Rewatching Doctor Who: Last Christmas
Apr. 3rd, 2026 02:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivdunstanContinuing my rewatch of the Peter Capaldi era of Doctor Who, with this episode at the end of New Who series 8. And going to go into spoiler space again.
I remembered this as being quite lightweight, but I enjoyed it a lot on rewatch. It's definitely a very Steven Moffat story, with layers upon layers, that are slowly unpeeled. As well as a constant fairytale quality, albeit with very scary elements. The Dream Crabs are a wonderful idea, and used well with the small core guest cast. Who all have well defined personalities and roles. Even if these turn out to be dream ones ...
As a coda to series 8, and particularly the Danny sub plot, it's a good entry in the series. Clara says farewell to Danny here properly, and there feels like some sort of final resolution there. Her miscommunication problems with the Doctor are also resolved. Where I'm not so happy is that I rather feel we should have said farewell to her in this episode, as was originally planned, until Jenna Coleman's change of heart. Faye Marsay's Shona was being lined up as a replacement companion, and looks like she would have been a lot of fun.
Then again the Doctor - or more specifically the Twelfth Doctor - and Clara get a second chance. And I do like their pairing in series 9. I just wish that things had gone down a different path.
But yes, definitely one of the better Christmas Doctor Who specials for me, if not in the same league as e.g. "The Christmas Invasion" or "The Snowmen". And while Nick Frost's Santa Claus initially was very annoying for me, he redeemed himself by the end of the episode.
I remembered this as being quite lightweight, but I enjoyed it a lot on rewatch. It's definitely a very Steven Moffat story, with layers upon layers, that are slowly unpeeled. As well as a constant fairytale quality, albeit with very scary elements. The Dream Crabs are a wonderful idea, and used well with the small core guest cast. Who all have well defined personalities and roles. Even if these turn out to be dream ones ...
As a coda to series 8, and particularly the Danny sub plot, it's a good entry in the series. Clara says farewell to Danny here properly, and there feels like some sort of final resolution there. Her miscommunication problems with the Doctor are also resolved. Where I'm not so happy is that I rather feel we should have said farewell to her in this episode, as was originally planned, until Jenna Coleman's change of heart. Faye Marsay's Shona was being lined up as a replacement companion, and looks like she would have been a lot of fun.
Then again the Doctor - or more specifically the Twelfth Doctor - and Clara get a second chance. And I do like their pairing in series 9. I just wish that things had gone down a different path.
But yes, definitely one of the better Christmas Doctor Who specials for me, if not in the same league as e.g. "The Christmas Invasion" or "The Snowmen". And while Nick Frost's Santa Claus initially was very annoying for me, he redeemed himself by the end of the episode.