5 Reasons Why The Snowmen Is So Great
Guest contributor Michael Conway explains his reasoning.
It’s the Christmas season, and thoughts go back to Doctor Who Christmases past, and the start of the Clara era, rather than the end. 3 years ago, Jenna Coleman made her official entrance into the world of Doctor Who (after her brilliant Asylum of the Daleks secret appearance) in an episode of Doctor Who that’s still one of my favourites, and a real Christmas Day highlight. In this article I highlight 5 reasons why I love this episode.
5. It means something
The danger with Christmas Day stories is that they can become a bit trivial, self-contained entertainment for all the family, but nothing deeper. The Snowmen is different, being a story that covers recovery from loss and pain, before going darker again before finally finishing on a brighter note as the awakened Doctor realises that Clara is the “same” person as Oswin and bounds off to look for Clara again.
Uniquely it appears mid-series and introduces a new companion, but additionally it also tackles head on the Doctor’s feelings over losing the Ponds. Modern Doctors are much more emotionally attached to their human companions than the Classic Ones, and 11’s devastation was shown in a most interesting manner, with him effectively retiring from saving the world, an idea that the great Douglas Adams came up with apparently! That Clara came along and brought him out of this state, apart from giving us a nice Christmassy moment (a bit like Scrooge being transformed), also meant that the rest of S7 wasn’t overshadowed by Amy, in the way S3 was slightly overshadowed by Rose.
Moff has thrown a few curveballs in his time, but introducing Clara, then killing her off in the same episode must be one of his biggest shocks. This event would effectively seed the S7 arc, with The Great Intelligence being the recurring enemy of the series, and the mystery of The Impossible Girl brought to the fore.
4. It looks and sounds great
The BBC know how to do Victorian Christmases, and Saul Metzstein did a wonderful job with the direction with lovely camera shots, clever use of locations and warm colours. In addition there are great scenes like Clara climbing up the spiral staircase to the TARDIS on the cloud, which still look beautifully magical and fairy tale. Once there we get the first single-shot of entering the TARDIS from outside AND the first look at the new TARDIS! The Snowmen themselves are cleverly done, and look genuinely threatening yet realistic.
Musically, Murray Gold produced a really good and varied score, one of my favourites, which beautifully matched the fairy tale feel of the episode, much gentler and not dominated by the brassy and frenetic “I am the Doctor” style used in much of Matt’s era. It was lovely at the end of Hell Bent to hear a bit of “Clara in the Tardis” again, the rolling piano riff really fits the spiral staircase scene, while “A voice in the snow”, “Governess Clara”, “Sherlock Who” and “Whose Enigma” highlight the quality and variety of this soundtrack.
Finally, I love Matt and Jenna’s outfits in this! The Doctor’s look really suits his bah humbug attitude, and I love his crooked hat while Clara has two completely different period looking dresses, one for the raunchy (by Victorian standards!) Nancy like barmaid and the other for the prim Governess look, Jenna looking very comfortable in both outfits; she’s a natural at period drama.
3. A great cast
While we had seen Vastra, Jenny and Strax before in A Good Man goes to War, The Snowmen effectively introduces The Paternoster Gang as regulars to the show, and really fleshes out the concept that Vastra and Jenny are Victorian detectives, inspiring the fictional Sherlock Holmes stories! The Paternosters would be key additional characters for the rest of S7, and then act as a bridge to 12’s era in Deep Breath. They provide the necessary connection between the retired Doctor and outside world, and also provide some much extra colour and alienness to the show, also appearing in the 2013 Prom. It’s notable that they still feature in the Doctor Who Adventures magazine for children despite not being on screen since the opening of S8.
Richard E Grant makes a fun villain and Sir Ian Mckellen provides his amazing voice, but the other actors have to be praised too and the children were amongst the best we’ve seen on the show. As an aside Tom Ward (Captain Latimer) appeared a year later alongside Jenna in Death Comes to Pemberley, a year when Jenna graced our screens at Christmas four days running. Happy days!
