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TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Written by

Steven Moffat

Directed by

Saul Metzstein

Runtime

60 minutes

Time Travel

Past

Story Arc (Potential Spoilers!)

The Impossible Girl

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth

UK Viewers

9.87 million

Appreciation Index

87

Synopsis

After losing Amy Pond and Rory Williams, the Eleventh Doctor has retired to Victorian England, where Strax, Jenny Flint, and Vastra assist him. The Doctor eventually meets Clara Oswald, and takes a liking to the young barmaid who leads a double life as a governess. At the same time, a sinister plot is unfolding; snowmen are randomly appearing around London, growing in size and power. All they need to take over the world is some human DNA in ice crystal form, and the frozen body of a drowned governess can give them just that.

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7 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

Who hurt the showrunners to make them repeatedly fling women to their deaths off scaffolding at Christmas?


goblinikov

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This review contains spoilers!

I know but I LOVE seeing the two flirting.


RubyWeekends

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My fiance and I loved this episode.


Dalek_kevin

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This review contains spoilers!

If my enthusiasm was waning for this era of Doctor Who, it has absolutely been peaked again by this incredible story. It’s now my second favourite Christmas story after A Christmas Carol. It showcases how excellent Moffat can be when he focuses on just a couple of distinct ideas. He can be really clever when he is not trying to be clever.

It is a wonderful full length introduction for Clara, I know we’ve had a sneak preview with the Asylum of the Daleks, but it is here you get a real sense of her character. The two versions of the character were done marvelously. A really nice piece of storytelling, giving this companion something quite different to do. The show feels new again as a result.

The Doctor himself feels renewed. I love the costume and TARDIS, things that I was for some reason resistant to at the time of broadcast, I now feel as necessary and invigorating with this last half series, not settling for the same old same old and trying something new.

The Paternoster Gang is a wonderful team. I can’t get enough of them.

Only Doctor Who could make a sequel to what was at that point a missing story from 1967 without it being annoying or knocking you over the head with fan references. It will have gone over the heads of non-fans. Other eras could learn from this. The Great Intelligence was a character we weren’t expecting to see again and probably won’t see for another 50 years! Richard E Grant is excellent in what could be a thankless role, really bringing it alive.

The Christmas aspects, including the snowmen themselves felt fresh - it didn’t feel like the umpteenth Christmas special.

If I was to provide a critique it would be that the series is still a flirting overload, though it does generally make more sense on this outing. I’d also say that the “Doctor Who?” gag has now been done to death at this point.

This is the only certified hit from series 7 so far!


15thDoctor

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Thought that this was by far the best Christmas special the show has done and The Christmas Invasion is the only one that even comes close.

Very funny script, a great festive story and a nice introduction to the arc over the second half of the season. Loved the Sherlock Holmes deduction scene!


AndyUK

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Statistics

AVG. Rating679 members
3.56 / 5

Trakt.tv

AVG. Rating818 votes
4.27 / 5

Member Statistics

Watched

1447

Favourited

101

Reviewed

7

Saved

4

Skipped

0

Owned

16

Quotes

Add Quote

VASTRA: Good evening. I'm a Lizard Woman from the Dawn of Time, and this is my wife.

— Madame Vastra, The Snowmen

Transcript + Script Needs checking

(A shower of snowflakes with teeth heads towards Earth.)

[Park]

(England, 1842. A large hedged area in a suburb, with one big tree and lots of snow on the ground. The other children throw snowballs whilst a lone boy builds a snowman.)

WOMAN: Walter, don't you want to go and play with the other boys and girls? They're very nice.
WALTER: I don't need anyone else.

(A man comes up to her.)


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