December 8, 2012

First Reviews of The Snowmen Arrive

Several “spoiler-free” reviews of The Snowmen have gone live across the web today. Here’s some highlights featuring new info and early impressions.

There’s a good amount of comedy. Yes, the Doctor has lost his previous companions, but that hasn’t stopped Steven Moffat from infusing a good amount of humor into the script.
“The Snowmen” features more than one nod and hat tip to some of TV’s most popular shows. Three words for you: “Winter is coming.” Moffat fans will know the other references when they see it.
Fear not! Jenna-Louise Coleman and Matt Smith are dripping with chemistry. It’s a new era for “Doctor Who.”
The Christmas special features a big name guest star … but you never actually see him or her.
Pond is key to the story.

The opening shot features a snowflake that snaps its “jaws” high in Earth’s atmosphere
It opens in England, 1842. A lonely boy called Walter makes a snowman, which he talks to – and it talks back to him…
The action leaps ahead 50 years and freaky snowmen are sprouting up all over the place, emitting a “low-level telepathic field” and baring icicle fangs.
Jenna-Louise Coleman is dazzling and perky as Clara, and not as cocky as her looky-likey Oswin in Asylum of the Daleks.
In this story, the Time Lord is reclusive, retired, still stung by the loss of the Ponds.
Vastra the Silurian/dominatrix/sleuth and her cockney “maid” Jenny are partners in the most modern sense.
We also have “living” snow, a new setting for the sonic screwdriver, a heavenly spiral staircase, and a peculiar critter that looks like a refugee from the Jon Pertwee era. What Moffat cleverly gives, though, isn’t so much a nod to the past, but nods to the future…

From io9:

There are some enormous, huge moments that hit fast and hard, right away.
Coleman takes to Matt Smith’s banter like a Star Whale to space. Watching these two spar is wonderful. It’s the exact kind of character who can fill in the giant void left by the Ponds.
Clara is crazy assertive, she doesn’t let the Doctor win her over, she goes after him, and hard. All you need to know is, the chemistry works.
The plot does lean a little too much on the classic Moffat “this is way too complicated” plot line. But whatever — it’s The Doctor and he’s fighting snowmen, you have to kind of expect wildly dramatic, completely nonsensical explanations about alien snow.
“Victorian Values” is a huge theme and they nail it with the new villain and his wacky science lab.
The Doctor and the “Potato Man” are really quite fun together.

The titular snowmen aren’t your typical Frosty. When they grin, it is with razor-sharp fangs. The mystery surrounding where they come from, though, takes a backseat to the introduction of a new main character.
The episode gives Clara’s story time to breathe as she enters the Doctor’s world and proves she is worthy of joining him in his adventures.
This year’s plays tribute to another series Moffat has his hands in, “Sherlock,” as more than one character fills the role of the Great Detective, as well as a hodge-podge of elements from “Jane Eyre,” “Mary Poppins” and “Game of Thrones.”

Clara, as with Freema Agyeman’s Martha Jones, is a thinking person’s companion, and she’s very much on equal footing with the Doctor. The episode was made stronger because she was in it.
When you watch the episode, pay particular attention to [the Doctor’s] clothes. They’re the “Victorianized” version of what he normally wears, even the glasses. How cool is that?
The episode succeeds not only because of the charms of the cast but also because of the tightness of the script.
There were some great lines, particularly from Strax, who is trying to be helpful despite his war-like nature.
OH GODS, THE ENDING! [Plot redacted.] HOLY SMOKES, WHAT A GREAT TWIST! WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN!?!