The Snowmen

The Snowmen
by Steven Moffat
Originally Broadcasted: December 25th, 2012

After the departure of Amy and Rory, The Doctor has given up saving the universe, until a plucky young girl named Clara rekindles his interest. It's up to The Doctor and a gang of misfit aliens to stop a snow parasite swarm from taking over planet Earth, and save Clara herself...

I thought A Christmas Carol back in 2010 was pretty good, however I was pretty underwhelmed with last year's The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe. So my expectations weren't super high for The Snowmen, but boy was I surprised. This is by far the best Christmas special of the Matt Smith era. The story provides a wonderful (second) introduction for the new companion, Clara Oswin, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman. She appeared in Asylum of the Daleks as a different character, Oswin Oswald, who is revealed to be sort of the same character. By the end of the story, The Doctor realizes who she is. Her full name is Clara Oswin Oswald. She dies and reappears in other points in time. Now of course in traditional Steven Moffat style, there is still much to be revealed, which makes me very excited to learn more in the upcoming eight episodes of Series 7. I really love Clara already though. What an awesome introduction to the character. She gives a completely different vibe from Amy, yet is still completely enjoyable and compatible with The Doctor. The big surprise of this episode was a rather subtle one, and that is the return of the Great Intelligence. The same Great Intelligence from the stories featuring the Yetis in the Patrick Troughton era! That's who was controlling the snow in this story. I always love it when things from classic Doctor Who return to the new series. There were some rather lovely moments in this beautiful story, mainly the scene showing Clara ascending the stairway to the TARDIS in the clouds. Murray Gold's score for this episode was one of his best yet. And the humor provided by the terrific Sontaran Strax was laugh-out-loud every time. New to the series in this episode is the new TARDIS console room, which has just enough of the classic design from old Who to be recognizable, but still strikingly new at the same time. It even has a rotating ceiling! The other new thing in this episode is the new title sequence and theme song. The new version of the theme is good, but I was really impressed with the visuals in the new title sequence. Seeing Matt Smith's face integrated made me immensely happy, as it's a return to the way the titles were done in classic Who. The new things are excellent, Clara is excellent, the episode is excellent.

Luke's Rating: 9/10