Doctor Who: Last Christmas

At a base at the pole there is a crew who cannot remember who they are or how they got there. Creatures that attach to the face and eat their host while keeping them asleep and dreaming have moved in. The Doctor and Clara land in the same place, and Santa Claus is there too, which is not absurd, because nobody can be sure they are awake. Steven Moffat builds the episode openly on Alien and Inception and presents a dream-within-a-dream structure in the costume of a Christmas special. Nick Frost plays Santa and makes the part funny by taking it seriously. The episode's actual job is to resolve the separation the previous season left between the Doctor and Clara, and it does so with an emotionally hard scene. Who it is for: Doctor Who viewers and anyone who likes the Christmas specials. Who it is not for: newcomers to the series, since all the emotional weight arrives from the previous season.