User reviews

The Doctor encounters Clara for a second time, she's in the employ of Colonel Latimer, who's governess fell into the garden's pond which has frozen over.

We have had some sweet, some soft, and some flat Christmas specials, this was much darker, it moved the Christmas episode in a totally different direction.

I said no fairytale, maybe a snippet of Jack and the Beanstalk, the staircase up to where? The redesigned TARDIS room looks fabulous, I love it, it's gone from looking organic to high tech.

Great to see Vastra, Jenny and Strax, although I thought he was killed in a Good man goes to War. Clara is a great addition to the show, it's a great performance from Jenna Coleman, so different to Asylum of the Daleks. Romance AGAIN though, seriously it's only Donna that's not been after him, please not the falling in love with the Doctor again.

Richard E.Grant is totally brilliant as Simeon, at last he's appeared in the show. He cuts a really nasty villain.

The best opening credits, since the show started I love them, feel like they are a proper continuation from the classic series.

Some brilliant special effects, I love the imagery of the frozen governess, scary as.

The Sherlock cameo was very funny, even the music felt like it belongs on that other series.

The first time we see a memory worm, these would appear again in future episodes. The Snowmen look great, technically 2012's Yeti?

I think this is contender for the best Christmas episode of all time, the introduction of an old foe worked wonders. The big reveal at the end is brilliant. It's fantastic 9/10

Quite sinister festive Christmas fayre, especially after lasts saccharine year, but change is good and so is a rest, a new companion arriving who could be the best. To feast this winter we were fed, evil snowmen with sharp teeth in their head, The Great Intelligence pulled all the strings, but the Doctor made bells toll for him (for now). And at this welcoming Christmas time, the friends of Who joined the pantomime, with the belligerent bald one, the Sontaran Strax, and Jenny with Vastra, perfectly matched. Let's hope this winter breathes more life, with something as good as The Doctor's Wife (or Blink or Midnight).

A new Steven Moffat written Dr Who episode introducing his new companion, the sassy Jenna-Louse Coleman, made for a fine festive treat this Christmas. Moffat continues his predilection for making inanimate objects dangerous, after the previous season finale with the statues, this time making the protagonists sharp-toothed snowmen - next series can we expect to see the attack of the killer garden-gnomes?!

Naturally the Doc is still in a period of mourning for the loss of Rory and Amy and indeed takes some time to make an appearance and snap back into his old self but when he does the action picks up and of course he gets to save the world again. The meeting with his new co-traveller Clara (in fact a reunion, for those who saw the previous series' Daleks episode) was neatly got over with the crisp sharp dialogue we've come to expect and some clever in-jokes too, not least the references to Moffat's other recent successful creation Sherlock Holmes and later the nod to Amy Pond. It shouldn't be forgotten that a Christmas perennial in the UK at this time is Raymond Briiggs' animated story "The Snowman", "Walking In the Air" and all that, Moffat making a monster out of a snow-hill to good effect.

The special effects were excellent, especially the "Stairway to Heaven", ice-monster governess and Richard E Grant's transformation into a freezing ghoul just before the end. Along for the ride are Vastra and wife, plus potato-head Sontaran Straxa for comic effect. I must admit I got a little lost with how Clara came back to life and by crying a tear destroyed the alien menace, but I'll allow Moffat his McGoffin.

Everyone acts well, Matt Smith far from bored and boring and Coleman, with her crush on the Doc, adding even more sexual chemistry than Karen Gillan's Amy Pond. This one-off episode bodes well for next year's new series, where interestingly the preview trailer showed no sign of River Song at all, but thankfully the return of my favourite Who monsters the Cybermen.

The Snowmen is another great Doctor Who episode. Jenna Coleman is a very good actress, and her interactions with the Doctor were very good. The special effects were great, too. I loved when she first went inside the TARDIS, the music was great and the direction was also on point. The script was very good, and I was shocked when she died. I really enjoyed this episode. One thing is that the snow villain and the Great intelligence weren't that threatening. Otherwise it was a great episode.

10/10

Very enjoyable- (funny, dramatic, and emotional all-in-one.)

