Trailer and prequels for the Doctor Who Christmas special.

[Crazedwraith]

Same actress. But according the Guardian the character 'has mysterious connections to Oswin' the episode makes the audience wonder about.

so Christmas Day at the earlier time that usual of 5.15, which surprised me.

[DaveJB]

According to both Moffat and Jenna-Louise Coleman, JLC was cast as Clara first, then Oswin Oswald's part was written into Asylum of the Daleks. So the situation's probably going to be more complicated than the one we had with Freema Agyeman, where RTD tossed in a "Oh, by the way, I had a cousin who was physically 100% identical to me, yet whom I shall never mention again" remark in her first episode as Martha.

[Crazedwraith]

We going for a new thread? Or just discussing it here.

Thought it was a self-indulgent piece of crap myself. The 'oh he never helps anymore' stuff is so idiotic. There'd be no episode if that was going to change. It's like the Doctor's death all over again. We know you're not going to follow through on it. So why include it?

[ray245]

We going for a new thread? Or just discussing it here.

Thought it was a self-indulgent piece of crap myself. The 'oh he never helps anymore' stuff is so idiotic. There'd be no episode if that was going to change. It's like the Doctor's death all over again. We know you're not going to follow through on it. So why include it?

Because the writers wanted to tell a story about someone helping the doctor to get over his grief? It's like asking why bother with a villain if we know the protagonist is going to defeat him in the end.

[Crazedwraith]

Except, you know, they didn't do that.

"I'm broody and don't want to help anymore wah, wah, wah!"

*sees pretty face*

"Look at me! I'm helping and being zany anymore. Cue the theme music."

---

A touch i did like, was it just me or did the music start riffing on Moffat's Sherlock's Theme when the Doctor was pretending to be Sherlock Holmes?

[Dartzap]

Yep, it started doing that from the get go.

[2000AD]

They've actually got me interested in finding out who Clara is and how it all ties together. I wonder if it's going to tie into the whole 'fall of the 11th on the fields of wherever they said when the question is answered' thign they set up last season.

Not a big fan of the new intro though, especially as I liked the previous version of the theme. Don't mind the new Tardis design.

[Dartzap]

Indeed, seems like they are setting it up for the opposite of Amy's 'Girl Who Waited' stuff; now its 'The Girl The Doctor Doesnt Have The Foggiest About'

I would love to know who resurrected Strax, the poor potato headed dwarf.

REG was far less cheesy than I thought he would be.

[Eternal_Freedom]

The snowman thing really felt like the b-plot it was, which is a shame, because it could have been interesting were it not secondary to yet another "pretty young girl stumbles into the Doctor's life" story. Can we please have a male companion again? Or at least a clearly platonic relationship like the Doctor always had.

The whole Clara/Oswin thing is interesting. I was going to be watching the new series anyway because I'm a fan but now I'm actually interested.

Was anyone else getting vibes of the Autons and the Yetis with some of those remarksthe Doctor made to the reptiles lady?

[Crazedwraith]

I would love to know who resurrected Strax, the poor potato headed dwarf.

I would love to know why they even threw in that line, instead of just taking advantage of timey wimey and have it be Strax from before Demon's Run.

The Clara/Oswin thing did not interest me. It made me roll my eyes. Yeah I get why they did it, its a pretty big 'please watch the next episode' hook in a blatant cheap way imho.

And Seriously, maybe if you'd shut the door on the killer monster you knew was after you maybe that death wouldn't have happened.

[jollyreaper]

Agreed that the pouting Doctor angle gets old. Also, the getting swept up with a pretty girl thing, also old, though Clara is awfully easy on the eyes.

The lesbian angle seemed a bit forced. I always find it a bit tedious when contemporary morals are shoehorned into historic settings. Nevermind that this isn't supposed to be alternate timeline London so potato men and lizard women would cause a sensation just like the Elephant Man. If they did want to go with the idea of blasting a Victorian's sense of morals, popping forward to a time when gay marriage is no big deal would be suitable.

I wonder if they're just going to have a thing now with companions who flummox the Doctor. We had River and Amy with complicated timey-wimey complications. Ugh. Frankly, I'd like to see a Romana around again, a companion who is the Doctor's equal but without manufactured sexual tension. I prefer a Doctor who has a touch of the alien and, as a thousand year old serial immortal who can just about pass as a god, would frankly find humans utterly boring as sexual partners. It would feel downright pedo. As a holds-her-own companion, River started on a good note but became too much of a Mary Sue.

It would be interesting to run an episode like this where there's no world-ending catastrophe to worry about, where the stakes are a single life.

I will chuckle if the thing with Clara is she's in every episode and always ends up dying by the end of it. So far she's two for two.

