Frosty the Great Old One

I actually enjoyed The Snowmen a decent amount more on this rewatch. The setting is charming, Victorian Clara is fun to watch bounce off of the Doctor, and I do enjoy the premise of 11 having given up companions following the Ponds' death. One note here is that I frankly wish the episode was a little more self-serious; we're dealing with the Doctor in a darker place than he's been in centuries, and (a) Clara literally dies at the end. The constant tonal shifts to comedy contrast with this, and makes it difficult to give the actual story enough gravitas. To that effect, I maintain that the actual plot here is fairly nonsense. It's great having Ian McKellen and Richard E. Grant in Doctor Who, but neither is really given that much to do. Overall, I enjoyed this, but it's fairly far from the best Christmas specials.