I'm going to be honest. Part 1 of Season 7 had me worried. I don't know what it was, but the plot-lines just......lacked. Despite the critical acclaim of Asylum of Daleks I found myself hating that episode. It felt completely off. The fact that the Ponds were still around after the somewhat closure that was given to them last season made it just...odd. I did not like the idea of the Doctor's companions only occasionally traveling with him, to the point where I wasn't very distraught by their departure. Now, I'm mystified by how Doctor Who can have so many cast changes, with viewers ALWAYS knowing that when they start loving a certain character, rather it's that Doctor (well, EVERYBODY loves the Doctor) or his companion, there's that troubling fact that you know they won't be around forever. And yet it stays completely amazing, something many TV shows likely can't pull off. I felt this episode of Doctor Who was very well crafted, fitting for Christmas spirit, as well as raising my spirit for Doctor Who after the disappointing part 1 of Season 7.

A really fun and entertaining episode of dr who, Matt Smith is excellent and the new assistant, soufle girl, looks very comfortable in the role. There seems to be a really good chemistry between Matt and Jenna Louise which bodes well for the future series. I also liked the new interior design of the tardis, quite retro looking which is an improvement on the old fire escape look. Not sure about the new title sequence, should never have changed that anyway. The concept of snow having an alien intelligence is certainly original and having Ian Mckellan as the alien voice is certainly a marvellous bonus. The makeup for the aliens is definitely improving, the lizard woman is very well done.

Victorian London in winter, Clara, strong villain or dumb sontaran together with Doctor's personality make already good episode even better.

Honestly, nothing that anyone will say could convince me that The Snowmen isn't an all-round masterpiece. Hilarious when it needs to be, heart-wrenching when it needs to be, basically, its TV gold. And it has Strax in it. What more could you want?

Sound, interesting story (well, besides some "scarf issues" = inconsistencies in clothes that appear "out of the dark"). Nicely shaped characters. The doctor has a new companion. A companion he already met before in form of a Dalek. The question is if she is able to substitute Amy and(!) Rory? We'll see ...

Still more a child story ... but the Doctor is slowly getting old ... aehm ... growing up.

This current episode continues the improved animation effects that started in the last two series in comparison to current US series.

Can't wait for the story to continue in April next year.

Although I generally hold Steven Moffat in high regard - thanks in no small part to the brilliant "Sherlock" - this episode to me marked one too many Doctor Who stories resolved by something of the form: "humans showing a deep emotion is all-powerful". Don't get me wrong, I have no beef with a "love conquers all"-type ending; I wouldn't be watching Doctor Who if I did. My point is that I don't much like it when a big complicated crisis (typically the impending doom of humanity, planet Earth or even the entire universe) is literally and *directly* solved by something like "a mother's love", or "children crying", or everyone just wishing really hard. Why? Because it's cheating! It's lazy storytelling. It's a deus ex machina where even the deus is poorly worked out, and it means you don't get a satisfying return on your emotional investment in the plot.

So it is with this story. One gets the feeling that Moffat wasn't that interested in writing a plot for the episode to begin with. It seems like really all it was about for him was getting to the end, where we are introduced to the mystery that will presumably form the story arc for the next season. And then he hastily fills in the rest of the episode with some vague christmassy threat, only to dispel it all too easily and through very little involvement of the Doctor.

I don't want that, Mr. Moffat. I want you to care about individual episodes as well as about big, clever, season-spanning mysteries. But perhaps even more so, I would like the Doctor to be a hero again, for once. Not one of the swashbuckling, gun-slinging variety (hell no: I want specs, brains and quirkiness), but simply somebody who actually properly saves the bloody day, rather than wait until something sufficiently touching happens that automatically does the job for him. He's a Time Lord, for crying out loud!

Also, new console room: meh, Jenna Louise Coleman: meh. But I'm hoping to change my mind on those two counts.

A bridging episode between the two parts of series 7 as Matt Smith was starting to explore other non 'Who' related projects.

It's a good episode though, perhaps stolen from him by newcomer Jenna Coleman, with whom he has good chemistry.

It is a darker festive special than others that have gone before, and one also that requires an understanding of events from other episodes, which will not help those just dipping in.

While not my favourite Dr Who Christmas Special, there are enough moments to be enjoyed.