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Rate "The Snowmen"

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Post by Patrick Sat Dec 22, 2012 10:41 am

It wouldn't be Christmas without the Doctor, and a villain who plans to use the holiday to wipe out civilization. Or at least London.

Dr. Simeon and his creatures of snow. The introduction of new companion Clara Oswin (a name which bears more than a passing resemblance to the character Jenna Louise Coleman played in Asylum Of The Daleks, Oswin Oswald), and the return of three characters last seen in A Good Man Goes To War.

So, let's be hearing from you- what did you think of it?

This thread will remain locked until UK transmission of the episode on Christmas Day, so North American viewers, be warned. There may be spoilers if peek in this thread before BBC-America screens it.
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Post by The Browncoat Cat Tue Dec 25, 2012 3:46 pm

Well, that was the best Christmas Special since The Christmas Invasion.




  • I love the new title sequence. A mixture of squirls and swirls in the first half reminiscent of the 1960's, and then a bang on CGI reconstruction of the time tunnel from the Baker Diamond Logo sequence. All that was missing was the actual Diamond Logo.
  • Once again Matt Smith was superb as The Doctor. For of the episode he was channelling his inner Hartnell. I hope he doesn't revert completely revert to happy-go-luck Doc and keeps the tetchy outer layer for a few more stories.
  • Clara was great. I am mildly disappointed that this is not the version of Clara who will be the full-time companion next year. Do we really need another companion with a complicated back story that The Doctor needs to investigate.
  • At the same time I am mildly relieved that at least they are not going to do a Victoria Waterfield on her, dumping the Victorian background before the start of her second story.
  • The Paternoster Gang are superb. I wonder how Strax would react if the gang came face to face with normal Sontarans. I am glad that they appear to be semi-regulars for the next season, as a whole spin-off series featuring them would get dull quickly.
  • Richard E. Grant cut himself a fine slice of ham, although his line "I said I would feed you. I didn't say to what.' was classic.
  • I love the fact that this is a prequel to The Abominable Snowman/Web of Fear. It looks like the rumours about the return of the Great Inteligence were almost spot on. 10 out of 10 as a genesis story.
  • The new console room is properly old school. I love it.


Last edited by The Browncoat Cat on Wed Dec 26, 2012 7:36 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Post by Johnstone McGuckian Tue Dec 25, 2012 4:47 pm

5/5 from me. We've had an unbroken run of 4 or 5 rated episodes ever since Night Terrors (2). For me, possibly the best run of Who there's ever been.
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Post by konstantin Wed Dec 26, 2012 10:49 am

fantasticly done, and little if anything lacking --- but --


(isn't there always a "but")


I miss the stand alone stories -- this almost seemed like too much of a part of a big arc and not enough self contained.

Still very good story telling. Great acting and sets.

I don't mind the big story arcs, and enjoy them, but find them more interesting when they are more subtle and layered over good stand alone stories.

just my preference

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Post by Zoltar Wed Dec 26, 2012 1:12 pm

I gave it a 4/5. The mystery around Clara appeals to me, I'm interested to see how it develops. I liked the new credits and the new console room looked better on film than it did in the preview photo. I was glad to see The Doctor really engage with Clara when he dialed back on his Grinch mode. The callback to the earlier story was pretty well done, nice work by the cast. I'd welcome more of Vastra, Jenny and Strax.
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Post by Nick Barlow Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:34 am

konstantin wrote:I don't mind the big story arcs, and enjoy them, but find them more interesting when they are more subtle and layered over good stand alone stories.
This.

I guess Moffat Who isn't for me - there are good moments in there, but they're all out of any sort of context, as the writer's clearly more interested in coming up with them and complex 'look how clever I am' arcs than actually writing interesting and engaging stories. To me, this feels more like 80s Who than any other period - decisions seem to be being made on how much publicity they can get (and with the press office describing everything as 'epic' and 'iconic', those words are soon devalued) rather than on what might make a good story.
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Post by andrea Thu Dec 27, 2012 9:59 am

4/5. I really enjoyed it up to the point where Clara was pulled off the cloud. Certainly one of the better Christmas Specials, in my view, but I agree with the points made by The Browncoat Cat, konstantin and Nick Barlow. I'm a bit tired of Moffat's vision of Doctor Who, however good some of the stories are.
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Post by Dave Webb Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:26 am

I thought Richard E Grant was wasted. You've got an interesting character and a good actor - why limit him to being a minor character when you can play him off against Matt Smith and, more importantly, show what a great intelligence that isolates itself from company and contact can turn into? What a missed opportunity! This could, maybe should, have been a story in which the Doctor sees himself in a mirror. Vastra, Jenny and Strax were enough of a companion set for one story.

