Trailers: Doctor Who Christmas Special 2014

14 November 2014 in Trailers, 123 comments

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The official trailer:

And here is the clip shown for Children in Need tonight (may contain minor, BBC/Moffat sanctioned, spoilers):


123 comments

  1. @purofilion I just want to add my condolences to the rest. As @blenkinsopthebrave noted, the passing of our parents is a major turning point, whenever it happens. My parents are both still living, and I am grateful for that. For someone in his mid-80s, my father is remarkably healthy. Very few health issues there. My mother has more, but is still in very good shape, all things considered. So I am fortunate, but as others have noted I know it can’t last forever. So I make a point of appreciating what time we do have together.

    Living so far away is difficult: I in Atlantic Canada, they in the midwestern U.S. Our one visit a year seems too little.

    I too have enjoyed this thread, as it reminds me of the Christmases of my youth. My maternal grandparents moved to southern Florida when I was a child, so miracle of miracles, we did the two-day drive to spend Christmas with them … in short sleeves, light jackets and palm trees! But I think because snow was largely absent, Floridians compensate by decorating even more with lights (and still do, as my husband and I discovered when we spent a December week in Florida several years ago). So my Christmas memories are of festive decorations on palm trees and other Florida foliage!

    The house was decorated with the glittering tree as the centerpiece, but as others have noted, our Christmas presents didn’t appear until after all the kids had gone to bed Christmas Eve. That’s when our parents did the last-minute preparations and piled all the gifts under the tree. I remember I woke up early one Christmas morning, while it was still dark, and padded out to the living room. I just couldn’t resist! Yes, all the presents were there. I still believed in Santa Claus and couldn’t believe my bad luck in missing his arrival and/or departure.

    Christmas was, for me, very much the stuff of fantasy. It was that time when my family seemed closer than we actually were through most of the rest of the year. Everyone made more of an effort, thanks largely to my wonderful grandmother Grace, whose personality was every bit a match with her name. So for that one week a year, we were something closer to the family I suppose I idealized. Which doesn’t mean we were a bad family … just not much in the demonstrative loving department.

    OK, back on-topic. As for the Christmas special trailers: I have a bummer of a theory, which I have shared elsewhere. My theory obviously isn’t a spoiler … but be forewarned that it could have a spoilerish aspect: It has to do with that “three months” Post-it note that Clara had on her bookshelf. Many of us – myself included – originally took that as a sign that Clara was pregnant, courtesy of the Orson Pink connection that foreshadowed it. But I have been wondering if the “bad news” she was going to tell Danny and the Doctor is that she only has three months to live. Granted, Clara looks remarkably healthy for someone I’m pondering might be terminally ill. (It’s the Ali McGraw effect.) So I’ve been wondering if we’re looking forward to a Gift of the Magi storyline, what with those last protective lies Clara and the Doctor gave one another.

    Or how about Santa’s question to the Doctor, interrupting the credits at the end of A Death in Heaven? What does the Doctor want for Christmas? An obvious answer would be to find Gallifrey. But what if Santa can grant only one wish? Might the Doctor trade Gallifrey for Clara’s life? After all, he is a Time Lord. He can still find Gallifrey some other way, but Clara has only this life. And then might that somehow lead to her being pregnant with Danny’s baby? The imagination runs wild!

    Gosh, this was a long post. I didn’t set out to ramble so much. Sorry about that!

  2. @nerys     Interesting ideas. I’m sure you’re right that the gift and/or Christmas miracle themes will play out in some way. It definitely seems to have been set up in the teaser at the end of Death in Heaven.

    Whereabouts in Atlantic Canada are you? We drove across a slice of it several years ago and really enjoyed it. And I’ve been meaning to say, I can’t see your user name without hearing it said in a contemptuous tone by Donna (my favourite AG companion)!

  3. Yes, that’s exactly where the username came from: Donna, my favourite companion, as well … saying it in her best fishwife voice!

    I am hoping for some sort of Christmas miracle. I do understand why the writers felt compelled to pull Doctor Who into more restrained waters, but I still long for those magical moments when anything seems possible thanks to time travel.

