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.

Like many others, I had very low expectations for this Christmas Special. Beyond the fact that the specials have been quite uneven in quality throughout the decade-long run of the New Doctor Who, the nearly disastrous 8th Series featuring Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor -- or is he really the unlucky 13th, after John Hurt's star-turn in the 50th Anniversary episode "Day of the Doctor"? -- led me to delay watching the Special for several months. After enjoying precisely one of the 8th Series episodes ("Time Heist"), a solid but by no means classic offering, I was pondering a life containing only Doctor Who reruns through Series 7. I finally got around to watching this Christmas episode online in early spring 2015 without having read a word about it. I must say I found the episode delightful and thought-provoking even on second and third viewings. It does indeed mine rich veins of classic science fiction themes ranging from time/reality inversions most recently explored in the film "Inception" to bio-invasive species from the "Alien" series, with a healthy collection of genre references ranging from Ghostbusters ("who ya gonna call?") to The Thing (polar research station and all). The dream sequence with Clara, Danny & the Doctor draws heavily upon a similar scene from the film "Star Trek Generations" of a generation ago. Finally, there was the self-referential material: another exhilarating Christmastime sleigh ride through the sky, and the close parallels between the Dream Crabs and prior villainous denizens of Who- ville created by episode writer and current show-runner Steven Moffat such as "The Silence" and the Weeping Angels.These borrowings could have proved tedious and distracting, but Moffat avoids the pitfalls and uses his own revived creative spark to integrate them all smoothly into a rather different configuration complete with holiday-tinged themes of belief, trust and redemption. Moffat & Co keep all the juggling balls smoothly rotating in the air in a piece that feels much larger than its 60 minute running time, minus adverts. (How the continuity might feel with frequent sponsor breaks I can only imagine, but it is an experience I now spare myself almost entirely with the aid of online streams and downloads.)The result was a truly exciting, genuinely frightening, mind-bending and above all emotionally touching episode that despite the obvious nods to Christmas (can anything be more so than Santa Claus?) really held together as a genuine contribution to the Doctor Who universe and to the art of on-screen science fiction. After much wasted effort, the relationship of Clara and Danny "the PE" now seems to have emotional depth, thanks to a belated dream sequence in which Danny is firmly acknowledged as having died. There is a certain sadness that this multicultural relationship could not have been nurtured more effectively within Doctor Who, but at least it has a good ending here. If somehow it is not over, thanks to some "timey- whimey" or (as Santa puts it here) "dreamy-wheamy" twist in the tale, I can only hope it will be treated as gently, effectively, and realistically as it was in this episode.All the inside, self-deprecating humour comes off without a hitch. Favourites include the "killer question" about Santa's sledge being bigger on the inside (who hasn't pondered the possibility since being introduced to the TARDIS?), the Doctor claiming turf rights over scientific explanation and Santa's spot-on "dreamy-wheamy" retort, and the Doctor being on St Nick's naughty list (where I had put him myself in an earlier review of the 8th Series). The prickly-funny exchange between the Doctor and Clara over her "fetching" things managed to significantly advance the current state of female companions in Who- culture while using well under a minute of running time.Initially I thought to criticise the use of what seems like wishful thinking (complete with a kumbaya hand-holding circle at one point) to overcome the Dream Crab spell, but on reflection it seems to me as valid or even more so than any number of techno-geek quick fixes that Moffat & Co might have devised. This episode is really not about medicine, science or technology, but about exploring human nature. In that context, I must thank Moffat for not featuring the sonic screwdriver as a "deus ex machina" the way it has in far too many episodes, particularly in the past couple of series. Although it is brought into play near the end here, it seems to have been done only as a respectful nod to Who-culture rather than serving as a key plot device.As the Doctor says at the end, he has been offered a second chance, but doesn't know who to thank. He might start with Moffat & Co, who finally pulled up their socks and produced a cracker of an episode. Another group deserving of thanks (and solicitude) are discerning viewers who have had to suffer through quite a bit of dissatisfaction lately. Prior to this episode, I for one had all but given up on the series. Notwithstanding original show-runner Russell T. Davies' views about the series now being immune from cancellation, even Doctor Who cannot long survive abandonment by viewers who value quality above cult-status when the show goes as seriously off the rails as it has recently done.Now that current show-runner Moffat has apparently written himself out of the proverbial doghouse with "Last Christmas", I fervently hope he grasps this second chance with both hands and uses this window of opportunity to come up with some truly great scripts for the 9th Series. This Christmas Special should serve as the gold standard by which to measure other potential episodes. With so few episodes comprising each series, it won't take more than 2 or 3 bombs to sink the good ship "Who-ville" at this stage, at least as far as this viewer's future participation is concerned.

