Doctor Who : The Snowmen

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OH HAI. So there was a Doctor Who Christmas Special on the telly and it was AMAZING and PERFECT and BEAUTIFUL and I LOVED IT. And here are my thoughts on it I THINK THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM though many seem to come down to OMG I LOVED THAT. So, yes:

• MOFFAT RETCONNED THE WEB OF FEAR. Probably not the most important thing about this ep, but it was the thing I spent MOST TIME EXPLAINING TO FAMILY. Yes, people, the 1967 Underground Map on that lunch box has just CHANGED THE STORY SLIGHTLY for four episodes that were broadcast about fifty years ago and don't exist anymore, LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THAT IN LOTS OF DETAIL. Oh, how they admired my knowledge!
  
  
• Also, love at The Snowmen/The Abominable Snowmen for being SORT OF LIKE THE MOST HALF-ASSED NOT ACTUALLY A PUN EVER. V V SAD, however, at the Doctor going all "hmm, Great Intelligence, that sounds familiar...?" as if he NO LONGER REMEMBERS the most awesome years of his life. FORSHAME.
  
  
• I NOTICED THE METAL SPHERES ON TOP OF THE WEE PYLONS AROUND IAN MCKELLEN'S VOICE BOX AND MAY HAVE POINTED AT THEM EXCITEDLY MORE THAN ONCE.
  
  
• It is difficult to explain how much I love Vastra and Jenny. Basically their every moment on screen has something that I want to draw little hearts around. From their snark, to their practicalness and hard edges, their swords and costumes, the way the look at each other, their delights at Oswin's one word answer, how they express their concern for the Doctor, Vastra's acting in a mentorish role to the Doctor as he presumably acted as a mentor to her when she first woke up, HOW SHE INTRODUCES THEM AT THE DOOR: "I'm a lizard from the dawn of time and this is my wife" in her version of "I'm the Doctor and this is my companion" and WHY NO SPIN-OFF??
  
  
• I really really love the Doctor and Vastra's relationship. I mean they've just been in two episodes together, but it's been done SO WELL. I love he's got close friends outside the twentieth century, how she understands him, that they've clearly reversed the mentorship role at some point, the trust and ease between them though she disagrees with him and he knows she does and isn't going to let it go but will help him anyway, that there's a mutual admiration and respect but she isn't putting him on any sort of pedestal, and, okay I'm inferring this, that their long lifespans give a particular sort of connection between them they don't get from humans. I BET THEY TALK ABOUT MARRIAGE PROBLEMS OVER BRANDY.
  
  
• ALL THE HOLMES STUFF. It would be delightful enough just to have fun with Doyle's canon, but for it to be Moffat that's doing it too is just delicious. EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT. From the obv inspiration of Holmes and Watson for Vastra and Jenny being acknowledged, and the fact that the Whoniverse's most canonical Holmes and Watson (there is pseudocanonical stuff but IT'S NOT ON THE TELLY SO IT'S BEEN SUPERCEDED YAY) are two married Victorian women (and one's a lizard) MAKES ME V HAPPY. And it's not some throwaway look-how-subversive-I-am joke: they're proper good characters, with - esp for Vastra - some of the story's best scenes, and if I am not very much mistaken I THINK I SAW THEM IN THE COMING SOON TRAILER.
  
  
• AND VASTRA'S TEST. And how it is a bit Silurian and the Doctor is all "that is rubbish" and Clara passes it with "pond" and how plot and character and the Doctor GETTING OVER THE TEDIOUS EMO are all tied together in a pretty one word bow. (And Clara's wee moment of awesome: "Do you understand what I'm saying to you?" "Words." I LOVE HER.)
  
  
• And the Doctor-as-Holmes scene was also VERY HAPPY MAKING. REG's delivery of "I'm perfectly aware that Sherlock Holmes is a *fictional* character. Get out!" ftw.
  
  
• Clara! I wasn't worried that I wouldn't like her or anything. I'd seen Coleman in a couple of other things and she was excellent and Oswin was marvellous and, heh, v smart companion is one of those old skool archetypes that haven't been properly touched on in New Who (okay, River, but you get to choose where to fit her in, having that sort of companion every story EVEN BETTER, as those are the companions that tend to end up my favourites). BUT OH THEY KILLED HER AGAIN. Which is definitely a new sort of companion introduction and I'm quite intrigued and all but bit disappointed there's been a tease of a companion from the future and a companion from Victorian times, but it looks like the main Oswald's going to be from the present day after all.
  
