Better Late Then Never

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I'm going to be honest. Part 1 of Season 7 had me worried. I don't know what it was, but the plot-lines just......lacked. Despite the critical acclaim of Asylum of Daleks I found myself hating that episode. It felt completely off. The fact that the Ponds were still around after the somewhat closure that was given to them last season made it just...odd. I did not like the idea of the Doctor's companions only occasionally traveling with him, to the point where I wasn't very distraught by their departure. Now, I'm mystified by how Doctor Who can have so many cast changes, with viewers ALWAYS knowing that when they start loving a certain character, rather it's that Doctor (well, EVERYBODY loves the Doctor) or his companion, there's that troubling fact that you know they won't be around forever. And yet it stays completely amazing, something many TV shows likely can't pull off. I felt this episode of Doctor Who was very well crafted, fitting for Christmas spirit, as well as raising my spirit for Doctor Who after the disappointing part 1 of Season 7.

I won't lie by saying i wasn't worried because i was, last years Christmas special was abysmal. So i had my doubts. But in the end they were put to rest. With beautiful imagery and scenes, this episode was surprisingly really good. The plot felt a bit weak for me at first but as time went on i got what was happening and loved how once again Moffat used a small detail to make a huge difference (e.g. the memory worm or the fact that the snow 'mirrors'). Speaking of which the 'Great Intelligence' (an old enemy revived for the new series) was rather menacing as the Snowmen with teeth. There was great humour thanks to the likes of Vashtra, Jenny and Strax, one of my personal favourite lines being 'Hello, i'm a lizard woman from the dawn of time and this is my wife', added with Strax' obsession with grenades (how very Sontaran). Then to top it off, Clara, the new companion. I knew she was going to have something to do with Oswin Oswald and as soon as she asked the Doctor if the TARDIS had a kitchen, my suspicions were answered. this topped off the episode and has made me very excited for the next instalment of the series. How can a woman die twice but still be alive (yes Clara dies but i won't explain how), but somehow she's alive again, as was the same with Oswin. How is this possible? I hope we find out soon because i'm full of excitement. You know when you get a feeling that something's going to be really good. I got that.

Although I generally hold Steven Moffat in high regard - thanks in no small part to the brilliant "Sherlock" - this episode to me marked one too many Doctor Who stories resolved by something of the form: "humans showing a deep emotion is all-powerful". Don't get me wrong, I have no beef with a "love conquers all"-type ending; I wouldn't be watching Doctor Who if I did. My point is that I don't much like it when a big complicated crisis (typically the impending doom of humanity, planet Earth or even the entire universe) is literally and *directly* solved by something like "a mother's love", or "children crying", or everyone just wishing really hard. Why? Because it's cheating! It's lazy storytelling. It's a deus ex machina where even the deus is poorly worked out, and it means you don't get a satisfying return on your emotional investment in the plot.So it is with this story. One gets the feeling that Moffat wasn't that interested in writing a plot for the episode to begin with. It seems like really all it was about for him was getting to the end, where we are introduced to the mystery that will presumably form the story arc for the next season. And then he hastily fills in the rest of the episode with some vague christmassy threat, only to dispel it all too easily and through very little involvement of the Doctor.I don't want that, Mr. Moffat. I want you to care about individual episodes as well as about big, clever, season-spanning mysteries. But perhaps even more so, I would like the Doctor to be a hero again, for once. Not one of the swashbuckling, gun-slinging variety (hell no: I want specs, brains and quirkiness), but simply somebody who actually properly saves the bloody day, rather than wait until something sufficiently touching happens that automatically does the job for him. He's a Time Lord, for crying out loud! Also, new console room: meh, Jenna Louise Coleman: meh. But I'm hoping to change my mind on those two counts.

A new Steven Moffat written Dr Who episode introducing his new companion, the sassy Jenna-Louse Coleman, made for a fine festive treat this Christmas. Moffat continues his predilection for making inanimate objects dangerous, after the previous season finale with the statues, this time making the protagonists sharp-toothed snowmen - next series can we expect to see the attack of the killer garden-gnomes?!Naturally the Doc is still in a period of mourning for the loss of Rory and Amy and indeed takes some time to make an appearance and snap back into his old self but when he does the action picks up and of course he gets to save the world again. The meeting with his new co-traveller Clara (in fact a reunion, for those who saw the previous series' Daleks episode) was neatly got over with the crisp sharp dialogue we've come to expect and some clever in-jokes too, not least the references to Moffat's other recent successful creation Sherlock Holmes and later the nod to Amy Pond. It shouldn't be forgotten that a Christmas perennial in the UK at this time is Raymond Briiggs' animated story "The Snowman", "Walking In the Air" and all that, Moffat making a monster out of a snow-hill to good effect.The special effects were excellent, especially the "Stairway to Heaven", ice-monster governess and Richard E Grant's transformation into a freezing ghoul just before the end. Along for the ride are Vastra and wife, plus potato-head Sontaran Straxa for comic effect. I must admit I got a little lost with how Clara came back to life and by crying a tear destroyed the alien menace, but I'll allow Moffat his McGoffin. Everyone acts well, Matt Smith far from bored and boring and Coleman, with her crush on the Doc, adding even more sexual chemistry than Karen Gillan's Amy Pond. This one-off episode bodes well for next year's new series, where interestingly the preview trailer showed no sign of River Song at all, but thankfully the return of my favourite Who monsters the Cybermen.