    I’m in Nova Scotia, along the south shore. Occasionally we are referred to as the “banana belt” of Canada … but of course it’s relative. A better candidate for that honour would be southern coastal B.C. and Vancouver Island, but we have similarly mild temperatures for much of the year. For Canada, that is. 😉

  4. @nerys @Blenkinsopthebrave @Blenkinsopthebrave @Bluesqueakpip @Arbutus @lisa @Arbutus @lisa @mudlark @Craig @pedant @Pufferfish and others I may have left out:

    thank you for your condolences-I sort of hid Dad’s death in the paragraph having no real intention of mentioning it – at times we were very close, and at others, not at all. Dementia does dreadful things to the mind and the personality. Before diagnosis, Dad was quite aggressive, accusing my brother and I of ‘stealing’ photos and hiding things from him. Eventually, when we heard the diagnosis, we were shocked and appalled at our own frustration, I suppose, but then with typical black humour my brother would declare: “with Dementia, Dad’s personality is pretty much the same as it’s always been. It’s hardly indistinguishable from the normal Bill [Bohumil in Czech]”. Nonetheless, it’s brother Ilion, the tech- head of the family who has prepared about 100 slides which will cycle around as mourners take seats. I remember watching this collection as he refined it and I was already deeply saddened but also heartened by the magical life Dad worked hard to achieve in Australia having arrived with only a change of clothes and a pistol via Moravia, the Italian Alps and a refugee camp in Bagnoli: finally staying put, for a while, in ‘refo land’ which was Box Hill in Melbourne.

    @nerys0 I loved your description of Christmas -as I have every single one of you! The lutefisk is amazing isn’t it? I love Garrison Keillor’s description in Lake Wobegon Days: “every advent we entered the purgatory of lutefisk a repulsive gelatinous fish- like dish that tasted of soap and gave off an odour that would gag a goat”

    As for potato dauphinoise, boy Ilion loves that dish any time of year. If I don’t make pork schnitzel and potato salad (the Czech Christmas dinner with cranberry sauce and mushroom soup to begin, and fruit dumplings with ricotta, brown sugar and clarified butter for afters) then dauphinoise it is!

    @nerys  -I think everyone needs a great maternal figure like your grandma Grace -how wonderful! As for Christmas dinner and over-eating, we need your ‘best friend’, Donna’s first alien discovery (or second if you include the Christmas special) of the Adipose pill -swallow that, and we’re off for a second helping of Christmas buffet.

    I’ve absolutely loved these Christmas musings and shared stories – we’re all connected, aren’t we, in some delightful way? Whether in BC, Yorkshire, Wales, Scotland, the US of A or Australia we have lots of similar (but slightly different tales -in the manner of a poignant Mozart quintet compared with a rousing Vivaldi symphony -both incomparably gorgeous) and that heartens me greatly.

    @nerys I also hope that the Santa in the Special offers The Doctor a choice and young Clara may, if in dire need of help, receive an extra life -after giving so many of hers to the Doctor. It struck me that her ‘meh’ sort of personality in her first season was so beautifully developed and textured in the recent season: both seeing a new Doctor, having saved the one before and witnessing him doggedly stay on in the village of Christmas to save every last family, helped sculpt her personality into something much deeper and provoking of thought. I suppose, to the children, Santa, who watches over them, admonishes them to be good and then delivers gifts to their tree is very much like the Doctor who also watches over us, begs us to be “the best we can be” (The Hungry Earth and the Big Bang), not just in the lead up to Christmas but through all of our lives giving us choices (Kill the Moon) and ‘landing’ us in sometimes impossible situations which develop our character and shape our lives forever.

    Even if he is fictional, I like that there’s a possibility he’s not.

    Kindest, puro.

  5. dear mods -if you could somehow remove the doubled up @tags please? I know I typed only one set, but the ‘innernet’ is scowling at me. And I would like to refer to those kind folk who added condolences.

