Doctor Who - "The Snowmen" - Review

You know what the best part of Christmas is? It’s not the gifts or spending time with family or that chubby man who delivers presents. It’s the freakin’ Doctor Who Christmas Special, which, at least for me, has become a tradition that I significantly look forward to.  

Dr. Who is an interesting show to discuss. There are certainly better shows. Even more consistent ones. However, Dr. Who gets me emotionally invested in it like few shows do. It never forgets its characters who it so delicately and intelligently crafts. It can tell sweeping, grand, crazy stories but it never forgets to tie it back to more intimate, personal moments. This has never been more apparent than in last nights episode “The Snowmen”.

The series was left with the difficult task of picking up the story after the (unsurprisingly) emotionally devastating exit of the Ponds. And though we knew someone would come along and shake the Doctor out of his stupor (played to sad and pouty perfection by Smith), it’s still a delight to see the show go through the typical initial Doctor-Companion meet up. It’s a familiar dance that the series continually nails by hitting all the right notes (the smile-inducing banter leads to some great scenes, my favorite being the kiss and the scene on the rootop). Jenna Louise Coleman returns in top form as Clara Oswin Oswald (initially seen in “Asylum of the Daleks”), barmaid by day, governess by night, who’s discovery of snowmen appearing seemingly out of nowhere creates a desire to seek help of the newly befriended Doctor. 

Oswald is not the only familiar face though. After being generally awesome in “A Good Man Goes to War”, Madame Vastra and her “human companion” Jenny return. Along with the Sontaran Strax (who provides some wonderful comic relief), they have been helping isolate the Doctor as part of his new emo phase in the wake of losing the Ponds. But Clara Manic Pixie Dream Girls her way into the Doctor’s heart, and inspires him to investigate the strange snowmen occurrences.

The Doctor continues to be deeply affected by Clara who he sees (I would say rightfully so) a kindred spirit in, and banters with beautifully.  He even asks her to join him traveling the universe before she is killed by an ice humanoid monster (because that’s just the sort of show Dr. Who is, go figure). The Doctor tries to “make a bargain with the universe” to save the world to try to save her life. Unfortunately though he stops the evil snowmen, Clara still dies. But wait! “I like making soufflés,” Clara casually says to the Doctor and makes him realize that he’s met Clara before. But that’s not possible! She couldn’t have died twice?! Sometimes, apparently, the universe does make bargains. Whatever that exactly means, I’m sure Moffat will be happy to explain in a confusing fashion over the course of the remainder of the season. Whatever that might entail, I’m thoroughly happy to have some new blood to liven up the series, to keep the Doctor on his toes, and to lead to returns to classic Doctor Who moments (e.g. “It’s smaller on the outside” “Ok, that's a first”).

Stray Observations:

-There was obviously much more going on in the episode, but I feel as if the Clara-Doctor story of it was the most important and engaging aspect. Dr. Simeon seemed a bit too one dimensional, even though the snowmen monsters were rather cool.
-As contrived as the idea of a new companion coming into the Doctors life is, 1) its forgivable due to the nature of this series and 2) Jenna Louise Coleman and Matt Smith have excellent chemistry together.

-“Those were the days” – Smith plays sad so well. Can’t wait til he makes a new emotional connection just for the writers to break his heart. That’s what Dr. Who does best.

-The opening scene where Dr. Simeon feeds people to the snowmen was a memorable opener, and was a great introduction to a really good monster of the week.

-Whenever Simeon kept saying “Winter is coming”, all I could think of was Game of Thrones, which practically has that phrase trademarked.

-“What do you do when you discover something new?” “Throw a grenade”. One of many hilarious Strax-isms I wrote down     

-The scene where Clara can only say one word to answer Madama Vastra’s questions is the type of scene that might be cliched on another series, but Doctor Who makes incredibly fun because it does it with such conviction and charisma.

-Sir Ian fucking McKellan as the snow monster controlling poor Dr. Simeon. Great casting.

-Madame Vastra and Jenny are the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson with the sexual implications cut out. Absolutely brilliant.

-“Takes one to snow one”. Smith also plays corny, lame really well. Dude’s an underrated actor.

-The Doctor mistaking Clara pointing out an oncoming threat for a compliment of his bowtie: “It’s pretty cool” “I know right? It’s pretty cooler?” – Great callback. Very funny scene.

-“You missed this, didn’t you?” “Shut up”

-“Stay here” and Clara doesn’t because what kind of companion would she be if she did. 

-Then kisses the Doctor, but he seems oddly cool about it. What’s River going to think about that?

-“You’re nearly a foot taller than me” – That whole scene where Clara asks why he brought the umbrella was the sort of emotional, character stuff that this show does brilliantly.

Grade: B+

A really great episode, but as has been often the case of the Moffat era, it's a little bit too overstuffed for its own good.