The Snowmen (TV story)

The Snowmen was the 2012 Christmas special. It introduced Clara and Victorian era Clara Oswald, as well as reintroducing Madame Vastra, Strax and Jenny Flint. It was the first episode to feature the Great Intelligence since 1968's The Web of Fear.

Like the previous two specials, it took its name and some of its themes from a famous piece of literature, albeit pluralising the title.

Synopsis
After losing Amy Pond and Rory Williams, the Doctor retires to Victorian England, where Strax, Jenny Flint, and Vastra assist him. The Doctor eventually meets Clara Oswald, a young barmaid with a double life as a governess, to whom he takes a liking. At the same time, a sinister plot is unfolding; snowmen are randomly appearing around London, growing in size and power. All they need to take over the world is some human DNA in ice crystal form, and the frozen body of a drowned governess can give them just that.

Plot
It is winter in 1842. Children are playing outside. Standing away from the others is a little boy building a snowman. A woman asks him if he'd like to play with the other children. He says that he doesn't need anyone else. The woman tells a man that he's always so alone, and that it's unhealthy. As they leave, he says that he doesn't want to talk to them because they are silly. To his surprise, the snowman he is building repeats this. He runs away as it tells him not to believe anyone else. He starts to walk back to it and it tells him that it can help him. He asks it how.

Fifty years later, Walter Simeon is overseeing men as they carefully scrape snow from snowmen into glass jars. The jars are loaded into a carriage where they are driven to Walter Simeon's institute. Doctor Simeon carries one of the jars up to a large crystal ball filled with snow. He tells it that the last of the arrivals have been sampled. The globe says that the swarm is approaching, and that as humanity celebrates, it will end. He asks if the final piece is ready, and Doctor Simeon says it's in hand. The globe asks how he will keep his secrets from getting out of the men who helped him. Doctor Simeon says it's been taken care of. He says he promised to feed them. Back at the work site, one of the men says that he doesn't see any food. Doctor Simeon says he does, and as the men look around, the snowmen rise up. Simeon coldly says that he promised to fed them, but he "didn't say who to."

At an inn called The Rose & Crown, a barmaid walks outside with a tray. She is surprised to see a snowman standing there that wasn't there before. She asks the Eleventh Doctor, who is walking past, if he built it. The Doctor says he didn't, and walks away, but stops when she tells him that it just appeared out of nowhere. He walks back and walks around the snowman, inspecting it. He says he wonders if the snow can remember how to build a snowman, which the maid thinks is silly. She makes the Doctor smile. He asks her what her name is. She says it is Clara, which he says is a nice name. He walks away, leaving her somewhat annoyed in the alley with the snowman. Clara sees the Doctor leaves in a carriage and runs after it, managing to climb onto it.

In the Doctor's carriage (which is being driven by Strax), he talks to Vastra through a phone built into the roof. She insists that he should resume his previous life of investigating unusual and stange occurances. Speaking in the Third Person, the Doctor tells Vastra that he is retired. At that very moment, Clara opens a hatch on the roof and pops her head inside, shocking the Doctor. She asks "Doctor Who?"

He quickly locks Clara in the carriage, infuriating her. As she yells to be let out, the Doctor exmaines the mysterious alien snow; he asks Strax what he would look for next after finding something new in the world that he's never seen before. Strax answers "a grenade", obviously not amusing the Doctor. He orders the Sontaran to get a memory worm to erase Clara's memory. They open the door of the carriage and explain to Clara that they'll be erasing her memory of them. Strax mistakenly calls Clara a male, which the Doctor cynicaly jokes is because Sontarans have trouble rememering there's more than one gender. Waiting, the Doctor sees Strax return without the worm, making him realise he forgot to wear the protective gauntlets; it erased the last hour of Strax memory. With the worm now under the carriage, the Doctor has Strax retrieve it. However, the Sontaran forgot to wear the gauntlets again and now thinks he's been run-over.

Highly amused Clara passed the gauntlets to the Doctor, who shoves the memory worm into a jar. Clara questions him about the snowman; one suddenly arises out of the snow. The Doctor asks Clara if she was thinking about it, which she admits to. Several more arise from the snow and begin snarling at them. The Doctor explains that the snow was sentient and mirroring the thoughts of people around it, the Doctor ordered Clara to picture them melting. The Doctor explains he cannot erase her memory now as it would make her forget how to defend herself. He warns her to not follow, and forget him. The Doctor sends her away in Strax's carriage but Clara sneaks off without Strax.

