Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

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.

John Green Since Steven Moffat has taken the helm after RTD left producing the show, I have been repeatedly disappointed in the direction of the series. Of all actors that have played the Doctor, I find Matt Smith on the same level as Colin Baker in "entertainment value." I should clarify my favorite actors as the Doctor were Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison and David Tennant in that order. The scripts are also hit or miss as well. That said; I enjoyed this episode more than others from the past season. First, the opening credits are FANTASTIC! The orchestration is wonderful coupled with a return of the image of the Doctors' face in the very well done graphics! The story was okay although I expected Clara to say "Spit Spot" to the kids at some point and pull a tall lamp out of her bag. Also, using a Sontaran as comic relief seemed a bit silly. Killer Smowmen from outer space with a floating spaceship (TARDIS) in the clouds seems like a bad B-Movie plot from the 1950's and the conclusion to the episode is a bit confusing. And if we must have a villain, I don't think the "cute, sexy and lick-the-mirror handsome" Doctor Richard E.Grant was the best choice.I am sure there was an intent of a cliff hanger but it was more of a "what in the heck just happened" moment (IMHO). There was good action, great music and Clara (Oswin) is really a perfect companion for the Doctor. Hopefully, she can hang on for a regeneration and a better Doctor will be cast in the role...soon! I long for the days when RTD brought excellent stories every week, or even when John Nathan Turner was in charge. I should clarify that Steven Moffat has had some good episodes such as "Blink" but nothing consistent.Doctor Who is something I look forward to on Christmas Day, and I am hopeful that future episodes will improve. I would not want to see the Doctor go back on the shelf like it did in 1989.

Adrianapolis I would love to be able to go back to 2004 and post on the various 'Dr.Who' forums that the new series should feature a comedy Sontaran, and lines like "Sir, please don't noogle me during combat prep!". I wonder what the response would have been.Steven Moffat's first two Xmas 'Dr.Who' episodes were duds, and so was this. It was part-'Crackerjack' pantomime, part 'Mary Poppins' on a budget. It started out interestingly with the face appearing in a snowflake, and the snowman talking to the little boy, but when the girl followed the Doctor's hansom cab and stuck her head through the roof before going "Doctor Whooooooo!", my heart sank. It was the usual gibberish. After 'River Song', the last thing I wanted to see was yet another 'mysterious' companion ( especially as we all know the big reveal will turn out to be a cop-out ). The 'Merlin' conclusion ( shown on Xmas Eve ) had more going for it. There was so much wrong with this - a giant lottery machine full of snow, gay Silurians, the TARDIS floating on a cloud and accessible through a spiral staircase, the Doctor dressing up as 'Sherlock Holmes' ( how embarrassing was that? ), the frozen governess exclaiming 'that's the way to do it!', and the Great Intelligence using snowmen instead of Yetis ( all the Doctor needed to do was build a flame thrower and he didn't ) - that I hardly know where to start. The 'snowmen' were underused, and seemed only there to provide a marketing hook rather than drive the story. Its high time Moffat moved on, and took Smith with him. If we must have Richard E.Grant in 'Dr.Who', please cast him as the Doctor. He was wasted as the villain. The best piece of 'Dr.Who' I've seen all year is the Loose Cannon reconstruction of 'The Daleks Master Plan' starring the great William Hartnell.

bob the moo For the 2010 Christmas special, Doctor Who managed to pull off a really good mix of festive traditions, sentiment and entertainment with its version of A Christmas Carol. It pulled it off so well that in 2011 they had another shot at it with a Narnia-inspired story involving a dead pilot and his grieving family among a lot of other nonsense – it was silly and poor, failing to do anything the previous special had done but on the plus side it seemed to have knocked the specials off the track of going for the sentimental and cloying aspect. As a result we get this much more enjoyable episode where the Christmas tone means snowmen monsters and big name guests as usual, but more importantly it is roundly entertaining, limits sentiment and links to the main series (albeit in a way that I would prefer it hadn't).The plot sees "memory snow" creating snowmen monsters, threatening Victorian London and, by extension, the world. This produces moments that are satisfyingly frightening as we have ice monsters made from dead tutors and friendly looking snowmen with big teeth and menacing looks – all while Ian McKellen's voice gives the brains behind the operation a sense of gravitas and menace. As the show should do, this will frighten younger children but it balances it well by having the usual sense of comedy and silliness but, not as usual, it manages to keep it in check so that it is not excessive or annoying in the most part. Even the multi-species support team (which seemed like they would be stupid in the trailer/minisode) managed to work by virtue of them being used well as characters (either to be serious or to provide decent laughs); although as usual as this is new-Who, we have to have gay characters in there like it is some sort of running in-joke, which I guess it more or less is by now.One of the main attractions for me was going to be the introduction of the new assistant, although actually a reintroduction since we had already seen her as a ghost memory trapped inside a Dalek. This offered interest to me as I hoped that she would simply be the same character earlier in the same timeline, meaning that her end was known which would mean she would ultimately be a tragic figure who would not have a big "end of the world" ending to her arch. Of course sadly this isn't the case and the epilogue and trailer suggests she will have cosmic meaning and importance, which doesn't appeal but we'll see what they do with it. As a character Clara doesn't ever threaten to break the mould either since she is yet another attractive perky girl with big wide eyes and a good line in spunky flirting – enjoyable and produces easy chemistry just like all superficial and pretty flirts do, but again we'll have to see what she does when more is asked of the character than just making a flirty and fun intro or reintro, but for now I quite enjoyed Coleman. Smith also does good work here as the material doesn't overload him with any extreme but keeps the balance even. McKellen and Grant are good with very limited time while the effects are reasonably good for the budget.Overall this is a solidly enjoyable special that really benefits from moving away from the cloying sentimentality of the last special and just focusing on thrills, fun and the ongoing series (or, in this case, season, since we are in the middle of one). It is still a Christmas special and it does still have weaker moments but generally it serves a wide audience pretty well and I enjoyed it for focusing on its core strengths rather than losing the plot like it did last Christmas.