New Who Christmas 2014 special: Last Christmas

[strange_complex]

The central conceit of this year's Christmas special was that Doctor Who is just as real, and just as unreal, as Santa Claus. In and of itself, I loved this. It was very meta, perfectly true, and extremely productive for bouncing the two mythic traditions off against one another. As the Doctor himself put it, "D'you know what the big problem is in

Comments

[andrewducker]

It depends.

If Dr Who is entirely open to interpretation, then whatever any individual viewer wishes to believe is true, for that viewer.

On the other hand, if Dr Who is to be interpreted according to the people who write the stories, then Moffat is the universal source of truth on the episode.

Unless he retcons it in a future episode. In which case _that_ becomes the universal source of truth, until someone retcons _that_.

[strange_complex]

Well, yes, obviously. That's true of any work of fiction. But usually what the author says is the 'correct' interpretation of the story at least seems like one plausible reading of it to other people, even if it's not their preferred one. My complaint here is that what Moffat is telling us about this story from outside it in the real world is actually at odds with what I think is the most plausible reading of what we saw on screen (scenario 3). Then he seems to have resorted to out-of-story proclamations to solve the problem, and 'steer' us back to the (counter-intuitive) reading he wants us to take away. That's just lazy, and worse throws up all sorts of confusions which he could have avoided, and which I'm pretty certain he's never going to resolve.

[andrewducker]

Aaah. I disagree with your (3):
"Everything Last Christmas has shown us should signal this, too, was a dream, and one which we never see the Doctor waking up from throughout the entirety of the Christmas special."

I'd say that the bit where he sees Santa at the end of the last seasons is a dream, from which he wakes at the end of the Christmas Episode. How he got from the inside of The TARDIS to the cave he wakes up in is a very good question, to which we do not have an answer, of course. Possibly Santa carried him there, shortly before placing the tangerine in place for the last camera-shot :-)

[strange_complex]

I guess the unexplained move from TARDIS to cave troubles me more than you, then. I'm not prepared to accept that he wakes up in the cave from a dream which started with him nodding off in the TARDIS without some in-story reason for doing so. Which Moffat could, of course, have provided, but didn't. :-/

[ext_1472236]

I read it as a collective dream, as seen in Star Trek Voyagers's Waking Moments - do both the Doctor and Clara experienced it, as did the others (who I read as real, and when they woke up, that was real).

I wonder if the biggest problem was, as seems to be rumoured, that it was written as Clara's exit episode and the Coleman changed her mind. It would be rather brilliant as an exit episode, and the ambiguity would be its strength. But as part of an on going story, it's more problematic (and not nearly as emotionally effective).

[strange_complex]

Yes, your aborted exit-episode theory would make total sense of pretty much the entire thing - well, at least in out-of-story terms, though still not in-story. I also think it probably was meant to be a story about a collective dream, but that too many plot-holes were left unplugged for that to really make sense (like, why those particular people, and how exactly did the crabs get to them all?), while even if you could look past that, in the end the dream-like qualities in the supposedly-real ending killed that reading off for good at the final hurdle.

[andrewducker]

I really liked that they'd put out rumours six-months in advance, which meant that I was more emotionally affected by it than I would otherwise have been.

I have no idea if she ever intended to leave or not - I'd believe either way.

But looking at the actual comments they made:
"The truth is … I don’t want to tell you the truth because I quite like these rumours. I think it’s really interesting because, suddenly, people don’t know what’s going to happen in the series, people don’t have any idea, so this speculation is quite good. People can now watch the show not knowing if I am or not, and that is quite exciting."
I suspect that the whole thing was started by the production staff/Moffat in order to get more people discussing it and tuning in!

http://screenrant.com/doctor-who-season-8-clara-leaving-jenna-coleman/

[malicehaughton]

Yes, just...yes.

Personally, I believe that Shona and the others were real, and probably just people the Doctor has either met or will prety soon already in the show. And that this is all a part of his subconscious wanting Clara there and to go on wild adventures with her.

The thing I questioned the most about this episode though is the dream crabs themselves. These things are eating brains while the victim sleeps. How come there isn't one single hint of any form of brain damamge to 'them' once 'they' wake up?

[strange_complex]

Yes, your last comment about the crabs is another thing which makes me lean towards thinking the final scene isn't 'real' either. We see Clara being rescued from a crab by the Doctor, but there's no wound on her forehead, and as you say no sign of brain damage. Whereas if we imagine the whole thing is a normal dream of the Doctor's had while sitting in the TARDIS, and that the crabs themselves are merely a dream-monster he's invented, then it solves that problem.

[malicehaughton]

Lovely, lovely dream mentality. Especially in a shared dream. It's times like these that I think most of the population of the audienece forget that the Doctor is telepathic. Imagine what a lonely telepath could do in dreams? Maybe bring other people in so he has an audience to play to? He always works better when others are there to judge him on his performance.

[strange_complex]

Good point about the telepathy! And yes, the Doctor would definitely want an audience in his dreams (for all that I'm sure he'd deny any such thing).

[danieldwilliam]

I think the key words here are “purports to offer internal consistency of plot and character development”

I favour option 3 but, like you, what I think will actually happen is your implied option 4, that Moffat will just not resolve this, in the same way he’s not resolved lots and lots of other stuff.

And that makes Doctor Who more like a tableau vivant or an art installation than a story.

[strange_complex]

And that makes Doctor Who more like a tableau vivant or an art installation than a story.

Yes, a very good way of putting it. Sadly, to me at least, it makes for unsatisfying drama.

[danieldwilliam]

For me also.