Fan Speculation - On Reality and Fantasy
Watching the Christmas special something leapt out at me. Do we know have any reason to believe The Doctor and Clara are not still sleeping?
To start with let's try to take some indication of dream levels:
1. Being awake?
2. Aged Clara dream
3. Polar base under attack dream
4. Saved by santa dream
5. Danny at Christmas dream
Now when did they get attacked by the crabs? This has to be after Danny's final sacrifice in Death in Heaven (as Clara would surely just imagine him alive) but before Santa bursts into the TARDIS in the final moments. As both of them remember the meeting in the Cafe this either has to happen when both are in the dream state or in reality.
However, The Doctor appear to land the TARDIS and walk on to another planet and dream about walking back. Furthermore, when he encounters Santa the first time his clothes are not the same as the ones he "wakes up" in, he is still wearing the hoodie. If this is the case then the meeting in the cafe seems most likely to be a dream too.
If we follow this through, then why would Clara be asleep on Christmas, dream about meeting The Doctor months before then waking up at Christmas at the time when she is actually present? It's possible but strange.
Skipping to the end, he apparently wakes up in the same way as he did in the dream only with Clara young rather than old. There is no apparent explanation for this and The Doctor chooses specifically for Clara not to ask anything about it. We have already been told that an unwillingness/inability to explain details is a sign of dreams. The other test is also not applied as they never try to read anything. Yet it was already established earlier on it's impossible to work when you are asleep or awake.
There a number of other little odd hints at this too:
1. Shona notes The Doctor as looking like a magician but he hasn't been wearing that outfit since he failed to find Gallifrey.
2. Clara is staying in some huge house where as we have always previously seen her in a tiny flat. In Season 5 Amy's large house was an indication something was wrong.
3. The dreamcrabs are acknowledged as looking like they are from Alien, which appears to be a dream function, but they still look like this outside of it. Furthermore, if they are only able to notice you if you think about them then how did they attack random people in England and The Doctor on an alien world?
4. Dreamcrabs are supposed to trap you in a world of pure bliss but what we saw previously was a nightmare... except The Doctor's idea of bliss would be an adventure and being able to travel with Clara again.
5. The tangerine on the windowsill is there, which in dream santa told him about. Why is it there if those conversations were a function of his brain rescuing him?
Not sure what this means for the rest of the season or even if it turns out to be true but it is interesting to muse on.