Following the Doctor, Clara sees him pull a ladder out of nowhere in the park and climb up it. After letting the Doctor get a few minutes ahead to avoid him noticing her, Clara mimics his actions and pulls the ladder down. She climbs up to a platform, which could be easily seen by people passing by; she yells to people, but they don't notice her. She continues onward, climbing a a hidden staircase in the sky reaching to the clouds. Clara then sees the TARDIS. Clara knocks on the door and hides at the side of the TARDIS just as the Doctor pops his head out saying "Hello?" As the Doctor follows the sides of the TARDIS, Clara sneaks down the stairs. The Doctor hears her footsteps. The Doctor picks up a piece of cloth that dropped from Clara's dress as she sneaks away which he then smells. He saw her running down the spiral staircase which led up to the cloud, but dismissed her, still determined to stay out of what was happening on Earth.

That same night, Vastra and Jenny confront Dr. Simeon. Despite their attempts at getting him to reveal his plan, Simeon remains unfazed, even after unveiling Vastra and seeing her true face, commenting she may have been the insperation for Sherlock Holmes and that they make an odd couple. Jenny defends herself and Vastra by saying that unlike them, Dr. Simeon hasn't married. He scoffs at this and leaves, assured they cannot stop him. However, Vastra says that there IS one person who can, making Simeon slightly uneasy.

The next day, Christmas Eve, Clara heads for her second job as governess to "Franny" and Digby Latimer, children to Captain Latimer, under the alias "Ms. Montigue". Captain Latimer explains that he is having trouble connecting with his children and hopes Ms. Montigue can get through to them; Franny also seems troubled. She greets them, and at their request, perfroms her "other accent", which is her real one, and express how much they like her over their last governess, who drowned in their pond last year. Dr. Simeon pays an unexpexted visit to the Latimer home, showing interest in the pond. This disturbs Clara, who thinks the Doctor may be of some use.

Clara goes back to the park, but can't get the ladder down, forcing her to call up to the Doctor. Jenny, watching with other confused patrons, takes her to Madame Vastra. Clara is slightly disturbed at the sight of her, but remains calm. Vastra explains what she is drinking ISN'T red wine and that Clara had better be truthful. Jenny explains that Vastra will ask questions and Clara must answer them with one word only; Vastra believes the truth can be said in one word while lies were a string of them. Though their meeting, Vastra tells Clara that the Doctor once saved many lives, but suffered a loss so great that it forced him to retire. She then says that she will give the Doctor a message, but just one word; Clara thinks carefully about what one to say.

In his darkened TARDIS, the Doctor is reading a book while wearing Amy's reading glasses. He recieves a call from Vastra who explains Clara came to her and passed the "One Word Test." Unamused, the Doctor asks why she's called, hearing that Clara has said the one word that could get the Doctor to come and save the world again; "Pond". The Doctor takes off his glasses and stares at them for a moment, finally deciding to investigate what was happening. Dressing in an outfit he previously wore in his fourth life, the Doctor goes to Dr. Simeon's institute, pretending to be Sherlock Holmes. After examining the large sphere Simeon had in his office and then seeing a newspaper article about a governess who drowned in a pond, the Doctor realised why Clara had used that word to warn him of the danger. He then promptly leaves before Simeon's servants could throw him out.

At the same time, Clara is telling Franny and Digby a bed-time story about the Doctor, claiming that all he ever does, all day, is to keep children from having bad dreams. However, Franny pokes a hole in her story, saying that she's been having bad dreams about their previous governess. Clara quickly says that the Doctor has been on vacation, and has just got back. The Doctor arrives shortly afterward and examines the pond where the woman drowned. After being visited by Strax who asked if he needed any "grenades" before admitting that Vastra had used the word "help", the Doctor says that when there's a battle, he'll ask Strax for help; he's useless otherwise. He sends the Sontaran away, just as he notices Clara waving at him through a window and decides to go and visit her.

At the same time, Dr. Simeon arrives and activates a device outside the Latimer property, causing snow to fall on the frozen pond; ice begins to accumlate in the middle. The Doctor makes to the second floor, meeting Clara, Franny and Digby. However, before they can talk casualy, the reincarantion of the previous governess to the Lamiter family (created from her genetic sample), the Ice Governess, attacks them, intending to disipline the children as she believes they have been very naughty. He quickly locks them in a room for safety before noticing a mirror, which shows the Doctor that he's wearing a bowtie now, something he hasn't done in a while. However, the Ice Governess breaks in, forcign the Doctor to melt her with the sonic; it's only temporary. The Doctor, Clara and the children run down the stairs and met Captain Latimer. The Doctor hastily explained his presence in the house by saying that he was Clara's "gentleman friend" and they had been upstairs kissing.

