The number one favorite of any show is always a personal choice. This is not only my number one choice for Doctor Who, but for any TV series. I have watched this one so many times.It helps that Clara is my favorite companion and Matt Smith is my favorite Doctor. Clara is sassy and smart and brave and of course beautiful.This episode has so many great moments which reflects the superb writing. My favorite is when Clara proclaims "It's smaller on the outside". In the same scene, she asks "where is the kitchen" which takes us back to the Asylum of the Daleks. There is also her sarcastic observations while Strax fumbles with the memory worm. The One Word test is brilliant and brings a tear when she answers "Pond". Another tear comes when the Doctor offers a key to the Tardis saying "I never know why, only who." Clara's second test with the umbrella is brilliant and she shows here Doctor-like intellect by solving it. Clara's imminent death brings tears to the children which appropriately is more powerful than the influence of the GI. And of course "Run, you clever boy, and remember" which breaks the Doctor's self imposed curse after Amy's loss and energizes him to find his "Impossible girl". Rarely does a one hour TV episode have so many brilliant moments and without scanning it again, I'm sure I missed some.As for acting, I've already mentioned Matt Smith is my favorite Doctor as reflected by his great delivery of wise-cracks combined with his physical comedy. And somehow his very presence demands respect. Jenna Coleman is perfect as the sassy and intelligent Clara.

Since Steven Moffat has taken the helm after RTD left producing the show, I have been repeatedly disappointed in the direction of the series. Of all actors that have played the Doctor, I find Matt Smith on the same level as Colin Baker in "entertainment value." I should clarify my favorite actors as the Doctor were Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison and David Tennant in that order. The scripts are also hit or miss as well. That said; I enjoyed this episode more than others from the past season. First, the opening credits are FANTASTIC! The orchestration is wonderful coupled with a return of the image of the Doctors' face in the very well done graphics! The story was okay although I expected Clara to say "Spit Spot" to the kids at some point and pull a tall lamp out of her bag. Also, using a Sontaran as comic relief seemed a bit silly. Killer Smowmen from outer space with a floating spaceship (TARDIS) in the clouds seems like a bad B-Movie plot from the 1950's and the conclusion to the episode is a bit confusing. And if we must have a villain, I don't think the "cute, sexy and lick-the-mirror handsome" Doctor Richard E.Grant was the best choice.I am sure there was an intent of a cliff hanger but it was more of a "what in the heck just happened" moment (IMHO). There was good action, great music and Clara (Oswin) is really a perfect companion for the Doctor. Hopefully, she can hang on for a regeneration and a better Doctor will be cast in the role...soon! I long for the days when RTD brought excellent stories every week, or even when John Nathan Turner was in charge. I should clarify that Steven Moffat has had some good episodes such as "Blink" but nothing consistent.Doctor Who is something I look forward to on Christmas Day, and I am hopeful that future episodes will improve. I would not want to see the Doctor go back on the shelf like it did in 1989.

The Doctor is back! I admit, I did not expect too much out of this Christmas Special, particularly after last year's disappointment. The Moffinator gave us a mish-mash of crowd-pleasers, from the nod to Sherlock (the fangirl in me died in ecstasy), to the blazing chemistry between Eleven and his to-be companion (River Song will be so displeased). What 'The Snowmen' lacked was a strong story (and the antagonists weren't scary at all), which quite evidently took a backseat to Clara's. This one essentially works not as a self-sufficient Christmas Special, but rather as an introduction to what we can expect from the rest of the series, specifically the intriguing connection between Oswin from Asylum of the Daleks and Clara.

Although I generally hold Steven Moffat in high regard - thanks in no small part to the brilliant "Sherlock" - this episode to me marked one too many Doctor Who stories resolved by something of the form: "humans showing a deep emotion is all-powerful". Don't get me wrong, I have no beef with a "love conquers all"-type ending; I wouldn't be watching Doctor Who if I did. My point is that I don't much like it when a big complicated crisis (typically the impending doom of humanity, planet Earth or even the entire universe) is literally and *directly* solved by something like "a mother's love", or "children crying", or everyone just wishing really hard. Why? Because it's cheating! It's lazy storytelling. It's a deus ex machina where even the deus is poorly worked out, and it means you don't get a satisfying return on your emotional investment in the plot.So it is with this story. One gets the feeling that Moffat wasn't that interested in writing a plot for the episode to begin with. It seems like really all it was about for him was getting to the end, where we are introduced to the mystery that will presumably form the story arc for the next season. And then he hastily fills in the rest of the episode with some vague christmassy threat, only to dispel it all too easily and through very little involvement of the Doctor.I don't want that, Mr. Moffat. I want you to care about individual episodes as well as about big, clever, season-spanning mysteries. But perhaps even more so, I would like the Doctor to be a hero again, for once. Not one of the swashbuckling, gun-slinging variety (hell no: I want specs, brains and quirkiness), but simply somebody who actually properly saves the bloody day, rather than wait until something sufficiently touching happens that automatically does the job for him. He's a Time Lord, for crying out loud! Also, new console room: meh, Jenna Louise Coleman: meh. But I'm hoping to change my mind on those two counts.