  6. @nerys    Very nice. I’m in Vancouver myself, and while I don’t see banana trees as such, I do have a potted olive tree on my back porch.  🙂  A few years ago my family and I took “the mother of all road trips”, and drove to Halifax and back. It was fantastic, and on our Nova Scotia day, we drove down to Peggy’s Cove, and then around the bay to Boutilier’s Point, where my parents once lived for a few years. Such a lovely area.

    I think (I hope) that the magical moments will come back, and probably be all the more special and wonderful for not being a regular thing!

  7. oops @pufferfish the reference to lutefisk is yours. I’m sorry @nerys I have confused your entertaining and lovely posts with pufferfish’s mention of that ‘dreadful’ fish although I have cousins who indulge in it and love it. Needless, they have their own mini-fridge to protect everyone else from the …fragrance…

  8. @purofilion

    Apologies things went awry! Despite your best attempts to break the website I think I’ve fixed it, but am off to bed. 😀 I may have lost a few people off your list put your post is back.

    But really, very sorry. Hope the new year is a better one.

  9. Deepest sympathies to you, @purofilion — my grandfather is suffering from dementia, and the past few months have been pretty difficult.  Today he knew the names of both of my children, which was a remarkably achievement since he hasn’t known mine for months.  It’s a terrifying illness, and the powerlessness felt by everyone else is almost too much to bear.

    Speaking of children, count me among those who is slightly apprehensive about watching the Christmas special with my li’l ‘uns – one 11, one 6, both big Doctor fans (my 11-year-old son was the Eleventh Doctor for Halloween, and my 6-year-old daughter was the cutest Dalek you’ve ever seen).  As far as I know, they both still believe in Santa, although the 11-year-old may have his suspicions but be keeping his mouth shut in order to still get presents.  I have no doubt that Moff et al will include enough ambiguity to maintain the belief systems of children everywhere, but my children are wily and I’d hate to give them reason to think “now wait a minute…”

    Really though, I desperately want to know what (or who) is inside the TARDIS.

  10. @purofilion No problem, re: the errant lutefish reference. 🙂

    @Arbutus You live in a beautiful area. I hope to travel to Vancouver and the surrounding area someday. Tofino, Vancouver, Victoria and some wonderful bald eagle areas in southern B.C. are on my bucket list. The farthest west I have ever been (in Canada; I’ve made it all the way to the West Coast in the U.S.) is Jasper, Alberta. ‘Twas spectacular, with the Rocky Mountains and all!

  11. @Arbutus I neglected to mention that, believe it or not, I have yet to visit that local landmark, Peggy’s Cove! But we have been to similarly impressive coastal areas with and without lighthouses. In fact, we have several right in our immediate vicinity. Still, Peggy’s Cove not that far, so we must do it sometime!

  12. @Craig who is sleeping (I hope) is off to bed at….3.am..in the morning. AM? How do people do this? I need 9 hours sleep. In fact: day off I had nap! Without that, I’m bonkers… and I break the innernet. Thank you Craig (stamping out fires set by fireofilion)

  13. in my list I also mention @spider and @JanetteB

    @DrBen I am sympathising of you. (clunky phrase) It IS hard particularly as they tend to come in and out of consciousness – I had a lot of ‘final calls’ and then my (step) mum would find him up in bed being fed scrambled eggs. He did go the best way -no trouble breathing and no pain whatsoever. I’m grateful for that. I hope they do Father Christmas ‘well’ – I suspect the production & writing team will be on strict instructions to protect the kids!  Possibly, Santa will make a brief appearance only??

    At least as others said, Clara isn’t pregnant. Now, that turn of phrase is interesting -as if I’m glad. Would I be? Would it be helpful to be a single mother and grieving? I find it also interesting that Clara often talked about her mother who passed away. If she did have a baby, she’d be saying ‘your dad was a wonderful guy, really special’. Poor Clara, all alone. She is very vacant and pale walking into the Tardis -fairy tales seem lost to her. Sounds a little depressing as I recall her excitement at seeing Robin Hood. How she absolutely glittered with fun and mischief in that episode.

    I’m still working out another reason for he 3 months. Will it be attended to?

