Or maybe you misread the room and the audience actually is punching the air with joy that Clara is returning.

Food for thought?

I haven't read the thread so sorry if I'm rehashing:

I really enjoyed that for me easily one of the best Xmas specials (not that that is difficult)

Not overly original but executed well:

Red dwarf despair squid + alien + inception.

If you know all those things you could pretty much guess what was going on almost immediately. As soon as they were attacked it was obvious everything after that was a dream and therefore the bit on the roof was too. Actually knowing this heightened the enjoyment for me as I could go along with Santa being a character rather than 'maybe the real thing'

I was pleased Clara continues to travel with The Doc which is weird as the more I see her the less I like her. Telling people to shut up, slapping people etc. still I like watching her, maybe it's the chemistry.

Yes. Very pleased with that episode

um... Disagree.

The concept is the story* here too. You just didn't know it straightway (or weren't supposed to at least).

Well plot, story is slightly different.

If this isn't a joke then this might be one of those stories were you learn you have been saying something wrong for the last 20 or so years.

Google damp squid to see what I mean

My favourite christmas special I think. Certainly one of them. Brilliant. 10/10.

Pretty eh actually, not terrible but pretty bland, it's like Moffat watched Alien and Inception and decided to combine them both, right down to the last shot of the episode, felt very un-original in that sense with a lot of scenes just being remakes between the two films just with the odd added Santa and The Doctor.

Maybe not ALL a dream, but definitely all a FANTASY,in the sense that this is from the imagination of a writer so cant be real either,if anything can be ultimately known as real.Dr Who isnt real, so what is?

I hate to say this but I thought the episode was well below par - even for a Christmas special. Moffat missed a really good trick and used the old cop out to get Clara back to normal via S.C. Very lazy writing I thought and not very original. The story sagged all the way through and was incoherent - at least an explanation of where the Dream Crabs came from in the first place was needed. The four members of the crew who were 'face-hugged' I totally knew straight away were the members of the 'dreaming' crew. It was so obvious. And as for Clara becoming 'normal' again, I did a complete face palm. Moffat should have known to left Clara that way as it was the only good scene with her interaction with the Doctor.

Sorry guys - only 3 out 10. And that's being generous.

I've just watched it again and it was a lot better on a second (and sober) viewing although it was the last 10 minutes which really saved it. The Christmas episode is always a tough one for the writers as the fans expect something special but there will also be a large number of non-regular viewers watching and they have to appeal to them too. That's why you usually end up with a standalone episode.

Apart from the lack of pregnancy, the other thing I noticed about Clara is that since losing Danny she has moved from a pokey flat to a big house. Way to move on, girl.

IT Crowd - Peddle Stool/Damp Squid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnXKVY-_i2c

I thought it was great,action humour and great performances all round.Good stuff Moff.
Especially liked the sarcastic Santa and elves,and the little fooling of the viewer that Clara was finished.
I'm glad Clara is staying I think between the last episode and this one the relationship is just in the right place now.

I really enjoyed it.

And that's from someone who thought much of the last series was awful.

I also find Natalie G's lips extremely watchable.

I think the funny thing about the Clara haters is they want to give the impression their view is the majority opinion. When commenting, they don't seem to understand the difference between something they personally don't like and what most people are thinking. Clara is developing into one of the best companions and the teamwork with Capaldi seems to be generally very well appreciated. For those who think the audience didn't 'punch the air' when they realised she was staying.......surf around, open your eyes....read what most seem to be saying.....I get you don't like, but hey, when valuing the show there are about another 7 million equally important viewpoints to be considered.

Haters always make the most noise, but general consensus from blogs, reviews, polls.......nice one!

The trouble is she may be pretty but she has very little consistant personality, and she still lies, still slaps people and last night was either mourning Danny or questioning everything and then being childlike at the idea of travelling in the TARDIS again. Oswin and Victorian Clara were so much better than this version.
IMO the Doctor desparately needs new and more interesting (and hopefully more low key at the same time) companion/s as Clara's story has been told ad nauseam and should have come to a natural end with this adventure but he and we are still stuck with her.

I don't hate any television character.

I just don't want any more a character that seems a mixture of human / dalek / splinters.



Quite.

You can't say that. They were great in the one episode they were each in but that isn't comparable to the number of episodes this Clara has been in - you got only a snap shot of those characters and have no idea how they would have turned out.

There's nothing wrong with the character of Clara (goodness knows the charmless 12 needed her there last year to make the show watchable) but the inconsistencies are down to slack show running. For example, the idea that Clara would decide to let all the children in her care die during FotN was so out of character it was as though the writer had never watched the show.

Three word review: "It was ok". Didn't hate it, didn't love it. Won't be one I'm itching to watch at Christmases to come.

(Oh, and wasn't Michael Troughton criminally under-used...?)

I remember watching The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe and thinking that was the worst a Christmas Special could possibly get. I should have known better than to doubt Moffat, ofcourse he could come up with worse, and he did last night.

Between this and most of season 8, I'm really not sure I'm even going to bother with season 9.

And the fact that almost half of the people who voted said excellent just blows my mind.

Isn't that what it is all about though? If DW was to try to be what some of it's hard core fans want it to be, it wouldn't last more than a couple of series before being dropped. It has to be as much as it can to the many, rather than the exclusive possession of the few. As DW fans should know, most people watch because they like it, not out of loyalty and if it stops being so well appreceiated, the audience will leave and the show goes soon after..

So for as long as a large majority are voting excellent or good shouldn't you be praising Moffat for clearly getting it right, whatever you personally may think about the current series.....It must be a truly difficult job to try to please so many different sections of an audience. The show is fantasy family entertainment; everything else is an afterthought.

Another Curate's Egg for me. Parts were brilliant. I loved the last ten minutes and really did punch the air when Clara stayed. But I loathed all the Santa stuff and, as usual, the programme makers mistakenly believed that running around a lot and mumbling crucial dialogue automatically makes it all up-to-date and modern. But Capaldi rose above it all, as usual, with his usual class. And at least it was nowhere near as bad as last year's awful clunker.

Shock! Horror! Other people thought an episode you didn't like was very good! Oh the humanity!!

Just watched again with a more sober, albeit slightly thick, head (nothing new there!) and yep, stick with Good. Would probably upgrade to Very Good if it was an option in the poll. Personally would still put A Christmas Carol and Time of the Doctor above it...probably joint third with The Snowmen Christmas episode wise. Cemented my opinion that although have liked him from the off, this was Capaldi's best performance to date. His reactions to the group hand hold and his resigned smile when Clara hugged him were lovely.

Wasn't going to vote again as I said in my last post here, but that was a fantastic Christmas episode. Very best yet, well maybe second after 2010's, but we all massively enjoyed it and thought it was the very best bit of Christmas telly on the day.

I could not agree more. It was awful and now that Clara is staying I think I will give series 9 a miss.

C'est la vie.

I really hope we get a different writing style next series. Unless the writer is a writing genius, they should take a backseat to the story.