  
• On one level, I do still hate on the whole "emo Doctor" thing. But mostly, I delighted at how this episode managed to deconstruct SO MUCH that RTD got wrong after Rose left. From the resolving of the tedious Doctor-emo, getting the audience on the companion's side, 'testing' a new companion, to inviting her onboard and giving her the key. The 'this is how you do it right' aspect is so overt it's lolarious.
  
  
• Strax in the "Mr Holmes" scene. OH HIS SMUG FACE. HOW MUCH I LOVED THAT HE WON THAT ROUND AND THE DOCTOR DESERVED IT LOTS.
  
  
• The Snowmen were aces - I do want one -or a small army - as plushies kind of a lot.
  
  
• Clara climbing the staircase and seeing the TARDIS for the first time: magical. And it must be a right challenge trying to get that scene to still be good given that such importance has been placed on it at every New Who companion intro, but, yes, stairs among the stars? Smashing.
  
  
• NOT SO SMASHING WAS FALLING TO THE GROUND. Well, it was smashing, BUT NOT IN THE GOOD WAY. I may have shed a tear. ACCIDENTLY.
  
  
• But, really, I am quite yarg we don't get this Clara. I loved her ambition, her intelligence, her determination to beat the class system and her ability to fit in so well as either middle or working class. And her Mary Poppins/Maria von Trapp schtick. I suppose if you were going to kill her, she had to be properly convincing BUT STILL.
  
  
• Oh, and team stuff! I love teams. And when everyone turns up at the house at the end and it is time for TALKING LIKE A TEAM, it is just great.
  
  
• And this, so, so much more a good refutation of the online hating about the, ah, 'misogyny' in Moffat's writing than whatever-the-fuck was going on last year. (The word I would use for that is 'weird' or, 'good-intentions-gone-fucking-weird', one of those.) Now, I love his writing, I think the idea of it being less progressive than most telly writing is absurd, and it's generally rather a lot better whilst also hitting a lot of my narrative kinks. Obviously, I'm really really looking forward to being told by the Internet why loving three non-stereotypical Victorian roles, swords, marriage and lizardness means I am internally oppressing/hating myself.
  
  
• Stuff I didn't like! Would you believe it, there is! Two things, besides emo-Doctor nonsense: one, sonic screwdriver as a gun OH JOLLY GOOD. No, I don't care it was on the brand new 'anti-freeze' setting, the New Who habit of 'sonic as gun' is never ever joyous to me. YOu may use it to blow up mines, but that's it. Two: the plot resolution. Okay, there was some pseudo-science thrown in...something about a critical mass of snow at the house, but, basically, the Great Intelligence was beaten by people being really sad. I GET THAT MOFFAT LIKES USING EMOTIONS TO DEFEAT EVIL AND ALL... and it's probably never more apt to do that than at Christmas...and at least it was with sadness and not CHRISTMAS CHEER because then I would be dead of twee, but still. Quite, quite mockable.
  
  
• Thought of another! The memory worm. Oh, good, the Doctor is a bit like Torchwood now. HOW NICE. The only reason it didn't annoy me All That Much is cause obv it was going to be used for some plot point later BUT FFS RLY? I didn't like it as characteriation, even if it does fit into the Doctor's emo bullshit. MEH TO THAT, MEH.
  
  
• In conclusion, I may have missed out about a hundred things I wanted to draw hearts round, but if you've got this far, I think you may have picked up the gist of my feelings. LOVED IT SO MUCH. Vastra and Jenny and Clara all v v keen. The Doctor was fiiiine, but I think rather eclipsed by the three women, though I was clapping like a small child constantly while he was in the Holmes get-up. REG made me happy with his FACE OF STONE. IAN MCKELLEN WAS IN DOCTOR WHO. The Snowmen were cute in their evilness. IT WAS ALL V PRETTY because if there's one thing the Beeb can be relied upon for, it's to make their costume drama look good, even when they're science fiction.
  
  
• And two thumbs-up for new TARDIS interior: it's got a very retro rocket feel that makes me think of classic fifties sciffy.
  
  
• HOW LONG TILL MORE PLEASE?