Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Matthew Kresal The Christmas specials of the Moffat era have been mixed in terms of quality with the great success of A Christmas Carol and the mixed reception to the Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe in 2011. So the two obvious questions overall then are A) How does this Christmas special rank? And B) How does this serve as the effective first story of Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary year? As a Christmas special, it is certainly one of the best. For the first time since The Christmas Invasion, we get a Christmas special tasked with effectively relaunching the show. There's the new credit sequence with a new theme arrangement, a brand new TARDIS interior and of course what was at least initially billed as the proper introduction to Jenna Louise-Coleman's character of Clara. The Snowmen becomes something more than just another Christmas special: it becomes the bridge between not only the two parts of Series Seven but also parts of the Matt Smith era.Indeed, Matt Smith's performance and new costume effectively introduce a new version of the eleventh Doctor as well. The viewer, through Clara, are introduced to a Doctor apparently still recovering from what still seems to have been recent exit of the Pond's which seems to have been the straw that broke the camel's back and caused him to effectively retire. The eleventh Doctor has often been said to be an old man in a young man's body and perhaps nowhere else to date does Smith's performance bares that out more. It's Smith's performance, as well as the writing of Moffat, that makes the Doctor's journey from a man sulking in a box on a cloud to a hero once more believable. Indeed, if Smith ever needed to prove his acting chops, then his scenes with Richard E Grant's villainous Dr Simeon makes the case brilliantly.Speaking of Grant, the story features a strong supporting cast. Grant, and indeed the voice of Sir Ian McKellan, are effectively used with Grant oozing menace with every line. That said, the two of them are underused due to the focus on introducing Clara though perhaps they are so effective because of they appear so sparingly. The Paternoster Gang of Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax return and are put to good use with Dan Starky's comedy Sontaran (never thought I'd write those words) being the most effective scene stealer Doctor Who has featured in sometime. Even the supporting roles such as that of the family that Clara works for are well acted.Which leads to the one person who hasn't been mentioned but whom the story centers around: Clara played by Jenna Louise-Coleman. Throughout the new series the companions have been the focus of the show and The Snowmen is no exception. Clara is the heart and soul of the story as it is her randomly striking up a conversation with the Doctor in a London street that sets events in motion. Without Clara, would the Doctor have quite literally come down off his cloud? I'm not so sure. What I am sure about, is the strength of Jenna Louise-Coleman's performance as she holds her own not only as Clara the character but also as a performer alongside Smith. It is in their scenes together that the story really comes alive with the wonderful interplay and chemistry between them. Unfortunately, a last second decision by Moffat undermines all this a bit but he instead offers something else: a mystery that reawakens the Doctor and takes him, and us, on a new journey.The Snowmen also works as the launch into Doctor Who's fifty anniversary year. The Snowmen looks as much backwards as it does forwards. Who or perhaps more accurately what Grant and McKellan turn out to be is a case in point. The story drops all sorts of hints about it from the title itself onwards but it's only really made clear in the final couple of minutes. It's done in a way that hopefully please fans of what came before while thankfully not alienating to those who don't know the old series (indeed, given developments since this aired, one can't help but wonder what Moffat knew and when). The fact that the Doctor has effectively retired and takes convincing to return to what he's always done is an idea that Douglas Adams proposed before he got forced to do Shada instead (something which in turn might explain Adams' attitude towards that unfinished story). Given what would come in the episodes to follow a few months down the road, it's clear that The Snowmen was meant to set the tone for what was to follow and it does so effectively.Yet The Snowmen has an interesting problem. It focuses heavily on characters, especially the journeys of the Doctor and Clara rather than on the threat posed by Simeon and his snowmen. The result is slightly lopsided as it were: the threat appears throughout the story and is certainly built up but that's not what were supposed to really focus on. For a story that makes rather a point of bringing back something from the show's past, it never really puts it to large use. That isn't to say that Doctor Who isn't or shouldn't be about character development, just that the balance here seems a bit off. How much that actually helps or hinders will certainly be a topic of debate I'm sure.In the final analysis then, The Snowmen succeeds. It does so firstly as an effective Christmas special though 2010's A Christmas Carol still ranks as the best of the Christmas specials, this one comes a close second minus a couple of faults which can be forgiven nevertheless. It also works to help launch Doctor Who into a major anniversary year with references to and use, somewhat sparingly, of the show's past without be either gratuitous or alienating to those not in the proverbial know. What more can we ask of it?

