Day 890 - The Snowmen

This really feels like a another fresh start for the series. We have new opening titles, a new companion and a new TARDIS control room!

First of all let me talk about those new titles. I'm not really sure why they decided to completely revamp these but they are pretty awesome. The cherry on the cake for me is Matt Smith's face appearing in the opening moments. In the classic series it was tradition (starting from the second Doctor) that the Doctor's face would appear in the opening titles..right up to the seventh Doctor where he actually winks!

The new companion is in place in the form of Clara Oswald, a Victorian barmaid and occasional governess. Well I say she's the new companion, things get a little complicated when she dies at the end of the episode just before the Doctor realises she is somehow the same woman who also dies in the Dalek asylum. Who is this impossible girl and how can the Doctor keep meeting her like this?

Also returning are Madame Vastra and her very close friend Jenny, along with Strax the Sontaran. This team of characters have to be one of the biggest successes of the last couple of years and I love them! Strax is particular is hilarious as he is constantly wishing to declare war on someone somewhere! 

Meanwhile the Doctor has decided that enough is enough. After the loss of Amy and Rory he has realised that after a thousand years of saving the universe that the universe simply doesn't care. As such he has taken to living in isolation. This "sulking" is something that was touched on at the end of the tenth Doctor's era but I think it's much more effective here. I particularly liked the scene where the Doctor first meets Clara and he can tell that they are getting to the point where an adventure will start, instead he simply turns around and mutters "those were the days" before leaving her alone.

As Christmas episodes go, the casting in this one is also pretty impressive. Richard E Grant and Ian McKellen as the main villains! That's pretty damn awesome! Okay McKellen is just a voice role but even so it's still fantastic. Richard E Grant is also familiar to the world of Doctor Who having played a version of the Doctor twice, once in the comic relief special The Curse Of Fatal Death and secondly in the animated story The Scream Of The Shalka which I covered in this blog way back during The Wilderness Years. 

As for the villain that McKellen is playing...it's the Great Intelligence!!! Oh my god! I did not see this coming at all! There is not a yeti in sight but considering the first story to include the Great Intelligence was the second Doctor story "The Abominable Snowmen" then having this episode called "The Snowmen" was a bit of a clue. It's also implied that this is actually the first time that the Great Intelligence has met the Doctor. It's sort if it's origin story and this can be seen by the fact that it is the Doctor himself who accidentally gives the Intelligence the idea of invading the London Underground in 1967 thus leading to the events that took place in The Web Of Fear. I wonder if Steven Moffat knew of the return of The Web Of Fear when he wrote this story. It seems odd that he writes an episode with links to a old story which has been lost from the BBC archives only for that story to be announced as found later that year. If series 8 makes any reference to Marco Polo I think I'll scream with excitement.

One more thing I have to say is that I love the design of the new TARDIS control room. I was never a big fan of Matt Smith's previous one. I particularly dislike the kind of glass blown time rotar. This control room feels very much like the classic era control room and I think that's why I like it so much. 

This is my last Christmas special for the blog before the final day now. Day 900 will be the Christmas special from 2013.. Not long to go.