These are familiar arguments for those dissatisfied with how Moffat approaches the series. The Doctor seems to acknowledge a lot of the stock criticisms of Moffat’s storytelling – the fact that the plot moves incredibly quickly, that the logic is frequently disjointed, that the characters are not necessarily fully-formed. Surrounded by an army of advancing dream crabs, one member of the team asks, “How can there be so many?” The Doctor replies, “The logic of a nightmare.” A nightmare, or a nice visual.Īfter all, Last Christmas is very much a treatise about Moffat’s vision of Doctor Who. When the Doctor tries to assure the four dreamers that they are still in a dream, he points to the strange logical gaps in their perceptions – reflecting how it was “disjointed.” He seems to be referencing the editing and writing of the episode – the quick cuts and logical plot holes. To be fair, Last Christmas is very clear on this point.

“Time travel is always possible in dreams,” the Doctor observes, to borrow a quote from The Name of the Doctor.

And dreams, which are really the same thing. As with so much of Moffat’s Doctor Who, it is a story about stories. Last Christmas is a story that is incredibly (and almost cheekily) aware of its own fictionality. (She’s also marathoning the Hugo-winning Game of Thrones.) Strangely, she plans to open her Christmas Day binge with a double-bill of Alien and The Thing From Another World, before taking a breather and returning for Miracle on 34th Street – you really do need a bit of space before properly digesting the truly heavy stuff. When Shona wakes up towards the end of the episode, we are treated to a glimpse of her “to do” list for Christmas Day, which happens to feature a variety of clear influences on the episode. Last Christmas is quite overt about this. Doctor Who is a show about a mad man in a box who crashes into random stories. One episode is a period adventure another is a science-fiction comedy. One week, it is a western the next, it is a horror film. One of the most endearing aspects of the show is the way that it can be a completely different show from week to week.

As a show, Doctor Who has a long history of crashing genres into one another. Last Christmas is perhaps the most Moffat-esque Christmas Special of the Moffat era.Īs such, it is an episode that will inevitably provoke a strong reaction, playing as it does to the writer’s strengths and interests in Doctor Who. There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive.

Doctor who last christmas special