    Kindest, puro

  14. @Purofilion Clara does look very “down” as she turns and walks into the Tardis. I suspect this will be her last or close to last story and that Santa will deliver her a happy ending maybe involving Orson which is one more reason why I don’t want him to turn out to be her descendant. There is something “endearing” about Clara despite her flaws. When watching her behaving badly I cringed for her because I knew she could be so much better but recognising that the mistakes she makes are so “human”.

    I am totally bereft of ideas re’ the three months. I don’t it will be that she is dying or three months pregnant. It does seem as though the phone call was of its time so not three months after his death. It would seem that she had been lying to him for considerably longer than three months. Maybe three months referred to something in the future which we don’t know about yet. Three months to Christmas? I doubt that as I got the feeling that the last episode was analagous to our time, so set in early November. Maybe three months was simply MOffat throwing in a red herring to induce wild flights of bonkers speculation..

    Cheers

    Janette

  15. @JanetteB

    I suspect this will be her last or close to last story

    Quite possibly – however, I keep thinking of Moffat’s definition of the Christmas festival in A Christmas Carol: ‘halfway out of the dark’. He also used ‘The Snowman’ as a turning point: ‘halfway out of the dark’ for The Doctor’s character. Then he used ‘The Time of the Doctor’ for another turning point – from the Smith Doctor to Capaldi. From the eternal traveller to someone prepared to stay put if needed – and who wants to go home.

    His least successful Christmas Special was one where he didn’t tie in a turning point very well. I know the Smith Doctor ends up admitting that he’s alive to Amy and Rory, but it was kind of tacked on, rather than a genuine resolution of events.

    So it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s using this year’s Christmas Special as a turning point for Clara’s character. It may be that she leaves to start a new life (rather than leaving in grief), or it might be a metaphorical new start with the Doctor.

    But like Juniperfish, I’m still waiting for that Christmas baby. 😉

  17. To answer a question I posed myself a few days ago, no, that is not Zawe Ashton (who played Journey Blue) in the trailer, which could alter some of my bonkered theories about North Pole Netherspheres.

  18. Hello @Ozitenor

    I’m guessing from your name that you might not have access to BBC I-player.  But Natalie Gumede, who is briefly pictured in the Christmas special * clip, is also currently available to watch in a re-run episode of the long-running British anthology series ‘Moving On’.

    Series 5, ep 1, The Fledgling

    Moving On was originally created by Jimmy McGovern so each ep has a distinctly ‘Northern’ flavour.  Each ep is only 45 minutes which is a bit tight to fit in situation introduction, conflict detail, fall-out, and resolution.  Hmm … rather like post-2005 Doctor Who, now that I think of it.  😉

    *  Yes, me, the ultimate spoilerphobe finally succombed to watching a trailer.  After all my ‘waaaahhh-ing!’ about the Death in Heaven end credits being usurped.  But what I’ve viewed here is so scant that I don’t think it will hurt my eventual viewing of the DW Christmas 2014 ep.

  19. @Apopheniac  I think you are reasonably safe with most trailers. They generally give nothing away at all, just tease as to what might happen or include out of context clips in order to deliberately mislead. I think MOffat his sport with us. 🙂

    Cheers

    Janette

  21. @Barnable and @Rob thank you kindly. Typically in Brisbane, I started a journey to the airport to attend Funeral in a place called Hervey Bay -a 4 hr drive north of Brisbane. With little time and being crook, I booked a flight which my mother kindly paid for. Do you know how much Qantas can charge you for these flights that are few hours away by car? Considering there’s no other vendor? $950!!  Crazy. Anyway, 5 mins before boarding, an announcement came to warn us of an approaching tropical storm and the airport closed for 2 hrs. I ended up going home and so am missing the funeral. When we got home, the builders had departed (renovations: nightmare)and the power was off for 2 hrs due to storm. Sunny QLD!

  22. @Purofilion Been away for a bit so just caught up with your news. So sorry to hear about you dad. As others have said it doesn’t matter how expected a death is it’s still a shock when it happens. Dementia’s an evil thing too, chipping inexorably away away at the person you knew. And when it’s a parent that means you lose bits of yourself too, when they lose their memories of you. Hope you got through this week OK. At least you have family to support you. *Hugs*

  24. @Purofilion My view of the posts on this thread got jumbled up and I completely missed your last one from a couple of days ago. Funerals seem to bring out the dark surreal side of the universe for some reason. Hang in there.

