Doctor Who: Last Christmas (2014)

The Worst Film Ever

People are voting emotionally.

Overrated

The acting in this movie is really good.

Clara wakes up on Christmas eve and finds Santa and his elves dropping presents off on her roof top, The TARDIS materialises and the Doctor makes Clara go inside, Santa tells the Doctor he'll soon need his help. They land at a base on the North Pole, where they encounter a group of scientists under siege from Dream crabs. At no point can they be sure they are fully awake, that they're not being devoured and anaesthetised by the crabs.Fans of Inception will get the vibe I mean, they're in a dream, in a dream. It's a traditional format really, base under siege from monster.I loved the Christmassy opening credits, they looked rather good.Lots of real silliness throughout, mainly provided by Santa and his elves, but it was Christmas I guess. The joke about the face huggers and Alien was great.Danny Pink is back once again, proving that it's very difficult to leave a character go, can you imagine if he did an Agatha Christie? The corpses would all be up and at 'em.I can see why there's still talk of Shona joining the Doctor, she was good. I always wanted Sally Sparrow to become a regular. Shona could be such an interesting character.It's not my favourite Christmas outing, but it's definitely inside the top 3, excellent in parts, and I am loving Peter Capaldi. 8/10'Every Christmas is last Christmas.'

My summary says it all really. This is the tenth Christmas special since the show returned in 2005 and as of yet this is the best. After the last two years' more plot-based specials ("The Snowmen" & "The Time Of The Doctor") we needed something more accessible and "Last Christmas" delivers.The story is a clever one: Not many writers can get away with the whole It Was All A Dream ending but Moffat does exactly that with great success in a script that goes with a Base Under Siege story (akin to many Second Doctor serials; Two's son has a guest role) while also throwing in scenes straight out of the offensively titled "Alien" (as Troughton Junior points out) and "Inception". Since this is Doctor Who through and through, it doesn't become pure rip-off as Moffat puts his trademark timey-wimey spin on things from start to finish.It does all that without ever letting you forget that this is a Christmas special and that is an impressive feat indeed. It also takes time out to conclude some loose ends from "Death In Heaven" also, such as the true fates of Gallifrey and Danny Pink, without alienating the casual Christmas viewer.Though Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman (who it turns out is not leaving - HOORAY!!!) are both wonderful here it's the guest cast who steal the show, none more-so than Nick Frost as Santa Clause. He shows up in the opening scene and several times throughout even managing to get his name into the titles alongside Capaldi and Coleman. He deserves the titles credit because he is spectacular.This is a moving episode and an extremely festive one too. The scene when the Twelfth Doctor is given the chance to control Santa's sleigh as the group fly over London is sure to be remembered as one of his incarnation's finest moments with the look of pure joy on his face as he does so being something we'll never forget. It's a genuinely moving episode too, such as when Clara seems to be an old woman who is about to die (Spoilers: It's still a dream) or when Shona (Future companion? MAKE IT HAPPEN STEVEN!) doesn't want to leave before promptly leaving and setting out to forgive Dave. What should she forgive Dave for? Is it to forgive David Tennant for leaving Dr Who almost five years ago? That seems too meta, even by Dr Who standards! Maybe she will become a new companion and we'll get to find out?Previously the best Dr Who Christmas episode was 2010's "A Christmas Carol" but that crown has now been stolen by this work of brilliance. This is a great episode of Dr Who in all ways: Excellent one-off characters, unbelievably creepy monsters, clever timey-wimeyness and even a reindeer with a nose like a car door-lock. All this and it's Christmas too! An absolute must. Not as good as "Listen" but otherwise the best Twelfth Doctor episode yet.

If, like me, you don't like the pre-titles scene, do not switch off your TV. It turned out to be the only part I didn't enjoy. In fact, the next scene immediately turns into excellence, and the following story, if not exactly new, is told in perfect Dr Who fashion.The Doctor and a group of scientists face a creature straight out of Mr Moffat's bestiary, one which comes alive when you think about it. Or so it seems. The reality is more complicated, but not so complicated that you'll be lost in it. This episode doesn't so much try to manipulate you, as it makes you enjoy being knowingly manipulated. To many, this might remind of the movie Inception, which is likely one source of inspiration. To me, it goes much earlier than that, as it plunged me back into countless RPG sessions in the Call of Cthulhu oneiric universe. Me happy.There's plenty of mystery, spooks and laughs in here. There's subtext as well, for others to analyse. Plenty of emotions, done well this time: they fix what didn't work for me in the season's finale (or earlier). And this episode has a simply superb ending, so much so that I decided to skip fridge logic time and stay in the dream as much as I can.

It starts out promisingly with Santa crashed on Clara's roof and moves rapidly downhill.Referencing Alien, blue facehuggers (although they seem more like Halflife's headcrabs) as Dream crabs that can cause inception like layers of dreams. The episode was supposed to be scary. Not a bit of it. Some kids may be disturbed by the Dream crabs and the scariest bit was of course Clara getting attacked.Throughout this Santa Claus is used as a Deus Ex Machina to rescue the cast.The ending though sappy was the best bit of the episode aside from Santa's sarcastic elves in the first few minutes.Avoid!