The 2014 series had been a bit patchy, even if the two part finale smoothed over some of the annoyances. It even had the audacity to end with a heart stopping kick in the gut as a moping Doctor is told exactly what the viewers are thinking "You know it can't end like that. She's not OK and neither are you..." by none other than the ephemeral Santa Claus! The line between fantasy and fiction can be hard to define but is something Doctor Who occasionally flirts with and has an unwritten understanding of haw far it can go. Indeed, this series had already seen the legend of Robin Hood given a reasonable explanation but doing the same for Santa was surely pushing it too far...
The opening scene of Last Christmas seemed to reinforce the premise as Clara is woken by the sound of Santa's sleigh crashing on her roof and elves arguing amongst themselves! The Doctor arrives in the TARDIS and tells her to not say anything and just get in... and so the adventure begins. Clara can hardly believe that she is back in the TARDIS but she's loving it already so when the Doctor asks her if she really believes in Santa, as if her life depended on it, she gleefully says "You know what? Yeah. Right now, yeah, I think I do"... Roll opening titles complete with extra snow storm for the TARDIS to fly through (no jingle bells in the music though!)...It looks like it's going to be a regrettable, silly Christmasy episode.
