It's great that there are 526.403.012 children "expecting" presents, but not everyone is getting some, are they? And don't get me started on the naughty list - or are you saying poor children are bad? And, you know, not all people celebrate Christmas on the same day, or even at all. On the other hand, 500 million is only a quarter of the actual amount of children, so perhaps they've all already been counted out?
Anyway, this episode was interesting and funny (loved Nick Frost!), and emotional in the right moments, though I'm a bit unsure about the whole Danny thing - I mean, he's not technically dead, is he? He's still trapped in the nethersphere? With everyone else who ever died (or at least the ones who did not delete their emotions)? Sure, the armband only had power for one trip (understandable, considering it had to create a person out of thin air), but there has to be some way to access the sphere, right? Shouldn't Clara be looking for that instead of mourning Danny?
Also, I know the ending was supposed to imply that Santa Claus might actually be real, but what it did instead was make it seem like everything that follows in this show is just the Doctor's mind slowly, veeeery slowly disintegrating.
Review by WardVIP 8BlockedParentSpoilers2023-12-19T11:55:50Z
I'm disappointed Clara never ran back after seeing the broken glass and then thinking of the creature/going for backup. Then she failed to clear her mind under the table. Then she failed to realize it was a dream without the doctor's help. And even after the doctor broke through she still ignored her own dying and wanted to live in this happiness with the fake Danny for a while rather than live. No. Clara's making it hard to still like her. I liked the fake Danny though.
I didn't like the twist of Clara actually being old in the first place, as i saw no difference between the old and young Clara. And then there's the great twist that they're still dreaming. Love it. Don't like Clara still stayed in there though. Did she really live a whole life in the dream? If so, we absolutely should see all that extra wisdom, experience and knowledge show in her character going forward. It would be extreemly interesting having a human companion like that. But let's be honest, most writers aren't talented enough to do this or write a companion like that. It'll all probably be handwaved as it all just a dream and time went fast with false memories. Plus they probably don't want a permanent thing to happen to a character like this in a christmas special.
Still, it's a very good special. The random dream crabs on the random people with a random connection between them doesn't make sense, but it's still a very good special. I liked Santa and the elves and the doctor and Clara having a bit of a fresh start at the end.