Last Christmas

Dear Gary—

“Nobody likes the tangerines.” Yet there those ubiquitous tangerines are, rolling about Clara’s rooftop, bandied about in conversation, left on the windowsill.

Dad was just telling me about Christmas in his childhood. ‘Christmas isn’t Christmas without an orange,’ he said. Growing up with nine brothers and sisters during the depression, he never got presents as a kid. But his family always had a tree and Santa always left an orange for them. Maybe nobody admits to liking the tangerines or oranges, but secretly everybody knows that Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without them, and every last one will be enjoyed.

This is my long-winded way of saying, Gary, that I really worked hard to like Last Christmas. It took quite some time and several viewings, but I have finally come around. Last Christmas has turned out to be the tangerine left on my windowsill. It’s not the fault of the story; it’s really very good. Rather, I had to overcome some serious prejudice based on the bad taste left by the last half of the previous season.

I wasn’t much in the mood for Santa and his bickering elves and I definitely had had enough of Clara and her wallowing self-pity. We have spent several seasons now with Clara never committing to a character or to the Doctor; leading to a season of not being able to commit to Poor Danny Pink; the result of which was Poor Danny Pink being cyberized and Clara yet again turning her back on TARDIS life. We know enough about Clara by this time, however, to know that her determination will not last. About the only thing we can count on with Clara is that she will change her mind.

It’s no surprise, therefore, to see Clara in her nightie on her roof on Christmas Eve confronting Santa and his bickering elves; nor is it unexpected for the Doctor to show up at this time to extend his hand and offer her shelter in the TARDIS once again. Ho hum, here we go again.

For the longest time Last Christmas was my rejected tangerine.

There was something about it, though, that kept me coming back. It is Christmas after all. Who doesn’t love Christmas? And Santa and his bickering elves are amusing. However it is Shona who really represents the juicy sweet pulp for me. Shona steals the show and because of her I hung in there; and now I can honestly say that Last Christmas is one “signature gift” that I have grown to fully appreciate.

Thanks to Shona, I have come to realize that the base-under-siege scenario that starts the episode proper is expertly done. It builds immediate suspense and intrigue; within minutes we know and care about each of the characters, even though we barely know what is happening; we sense the danger and are eager to find out more about the sleepers in the infirmary and what exactly Shona is up to. Along with the crew, we are with Shona, “every step of the way.” And when those steps turn into dance steps to the strains of Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody we are paid off in spades.

This is exactly the kind of off-beat humor, Gary, that I love; and exactly the kind of touch that has always kept me invested in Doctor Who.

The fact that we never learn what exactly Shona is up to in that infirmary is incidental and in keeping with the eventual reveal of a dream state. The Doctor and Clara (or as Shona so eloquently puts it, “a skeleton man and a girl in a nightie”) arrive to put a screeching halt to Shona’s proceedings and the action takes off as the mystery deepens at this enigmatic, “it’s a long story” base.

Doctor: “You know what the big problem is in telling fantasy and reality apart?”

Ashley: “What?”

Doctor: “They’re both ridiculous.”

Now, I’ve always had a problem with the position that you can never be sure if you are dreaming or not. I remember to this day a high school psychology class that posed this theory that gave me fits, and I regard it as a high school exercise that any sane person sees as just that. Reality is reality and you know it as such, even though it can very well be ridiculous. However, I recognize the dream that traps you into a false sense of reality (although in such a dream one rarely views it as ridiculous). 

For me, Shona is that voice of ridiculous reason that makes Last Christmas right.

Shona: “The North Pole isn’t an actual pole.”

Shona, in her dream state, is trying to inject logic into the outlandish.

Ian: “Course it is, look.”

Ian is countering with dream rationale.

Shona: “If it was an actual pole, it would not be stripy.”

Shona is diving head first into this dream debate, instilling it with the dose of skewed reality it needs; because if you can’t see the ridiculous in reality you cannot easily recognize the dream.

Shona is in fact the first to recognize this for what it is: “Now, this is ridiculous. Am I . . . am I dreaming?”

I know none of this makes any real sense, Gary; but then, neither do dreams.

The Dream Crabs are not sufficiently fleshed out as an alien threat, but they suffice for the purposes of our story. I won’t worry too much about where they came from, what they want, or how they travel. I won’t care if they are organized, or if they communicate with one another, or if there are any more out there waiting to pounce on innocent Earthlings.

I won’t even question the Dream Crabs’ motivation for allowing their victims to share a dream and thus coordinate their efforts in rebellion. After all, without this we wouldn’t have a story.

The Doctor piecing together the dreams within dreams is compelling and his Helman-Ziegler test is fantastic. Meanwhile Shona’s on-going debate with “Beardy-Wierdy” and his elves continues to delight. I do wonder how and why Clara is allowed her own private dreamscape, except that’s kind of the reason we’re having this tale to begin with, so I won’t complain.

This dream Clara has of an idyllic Christmas with Poor Danny Pink can’t be anything but a dream. In real life Clara would never settle down to such a life. She would be sitting on that sofa with her husband while continually looking over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of a materializing blue box; she would be half-heartedly listening to carols while straining her ears for the distinctive sound of the TARDIS; she would be picking at her Christmas dinner while longing for a taste of adventure with the Doctor. When Clara tells the Doctor to leave her to her dream it isn’t because this is what she wants out of life, it is because she is accepting this as punishment for Poor Danny Pink’s death.

As the centerpiece of the episode, this sequence is cleverly executed. From the moment Clara wakes up in that bed we know exactly what is going on, even if she doesn’t. This is the most dreamlike of all of the dreams in our story, this fairy tale existence that Clara has created. It is tranquil and creepy at the same time and at all times unsettling. The Doctor’s attempts to break through to Clara via the chalkboard and Clara’s determined denial add to the tense calm.

I’m not going to wonder too hard whether Danny is really Danny somehow breaking through to Clara in her dreams or if he is merely a figment of Clara’s imagination. The show wants to give Clara closure and if she can finally move on (and therefore Doctor Who can finally move on) so be it. The confrontation between Danny and the Doctor is apt and the leave-taking between Danny and Clara is touching. Danny’s declaration— “I didn’t die saving the world, Doctor. I died saving Clara. The rest of you just got lucky”—is a bit over-the-top but again I’ll allow it, especially as it fits in with Clara’s egocentric nature.

Old Clara waking in bed is another segment that is well done. This one is harder to peg as a dream and keeps the audience guessing. However old Clara is a little too complacent; I would think real Clara would give the Doctor a much harder time for having abandoned her. It is a sweet scene, and the subsequent real awakening is enhanced because of it. The gag of the Doctor not being able to distinguish Clara’s age is amusing, especially in the face of Clara’s vanity.

The more I think about Last Christmas, Gary, the more I like it. The guest cast is solid and manages to imbue each character with a well-rounded personality despite limited screen time. Santa and the elves are amusing, the sleepers are sinister, and the action is suspenseful. There is just the right mix of the eerie and of humor. It is a story that manages to tie up loose ends from the previous season, reunite the Doctor and Clara for the season ahead, and yet succeeds as a stand-alone.

I can’t help but wish, along with Clara and Shona, that our time in Santa’s sleigh could be extended. And oh, if only Shona could have remembered her phone number soon enough for the Doctor to have written it down. Shona is exactly the type to make an excellent companion.

For now, though, it is the Doctor and Clara, together again—“second chances” as the Doctor says. It’s more like third or fourth chances, but who’s counting Gary?