Last Christmas

You have a horror movie called "Alien"? That's really offensive. No wonder you keep getting invaded.

Last Christmas is not the traditional feel-good Christmas special that has graced British television screens over the last few years. There is some silly and feel-good moments, but this thing is mostly Alien meets Inception.

"What is reality?" stories are always interesting to me and they usually take more than one watch to fully wrap your brain around. Frame of Mind was always one of my favorite ST:TNG episodes and I enjoy the concept of Inception if not necessarily the full execution. However, Last Christmas takes the dial up a notch by adding the "base under siege" motif familiar to most Doctor Who fans.

There was a mixed reaction as I recall towards this one. A lot of people felt that mixing Santa Claus and elves into this story made it a bit silly, but I rather enjoyed it. It makes sense that if there is a rational part of your brain that is trying to send you a danger signal, it would latch on to something fantastic that makes no sense in reality. If something you could rationalize appeared, you would be more likely to dismiss it. Silliness is almost required to make sense as a true defense mechanism.

The actors all do a very good job of conveying a sense of danger in the episode. You also like them so that you almost feel a bit sorry when they wake up to their normal lives, which in two of the three cases, seem a bit drab relative to the scientific explorers they were dreaming themselves as.

The only part of the story that I didn't care for was the false ending with old Clara. I think there has always been a suspicion that this was the original ending planned when Jenna Coleman was rumored to be leaving at the end of series eight. I don't know that I buy that since it would have taken very little time to reshoot a whole ending with young Clara if they wanted to scrap the old Clara leaving. I'm inclined to believe that this a way of introducing some perspective to both the Doctor and Clara about how much they wanted to be travelling with each other again.

What I didn't care for was two-fold. One: that it implied that the Doctor and Clara were one level deeper in dreaming than the other four and that seems a bit odd given how they were operating in tandem before. Two: the scene with old Clara and the Doctor felt off. I know they were trying to go for the sappy regret, but we had already had too much of that in Death in Heaven. The whole tone of the scene felt forced and unnatural as compared to the scene with young Clara which was more natural. It didn't help that I didn't buy Clara's old make-up at all either.

It's definitely worth rewatching and very enjoyable. I would have just preferred an ending scene where the Doctor just finds Clara and they have a simple talk about enjoying each other's company and then running off to the TARDIS. Although I enjoyed the little tangerine twist at the end. Another Inception hat tip.

Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5