Doctor Who

Eh, wasn't really feeling this one. It was alright but the plot just felt pretty convoluted.

hmm, I liked it overall but a bit torn about the ending. That felt like it was going to be the perfect ending for Clara and it's almost a shame it got circumvented.

Eh I think I appreciate the meta feel than actually like it. Those elves were horribly annoying, I think I would have preferred old cheesy Clara to the happyhappy ending we got, Capaldi made holding the reigns adorable, and as a person in a wheelchair that moment when the woman wakes up struck me.

The Mary Sue/ Moffat thing: Surely they must realize how dishonest it is to be like "Look at these female writers and directors who worked for Davies, but no female writers for Moffat". Like wait one damn minute, Moffat has had female directors! Catherine Morshead! And Sheree Folkson! And Rachel Talalay! Obviously Moffat hasn't had any female writers, but this doesn't seem like a case of "Davies hired women, Moffat didn't" and is more like "The only female writer the new series has had was under Davies."

I liked it. Inception-style DW christmas special, scared the shit out of me more than a couple of times. I'm guessing that the other crewmembers were in their first dream Clara and Oswald while they were already dreaming their second dream. My only real complaint is that they've had two perfect chances this and the last episode, to stop having Clara as a companion - one in the end of this when she was old and one where they parted last episode, lying to each other. - Now any other parting might be weird/painful for the doctor/nobody will believe this is the end for Clara. Don't get me wrong I like Clara, I really do but the next time it seems like they must part, they probably should or else it will seem like she will never leave and when she does it it will hurt.

That was great.

Doctor Who meets Inception meets Santa Claus.

I'm glad we didn't get old Clara being real as I think it would suck if the end of her arc was just "oh I'm old now guess we didn't get to travel because of a mistake oops".

Also, they did a great job at keeping Clara's fate ambiguous until this episode, so that was great.

Well, I was feeling kind of crap before I watched the episode, and afterwards I felt better, so I'm gonna call that a success and say I enjoyed the episode. Also, I've conclusively decided that I fucking love when stories explore thee idea of dreams within dreams or parallell dreams and give the audience chance to guess what's real

The Most Moffaty of all Moffat stories I'd argue. Moffat got to have the characters explicitly talk about the nature of narrative and explicitly have the characters subvert the story.

I really loved it, but I'm hard pressed to find local friends who did.

I'd agree, it was very moffaty with his trademark kind of psychological horror that I really like and lots of discussing and lampshading of the plot.

Good way to start Boxing Day.

Last Christmas review

I love Clara. I love her so very much and I'm so happy that she's staying.

There is so much more than can be done with her character too.

Personally, I think it's about time she got a companions. It'll be interesting how 12's modestly will play put with a new face, I could picture him insisting he's just Clara's transport and intel.

I love the Alien reference.

I love how delightfully honest Moffat is about tricks of the author. Including the inspirations for the episode in Shona's to do list. For all writing is about smoke and mirrors; Moffat has a confidence that there's something enjoyable even when we both viewer and writer admit the rabbit was probably in the hat the whole time.

I mean, that was a movie John Hurt was in.

So that's funny.

edited 25th Dec '14 7:21:00 PM by unnoun

This episode was fucking ridiculous. I love it.

edited 25th Dec '14 7:32:32 PM by Mukora

That episode was amazing.

Like, it was so cool. Though, I kinda preferred the first ending over the second ending, I do like that the Doctor and Clara are traveling together. Series 8 really had her grow on me.

While I'm actually somewhat disappointed that this wasn't Clara's swan song (I thought it would have been fitting, but maybe that's just me) I'm much more glad she's staying. There's still a lot we can do with her truthfully.

It was weird watching this episode on live TV with ads and everything. Great episode, though. Quite liked it.

As did my IRL friend who is currently setting up an account here. You'll know it's him because his name is sillier than everyone else's here. Do be nice to him.

So Shona was the best, right?

Everyone agrees. They better.

TARDIS Eruditorum sale or whatever.

What a mind fuck.

I really liked it.

I wonder why the setting seemed to take such inspiration from Shona's list. She wasn't the primary dreamer - apparently the Doctor was and the other four were nabbed while the dream crabs were trying to get Clara for some reason. So why then did Shona have such an inspiration on the dream?

That's just random fridge thinkery.

It wasn't what I was expecting for a Christmas episode but I enjoyed it all the same. Not that it has much stiff competition but it rates highly on the christmas episode list.

What is your reasoning for that? Please don't hurt me.

edited 25th Dec '14 7:40:28 PM by Bocaj

I think the Dream Crabs were actually like that.

Why then the polar station, which seemed to pay homage to the Thing (from another world)?

edited 25th Dec '14 7:41:37 PM by Bocaj