It’s been a little more than a month since Amy and Rory left Doctor Who, and tonight marks the first step in the recovery provess, by moving on with a brand new companion. Clara, the new TARDIS passenger, is set to debut in the Christmas special episode titled The Snowmen; not the most creative title they’ve had, but the trailer–released during the Children of Need special–makes up for it.
But before that, we have the prequel, The Great Detective. The episode sees the return of Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax from last season’s A Good Man Goes To War. They can be seen here, along with the Doctor who is summoned by them to investigate some alien activity.
Unfortunately, the good Doctor has retired. Burdened by the losses of all his past companions, the Doctor seems to have given up. It’s a great different side of the Doctor to see, and I can’t wait to watch how Clara breaks him out of this ‘Scrooge’-like attitude.
The trailer indicates that Clara just might be able to get through to the Doctor and it seems he’ll slowly find her worthy enough to let inside the TARDIS to explore the universe like usual. We can expect him to be a somewhat different Doctor as compared to how he acted around the Ponds. But you can see him slowly getting back to that old sense of wonder and happiness as he asks Clara her name.
There’s not much to say about the villain, played by the terrific Richard E. Grant, except that he looks creepy and reminds me a bit of Kazran from the 2010 Christmas episode.
Of course the main question on all our minds is, who is Clara? We saw Jenna-Louise Coleman as Oswin in Asylum of the Daleks (also written by Steven Moffat) a couple of months ago and she, along with Matt Smith, suggests they couldn’t be the same person. Messing with our minds in true Moffat fashion. Speaking of minds, her ‘thoughts’ are also a key plot point in this episode, could it be related to Oswin in some way?
The Doctor doesn’t recognize her voice but Clara seems to know a thing or two about the Doctor, implying that this does take place after the events of the Dalek episode for her…if it is in fact the same person…living in a different period of time…okay I have no idea what’s going on. It wouldn’t be Doctor Who if I did. But only a little more than a month before we find out!
Doctor Who returns on Christmas Day and stars Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman and Richard E. Grant.