Review: Doctor Who - The Snowmen

So I saw it. "The Snowmen" is the latest episode of "Doctor Who" and the latest Xmas Special.








Spoilers follow:




















Still there?



Okay...


So the Doctor is hanging out in Victorian London. Context is more helpful if you've seen several of the lead-in mini-eps that are about on the Internet. Helpful, but not necessary.

Creepy things are afoot. Ian McKellan's disembodied voice is using psychic snow to plot to take over the world.

And the Doctor, heartsbroken (see what I did there?) over the loss of Amy and Rory, doesn't give that much of a crap.

The Doctor is in some kind of weird partnership with Madam Vastra (the Silurian sword-wielding detective), Jenny (her human lover/wife and ninja-maid), and Strax (the miraculously-revived Sontaran psychotic nurse turned comic-relief butler) where they act as front people for him and he... offers nothing, as far as I could tell.

Enter Clara. Clara is a barmaid and a nanny. She's sharp. She's sassy. She's a cutie. She gets the Doctor involved in the appearance of strange snowmen who like to eat people.

Clara follows the Doctor to his fairytale-like life living in the TARDIS on a cloud at the top of a crazy-tall stairwell.

Why? Don't ask these questions.

Clara gets the Doctor involved and shenanigans occur. For details, watch the episode. The story was entertaining, but had a few weird bumps that come of Moffatt trying to do too much in too short a time.

The real story was establishing Jenna Louise Coleman's character as the Doctor's new companion.

A little bump in that road, as she dies in the episode. Oh, and she's the same character (kind of?) as the character of Oswin from "The Asylum of the Daleks". So... yeah. Weird mystery.

So the Doctor is off to find his new girlfriend... um... yeah. Okay, did I mention all the kissing?

Don't get me wrong, Coleman is hot, funny, and charming but the Doctor is not supposed to get that touchy-feely with humans. Even his "marriage" to River Song was very oddly cold as he treated River like shit as they exchanged vows.

Oh wait. Isn't the Doctor married now? WTF?

Whatever. It was a fun episode. I'll even call it a good one but still has flaws.

EDIT:

Pros:

• Clara's engaging personality and hustling
• Vastra, Jenny, and Strax
• The new TARDIS interior
• Ian McKellan's cameo
• The fairytale feel

Cons:

• The excessive clownishness of Strax
• Hitting everyone over the head with the gay marriage thing. We get it. Stop being so hamfisted, Moff!
• The Clara-Oswin mystery. I can already tell this is going to be annoyingly complex and stupid.
• Falling to the ground. Was that really necessary? Really?
• The human family. They were such a poorly-executed afterthought.
• The snowmen. Just... really?

On the Fence:

• The invisible ladder, long stairwell, and cloud for the TARDIS.
• The memory worm.
• The unexplained high-tech gadgets.