Actually, I really liked Vastra, Jenny and Strax. I will happily see more of them. Particularly Strax.

I think it's time for Doctor Who to change again, though. I would love for the Christmas special to have been 90 minutes long, to give room for some character exploration. There were people and relationships, story ideas and things that I wanted to see explored but which there was no time to deal with. Going with that, I think I want to see Who go to 90 minutes and perhaps get a mere 6 episodes a year. If you're going to go with movie ideas, make a [rude word] movie.

I'd missed the show,I'm looking forward to the rest of the season and I'm very pleased with JLC. She'll make a fine addition to the show.
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Post by Patrick Fri Dec 28, 2012 12:05 pm

I'm giving this a 4.

I have to agree with the notion that Richard Grant was sadly wasted in this story. Ian McKellan's disembodied voice added more to the story than Grant's performance.

I thought the introduction of a 1967 London Underground map was a nice surprise.

Jenna-Louise Coleman got, I think, the best companion entrance story since Capt. Jack in The Empty Child. Not only am I particularly keen to see how her story unfolds, I'm going to be cuirious to see how the Doctor changes now that he has this new enigma as a companion. Indeed, I think JLC is this story's saving grace, hence the 4.
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Post by Dave Webb Fri Dec 28, 2012 2:25 pm

Patrick wrote:

I thought the introduction of a 1967 London Underground map was a nice surprise.


I missed the dialogue surrounding that, so it's either neat or just a bit of prowank. And I'm leaning towards the latter.
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Post by Patrick Fri Dec 28, 2012 3:38 pm

Dave Webb wrote:
I missed the dialogue surrounding that, so it's either neat or just a bit of prowank. And I'm leaning towards the latter.

Such cynicism! You and a certain Eocene of our mutual acquaintance are actually sounding a lot alike. I took the dialogue for what it was, an attempt to position "The Snowmen" as a pre-quil to "The Web Of Fear."
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Post by Dave Webb Sat Dec 29, 2012 4:02 am

Patrick wrote:
Such cynicism! You and a certain Eocene of our mutual acquaintance are actually sounding a lot alike. I took the dialogue for what it was, an attempt to position "The Snowmen" as a pre-quil to "The Web Of Fear."

You're right. In part, this is an origin story for the Great Intelligence and it's a nice way to differentiate it from the Nestene Consciousness. I still need to watch again and see where the dialogue comes from, because I have my suspicions about what Moffat is up to.
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Post by sparacus Mon Dec 31, 2012 6:23 am

1/5. A confused mess. The first three minutes or so were very promising; tense, gripping and scary. The Snowmen looked creepy and the tension was built up well. Also the new titles sequence was an improvement on the previous one with Matt Smith's features appearing in the classic series style. However from then on it was downhill all the way for the following reasons:

1) The meandering and confusing plot which quickly lost all tension and descended into comedy, tangental narrative blind alleys and generally lost all cohesion.

2) The joke Sontaran and the Silurian were there for no real purpose at all. It was as if they just had two spare costumes lying around.

3) Constant Tim Burton style fantasy sequences involving a staircase to the TARDIS etc.
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Post by Patrick Mon Dec 31, 2012 2:46 pm

I take it back, Dave. The real cynic here is the Emporer.
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Post by Dave Webb Mon Dec 31, 2012 3:07 pm

Patrick wrote:I take it back, Dave. The real cynic here is the Emporer.

The Emperor's commitment to quality is well known.
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Post by sparacus Tue Jan 08, 2013 5:58 am

Patrick wrote:I take it back, Dave. The real cynic here is the Emporer.

I am not a cynic. The world is cynical and I am just an outside observer of it.
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Post by The Neon Seal Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:05 am

5/5.

It had me enthralled from beginning to end. I think Matt Smith has well and truly found his groove as the Doctor. Jenners character was played magnificently and as for that twist at the end...

Story: 5.
Characters: 5.
Monsters: 5.

This my multidimentional friends is what Who is all about!
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