Review: The Snowmen

By Charlie on December 25, 2012 12:31 pm on Blogs, Slider, The Who Review

PLEASE BE WARNED: POSSIBLE SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!

Another christmas day comes another christmas special; this time giving the festive season a punch once again by making something so traditional seem so scary; the first being Santa, the second being Angels and now: Snowmen. This episode introduces us to a whole selection of new features, including a new TARDIS design, a new title sequence and a brand new companion… wait, she’s called Clara? But I thought Jenna just played Oswin in that amazing Dalek episode… I’m so confused!

The episode starts like your typical episode where it introduces us to the situation of the episode. A lonely little boy in the 19th century builds a snowman to which he finds can talk. It’s not long before we’re whirled 50 years later, we see him as a grown man, where he begins his deadly plot. And then the new title sequence rolls on… and I have mixed feelings about it. Now anybody who has ever watched the classic series may just be overjoyed by this title sequence, since it has bright lights, spacey wacey colors and flickers and even something else that was sneaked in that played a big role in previous title sequences. However I feel like the title sequence is a bit much purely because of those reasons. It’s quite cheesy and a total mess with everything that happens in it. It’s like your mind has been blown. No, not out of amazement; like your mind has ACTUALLY been blown up. It all feels a little cartooney too, especially at the final end of it with the TARDIS. You’ll see when you watch it.

The introduction to the new companion happened quite fast and you might not even realize it’s happened. When she goes outside of the bar she works in, she realizes a snowman which wasn’t there before. At the same time, she brushes past a man; the Doctor. However the Doctor is done saving worlds and “picking up strays” as someone once described it. Unfortunately for the Doctor, that brief meeting with her made a big impact, and in a way she becomes a bit of a stalker- in the usual kind of “investigating who this man is” kind of way. As a companion, Jenna-Louise Coleman’s performance is almost flawless; she’s smart, beautiful, witty and quite comedic. She is everything the Doctor dreamed of… it’s just a shame the Doctor is already married to River- at least you think he is when the two tend to flirt with each other a lot. Is it considered cheating if you were married to your wife after you saw her die?

As for the Doctor, he’s the same as he’s always been, except here he does quite a lot of sulking. That’s all he seems to do in this episode. Alright fine he has a few quirky moments but above all this was one of Matt Smiths weakest performances.

Also on the cards this episode are the return of Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax. “Apparently” after they appeared in “A Good Man Goes to War”, fans were dying to see more of them, and so Steven made wishes come true by including them in the episode. But hold on: didn’t Strax die in A Good Man Goes to War? Well yes he was, and it’s explained in this episode… sort of. As for their performances, Vastra and Jenny really do make a great team, bouncing off each others words. As for Strax, well unfortunately he’s become a bit of an idiot since we last saw him; again, it’s explained why… sort of.

Now we move onto the villains. One of them is a man named Dr Simeon (the little boy I told you about). For most of the episode, you don’t seem to understand what his whole role in the evil plan is. You’ll understand the evil plan, but not what he get’s out of it. I mean he’s still human for the most part, and despite being lonely there’s really no reasons for him to be part of the plan except to be a little scary from time to time. The snowmen looked like great villains. I say “looked” because we barely got to see them. All they were there for in the episode was to look rather terrifying; there was so much potential for these villains, but alas they barely made any impact. I could have sworn the title was “The Snowmen”. The other main villain is the actual snow, in a sort of ball thing. Voiced by the great Sir Ian McKellen (yes, really!), he’s the real villain of the episode, plotting against man kind to create a part human/part snow creature that will enslave the human race; your typical plot, but very thorough.

Finally, we get to see the new TARDIS interior in action. Now when I saw the interior in picture form, I had mixed feelings about it, and wasn’t sure if it would look good on screen. But alas, I was proven wrong. My personal favorite part of the new interiorwould have to be the swirling gallifreyan writing above the console. The new console room has been given a blue feel like to it, matching the outside. You’ll even get to see an awesome camera trick involving walking into the TARDIS which I have always wanted to see done, even if it was done rather cheaply.

The episode started off a little shaky, where a lot happened in a few moments, making it hard to take in, but things will start to ease in to place quite quickly. The new companion herself has certainly done well for herself and I look forward to seeing more of her when Doctor Who continues in the spring. One thing this episode does do though is create a lot of questions and give little answers, which I really do hope will be answered quickly. One final thing: why is this show obsessed with homosexuality? You’ll see.