A delightful little christmas story that belongs more to the 'Last Christmas' line of them than the 'Christmas Invasion' one.

I'm realising with this story that this 'season' hasn't done a single 'true historical', The House of Masks tricks you into thinking it is, but isn't, and this features some historical settings and characters from history, but definitely isn't a true historical.

That aside though, I absolutely loved this story. The concept of an alien kidnapping people to harvest fear has been done before, but the sheer delight that 'Clara' takes in doing so, and the idea that it's not feeding on fear, but almost making a 'fear-art-piece' to sell make it stand out amongst its contemporaries.

Bringing back Valarie's mum is also a great choice, it's a great way of showing her fear, and a brilliant way to give her a single episode arc. Especially with the last story featuring multiple phone calls 'to her mum' (I think this is the most quotation marks I've ever used in a review), it ties nicely into the overall narrative of the season, leading on from that and (presumably) leading into next episode with her meeting back up with Roanna in the next story.

The side cast in this are also great, again, using these stories to bring in historical elements with one person from the 1500s, and another from 1995. I think it's also really interesting how they play with faith here. One character is a christian monk, the other mentions Diwali, implying they're Hindu. It's nice for a 'christmas special' to touch on other faiths, and I think the interplay between faith and fear that we see here is a really interesting one.

Also bonus points for bringing back the flying shark.