just woeful and the worst part is that Clara will be back to stink the series out next year.The threadbare plot involved the head crabs from Half-Life the computer game and some ridiculous dream sequences designed to bring the god-awful Pink back for an encore.And as it was Xmas Santa had to turn up with some caustic elves and a red nose reindeer.Another episode that was mainly about Clara rather than The Doctor and if this continues it will kill a great series. Let's have some Clara less episodes for 2015 (preferably all of them) and get to know The Doctor a bit.As Xmas episodes go this was no better or worse than the rest as they all are pretty awful but this had Clara and that dragged it down a lot. She is one of the worst companions but unlike the rest she is taking over the programme. The plots always seem to revolve around her until her side-kick Peter Capaldi turns up to play second fiddle for her.The Doctor needs a companion as that's the point of the programme but not one so overwhelming. Just somebody to scream a bit and move the plot along.The plot here was an Arctic ice station being invaded by Half-Life head crabs and half of the crew battling to stay alive when Clara and her companion turn up. But nothing is as it seems as cleverly Santa arrives to fill in the blanks and Clara saves the day by getting her companion to do something that resolved the episode.Then a ridiculous ending as Santa allows Clara's companion to find her again and she will be off on a new series of adventures in 2015.If we get Pink back as a ghost then I fear for the future of this great British institution. Capaldi is really good but he can't get a shoe in for bloody Clara. She started well but has overstayed her welcome and needs to sacrifice her life to save some kittens or something.

I had rather low expectations for this story . The Christmas specials have always been very hit and miss with an attitude of " Oh well it's Christmas therefore the audience won't be expecting much " . Add to this some stunt casting with Nick Frost as Santa and my expectations weren't high , especially when the pre-title sequence seemed to go on for ever , tried and failed to be amusing and by this point I was more interested in what I was drinking rather than what I was watching on screen To be fair once the story gets to the North Pole it does pick up greatly and becomes similar to a base under siege story meets ALIEN . For those middle aged fans this is what DOCTOR WHO has always been about , a sort of family friendly horror show that appeals to the dark , vivid imagination of children . Okay it's not original and there is a strong element of post modernism where characters name check the Ridley Scott horror movie but these are by far the most effective parts of the special and is very enjoyable The problem is Moffat loses focus and there's a very uneven and disjointed aspect to all this and every time Santa appears he took this viewer out of the drama involving the dream crabs . In fact I often found myself thinking that the television had miraculously switched channels and one moment I was watching a childish fantasy then I was watching a horror movie . This can only be described as a failure of sorts . Some people have mentioned INCEPTION and like Nolan's film the storytelling feels the need to constantly tell the audience what is happening and why it is happening . I suppose the one thing in its defence about the dream within a dream plot is that it doesn't appear from nowhere , but at the same time it is bludgeoned over the audiences head in much the same way as the incidental music tries to tell the audience as to what they should be feeling In conclusion this isn't the worst Christmas special the show has come up with . But by the same token it's not the best one either . It's overlong , disjointed and the tone veers all over the place . It's very good in parts but as a consistent whole it's unsatisfying