Vastra, Strax and Jenny arrive, trapping the Ice Governess behind a force field. Strax then said that Captain Latimer's office was a strategic place to make their stand and everyone hurried inside. After explaining Simeon's plan, the Doctor ordered everyone to stay in Latimer's office but Clara disobeyed him and kissed him in the hallway. After recovering from the surprise he confronted Doctor Simeon at the front door. Simeon warned that the Doctor had five minutes to give him the Ice Governess, which he needed to allow his Snowmen to evolve into an army of ice that would allow him to take over the world. The Doctor seizes an umbrella and used his sonic screwdriver to deactivate the force field that trapped the Ice Governess. He and Clara sprinted up the stairs towards the roof. At one point Clara grabbed the Doctor's hand and took the lead which the Doctor was unused to since he was usually the one who did the hand grabbing.

The Ice Governess followed and Clara quickly realised the Doctor's plan. Using the umbrella the Doctor had taken from downstairs, she pulled down the ladder that led up to the spiral staircase. They run up the staircase with the Ice Governess in pursuit. After reaching the Doctor's cloud, which had been blown there by the wind, the Doctor shows Clara the inside of the TARDIS which had changed since Amy and Rory left. He expected Clara to say the thing most people said when they entered the TARDIS "It's bigger on the inside" but instead Clara said "It's smaller on the outside" which the Doctor noted was a first. Clara then asked if there was a kitchen, saying she liked making souffle's... a remark which catches the Doctor's attention. The Doctor then gives Clara a key to the TARDIS, having decided to take her with him. However, just after taking the key Clara was grabbed by the Ice Governess. While she struggled, the Ice Governess fell off the cloud, and Clara went with her, falling to her death in the Latimer's courtyard.

The Doctor used the TARDIS to get Clara's body into Latimer's office where Strax used alien technology to revive her. However Clara's injuries were fatal and even the resurrection technology wasn't enough to save her. The Doctor asked the dying Clara if she would travel with him and she agreed. Then he stormed out to face Doctor Simeon and his Snowmen, taking a box which he claimed contained the shattered remains of the Ice Governess. He told Simeon he would "see you at the office" and he and Vastra took the TARDIS to Simeon's institute. Vastra wondered if the Doctor was making a bargain with the Universe and the Doctor said that the Universe owed him for all the times he had saved it. He was hoping that if he saved the world, the Universe would allow Clara to live.

The Doctor and Vastra meet Simeon in his office and the Doctor reveals that the giant snowglobe is actually a reflection of Simeon himself. Simeon explains that the snow had spoken to him as a child when he was building a snowman and the Doctor informs him that he had accidentally started putting all of his deepest, darkest thoughts and feelings into the snow, making it as intelligent as it was fifty years later. Although Simeon is shocked to learn that he was the reason the snowglobe was sentient, this doesn't stop him from attempting to continue his plan. He grabs the box containing the Ice Governess remains from the Doctor. When he opens it however, he finds the memory worm instead. It bites him, erasing all the memories of his adult life.

However by that time, the snowglobe has gained enough independence to survive without having to reflect Simeon's thoughts. Unable to understand how the entity still exists, the Doctor learns that the "dream had outlived the dreamer". Simeon then rises to his feet, revealing that the entity is now controlling him rather than the other way around. After hurling Vastra aside, the possessed Simeon attacks the Doctor but then pulls back in apparent pain as the snow in the globe turns to rain. Simeon perishes as the entity is defeated, and the Doctor says that all the snow at the Latimer house was mirroring the grief of Latimer and his children as Clara moved closer to death. Rushing back to the house, the Doctor stands beside Clara as she dies. Before she passes away however, Clara murmurs words that another version of her had said once before; "Run you clever boy. And remember."

During Clara's funeral, the Doctor learns from Simeon's card about his institute that the entity he had faced was the Great Intelligence. He then goes to Clara's grave, which contains her full name... Clara Oswin Oswald. The Doctor remembers that name from the woman he had met in the Dalek Asylum, who went by the name Oswin Oswald and also enjoyed making souffle's (having not noticed the connection before since he never met Oswin face-to-face). However this leaves the Doctor confused, as Oswin died in the asylum just like Clara died here. Eager at solving the mystery of the woman who has died twice at completely different points in space and time, the Doctor heads for the TARDIS.