Andrew Huggett Good episode – some good jokes, linear in terms of story telling for a change so it was fairly easy to follow although the ending got confusing as they set-up new complications surrounding the Doctor's new companion. I liked the references to the 1967 Yeti / Great Intelligence story and did not see that coming until halfway through. The jokes with the Sontaran and the memory worm were good fun (bit of a Star Trek 'Wrath of Khan' rip off that). Enjoyed the magical staircase to the Tardis in the clouds (a Mary Poppins homage?); I liked the new arrangement of the theme tune, Mat Smith's Victorian costume (especially the hat – Patrick Troughton reference?) and new titles – not so keen on the new Tardis interior. All in all quite a good (darkish) Christmas episode – one of the better ones – all be it much more fantasy than 'hard' science fiction.

puffmagicdragon109 ***Spoiler alert*** We all know that loneliness, or isolation, is dangerous to one's mind. But place that on top of loss and grief, and a deadly mindset of apathy sets its roots. This Christmas special opens up with our main (human) antagonist, Dr. Simeon, as a young boy making contact with the main (alien) antagonist, who then spends the next fifty years of his life help the snow. Why? Spoilers.We then meet our heroine, Clara (aka. The next companion), played by Jenna-Louse Coleman. The exact actress who was Oswin.... Coincidence? Clara comes across the Doctor in attempt to find answers about the killer snowmen popping up from nowhere. But the Doctor has lost his will to help, or make any connections to people he might lose. The Doctor we all know and love is slowly melting away for self-preservation, but he lost himself it the process. Well the episode continues to dance between the Doctor and Clara's life as the investigation proceeds on the malevolent ice crystals, making their paths cross more and more. When there is a disturbance in the children of whom she is the governess of, Clara sets out for the Doctor's help. She comes across Madame Vastra and Jenny. Vastra warns Clara that the Doctor was once kind, but that pain of loss changed him. But Vastra gave Clara the one word test. If Clara answered in one word that sums up what's going on, why she needs the Doctor, and why he should help her, then he will answer. The purpose of one word is tell only truth, for lies are, and I quote, " words, words,words". Clara's answer was "pond".We all know what that means to the Doctor, but for Clara it means danger for many people. I thought it was brilliantly how the writers planned this part. It got the Doctor out of his own mind, and even gave the audience something to cheer about. The portrayal of this Doctor, isolated, sad, and apathetic, is realistic of someone who has lost their own purpose, self-worth, not wanting to die, but hating their life that they have to live. This is true for all beings the thought of loneliness is poison that brings an eternal fear that only a person can take away. But the relief only lasts as long as the person giving it. That is what the Doctor, I think, fears the most. That the fear of the fall back into loneliness and the anticipation of the pain it brings.After such an amazing change of heart, the Doctor comes back... As Sherlock Holmes! Just kidding, well he is any way. We see the Doctor as we know and love. Smart, brilliant, and handsome as ever. After assisting Clara in saving her friends, he takes her to the TARDIS in attempts to capture what the snowmen are after, a cranky ice woman. The snow needs her in order to have a human replica in ice form so that they can, guess what, take over the world.Plans are working, success is in reach, when Clara is attacked, and both her and the ice woman fall from the TARDIS, smashing the ice and mortally wounding Clara. Infuriated, the Doctor goes to the snow and does not show mercy, getting back in time to say good bye to Clara. At her funeral, the Docter realizes that he had never seen her full name. Clara Oswin Oswald. If you can recall Oswin Oswald was the name of the girl who died in the episode 'Asylum of the Daleks'. The Doctor confirms them to be the same girl. And so we are left with Doctor on a mission to find out just who Clara is. This leaves me with one question.Clara Who?

BA_Harrison I'm going to be honest... very few episodes of Doctor Who have ever made much sense to me. The show didn't make a lick of sense when I was a kid back in the 70s and it's no more intelligible now that I'm middle-aged. What I always enjoyed, though, was the sense of fun, the creativity and the scary monsters, three factors that kept me watching despite often not having a scooby what was going on.This Christmas special does feature the occasional fun moment, but the story is dull, the usually reliable Richard E. Grant puts in a forgettable performance, Ian McKellen is completely wasted, the creatures are weak (the crappy CGI ice woman was extremely disappointing and the titular snowmen did very little to send a chill up the spine), and the episode is even more impossible to follow than usual. Thank heavens for the presence of the rather lovely Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara, who managed to hold my interest despite me not having the foggiest what was going on.