[Soontir C'boath]

So in the modern era, there were Rose Tyler with the heart of the TARDIS/Black Wolf, Donna Noble with her Dalek thingamajig, Amy Pond and the Silence, and now Souffle Girl who seems to be alive every couple generations. If we want to include males, there's Jack Harkness with his "immortality" too.

Can we have more than one season that does not revolve around a companion or make them out to be super duper special?

[The Yosemite Bear]

When we were first told that the enemy was going to be Snowmen, I thought at first we were facing the Yetis revamped.

[Johonebesus]

When we were first told that the enemy was going to be Snowmen, I thought at first we were facing the Yetis revamped.

If I recall, the Yetis were controlled by a non-corporeal entity called the Great Intelligence, which wanted to make for itself a physical form. When one of the robots was brought to a London museum, the Great Intelligence tried to invade through the London Underground. So evidently the Doctor just created his past enemy and set up the adventure in which he first met Lethbridge-Stewart.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Hell, I wouldn't mind the lizard woman as a companion. She clearly has no romantic affection for the Doctor (she is married after all) and seems highly capable, being the basis for Mr Holmes. It would be interesting to have a visibly non-human companion for a change.

[Dartzap]

I did hear some vague rumours about those three getting their own series, akin to the Sarah Jane adventures.

[Bedlam]

I did hear some vague rumours about those three getting their own series, akin to the Sarah Jane adventures.

I don't know how likely that is however, they didn't seem to do much in yesterdays episode so the only reason I can think they were included was to showcase them.

[DaveJB]

If there is a spin-off with the trio it'll most likely be a Big Finish-type audio series, as those have proven to be commercially viable for continuing the adventures of relatively obscure characters, and it'd avoid the costs associated with the prosthetics and period costumes and sets.

As for the episode, while I didn't think it was a masterpiece it was definitely better than the rather forgettable one we had last year.

[Atlan]

Oh God. Songtaran Christmas carols!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... ROptbXX0-0

[jollyreaper]

Not available in my country. When will this region-locking bs end?

[mr friendly guy]

I am going to call it now. That Clara/Oswin character is going to be another Mary Sue like River Song. At least Jenna Louise Coleman is stunning, so its easy on the eyes.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I am going to call it now. That Clara/Oswin character is going to be another Mary Sue like River Song. At least Jenna Louise Coleman is stunning, so its easy on the eyes.

I fear you're right. I have hopes it will not be to the extent River was, and that it will at least be interesting, but I'm not holding out for a miracle.

[DaveJB]

You know, as blandly written as Martha was overall, I'm now starting to appreciate the fact that she's the only NuWho companion (disregarding the one-shot ones like Astrid, Adelaide and whoever it was that Michelle Ryan played) who was truly written as being just a normal person, without being Bad Wolf, having something on her back, having the whole universe in her head, being a 2000 year old Roman Centurion, or being River Fucking Song.

Not that I'm immediately going to write off JLC's character(s), mind, but it seems kind of silly that the companions are actually getting more mysterious than the Doctor himself!

[jollyreaper]

Funny, I saw this episode with some friends. Most of us are watching out of nostalgia or inertia. One viewer's favorite companion was Donna. She's my least favorite because the actor was an obnoxious cow but I agree that I liked the concept: a companion who was not overawed by the Doctor, wasn't in love with him.

The point I keep coming back to is my favorite stories of his were the smallest ones. Anything involving the threatened omnicide of the multiverse turns out boring as hell.

The usual structure of a Who episode is as a mystery, only instead of figuring out whodunnit it's whatdunnit, though deaths are not uncommon. But because it's all timey-wimey fibble-fabble, it all comes across like crappy Star Trek. Techwank complicated by ass-pull solved by Doctor spouting gibberish. We aren't even having any real character moments. You know what would have been nice in this Xmas episode? If the Doctor could have talked the antagonist down, gotten to the heart of his personal problem and resolved it. He could have engaged on a personal, character level instead of blathering about babble.

[PREDATOR490]

Watched it, thought it was completely retarded and stupid. Which Doctor Who has established as the norm these days.
The Doctor has been relegated to the universe's most flamboyant pedophile... but its totally not his fault because all these young woman just hurl themselves at him within moments of meeting him.
The new eye candy was sorta interesting when they seemed to be trying for an equal to the Doctor but they went and royally fucked it with the randomly kissing the Doctor. Then the Doctor decides to get REALLY pedo creepy when he is repeatedly fawning over her while she is on her death bed.
Its not like the Doctor is married or anything... oh wait...

I fully expect this is going to be yet another Companion that goes the way of Amy Pond.
Yay !