In fact, all the guest stars here – including Dan Starkey (out of Strax make-up) Michael Troughton, Nathan McMullen, Natalie Gumede and Maureen Beattie – were good value. Accompanied by a strong Murray Gold score he tightened the screws, upped the tension, and even managed to make a simple chalkboard responsible for one of the episode’s most creepy effects. Not that it needed to be: the close up monster with the drool coming from its mouth more than did the job of putting it in our minds.ĭirector Paul Wilmshurst, one of the stand-out stars of Doctor Who series 8, clearly loves this kind of material too. Earlier this year, Kill The Moon paid a homage of sorts to the films, but here, Alien is addressed by name. Don’t think about them, don’t look at them? They sounded a bit holding-your-breath-whilst-not-blinking-esque-critters, but the Dream Crabs also owed an ultimately overtly acknowledged debt to the xenomorphs of those Alien movies. Certainly, there’s enough in Last Christmas to put the frighteners up one or two younger viewers in particular. That said, the monsters here felt familiar, even if we’ve not seen them before. It’s a rather scary one for Christmas day, too (well, not just for Christmas day). “There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive” There’s Nick Frost’s excellent Santa Claus flitting in and out, but the core is the Doctor, Clara, and a small group of people apparently stuck on a polar base. Moffat chose, for the bulk of the episode’s running time, a base under siege idea, albeit with a trip via Inception, Miracle On 34th Street and the well-used Alien boxset. Last Christmas, however, had just one main issue to resolve – that of Clara and the Doctor – but for the most part, it was a little freer. It had its moments, but, on the whole, it didn’t quite give Smith the send-off he deserved. That, and it took a tour via lots of other Doctor Who threads. It had 60 minutes to wrap up the tenure of Matt Smith’s Doctor and quickly introduce (for the second time) Peter Capaldi’s take on the Time Lord. Last year’s oft-criticised The Time Of The Doctor had a lot of work to do, in its defence.

A poignant tangerine, that also seems to suggest that Santa is real.

As he confirmed at the Q&A after the press screening, everything you see in the episode, from the first scene onwards, is strictly a dream, up until the finale, and the placing of Last Christmas‘ final tangerine.

Doctor who last christmas special