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| The Doctor catches Clara (Jenna Louise Coleman)'s interest. |
1 episode. Approx. 59 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by: Saul Metzstein. Produced by: Marcus Wilson.
THE PLOT
The Doctor has retired to Victorian-era London. "He was different once, a long time ago. Kind, yes. A hero, even. A saver of worlds. But he suffered losses which hurt him. Now he prefers isolation to the possibility of pain's return."
This explanation isn't good enough for Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman), a young woman with secrets of her own. When she is attacked by living snowmen, she is saved by the Doctor - and her interest is sparked. When she returns to her job as a governess, she learns that the girl in her charge has been having nightmares - dreams about the previous governess, a stern woman who drowned in the pond outside the house. Noticing that the pond has remained frozen even after the snow has thawed, Clara decides to find the Doctor - going through his friends Vastra (Neve McIntosh), a Silurian acting as a detective in Victorian England; her human wife, Jenny (Catrin Stewart); and their Sontaran butler Strax (Dan Starkey).
All want the Doctor to return to himself. And he's going to have to, because the Snowmen are just the beginning. The force controlling them hopes to evolve, and its success will mean the end of humanity!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: "Over a thousand years of saving the universe... You know the one thing I learned? The universe doesn't care!" He is not reacting well to the loss of Amy and Rory. He has isolated himself from the universe, refusing to get involved. Odd that he's chosen the Victorian era on Earth for his self-imposed exile. Perhaps, given the presence of Vastra, Jenny, and Strax and the prevalence of Victorian-era invasions in the series, he's subconsciously giving himself enough of a link to be pulled back when the time comes. Clara's stubborn pursuit eventually lures him into investigating the Snowmen, though he insists this is a one-time occasion... At least, until he notes something he else he did unconsciously: Put on his bow tie.
Clara: Jenna-Louise Coleman returns as Clara, who is a different character than Oswin... sort of. The story makes sure to draw links between Coleman's two characters, and (regrettably) feels the need to spell them out at the end for anyone who wasn't paying attention. It works well enough thanks to the actress's substantial charm, which are even more apparent here than in her earlier appearance. She manages the difficult feat of remaining likable even while obviously being the cleverest person in the room and knowing it. The sense remains from the earlier story, however, that this character is more plot device than person. Coleman is terrific so far, but the writing is going to need to bring Clara more fully to life for her to work on anything like a long-term basis.
Vastra/Jenny: This pair made a substantial impact in Series Six, to a degree that made a return all but inevitable. We only get a hand-wave explanation as to how Strax is working for them when he died in his previous appearance, but it's just enough, with Strax an amusing enough counterpart, that I'm not going to carp about it. Vastra and Jenny act as good friends to the Doctor, assisting in his isolation while at the same time trying to coax him back into the world.
OUT WITH THE OLD...
With the departure of Amy and Rory, showrunner Steven Moffat has clearly decided it's time to rebrand the series. He gives us a new title sequence and a new TARDIS interior. The new credits are a clear nod to the 1980's, with space imagery and the Doctor's face in the titles. It most resembles a more expensive of the Sylvester McCoy titles, though the closing titles now closely resemble Tom Baker's time tunnel. I don't instantly love either the open or the close, but I suspect the new sequence will grow on me.
The TARDIS interior is a step back, in my opinion. I liked the staircase and platform of the previous design. This variant does away with the platform, bringing the console back to ground level in a way that's reminiscent of the Eccleston/Tennant TARDIS. I was never overly fond of that design, and I don't think I like this one. A minor issue, since very few stories have any significant TARDIS screentime, but I'm not pleased at the new look.
THOUGHTS
I am mostly pleased with The Snowmen, however, which I think is Moffat's best Christmas special so far. The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe was too child-friendly to really engage me. And while I enjoyed A Christmas Carol, I did think it was too conscious of being a Christmas special, rather than being a Doctor Who story.
This time, we get something that's a Who story first and a Christmas special second. Critically, the script injects a key ingredient that's been missing from Moffat's other specials:
Fear.
"Winter is coming," sneers Dr. Simeon (Richard E. Grant), the most visible villain of the piece. Other than being a wholesale lift from Game of Thrones, what does this line mean? Winter is a time when much of the world freezes over: Water turns to ice, the air turns frigid, colors are blotted out by endless flakes of white until life itself is rendered into monochrome. It's bleak and cold and threatening.
It's the perfect time for monsters to come out. In the carnivorous snowmen of the title, this script has come up with a good one. In winter, snowmen are everywhere - a way for children to amuse themselves while unconsciously showing that they can shape their environment to their will. They dot the frozen landscape, practically invisible to anyone walking or driving by. Show those same snowmen growing sharp teeth and devouring a group of strong workmen, and they become a threat. A bit silly, sure - but still just unsettling enough to give this Christmas special more bite than the last two (indeed, more than the last several).
At the same time, Christmas is a time for magic, and Steven Moffat has by no means abandoned his fairy tale imagery. So we get new companion Clara discovering the TARDIS by climbing an invisible ladder to a staircase in the sky, where the TARDIS waits on a solid cloud. In the heart of winter, Clara meets Vastra in her mansion - sitting before a lush, indoor jungle, sipping a wine glass of bright, red liquid that is "not red wine." There is also a stern governess frozen in the ice, who will return to "punish" naughty children. All of this imagery springs from the same magical stories that informed Series Five - Smith and Moffat's first and best season. It's a good sign for the back half of Series Seven to see this imagery returning so strongly.
Not everything works. The "Doctor Who?" gag, which Moffat actually managed to use well in both The Wedding of River Song and Asylum of the Daleks, is back to being groan-inducing here. It's also overused, and in desperate need of retirement. After scoring another guest casting coup by getting Richard E. Grant to play the main villain and Ian McKellan to voice another villain, Moffat squanders both. Grant does little except look vaguely sinister. McKellan only gets a handful of lines, making only a slightly greater impression on this story than Steven Berkoff made on The Power of Three. The Doctor's confrontation with them feels rushed, the villains' defeat perfunctory, and it's left to a thankfully very effective epilogue to salvage the ending.
Despite the weak climax, the story works. The chilly atmosphere, so effective at creating a sense of dread, keeps the tension up through the bulk of the tale. Jenna-Louise Coleman is a delight, and there is promise in the way her appearances at the start of the season and here are teasing something more. I particularly liked a callback to The Angels Take Manhattan in the tag, with the Doctor standing over another gravestone - only this time getting hope from it instead of despair.
Another good-but-not-great story in a run of such stories. I'll look forward to visiting the back half of the season in the none-too-distant future... but I do hope there's at least one knockout story somewhere in that run.
Overall Rating: 8/10.
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