  25. @ScaryB and @JanetteB thank you for all your kind words. What a lovely kind site filled with beautiful, smart, compassionate ppl. I just found out today, after MrIlion went in for some simple day surgery, that he needs a by-pass operation next week. 12 days in hospital recuperating. Mind you, in Oz, a private room with cable TV or Foxtel as we call it, 3 meals and 3 snacks, Air/Con and attractive nurses. Hah! the life…then to top it off, for 5 weeks after, he can’t ride a bike or drive -2 of his favourite activities. Not to mention a low-sodium diet. But what the heck, it’s Summer and there’s so much great fruit, it’s ridiculous! I am reminded of the Doctor saying “pain is a gift”. Well, we’ll see, won’t we?

  26. @purofilion sorry to hear that you have been hit with more bad news. Sounds though as if Mr Ilion has a holiday ahead. I am sure you will both make the best of it. Have a holiday together.

    Regards

    Janette

  30. @JimtheFish @arbutus @janetteB @Juniperfish  again I’m on the being thankful end of these discussions where you have kindly voiced your thoughts about Mr Ilion. Triple by-pass is, far more common and more easily endured than the past. Must look at positives; less to cook/wash, less channel hogging, can keep the car seat wracked forward as I’m 5 foot 2″; car stereo set to CD -Pink Floyd, Mental As Anything; The Black Sorrows and The Angels for some rock instead of local ABC news- flooded roads, sheep prices; 1970s ‘light n’ easy’ toons. Ah yes, my mangoes won’t be eaten every time I turn around.

    I can have more grog in the house…. which can stay on til Christmas, where, without visiting Hervey Bay (again), we can actually watch the Christmas Special. Agree with @Bluesqueakpip that turning points are the most enduring element in Moffat’s panoply of tear jerkers and what I hope is an end to a three parter which showed a sadder Clara than Dr? That’s arguable. The dr is used to disappointments -now, that’s an awful thing to say but it seems too true -older you get, the longer you enjoy both the sunny moments and great tragedy.

    I’m recalling Clara Prime’s first meeting with the Dr -all soufflés, internet and ‘big eyes’. Also, I noticed lots of short, choppy phrases, which, as a not twentysomething, I never like in TV-Land. “I’ll buy, you fetch. Coffee. You. Go”. I found that awful. The warranty for that type of character had run out thankfully as the lines were longer, more continuous and by the end, showed the affect of a truly grief stricken face: where the moue is so sad: the moment just preceding tears, where the lines around the mouth pull down, the smile broad but fake, eyes turned to shoes and the voice is at the back of the throat.

    To act such a ‘moment’ takes a really competent actress and I saw that heightened state in this character , more even than I did with Amy Pond, a person who I felt wasn’t given exercise within and around her capabilities: I didn’t see it when her baby was taken, when Flesh Amy turned to real Amy and when as a face in his mind, she returned for one final time to farewell the Doctor. No doubt others disagree-and I get that completely. Kindest, puro

  31. @purofilion I can relate to you re’ the moving the car seat.

    I agree also re’ Amy. I found her often lacking emotional depth. I felt at times that she was too young for the role perhaps because she came across to me as acting the emotions rather than feeling them. Amy was excellent at times, (mostly really) but did not seem able to reach the depths as well as Clara or should I say J.L.C. has.

    Cheers

    Janette

  32. @purofilion    Your list of “positives” actually makes your family life sound completely charming! And so interesting, like you and @janetteB, I have the car seat issue as well! I’m also 5’2, and Mr. Arbutus is 6’6! Fortunately, I drive much more than he does, as he cycles to work during the week. But after the weekend, I always have to remember to check the mirrors!  🙂

    Funny about Amy. I liked the idea of her final goodbye to “her” Doctor, but it always rang a little false to me, and I never understood why until now. But I agree, somehow her brief line wasn’t imbued with any real emotion. I usually enjoyed her as a companion, though, as she was a good match for Smith and often quite funny! But I’m with you, definitely been impressed by Coleman throughout this series.