A century or more later, the cemetery has long ago ceased to be maintained. Tall weeds have taken over, and many of the gravestones are far from plumb; Clara's remains legible but is well-worn. Another Clara, identical in appearance to Clara Oswald and Oswin Oswald walks through the brush ahead of her friend. As she nears Clara Oswald's gravestone, her friend begs her to leave because she thinks the graveyard is creepy. Standing above her doppelgänger's corpse, Clara confidently dismisses her friend's phobia, asserting, "I don't believe in ghosts."

Back in the TARDIS, The Doctor yells "Clara! Oswin! Oswald!" and pulls up a picture of Clara from 1892 on the TARDIS video screen. Then he exclaims, "Watch me run!"

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Clara - Jenna-Louise Coleman
 * Captain Latimer - Tom Ward
 * Dr Simeon - Richard E Grant
 * Jenny - Catrin Stewart
 * Madame Vastra - Neve McIntosh
 * Strax - Dan Starkey
 * Digby - Joseph Darcey-Alden
 * Francesca - Ellie Darcey-Alden
 * Alice - Liz White
 * Uncle Josh - Jim Conway
 * Walter - Cameron Strefford
 * Walter's Mother - Annabelle Dowler
 * Bob Chilcott - Ben Addis
 * Lead Workman - Daniel Hyde
 * Clara's Friend - Sophie Miller-Sheen
 * Voice of the Great Intelligence - Ian McKellen
 * Voice of the Ice Governess - Juliet Cadzow

Cultural references

 * Simeon suggests that Arthur Conan Doyle based Sherlock Holmes on Madame Vastra.

Communications technology

 * Vastra has a telephone that can call the phone in the Doctor's TARDIS.

The Doctor

 * The Doctor pretends to be Sherlock Holmes.
 * The Doctor has kept Amy Pond's reading glasses and seems to be using them to read.
 * The Doctor attempts to use a Memory worm to erase Clara's memory.

Individuals

 * The Doctor is convinced to investigate the snow after hearing Clara's one-word plea to Vastra - "Pond."
 * Strax was revived after the Battle of Demon's Run.

Locations

 * The Doctor uses a tin with a map of the London Underground on it.

TARDIS

 * Upon first entering the Doctor's TARDIS, Clara describes it as "smaller on the outside" (which the Doctor describes as a first), and then asks if it has a kitchen (another first).

Story notes

 * This episode is noteworthy for three big changes:
 * The first is a new companion, Clara. This becomes the first Eleventh Doctor story in which Amy Pond does not appear (although she is indirectly referenced by the Doctor's reaction to the word "pond").
 * The second of these is the change to the TARDIS interior.
 * The third change is an update to the title sequence, which now includes the Doctor's face for the first time since Survival in 1989. To go along with the new titles, a new variation of the theme tune was used.
 * Like all previous opening titles of Series 7, this episode's "Doctor Who" logo texture matches with the theme of the episode; the letters appear to be made of ice and snow.
 * As is routine for Christmas specials, a "COMING SOON" trailer for the next series is shown at the end of the episode. This "COMING SOON" trailer features clips from the second half of Series 7.

Ratings
to be added

Filming locations

 * Fields House (The Orphanage)

Production errors
to be added

Continuity

 * Clara mentions baking soufflés, as Oswin did. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
 * Strax still has confusion over the difference between human females and human males. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War and PROSE: Devil in the Smoke) Another Sontaran, Linx, was initially confused when he encountered Sarah Jane Smith. (TV: The Time Warrior)
 * The Great Intelligence has previously appeared in TV: The Abominable Snowmen, TV: The Web of Fear, HOMEVID: Downtime, and PROSE: Millennial Rites.
 * The Doctor shows the Great Intelligence a lunchbox with a map of the London Underground, circa 1967. In The Web of Fear, which was filmed in 1967 and 1968, The Great Intelligence lures the Doctor to a trap in the London Underground. The Web of Fear may be set in the 1960s or 1970s, depending on one's view of the UNIT dating controversy.
 * The Doctor uses Amy Pond's reading glasses. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan) He seems to use them as his "brainy specs", as discussed between the Fifth and Tenth Doctors. (TV: Time Crash)
 * The Doctor reiterates that bowties are cool (TV: The Eleventh Hour et al.) It is implied through dialogue that he has not worn bowties in a while.
 * This is the second Christmas special in a row with a character named Digby, after the unseen Uncle Digby in TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.
 * The Doctor previously dressed in Sherlock Holmes type attire while visiting London of 1889. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)

Home video releases
to be added