Doctor Who Christmas Special - "The Snowmen"

Besides this...

... kind of an uneven Christmas special, which is very much par for the course for the Christmas specials and the series itself as of late.


The good: Clara has loads of pluck, and as much as it borrows from the manic pixie dream girl archetype... well, her deductive abilities (the Sherlock shouts are a hoot) sharpens her role into a knife's edge of sassy backtalk the likes of which we haven't seen in a companion since Strax Donna Noble. The first half is wonderful in its embrace of all-out comedy even while trying to sell the Doctor's estrangement from the hero biz (which, no matter how hard Moff tried, would never convince anyone). Update: don't know how I forgot to mention the new opening credits, which manages the tricky task of being fancy and polished while also holding onto the series' inherent retroness (11's face!) and twinging one's nostalgia.

The bad: forgettable (use of a) villain, perfunctory build-up, climax, and denouement, and the resolution itself left me wholly unmoved, possibly because my heart is dead, or possibly because THE KEY IS FEELINGS? O RLY?

Also, and I'm not sure if this counts as good or bad, I kept wondering why the Doctor didn't recognize Clara Oswin Oswald -- until he finally noted that he'd never seen her face during the events of Asylum of the Daleks (for obvious reasons).