Reaction: Doctor Who Christmas Special
Dec. 25th, 2012 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmic_llin Well, that was... um. Yeah. Bullet points:
* In general I found it incoherent and disjointed, weirdly paced and crammed with too many elements - I think there's a way you COULD have the Doctor AND Clara AND Vastra and the gang and still get a sensible story out of it in an hour, but this wasn't it.
* The whole business with the snow I found very confusing. Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention? I don't mind a lot of technobabble and handwaving - heck, I grew up watching Voyager - but it wasn't clear to me ever really what the threat was, what the villain's motivation was, what the snow aliens were doing there or wanted, what would happen if they won, and how the whole thing worked.
* I know this may not be everyone's opinion, but I think the Christmas special should be accessible to people who aren't avid weekly viewers. The ending was confusing and didn't really provide any resolution.
* The bit about a family's tears on Christmas Eve was just horribly sappy.
* Again with the kissing! Whyyyyyy? Can he just NOT kiss a companion, ONCE?!
* And why does the Doctor suddenly think Victorians are such horrible people? All this guff about Victorian attitudes...
* Perhaps the thing that disappoints me most is that we're not getting a historical companion after all. I've been hoping and hoping for one and I was so excited about Clara, but now it seems like we're getting a modern version of her instead. It really bugs me that the production team seem to think this is the only way to make a relatable companion (well, that and they have to be young/female/skinny/able-bodied/human/etc... but this one I thought was maybe achievable...)
* Onto the good stuff, I did enjoy Clara as a character, and her back story was interesting, even if we don't get to see her any more in that form? Or do we? Who knows...
* It didn't spoil Vastra and Jenny for me at all, I quite liked their bits and I'm hoping we'll see more of them... even if that one-word interrogation thing was utterly pointless. Also this is a tiny quibble but I kind of don't want Vastra and Jenny to be married? But overall yay Vastra and Jenny!
* And yay Strax, he was pretty fun.
* I liked the part of the story about the dead governess in the ice and the girl's dream... I think a much better episode could have been made from those elements...
* The invisible staircase was pretty cute.
* In general I found it incoherent and disjointed, weirdly paced and crammed with too many elements - I think there's a way you COULD have the Doctor AND Clara AND Vastra and the gang and still get a sensible story out of it in an hour, but this wasn't it.
* The whole business with the snow I found very confusing. Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention? I don't mind a lot of technobabble and handwaving - heck, I grew up watching Voyager - but it wasn't clear to me ever really what the threat was, what the villain's motivation was, what the snow aliens were doing there or wanted, what would happen if they won, and how the whole thing worked.
* I know this may not be everyone's opinion, but I think the Christmas special should be accessible to people who aren't avid weekly viewers. The ending was confusing and didn't really provide any resolution.
* The bit about a family's tears on Christmas Eve was just horribly sappy.
* Again with the kissing! Whyyyyyy? Can he just NOT kiss a companion, ONCE?!
* And why does the Doctor suddenly think Victorians are such horrible people? All this guff about Victorian attitudes...
* Perhaps the thing that disappoints me most is that we're not getting a historical companion after all. I've been hoping and hoping for one and I was so excited about Clara, but now it seems like we're getting a modern version of her instead. It really bugs me that the production team seem to think this is the only way to make a relatable companion (well, that and they have to be young/female/skinny/able-bodied/human/etc... but this one I thought was maybe achievable...)
* Onto the good stuff, I did enjoy Clara as a character, and her back story was interesting, even if we don't get to see her any more in that form? Or do we? Who knows...
* It didn't spoil Vastra and Jenny for me at all, I quite liked their bits and I'm hoping we'll see more of them... even if that one-word interrogation thing was utterly pointless. Also this is a tiny quibble but I kind of don't want Vastra and Jenny to be married? But overall yay Vastra and Jenny!
* And yay Strax, he was pretty fun.
* I liked the part of the story about the dead governess in the ice and the girl's dream... I think a much better episode could have been made from those elements...
* The invisible staircase was pretty cute.
