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N179 The Church on Ruby Road — The 2023 Christmas Special
Inter-temporal infanticide and a divisive song-and-dance number? We spend more than twice its runtime dissecting The Fifteenth Doctor's first big adve...B096 The Fourteenth Doctor Retrospective
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Zoey Fleetwood finally gets to meet the Doctor! But will her first impression go as smoothly as she hopes?... - Vindex
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Do you prefer listening to us rant about episodes we really liked or disliked? Coolio, then head on over to the stats section and find an episode we rated exceptionally highly/incredibly disparagingly!
And there are PLENTY of ways to get involved beyond listening to the show and exploring the article archives. Point your eyestalks at some of these links to learn more! - Merch!
Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next year you threw it away
This year, to save me from tears
I’ll watch something else.
Last Christmas, you created beauty
With Daleks, Silence, and Angels
Next year, you screwed it all up
With facehuggers and Santa
This episode is why Chibnall canceled Christmas. I wish this episode was lost along with Love and Monsters and Orphan 55. Australia will not find you. Please Die.
RATING: 0.3 mutilated elves
P.S. The concept art for the guns in this episode is really cool.
You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I’m telling you why
Dream facehuggers are comin’ to town
They’re eating our brains
Whilst we sleep
Holy-crap they’re comin’ out
Of the TV screen (Albert!!!)
Dream facehuggers are comin’ to town
Who knows if you are sleeping (pain right side of head)
Who knows when you’re awake (no pain right side of head)
Maybe your brain is being munched on
So wake up for goodness sake
So you better watch out
You better not dream
In your sleep no can hear you scream
Santa Claus is comin’ to dream-town (or perhaps he was real. The tangerine suggested soooooo)
Rating: 4.7/5 dream and/or real tangerines delivered by dream and/or real Santa.
Last Christmas was ok. I liked Nick Frost as Santa but it makes me wonder if they only picked him because he had Frost in his name. The episode ripped off Alien but it seems to think that if they say they are ripping it off then they can get away with it. However I’m not complaining because Santa vs aliens would be better than alien vs predator. Overall I give the episode a 2
Hey there, just wanted to say how much I have been enjoying the podcast, and that as my first mini-review I hope it arrives in time!
For me, this episode stands out massively amongst the other Christmas specials.
Whereas the other Christmas specials are most comedic fluff disconnected from the preceding and following series, this one acts as a prologue/epilogue to the next/previous series, while also taking on a more serious and scary tone, albeit with the obvious exception of Santa Claus (played wonderfully by Nick Frost) and his two elves. The concept of this episode was magnificent in my opinion, never knowing when you are dreaming, playing with the idea of reality, hope, and testing whether you do believe in Santa Claus. Also, the twists were well done and whenever you thought they were finished, they just kept going. Although, by the time the Doctor woke up for the 4th time, perhaps it had become a bit repetitive. Furthermore, the design of the dream crabs was simply outstanding (even if they are, as Ashley points out, perhaps slightly too similar to the Xenomorph).
However, I do have two problems:
If they were in a dream, what happened to Albert when he supposedly died? Is he dead or alive? Why don’t we find out?
Finally, Shona should have definitely joined the TARDIS team for Series 9 (and beyond) as she would have fitted in well and was really promising in this episode.
Overall score : 4.1