Last Christmas
- Episode aired Dec 25, 2014
- TV-PG
- 1h 1m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
6.3K
YOUR RATING
The Doctor and Clara face their Last Christmas. Trapped on an Arctic base, under attack from terrifying creatures, who are you going to call? Santa Claus!The Doctor and Clara face their Last Christmas. Trapped on an Arctic base, under attack from terrifying creatures, who are you going to call? Santa Claus!The Doctor and Clara face their Last Christmas. Trapped on an Arctic base, under attack from terrifying creatures, who are you going to call? Santa Claus!
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMichael Troughton, son of Patrick Troughton and brother of David Troughton, makes his first appearance in the series.
- GoofsThe Doctor asks Clara to minus 17 from 304 then add 20, to which Clara answers 507.
- Quotes
The Doctor: There's a horror movie called Alien? That's really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Doctor Who Extra: Last Christmas (2014)
Featured review
Christmas Surprise
Despite the contrived fantasy nature of creating a Christmas special featuring Santa (following on from all the other slightly contrived fantasy Moffatt era Christmas specials - one based on A Christmas Carol, one based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and one featuring a snowy town called Christmas) this episode, like A Christmas Carol, manages to rise above its contrivance to be a thoroughly enjoyable story. It has the usual Moffatt obsessions of the 'darkness' of the Doctor, lots of complicated storytelling and over the top bits but it is one of the occasions where he gets it to mostly work.
Moffatt has managed here, as in his other best work, to balance things so that the complications are clever. In a lot of this era the complications end up turning out to be illogical and the showiness is out of control. This episode makes enough sense so that the confusing dreams within dreams and seemingly unrealistic events have some internal logic. The showy stuff like Santa, elves, reindeer etc are made to fit into the context of the episode in a way that makes them work within the world of the show and they are used to great comic and dramatic effect.
Nick Frost is great as Santa, he is funny but also grounded with a more serious side. The comedy works brilliantly and there is smart dialogue throughout. Capaldi is, as always, terrific with both humour and depth. All the guest characters have depth and quality and all the acting is of high standard, including Jenna Coleman. It is lovely to get Michael Troughton, son of 2nd Doctor Patrick Troughton, in the cast.
The darker and more dramatic elements mostly work really well too. The dream crabs are creepy and menacing (their resemblance to creatures from the movie 'Alien' is amusingly referenced) and the serious themes raised work well.
I was not a huge fan of how the dream crabs turn out to be in random people's homes and just disintegrate and we move on. Why and how were they there and isn't there a likelihood they would be elsewhere on Earth rather than just those few random places? Some explanation or resolution would have been nice.
I also was not a fan of bringing Danny Pink into the episode. Moffatt just cannot let characters die! I strongly disliked Danny and was glad to get rid of him so that compounds his unnecessary return. Thankfully he is not a huge issue in this story.
The episode is rather copied in some respects from the great episode from a couple of years earlier, Amy's Choice (as well as its influence from Alien) which is a shame in a way but it is just different enough to still work in its own right.
Overall this was a funny, entertaining and clever episode.
I always saw this as logically being the Series 8 Christmas Special but it is, apparently, officially part of Series 9 so that is what I am counting it as.
My Rating: 8.5/10.
Series 9 Episode Ranking: 8th out of 14.
Moffatt has managed here, as in his other best work, to balance things so that the complications are clever. In a lot of this era the complications end up turning out to be illogical and the showiness is out of control. This episode makes enough sense so that the confusing dreams within dreams and seemingly unrealistic events have some internal logic. The showy stuff like Santa, elves, reindeer etc are made to fit into the context of the episode in a way that makes them work within the world of the show and they are used to great comic and dramatic effect.
Nick Frost is great as Santa, he is funny but also grounded with a more serious side. The comedy works brilliantly and there is smart dialogue throughout. Capaldi is, as always, terrific with both humour and depth. All the guest characters have depth and quality and all the acting is of high standard, including Jenna Coleman. It is lovely to get Michael Troughton, son of 2nd Doctor Patrick Troughton, in the cast.
The darker and more dramatic elements mostly work really well too. The dream crabs are creepy and menacing (their resemblance to creatures from the movie 'Alien' is amusingly referenced) and the serious themes raised work well.
I was not a huge fan of how the dream crabs turn out to be in random people's homes and just disintegrate and we move on. Why and how were they there and isn't there a likelihood they would be elsewhere on Earth rather than just those few random places? Some explanation or resolution would have been nice.
I also was not a fan of bringing Danny Pink into the episode. Moffatt just cannot let characters die! I strongly disliked Danny and was glad to get rid of him so that compounds his unnecessary return. Thankfully he is not a huge issue in this story.
The episode is rather copied in some respects from the great episode from a couple of years earlier, Amy's Choice (as well as its influence from Alien) which is a shame in a way but it is just different enough to still work in its own right.
Overall this was a funny, entertaining and clever episode.
I always saw this as logically being the Series 8 Christmas Special but it is, apparently, officially part of Series 9 so that is what I am counting it as.
My Rating: 8.5/10.
Series 9 Episode Ranking: 8th out of 14.
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- A_Kind_Of_CineMagic
- Mar 20, 2019
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