Doctor Who - The Snowmen

"How did we get so high up, so quickly?"

"The ladder... it's taller on the inside..."

Victorian England... and it's beginning to snow. But this is no ordinary snow and the intelligence behind it not of this world. Despite the efforts of legendary detective Madame Vastra, her wife Jenny and the Sontaran  butler Strax, it seems there is real menace at work. However the alien adventurer known as The Doctor has retired and wants to avoid being the one to save the world for the umpteenth time - especially when he seems ot have lost so many friends to it along the way.

However a part-time barmaid/governess, Clara, is about to turn his world upside-down and perhaps reinvigorate the timelord once more. Who is she? What is her fate? And what lurks beneath the ice?

Doctor Who has become the British Christmas tradition that The Morecambe and Wise Show once was, the marker in the festive schedule's repeat-ridden sands that unites the watching viewers for something new and hopeful. Yes, there's a formula and yes there's an element of safety in knowing what to expect, but it's also a postion its earned, albeit recently, through the near collective fifty years of making the universe safe for children and adults of all ages.

The last few seasonal specials have been adequate, but more like a shopping list of required  ingredients rather than a banquet of delights. Last year's effort  ('The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe') particularly felt like treading water and even nods to classics such as the C S Lewis titles that inpsired its tapestry,felt a little too sugar-ridden. There was sentiment and action, but if the series proper was getting to be a little too 'clever' for its own good, the Christmas Day outings sometimes felt like Moffat's heart grew two hundred sizes each venture to balance it all out, letting the show explode in sentiment after a series of  multi-level meta-textual shenannigans.  The wrapping was lovely, the present... like a nice pair of socks, courtesy of granny, bigger on the inside but feeling suspiciously like what they got you last year only larger.

This year's 'The Snowmen' is much better. Yes, there's the wholesale sentiment (which should always be part of a seasonal tale) but it is surrounded by clever dialogue, a delicious supporting cast, a simply beautiful production design and the (re)introduction of a new companion who postively oozes appeal.  Thankfully the demonic if kitchy snowmen glimpsed in the trailer are never meant to be a main threat, simply the twisted manifestation of the seasonal imagination, the deux et snow-machina, so to speak. Instead the threat comes from Richard E Grant's Dr Simeon ( the actor's third brush with the Timelord if we're going to count Moffat's Children-in-Need celebration 'The Curse of the Fatal Death' and a pre-relaunch animated outing) and the extraterrestrial threat that controls him (a 'Great Intelligence' voiced by Gandalf/Magneto himself Sir Ian McKellen).  While Grant is somewhat under-used simply to scowl and rumble, he does so well and  rumours suggest he may well be back for the season finale in the late Spring.

Yes, there are plenty of Moffat touches here: the power of pure emotion that plays an important part in the denoument, a timey-whimey mystery, hilarious quick-fire banter that you instantly want to memorise and use yourself and even an uncredited Julie Sawhala ( originally from Moffat's fondly-remembered Press Gang)  in the opening minutes, but this time they all combine to a greater whole. 'The Snowmen' walks a fine line being both a love-letter to the past (the new opening credits music and graphics, the new version of the Tardis interior, Matt Smith's tribute to the Troughton-era's mix of smarts and buffonnery (and some clever continuity) , a significant date on a grave-stone... all containing nods to nostalgia) to an excellent jumping-on point for newer viewers. Indeed, should you have never seen an episode before - how unlikley is that - 'The Snowmen' - is a fantastic introduction to the Whoniverse and its remit.

The further elements about the secret to 'Clara' - and what her real postion in that said Whoniverse really is - is charming enough (Jenna Louise Coleman herself will instantly win an army of fans) and will ultimately stand or fall on how Moffat decide to spin that out over 2013. Her souffle'd story, weaving through Who's fiftieth year celebrations is surely no coincidence and should be fun to watch play out, though I can't be the only one hoping it's not quite as convoluted and chronologically -challenged as River Song's journey... and yearn for the days when the backstory is less complicated.

But with some genuine scares for the kids, timey-whimeys for the die-hards and cleavage for the dads (and even some Lovecraftian nods to boot!) this is very much old-school Who made new.  It would seem that granny's socks, like bow-ties, can indeed be made cool again.

"That's the way to do it..."

Geronimo...

8/10