Dr Who

I thought the first five minutes or so were jaw droppingly bad, I nearly turned off, but as the explanation emerged it sort of made some sense.
For me though, it became uneccessarily convoluted with the twist within a twist within a twist, just trying to be clever for the sake of it. And Danny Pink ... why oh why oh why ... one of the dullest characters ever, let him rest in peace for all our sakes.
As for the ending, less said the better!

Rammy and circles, I agree with both of you and I quite enjoyed it too.

I've been very critical of Peter Capaldi's tenure so far as you know, although more because of bad writing from Moffat and his team than Capaldi - he's a decent actor and give him decent scripts to work with and he will deliver. So when I found out it was going to be featuring Santa and elves I was loading the cannons for another broadside at Mr Moffat. However, I was very pleasantly surprised.

The changes in direction were brilliant, just brilliant work to keep the viewer guessing. All the different things crammed in actually worked very well and the explanation for the existence of the characters seemed to fit perfectly. Some repetition but that's only a minor quibble - the Xmas episode has a bit more licence to go for it. I'm not surprised they put all the different recognitions to other shows in to this one, you could tell both cast and crew were really enjoying themselves with the story.

So what I also expected to be a crock of idiotic, childish bulls##t was actually a very enjoyable piece of television and the only thing really worth watching for me on what was an otherwise crap day of Xmas telly. Well done and thank you to Who for a decent Christmas night. Very pleased.

Lots of online opinions flying around.
A lot of people saying 'old' Clara was meant to die in the Dr's arms, with them having healed their rift, but then JC decided to stay on, so it was hastily re-written with doc going back to the 'young' Clara, and her apparently somehow knowing she had been old. Could certainly be the case, that ending was clunky at best.
Many saying Shona is/was to be the new companion. Not just the dynamic between her and the doc, but some picking up on her saying he looked like a magician, and the first episode of the next series 'The Magicians Apprentice'.

Munch it's interesting you mentioned Shona - during the show I actually thought the same thing about her potential as a future companion and replacement for if/when JLC does quit. She's feisty, seemed to strike a good back and forth banter with the Doctor and I reckon she's the kind of girl who's up for an adventure. As long as she hasn't got an annoying boyfriend on the side who's going to get in the way of that adventuring she'd be fine.

I have tried to look up some details for the Magician's Apprentice but not having much luck so far. I'm guessing they're keeping the new series very much under wraps as there were far too many leaks this year.

I thought it was quite pleasing. I could pick out some things that I wondered about if I wanted to - only six people part of the dream crab invasion. What of the rest of Earth? (Obviously you would discount the rest of earth if you were still dreaming, but i'm not sure that was an intentional point from Moffat), that would be petty on my part though, as I felt the balance of Christmas/childishness and a story with some suspense and mystery (and a huge dose of Inception) was just about right for a Christmas special. It served as entertainment without becoming annoying. The episode was well directed by Paul Wilmshurst, who's episodes stood out stylistically in series 8, too.

And now the internet will be full of excited debate about tangerines. It was an easy open-ended finish that kids can have fun with.

the tv channel Watch is having a Dr Who Xmas Weekender starting at 10am this morning and finishing tomorrow afternoon, showing dr who xmas specials starting with The Christmas Invasion (David Tenant's full dr who debut) and finishing with the 2013 Xmas Special The Time Of The Doctor

Just glad the Doctor wasn't saving the entire planet again and becoming some world wide super hero. Loved the homage to Alien/Aliens and kept the Santa role within the realms of fantasy/dream etc.

I'm glad I didn't watch it live, I'd have gone mad. It wasn't bad as a sort of closing chapter on the last series, but as a Christmas special? Do me a favour.