  34. correcte post:

    Someone has already posted a comment on the Grauniad website saying , “Doctor Who looks like it will be shit. Moffat must go.” Is this a record?

  41. @lisa

    Nope. Even with the aid of alcohol, I cannot see the faces in the smoke.

    Time for bed. Perhaps the morning will bring greater clarity.

    Final comment about the image before bed–is Nick Frost really as short as Jenna Coleman?

  42. By the way, is anyone else now thinking back to The Eleventh Hour?

    You know, when little Amelia asked Santa to send her someone to help her out with the crack in her wall: and the TARDIS promptly crash-landed in her back garden.

  43. Hi all, @Puofilion – I’m sorry to hear of your loss, my condolences. I also wish MrIlion a speedy recovery.

    Nice to see that Santa has his list of ‘naughty or nice’, he does seem to know when Clara stopped believing in him. How can that be?

    When the Doctor turns up, Santa turns a bit sinister and menacing, I thought. Why does Clara need to be protected from him? She seems shocked to see the Doctor and touches his arm as if she wants to make sure he’s real and then he says ‘I’m back’. Where has he been?

    The first trailer seems to be set in a medical and/or research facility and what were those weird things on the bed? They had sheets covering them as if they were dead and then they sat up, opened their sticky mouths and made a noise –  which seemed reminiscent of the sound the Silence made (but that could just simply be a coincidence and nothing more). Then Santa turns up, is he there to help the Doctor? He could be, but it could be a misdirection too.

  44. @Papermoon actually the sound they made reminded me of the very first baddy Smith encountered: the sharp, tiny teeth which cloned itself into people?

  45. hmm, Prisoner Zero, I can see why you say that. Despite the sound these things make, they look nothing like either Prisoner Zero or the Silence, so a new monster, perhaps?

  46. @oh I know they don’t – but something about some teeth I thought I saw?  Or was I reminded of another ep in  another dr series entirely?

  47. @papermoon sorry for you above and also thanking you for your kind words the other day. Very sweet!

    I thought I saw Soldier Blue under the sheet -but no, and I also thought it was her carrying the torch but no, on that count too. I want to know why the Dr says “come in and don’t talk”. Poor Clara, so shell shocked, she obeys him

  48. @purofilion – I think the things had sticky lips, at east that’s how it appeared to me, which is maybe why you thought they were teeth, but they seem rather creepy. Clara does seem totally surprised to see him, as if he was unexpected. As I said earlier, she touches his arm as if she wants to make sure he’s real. The Doctor arrives at the point that Santa is questioning Clara’s belief in fantasy. Is he suggesting she should believe in the Doctor and then the Doctor appears, or don’t believe in the Doctor believe in me and so the Doctor luckily arrives at the right time to rescue her?

  49. @purofilion  I am locked in a never-ending cascade of work commitments, the end of the year is always absolutely frantic in schools, but it seems like I have missed something I would have liked to address sooner.  I am sorry to read of your loss, and the rest of everything else life has decided to dump on your doorstep at possibly the most hectic time of year.  Still, your positive attitude is a wonder and will see you continue to kick ass well into the new year, I am certain of it!  I will be traveling to Tasmania again for Christmas, to spend it with family, and so there will be some special goodwill vibes sent your way from the arse-end of Australia.  

     

  50. @Serahni  thank you very much -you are very kind. Yes, we have builders, a memorial service and Mr Ilion having a triple by-pass but as I said it’s A/Ced; plenty of tele and jelly; and…. nurses giving baths…. the hospital is around the corner so visiting won’t involve $28 an hour in parking!  Also, I can watch my own tele! Tassy is no arse end -I’ve not been there but a few mates have done cycling holidays and loved it. I hope it is still green!

    I know about the hectic nature: I finished one deadline with 30 min to spare and I have 2 more to make. I hope you can manage with a wine to recoup your strength? Sorry mods, err.. off topic again

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