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Headscratchers / Doctor Who 2014 CS "Last Christmas"

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    Where did the crabs come from 

  • If the crabs weren't hibernating and woken up by scientists in the arctic, then where did they come from?
    • Outer space. Same as the rest of the space monsters.

    Six victims in all of history 

  • Are these the only six people in earth's history that got attacked by the crabs? How did the Doctor get in their dream if he wasn't on earth? (Because Clara was in it?)
    • The Doctor was also attacked, he even says they must have reached Clara through him. As for how many people were attacked, maybe there are actually many other dreams, where other random people from all over the universe are being attacked.
    • In similar fashion to the later "Sleep No More", the story is meant to give the viewer a bit of a chill by suggesting that any time they have a particularly vivid dream, or experience the real phenomenon of waking up in a dream yet still dreaming, or even dream of a departed loved one, they might be under the influence of dream crabs. It's a meta-device.

    Other victims 

  • Are there other shared dream-crab dreams out there? Didn't the Doctor say the crabs were attacking everyone? Do we have to worry about those people?
    • It was Santa who said that all of humanity might be in danger, depending on how many of the Crabs were out there, and he said it at a time when they had no way of determining the creatures' numbers. Presumably Clara and the Doctor checked on some of her neighbors after they finally woke up for real, and confirmed (to the extent that's possible) that they weren't being face-hugged.

    Wake-up location 
  • When did the Doctor get back on the red planet?
    • Possibly before his final meeting with Clara in "Death in Heaven".

    Old Woman 

  • Why was the Doctor (or Clara - it was ambiguous who the architect of that dream was) dreaming of Clara being an old woman?
    • Possible deception by the dream crabs? Seeing Clara die a natural death within the dream as the crab finished her off would've made the Doctor less likely to fight back himself.
    • It could be the result of the Doctor and Clara's mutual regrets about leaving each other behind; they both thought that if they ever did see each other again, Clara would probably be an old lady.
    • Also, part of Twelve possibly still feels bad about what Clara went through, watching Eleven age by centuries in "Time of the Doctor", so his subconscious is putting him through the same experience of seeing her aged to the brink of death. Hence the Christmas-cracker scene.
    • Also, the house Clara was staying at wasn't her own, (season 9 shows her living at the same flat as before), it was either her father's or her grandmother's since it has a chair lift next to the stairs. This might have got her thinking about growing old. The story her grandmother told during "The Time of the Doctor" about a boy she knew, missed opportunities and regret, probably helped too.
    • Or - and this may be a more romanticized way of looking at it - Clara really WAS old, and they really DID see Santa - who then turned it into that final dream-layer to allow them to go off on adventures together again. I mean, he's Santa. He can do anything.

    Dreaming of crabs 

  • If the dream crabs didn't want people to realize they were dreaming, why did they give people dreams where the crabs themselves were included, thus helping them figure out what was going on? Why didn't they just give everyone normal, happy dreams, like the one Clara had of being with Danny?
    • It may be that the dream crabs simply can't avoid it, as it is an automatic reaction on the part of the brain, processing the threat (I believe that the Doctor said something along those lines when the infirmary patients began walking about, and one of them pulled the professor through the monitor). Assuming that to be the case, then I would imagine that the dream crabs try to construct a dream scenario that specifically writes around such an obvious give-away as best they can. Alternatively, or perhaps additionally, they make sure they include images of themselves within the dreams so that their "third-party perception" allows them to keep an eye on their host bodies while they are feeding on them as well. According to the Doctor, if the image of the crab is there in your mind, then they can see you.
    • Alternately, the dream crabs can't communicate with each other except by bringing other crabs into the dreams of their victims. The crab that latched on to the Doctor probably realized that he was putting up a fight, and brought the other crabs (complete with their prey) into a shared dreamscape so the creatures could combine their tactics and mental energies against him. Note that Clara doesn't actually see any crabs in the dreams where she's alone, only when she's sharing a dream with others.
    • It's also possible the crabs didn't have a choice in the matter. A Doctor Who podcast, "Who Back When" put forward the idea that Shona was the primary mover behind the dream scenario as, when she woke up, she had a list of movies that she had watched or was planning to watch. Among them was Alien (referenced in the episode), The Thing from Another World (which took place in the North Pole), and Miracle on 34th Street (which would explain Santa). Once Clara got crabbed in the dream they were able to tailor a scenario specific to her.

    The Doctor and Santa 

  • How can the Doctor doubt Santa's real when (in TV continuity) they had a photo taken together at Frank Sinatra's party before "A Christmas Carol"?
    • Maybe he knows Santa is real, but he isn't exactly as pictured by humans, and as such the mental construct looked or acted weird in a way that tipped him off. His words and actions were just easier to swallow than saying "I know Santa, and this man isn't him".
    • Alternatively, it is also possible that Eleven was just being his usual, hyperactive, attention-deficit, can-never-tell-how-much-of-what-he's-saying-is-made-up-just-to-sound-cool self and the "Jeff" in that photograph wasn't *really* Santa Claus but someone dressed in the costume. Similarly, Nine once implied that he himself was Santa Claus, but who knows whether it was really true or if he was just messing around and being snarky.
    • You'll also note that the Doctor never says Santa isn't real—he admits the one in front of them is a mental construct, but scoffs at Shona dismissing him out of hand, and seems a little too familiar with him all around ("Tangerines are my trademark gift!" "Nobody likes the tangerines").

    Why no Wound? 

  • Clara, while in the deepest dream layer I believe, asks why there isn't a wound for the fact there's a crab dissolving through her head and her brain. The Doctor responds it's because they're in a dream. Why then, when they wake up for the last time, do they still not have a wound?
    • Oh, why, perhaps because they're still not quite in reality? Tangerines-in-the-last-shot and all that. (Even if the author-preferred interpretation is that the last scene is real and shows that Santa is too.)

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