Kink of the Episode: Period clothing. And Jenna-Louise Coleman makes a bustle look good.
Was Not Expecting: Well, the end reveal that Clara!Oswin actually
is Souffle!Oswin. I think it would be an interesting arching plot to the rest of the season as Jenna-Louise Coleman will basically have to be the Doctor and show different 'regenerations' each time she appears in rapid succession while maintaining core characteristics. I hope she has the versatility to do so. It also means I can't really judge her as a character because she's an echo of some sort and just as echoes are distorted, each one will be different compared to the others. Hopefully.
Oh, and I wasn't expecting Gandalf/Magneto either.
Overall thoughts?
Word of mum says the London Underground was involved in a couple of
really early serials in the time of the First or Second Doctor. So this is a callback to forty five plus years ago, although in-series the events will happen some sixty years in Mme. Vastra's future, but happened over five hundred years in the Doctor's personal past. Complicated.
I really liked the casting gag with Richard E. Grant. As I mentioned earlier this month: Richard E. Grant has acted alongside Paul McGann and was the Doctor in 'The Scream of the Shalka' where he played AU!Nine/Ten.
And now that both Gandalf and Dubledore have been on
Doctor Who I'm going to wait for Saruman and Voldemort to make their appearance. Or possibly Prof. X.
I enjoyed this episode quite a lot, it had a bit more substance to it than previous Christmas specials and definitely plays into the overall season by laying out Oswin's mysterious duplication/echo/whatever in the final few minutes of the episode and showing how Eleven copes with losing his only two constant Companions: poorly.
I felt it was tastefully done, as it dragged him out of the emotional mire he'd become stuck in by giving him a mystery or two - how did Oswin know to say Pond to interest him? And what are these snowmen? I think the moment he left off the glasses and stuck his bow tie on shows that his grieving through this episode and the prequels was more a refusal to move on, rather than an inability to, and this episode served to revitalise him.
More, he know has a reason and purpose to go travelling beyond merely 'to see it all' or 'running', he's going to find Oswin and figure out why she exists in at least three diferrent times (and maybe places) and how she can unconsciously echo her Souffle!self.
The idea of the snow only echoing the thinker, at least until it became powerful enough to act on its accord was innovative, but I do wish they'd left it as that so as to show that human darkness and voluntary isolation was the cause of everything; it would have tied into the Doctor's own darker moods and how when he is in one he lashes out at people, and does things that harm others. Or kills when he ordinarily may not have. It would even make the snow a neutral agent, as it can do good or bad depending on the power of the thinker's thoughts.
But alas. Here there be monsters, and they must be evil.
The Paternoster Trio didn't have as big a part as I was hoping, but they were still colourful characters who lightened up the events. While I do admit to some concern about Oswin's existence as a search quest, and even potential love interest, I felt she was very well done as someone who was hiding her true nature (a la her previous episode), hinting at her part in the show, and she was intrepid and interesting. I actually felt sad at her death and most definintely wasn't expecting it as she was touted as the next
Companion, not a one-off. Oddly, she's both, a constant Companion, but each character could be a one-off depending on how many Oswins we meet.
That rain bit was cheesy too.
So this is one of the better Christmas Specials. Better than 'The Christmas Invasion' and 'The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe' definitely, and I've not seen any of the others to comment on. Except for 'The Christmas Carol' which I also enjoyed.
Which was also a costume drama set in Victoriana starring famous knighted actors and other very talented people.
I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and to celebrate Christmas Day, Strax will
sing us some carols.