Rate "The Snowmen"

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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

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

The Emperor's commitment to quality is well known.

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.

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!