Sick Product of a Sick System

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Last Christmas was an okay Christmas special. The best thing about this episode for me was that Clara stayed. While I didn't like her much with the 11th Doctor, her relationship with the 12th Doctor is one of the greatest the series has had. Capaldi and Coleman shine on screen and really have incredible chemistry, and this episode continues the streak they had throughout series 8 while rounding out some of the hanging threads left from Death in Heaven. I thought the dream crabs were pretty good monsters, but I didn't really like the inclusion of Santa Claus in this episode. Nick Frost's performance didn't really click with me, and I also didn't really like how he and the Doctor had a rivalry going on. I felt like the episode was ruined as soon as Santa Claus stepped in. As soon as the pace started picking up and I was getting into the flow of the story, Santa was thrown in and just messed up the whole story. I think the problem with this episode is that it felt like it was trying to be a serious sci-fi installment, a comedy, and a fairytale at the same time. While Doctor Who does that well sometimes, it just didn't work for this episode. Overall, Last Christmas is an okay episode. The production values were good, Wilmshurst's direction was solid, and the acting was good as well, but the jarring shifts in tone that came with the inclusion of Santa Claus just didn't work out for me. While not a bad episode and chock full of great ideas, Last Christmas' lackluster execution is the reason that it's of my least favorite Christmas specials.Edit: Both the Husbands of River Song and the Return of Doctor Mysterio are superior episodes. I think the problem with Last Christmas is that it just couldn't find a tone and stick to it. One minute it's a comedy, another it's a sci-fi/horror film, and the next it's a fairytale with a hammy Santa Claus thrown in the mix. I think the other specials I mentioned are better because they have a set tone from the beginning and stick to it throughout the episode. If Doctor Who is going to have a dark episode, then the tone should stay serious throughout the whole thing. Last Christmas isn't a bad episode, but it's an example of what Doctor Who needs to do better at: finding a tone and sticking to it. 6.5/10

It starts out promisingly with Santa crashed on Clara's roof and moves rapidly downhill.Referencing Alien, blue facehuggers (although they seem more like Halflife's headcrabs) as Dream crabs that can cause inception like layers of dreams. The episode was supposed to be scary. Not a bit of it. Some kids may be disturbed by the Dream crabs and the scariest bit was of course Clara getting attacked.Throughout this Santa Claus is used as a Deus Ex Machina to rescue the cast.The ending though sappy was the best bit of the episode aside from Santa's sarcastic elves in the first few minutes.Avoid!

I'll admit my expectations weren't particularly high for this episode; I enjoyed Season 8 a good deal but have always been rather iffy on the Christmas specials, and was not particularly knocked over by last year's Time of the Doctor rubbish. So the whole day I was worried as to what Moffat could possibly dream up this time for the episode. Sure, a bad special is never enough to ruin a whole Christmas for me but even then, after being not so thrilled by some of the promotional materials, one of which included a scene of Santa car- locking Rudolph the Reindeer, and Clara waking up to find Santa and his elves on her rooftop. For a while I got bad flashbacks of that The Doctor, The Widow and The Painful Childishness, so I sat down to watch this trying not to feel that same pain. As a result, my low expectations were not only met but greatly exceeded. Sure, we did start off with that rather unsavoury opening but from there on, as the episode unfolded it quickly became more involving and engagingIt's a pretty simple plot- on paper. The Doctor and Clara are whisked away to an arctic base and are faced with a threat of deadly aliens that much resemble the Facehuggers from "Alien". But there's a twist. The aliens put their victims to sleep and use their subconscious to keep them trapped there to kill them. Clara finds this out the hard way when she gets attacked by one. But when she wakes up, things suddenly get a lot more tangled and hard to distinguish. The very problem is that concept would be, on paper, very easy to mess up and make all timey-wimey, but thankfully this isn't the case; it's very easy to follow constantly shocking. Moffat mixes influences from Inception and 1980s horror flicks such as Alien and The Thing. The creatures themselves are absolutely terrifying and well done; Nick Frost's performance as Santa Claus is fantastic and though he isn't in the episode long, he does a killer job. But in particular the last 20 minutes are gripping and intense, ws The Doctor and the crew race to get themselves out of the dreamOf course there are a few things that prevent it from being perfect- for one, the Danny Pink dream sequence does feel a bit unnecessary and shoehorned in to pander to the fangirls. Also, who on earth is paid to do the aging effects? While not quite as bad as Time of the Doctor's awful aging effects that made J. Edgar's aging effects look tame by comparison, old!Clara still absolutely was cringe-worthy and at times you could even see Jenna's real skin poking through But thankfully these flaws were very minor and few and in between, and weren't in many shape or form enough to ruin what was a very solid and fun Christmas special. This Christmas special was, for the most part, a success, and I had lots of fun watching it, and thankfully I won't feel embarrassed to recommend it tomorrow at work. It was the perfect way to wind down a very fantastic Christmas and I am greatly looking forward to re- watching it when it hits blu-ray. Now if you excuse me, I'm off to have a tangerine

"Last Christmas" is an intriguing episode with great performances with a rather dark Christmas theme.As the final special to wrap up Series 8 starts, it seemed like another mediocre Doctor Who episode. But as it progressed, it gained attention and mystery. The concept for the episode is not the one you would expect compared to the past specials. It has a rather dark atmosphere (which the 12th doctor is known for) and the new monsters were terrifying than ever. The episode's plot revolves around a group of people including Clara and the Doctor stuck in North Polo with a bunch of dream crabs trying to get them. But what they don't know is that they might all be in a dream, within a dream and so on. Nick Frost surprisingly delivers an excellent portrayal of Santa Claus and didn't go all childish and cheesy. Capaldi remains intact as he gives yet another fantastic performance as the dark and rude Doctor in which fans should be able to get used to this by now after one whole series and a special. Clara had some definitive and emotional moments, yet some felt a little bit useless and drawn-out. There are a ton of great and well executed shocking moments in this special which is bound to glue audiences to their seats. Certainly the highlights of this episode were the concept and shocking moments. There were also a ton of references in the episode which will give you a smile or at least make you laugh. Of course, the Christmas theme was present in the episode as well. However, the Christmas Theme did not balance kind of didn't balance with the dark atmosphere of the episode at start. It felt like at the end they remembered that all they did was add Santa so they squeezed right in some Christmas spirit in which it did work for the most part. To put it in one sentence, the Christmas special felt like Inception, but with Santa in it. Nonetheless, it is certainly one of the best Christmas specials Doctor Who has had so far.-Slow start, +the dark atmosphere and mystery throughout the episode, +the new monsters were terrifying, +nice concept (which seemed to be a little like Inception) +great performances, -some drawn-out scenes -the balance of the Dark atmosphere and Christmas spirit didn't blend well.Verdict: 8.5/10