Last Christmas Review (Part 2): Questions, Questions
Clint Hassell concludes his review on this year’s Xmas special, pondering some questions.
Can you explain that really oblique teaser
To prove that he actually is Father Christmas, Santa tells Clara many aspects of her childhood, including that she was on the “marginal naughty list [in] ’93.” My gut reaction was that ’93 might have been the year Clara’s mom died, and that the line was a subtle indication of the difficult time Clara went through, possibly even leading to a slight rebellious phase. However, according to “The Rings of Ahkaten,” Clara would have been four-years-old in 1993. Ellie Oswald died in 2005, when Clara was 16, so, “no, that wasn’t the year her mother died.”
And those scrambled teasers?
Once you’ve seen the episode, most of the teasers are fairly straight-forward. In case you didn’t see in the comment section where people had translated the scrambled ones, they read:
“I’ll not spoil whether or not Clara remains for Series 9, however, someone does, in fact get an invitation to travel in the TARDIS . . .”
“. . . and that person accepts.”
That person, of course, being Clara, who rejoins the Doctor, apparently for all of Series 9.
“Technically, there is some validity to one of The Mirror’s off-the-wall crazy rumors, though, as in year’s past, it’s not quite what everyone expected.”
Also really spoiler-y, which is why this teaser was scrambled, this referred to the Doctor rejoining an aged Clara at the end of her life. While The Mirror claimed that Clara would die, and that Jenna Coleman would leave the show, the scene was revealed to be a dream.
So, Clara is staying for Series 9?
Apparently. Moffat and company must really love Jenna Coleman to be willing to restructure the end of the Christmas special (assuming there is any merit to the tabloids), especially if that also meant having to completely rewrite the first half of the Series 9 scripts, as rumored.
Though more fully-realized as a character than in Series 7, Clara was no less a plot device in the overall arc of Series 8, which forced the writers to portray her character with less consistency, and at times even as disagreeable. Hopefully, now that the narrative is free from having to constantly return Clara to the Maitland children and to Danny Pink, Series 9 will allow Clara to remain on the TARDIS as a full-time companion. Jenna Coleman is such a winsome actress, and she deserves to play a character that is both consistently well-written and genial.
You do realize you’re going to take a lot of heat for that remark in the comments section, right?
(sigh) Yeah. Go ahead; scroll on down and hate on me.
So, speaking of Series 9 companions, “Last Christmas” sure seemed to focus on Shona McCullough, no?
Actually, the scene where the Doctor asks her to “theorize” about the threat of the Dream Crabs showed Ashley Carter to be the better candidate. All of our full-time companions have been capable in their unique ways, but how long has it been since we’ve had a companion that was that smart and insightful? Martha? Adam?
But, yes, “Last Christmas” sure seems to prime Shona for an invitation to travel in the TARDIS. Note that Shona demands that the Doctor, “Tell us what to do,” in much the same way as Clara tells the Doctor to “just give me something to do,” earlier in the episode. Why was Shona the last of the guest cast to be returned home, even after Ashley, the leader of the arctic base team? Most telling was this exchange:
The Doctor: “Time travel is always possible, in dreams.”
Shona: “We might not know each other. . . . Do you want to hang out sometime?”
Clara: “Sure.”
While the concept of time travel and communication via a shared dream experience was introduced in “The Name of the Doctor,” it seems odd for “Last Christmas” to devote almost two minutes of screen time to the concept, unless it is to lay the groundwork for Series 9 – especially since we still have that one, big, lingering question at the end of the special.
“Who is Dave?”
Exactly.
Keep in mind that Moffat loves to introduce characters, only to have them reappear as companions, later. River and Craig (if you consider them companions), Rory, Clara (as her time-splintered selves) – heck, even Amy (as Amelia) and Osgood (sob!) – all were introduced into the narrative at different points than they were asked to become companions.
So, who is Dave?
My initial instinct is that he’s Clara’s dad, which could mean that Shona is Clara’s mom.
What? What? WHAT?!
A Ten reference. Cute.
Hear me out. Clara’s character has always been defined by the loss of her mother. What could be a better reward for her tenure as a companion than having even the briefest chance to reconnect with her mother, now that she’s an adult? The Doctor did go out of his way to point out that not all of the guest cast had to come from the same time period. Perhaps Shona is from a much-earlier point in history, and is still dating Dave Oswald?
But, wasn’t Clara’s mom named Ellie?
Yes, however, another thing Moffat loves to do is to obscure a character’s identity by renaming them. Amelia/Amy, Melody Pond/Mels/River Song, Rupert/Danny Pink, Missy/M.I.S.I./the Mistress/the Master – at this point, anything is possible. Perhaps Shona is the Rani.
OMG, Shona is the Rani?!
Oh, let us please not start that again.
Seriously, we never hear “Shona” called by that name in her waking life. Perhaps she picked a new name, just as all of the arctic “scientists” picked new jobs, and Bellows was able to walk.
But Faye Marsay (Shona) looks nothing like Nicola Sian (Ellie Oswald in “The Rings of Akhaten”).
So? James Buller (Clara’s dad in “The Time of the Doctor”) looked nothing like Michael Dixon (Dave Oswald in “The Rings of Akhaten”).
Actually, the bigger problem as I see it is that Shona’s list indicates that she planned to spend her Christmas Day watching DVDs and a Game of Thrones marathon, meaning the scene couldn’t be any earlier than 2011. Still, Clara birthdate shifted by three years between “The Rings of Akhaten” and “Death in Heaven,” so, who knows?
“Who . . . nose?”
Regardless, we can expect to see Shona reappear in Series 9, if for no other reason than to answer the question of what Dave did, and what Shona saw in her shared dream experience that allowed her to forgive him.
