Day 790: The Snowmen

Steven Moffat's Purple Period is not named that way to sum up the overall storytelling ethos behind the episodes from The Snowmen to The Time of the Doctor, instead it's named that way because the Eleventh Doctor tends to wear a purple coat in these adventures. I know, it's awfully imaginative of me to call it that. But, to be honest, there's not really that much that connects these stories together. The stories range wildly in terms of theme, as well as quality, creating a feeling of inconsistency that means that this period isn't looked on too fondly. We'll look into more of the reasons why it's difficult to love the Purple Period as it fully progresses, but I will just remark for now that, even though it's difficult to love as a whole, the individual episodes can actually be rather excellent. I would personally say that two of the episodes in the Purple Period are some of the best episodes ever produced in the history of Doctor Who, and there are a few others that I have a bit of a soft spot for. And chief amongst those episodes is The Snowmen.

I didn't get to see The Snowmen when it was first broadcast in Australia. This was because two of the four members of my family are reasonably large Tolkien fans, and instead wanted to go and see 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey', so we went as a family to see that instead. Returning home from that disappointing experience, it was near midnight and everyone else in the house decided to go to bed whilst I watched the recording that I'd made of the episode. The house was dark, and silent, which added to the mood of the story immeasurably.  The Snowmen is a story that feels wintry, particularly in terms of the lighting where it's kept down, allowing that darkness to contribute to the overall feel of the story.

The lighting also allows for contrast to be made when the story requires it, such as the flash-forward to present day Clara at the end of the episode, which feels completely and utterly different to the previous 56 minutes, further creating this mystery of the impossible girl. Similarly, the office of Madame Vastra is also brightly lit, although that is moreover done to establish a feeling of comfort. The outside Victorian streets all look dark and grey, which makes Clara's situation with respect to finding the Doctor feel slightly hopeless. But then, when she enters into the world of the Paternoster Gang, she's greeted with a miniature jungle, portraying a sense of warmth and friendliness that says that Vastra may actually be ready to listen. Then again, the more exotic set dressing, as well as the indication that Vastra is drinking something that looks suspiciously like red wine (my money's on the obscure and beautiful Australian drink: Portello), indicates that Vastra is still a character who is dangerous and that Clara will still have to work to earn her respect.

But of course, the biggest reason why things like lighting and special effects make an impact in this story is because of the magic trick that it pulls two-thirds into the episode. Clearly, Steven Moffat wanted to bring the feeling of a fairy tale back to Doctor Who, at least initially, and so the episode features strong magical imagery as the key memorable points, such as the invisible ladder leading to a spiral staircase, on top of which is a police box on a cloud. It's all rather beautiful, but it's not quite the most magical moment in the entire episode.

In one single shot, we see the Doctor walk into the TARDIS in one take. Then, turning on the lights, he not only reveals the new control room to the audience, but he also reveals to Clara that it's smaller on the outside. And, just for a moment, when I watched this at the dead of night, in a silent house, I believed that it was smaller on the outside as well. It's a beautiful magic trick, presenting an impossible illusion that not only can you not quite figure out how it was done on first glance, you almost don't want to figure out how it was done. It's because the TARDIS being bigger on the inside is such an every day part of Doctor Who that you forget that it's simply extraordinary, particularly as every other TARDIS entrance up until this point is obviously cutting from one scene to the other. But by doing the TARDIS entrance in such a unique way, it genuinely makes The Snowmen feel extraordinary.

And there's so much else to talk about in The Snowmen that just adds to the magic of the story. There's the Doctor's bow tie, the Paternoster Gang as a whole, the entire character of Clara, Murray Gold's beautiful score, and even the title sequence, which, whilst not fantastic, at least has one of the best endings to a title sequence in the history of Doctor Who. But I've unfortunately run out of time to talk about the episode (I've gone around half an hour over my self-imposed deadline for the entry), so maybe I'll get to talk about them some other time. For now, though, I'll leave you with this piece of advice: watch The Snowmen in the dark. Because, at the very least, some magic tricks work better when you can't see all that's happening in the background.