2. It’s funny
Christmas episodes have got to have some humour in them as well. I am aware that not everyone likes Strax, but to me he works perfectly in episodes like this, and the humour felt much more natural than if there had been a guest comedian playing a “funny” character instead. This was the first episode in which we saw Strax the butler and driver, and The Snowmen really makes the most of the oddball relationship between 11 and Strax; they make a great double act, with Strax’s ludicrous suggestions and 11’s withering put downs…
STRAX: I suggest a full frontal assault with automated laser monkeys, scalpel mines and acid.
DOCTOR: Why?
STRAX: Couldn’t we at least investigate?
DOCTOR: It’s none of our business.
STRAX: Sir, permission to express my opposition to your current apathy?
DOCTOR: Permission granted.
STRAX: Sir, I am opposed to your current apathy.
CLARA [OC]: Let me out!
DOCTOR: Thank you, Strax. And if ever I’m in need of advice from a psychotic potato dwarf, you’ll certainly be the first to know.
In addition, Matt’s Sherlock impression is priceless, the nearest we’ll ever get to a Sherlock Who crossover, as Moff gets to parody his other show!
DOCTOR: Oh, nice office. Big globey thing. Now, shut up, don’t tell me! I see from your collar stud you have an apple tree and a wife with a limp. Am I right?
SIMEON: No.
DOCTOR: Do you have a wife?
SIMEON: No.
DOCTOR: Bit of a tree? Bit of a wife? Some apples? Come on, work with me here.
1. Jenna-Louise Coleman
Clara completely dominates the episode, whether as the cheeky barmaid, or the prim and proper Governess. Jenna created such a good character that it slightly overshadowed the introduction of modern Clara. I’m sure it did her no harm when auditioning to be Queen Victoria though!
What’s really impressive, is that while everyone else joining the show has to create one memorable character, Jenna had to create three, Oswin, Victorian Clara and Clara, the second of which then pretending to be someone else again!
There are so many good scenes between Clara and the Doctor, whether as the barmaid instinctively drawn towards him at the start, in the Latimer household or in the TARDIS itself. In addition, there are some lovely Mary Poppins style moments with the children, in which she captures the formality and slightly stilted nature of this era, but still bring over her warmth towards children, an important Clara facet.
CLARA: Good morning, Francesca. Good morning, Digby. Christmas Eve is the most thrilling day, don’t you think? Now, what have you two been up to while I’ve been away?
DIGBY: I did seven drawings and we saw a dead cow.
CLARA: Well, how exciting.
FRANCESCA: Is it one of your stories? Your definitely true ones?
CLARA: Ha! All my stories are true.
DIGBY: Like how you were born behind the clock face of Big Ben?
CLARA: Accounting for my acute sense of time.
FRANCESCA: And you invented fish.
CLARA: Because I dislike swimming alone.
More powerful though was the ‘One Word’ scene, in which Vastra grilled her. This scene not only showed Clara’s intelligence, but also brought out how close the Doctor has become to the Paternosters in his period of retirement. Steven Moffat has to be one of the best ever writers of Doctor Who dialogue, his writing can be poetic at times.
VASTRA: No. The Doctor doesn’t help people. Not anyone, not ever. He stands above this world and doesn’t interfere in the affairs of its inhabitants. He is not your salvation, nor your protector. Do you understand what I am saying to you?
CLARA: Words.
VASTRA: He was different once, a long time ago. Kind, yes. A hero, even. A saver of worlds. But he suffered losses which hurt him. Now he prefers isolation to the possibility of pain’s return. Kindly choose a word to indicate your understanding of this.
CLARA: Man.
A lovely postscript to this is that a year and a half later, we saw modern Clara sitting in the same chair, and going through the same interrogation!
I hope this article has put over what a clever episode this is, and how a simple looking Christmas story can be so much more. Funny, heartbreaking, exciting, a visual treat, as Clara herself might have said about The Snowmen…
It’s smaller on the outside!
