Quarter Mooning: Last Christmas

[patches365]

After watching this year's Christmas Special, I've pretty much given up on the series until someone replaces Moffat. As such, I don't really feel like this episode is worth committing my usual 4-5 hours to review it, so I'm just going to do a more abridged review from memory so I don't have to sit through the episode again.

Comments

[betawho]

Specific things in this story that bothered me. We get, yet more, of the "everybody lying" trope. Presumably now it's all "cleared the air" but that trope was never there for an actual dramatic reason, it was just something to flog the characters with, so I'll be surprised if we've actually seen the end of it. (Just like I'm sure the Doctor will still be angsting next season, whether he has a reason to or not, because "angst is cool, people like angst.")

We never actually found out where the crabs came from. It makes sense they'd find some hibernating in the arctic, but it ends up that's not where they were from, the artic was just a dream. But they just randomly appeared in people's houses in random places, from nowhere for no reason.

It would make sense if the Doctor came across one on an alien world, and it learned about Clara through him, but they had no connection to the others.

Also, as you mentioned, there was never any explanation for what they were doing there at the Artic base. Then later we find out that (even by the character's own admissions) they are all "nobodys" they aren't even scientists or anyone with an interesting life that they like.

So, monsters that come from nowhere, for no reason, find a bunch of nobody's from nowhere in particular to give a non-real experience to while they suck out their brains through their temple (which also leaves no mark, even after they make a big deal out of it drilling a half inch hole through their skull to do it!)

Then we have another "back from the dead boyfriend" who isn't actually back from the dead, he's just a hallucination. But apparently this "hallucination" is really another "spirit Danny" since it goes all "angel nobel" on her and suddenly has a will of its own for a few seconds just because (and for no reason.)

And that whole "Santa Claus does not do the scientific explanation!" "Or, as the Doctor would say, "dreamy-weamy""

Which just left me sitting there thinking, "Even the Doctor doesn't give the scientific explanations anymore."

And then it ends up that the whole "solution" to the problem. Was to stand around holding hands and then the whole solution boils down to "generically resist it really hard"

Not even any specific action. Nothing new, just "don't want it, really hard" as if they hadn't already done that from the moment they were attacked.

It just the same as resisting Cyberconversion simply by "the power of love" or "the power of will" or simply by "generically thinking at it."

No cleverness, no specific actions, no real understanding, no method. Just "don't want it, harder than you previously didn't want it."

And then we get the obligatory, "I was an ass for the entire rest of the episode, but here's my redeeming, "I'm really a nice guy under the whole 80% of the rest of the time when I'm not" which is apparently supposed to make us love him and forgive all his other misbehavior and harshness. Because "I'm really nice, on the inside."

And then we get the obligatory Clara "I love him more than anybody, even though I'd prefer to tell him to shut up and slap him" moment. Which is apparently also supposed to make all previous unacceptable behavior between them okay because "inside" they really care.

Because we are specifically told so.

(eyeroll)

[patches365]

And it's the whole reliance on "telling" that has made me give up on the show, because what they tell you is almost always in stark contrast to what they're showing you, meaning that even though this is a visual medium, you're pretty much being expected to ignore everything you see and, as the Doctor is so apt to insist, do as you're told.