The Snowmen review [Steven Moffat]

The Doctor has retired to a life of non-intervention in London 1892, assisted in his isolation by Vastra, Jenny and Strax. Then a new face approaches him, one that turns out not to be so new after all...

Snowmen are popping up around the city and inside a frozen pond grows an icy horror that the Great Intelligence has its designs on. 

When and Where: London, from the 23rd to the 25th December, 1892. A significant period has apparently passed for the Doctor since The Angels Take Manhattan. For Vastra, Jenny and Strax, it's been four years since A Good Man Goes to War. For the Great Intelligence, this is before The Abominable Snowmen.

The Doctor's Case:

• A Good Quotation:
• "Typical middle child of six million."
• "Is it one of your stories? Your definitely true ones?" / "Ha! All my stories are true." / "Like how you were born behind the clock face of Big Ben?" / "Accounting for my acute sense of time." / "And you invented fish." / "Because I dislike swimming alone." 
• "It's smaller on the outside."
• Moffat has chosen to make snowmen the monsters for this Christmas special, which is a gamble. If he can't justify them and explain them in an interesting way that makes sense in the Doctor Who universe then they're going to seem ridiculous. Fortunately, the explanation is one that makes sense. It's telepathic snow that can remember its previous forms and is being used by the Great Intelligence (a former-snowman who had the darkest of Dr Simeon's thoughts poured into it, granting it power and independence) to create an ice being that will give the Intelligence form and allow Dr Simeon to build an ice-army. 
  
• Clara being touched at being given a TARDIS key is a really sweet and emotional moment and has her showing more emotion in a few seconds than modern-day Clara will over the course of her run. It makes her shocking death all the more surprising and poignant, even if she isn't the first prospective companion to die. Speaking of: Moffat had the balls to kill a girl at Christmas. Davies did it with Astrid Peth, but she got a happy ending out of it and she wasn't nearly as endearing or engaging a character (nor was Kylie Minogue ever going to stay on for more than a Christmas special).
• The Great Intelligence is one of the more memorable villains from the black and white era, having appeared in The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear (two decent stories) and Downtime. It's fitting that the 50th year of Doctor Who should feature an old enemy and it's far more interesting for it to be a lesser-known but formidable one rather than the Daleks or something else we've seen dozens of times before. The Intelligence was never explained or explored in the classic series, leaving it practically begging for the origin story that it finally gets here. Ian McKellen does a great job of bringing the Intelligence to life with his menacing voice.
• Dr Simeon is an intimidating villain who Richard E. Grant plays as stoic and scowling for almost the entirety of the episode, which works. It makes his moment of vulnerability where he learns that his snowman was actually just reflecting his own personality back at him that much more powerful, leaving me wanting for more vulnerability and insight on Simeon's relationship with his snowman. It's sort of a reverse of Amy and the Doctor: Amy loses her friend, waits for his return and becomes a better person whilst Simeon stays with his friend and becomes a worse person because of it reflecting back his darkest dreams and impulses.
• The Doctor has had companions that he's had to leave behind, companions that left him and companions that died. He's sad for a time but quickly moves on, because that's who he is. He understands better than anyone that these things happen. However, after Rose died he spent all series 3 mourning for her because of how special she was to him and, here, the Doctor has full-on retired because of the loss of Rory and Amy. I began writing this for the next section where I was going to discuss how indulgent it is of the showrunner to paint the companion that they created as being so much more important to the Doctor than any of his previous ones, but then I realised that, for the Doctor, this is 300 years after The Eleventh Hour. He's known them for three centuries, so mourning does make sense.
  

The Valeyard's Case:

• A Bad Quotation:
• "Over a thousand years of saving the universe, Strax, you know the one thing I learnt? The universe doesn't care." 
• "Spoken like a man!"
• Moffat seems to be incapable of writing a female companion who isn't obsessed with the Doctor and has unfounded faith in him. Clara's just met the man and gives chase after he leaves. Was it because of what he said about the snowman? She was a barmaid and has surely heard far more ludicrous things on the job than that. And just like Rose, Martha, Amy, River and Nefertiti, she has a thing for him, ogling him as he climbs the ladder. She gives him a snog and tells him that he likes her. The kiss adds nothing, means nothing and shouldn't be here. The Doctor can interact with females without it being so sexually-charged, Moffat.
• My only other complaint about Clara is that she's a little too perfect and wouldn't work as a long-term companion without some development. She takes things in her stride a little too easily.
• The universe doesn't care about the Doctor for his efforts? The Wedding of River Song said the exact opposite and we learnt in series 6 how famous the Doctor is (or was) across the universe. Since when has the Doctor ever asked for thanks, anyway? Didn't Martha say that he never asked to be thanked in Last of the Time Lords?
• So... the Great Intelligence was defeated because the mass of snow at the Latimers' was overpowered by the family's tears over Clara's death, meaning that the snow that the Great Intelligence existed as became tears. Why is the Intelligence so connected to the snow at the Latimers'? Why does it become tears? Why does this strip the Intelligence from Dr Simeon's body? The implication is that the snow is no longer mirroring Dr Simeon but the Latimers' tears, but hadn't the Intelligence become more than just a reflection of Dr Simeon by this time?
  
• Strax is funny but if the Sontarans are ever going to be a credible threat again he's made it very hard for the writer.
• The Sherlock Holmes thing isn't funny or clever.

I'll Explain Later:

• Why does the Doctor need a memory worm to erase Clara's memories? He managed to erase far more than an hour of Donna's memories without one.
• Did women give handshakes in 1892?
• What was the point of Dr Simeon's visit to Captain Latimer?

This Reminds Me...:

• The Doctor met Oswin Oswald in Asylum of the Daleks.
• The Intelligence used snowmen of a different kind in The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear.
• The Doctor has invited people to join him who've subsequently died before, like Lynda in Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways.

The Inquisitor's Judgement: The Doctor has known and travelled with Amy and Rory for two and a half seasons and now it's time for a fresh start. He's uncharacteristically moody and not much fun to watch until Clara reawakens his sense of adventure, after which the episode properly begins. His new companion is a breath of fresh air after Amy (although she's too squeaky-clean and perfect) and her death is shocking and heart-breaking. The Intelligence's origin is presented although its relationship with Dr Simeon could have been explored more and the gimmicky snowmen are sufficiently justified. This is a very good episode and deserves an A.

Doctor Who (Series 7)

The Angels Take Manhattan  |  The Snowmen  |  The Bells of Saint John