YMMV / Doctor Who 2014 CS "Last Christmas"

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Due to the presence of the tangerine on the windowsill at the end, and the still-dreamlike nature of the scene in which Clara agrees to rejoin the Doctor, and the fact Clara's home in the final scene does not match in any way her flat as seen in Series 8 and 9, it's been suggested that the shared dream was still under way as the episode ended and the entirety of Series 9 (complete with its fourth wall breaking and nightmarish series finale) was itself a dream. For all we know, the entire show following this episode might be an extended hallucination!
  • Danny says that he didn't die to save the world, he died to save Clara and everyone else just got lucky. While this is conceivably something the real Danny might say, it's worth bearing in mind this isn't the real Danny, it's Clara's dream version of Danny—and Clara is explicitly stated in other episodes to be a narcissist.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Shona. There were multiple calls for her to become a new Companion; and had Jenna Coleman left as planned, it might have happened.
  • While not to the extent as Shona, both Santa Claus and Ashley are also well liked by the fandom.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The episode involves people trying to avoid dying in their sleep, takes place and was originally aired on Christmas Day, and is named after the famous Wham! song. Two years later George Michael, who wrote and sang "Last Christmas", died in his sleep on Christmas Day.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • This clip with Nick Frost from Man Stroke Woman.
  • Shona's choice of having a "Thrones marathon" becomes quite a gag—considering her actress later turns up in Season 5 and 6 as the Waif. And on top of that, an actor from that show becomes a major player of Series 9 in Doctor Who itself, completing the circle. Plus, Matt Smith ended up playing Daemon Targaryen in the prequel series House of the Dragon.
• Narm Charm: The entire scene where Santa bursts into the Arctic base, armed with a sole tangerine, an army of rogue Slinkies, and toy robots; he's riding Rudolph, who rears up in the traditional "hero coming to the rescue!" pose. It's silly but it is awesome.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • How do you know you're not in a dream crab's vision now? You don't. Recurring headache? That's a dream crab sucking out your brain. Oh, and thinking about the crabs is what attracts them. This is especially creepy if you suffer from something like migraines. Gah.
  • The dream crabs are incredibly insidious: once they've got you, they make you think you're not dreaming but in danger of being grabbed by them again. Then they grab you again and put you in another dream layer and try to repeat the process ad infinitum so that even if you manage to free yourself, you're still trapped which gives them enough time to consume your brain.
  • Santa appearing throughout the episode always indicated that it was another dream, and the episode ends on a tangerine appearing, unbeknownst to the Doctor and Clara. So is Santa real... or is the dream still going on?
  • Santa appeared first to the Doctor in the preceding episode's Stinger, meaning Twelve was already in trouble then... Even worse, the planet the Doctor keeps waking up on as he sheds the various dream layers is the planet he had conducted Clara's Secret Test of Character on in "Dark Water" (even though it was only in Clara's mind, too!). Just how long were he and Clara actually under their influence?

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