The Snowmen

This article is about the Doctor Who episode. For other uses, see Snowman (disambiguation).

231 – "The Snowmen"
Doctor Who episode
Promotional poster for The Snowmen
Cast
Doctor Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor)
Companion Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara Oswald)
Guest Richard E. Grant – Dr Simeon Dan Starkey – Strax Catrin Stewart – Jenny Flint Neve McIntosh – Madame Vastra Tom Ward – Captain Latimer Liz White – Alice Joseph Darcey-Alden – Digby Ellie Darcey-Alden – Francesca Sir Ian McKellen – The Great Intelligence Juliet Cadzow – Voice of the Ice Governess Jim Conway – Uncle Josh Cameron Strefford – Young Walter Annabelle Dowler – Walter's Mother Ben Addis – Bob Chilcott Daniel Hyde – Lead Worker Sophie Miller-Sheen – Girl
Production
Directed by	Saul Metzstein
Written by	Steven Moffat
Produced by	Marcus Wilson
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Caroline Skinner
Series	Series 7
Running time	60 minutes
First broadcast	25 December 2012 (2012-12-25)
Chronology
← Preceded by "P.S." (mini-webisode) "The Angels Take Manhattan" (episode) Followed by → TBA

"The Snowmen" is the sixth episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on Christmas Day 2012 at 5.15pm on BBC channels in the UK, the same day on BBC America, in the US and Space in Canada, and set for Wednesday 26 December at 7.30pm on ABC1 Australia, it is the show's eighth Christmas special since its revival in 2005. It stars Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara, the new companion, following the departure of Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) in the previous episode.

The episode is set in Victorian times and guest stars Richard E. Grant and Ian McKellen (voice only) as the villains. It also saw a redesign of the TARDIS interior and an update to the iconic theme and title sequence.

Plot

The plot begins in a small Victorian orphanage, with a young boy who plays alone in the snow, building a snowman. As he builds this, he speaks how the other children are "silly" and he "doesn't need anybody." The snowman he has built then mimics him, and promises to help him. The story then skips forwards fifty years, to when the boy is a successful businessman, having homeless people from the streets of London collect excess ice from snowmen and collect it in jars, with the promises of food. He then turns on them, after speaking to a swirling mass of snow within a giant globe in his office, and he feeds the homeless men to the snowmen they had been tending to.

Prequels

A prequel was broadcast during the 2012 Children in Need telethon on 16 November 2012, titled "The Great Detective". A trailer for the special was also broadcast during this programme. In the prequel, the Silurian Madame Vastra, her human assistant Jenny Flint, and the Sontaran Strax (all returning from "A Good Man Goes to War") describe a number of strange phenomena to a shadowed fourth detective. The fourth detective reveals himself to be the Doctor, and tells the group that he has retired.

A second prequel, titled "Vastra Investigates", was released online on 17 December 2012. At the end of a case, Vastra and Jenny converse with an officer from Scotland Yard, apologising for Strax's violent wishes for the culprit's punishment. Vastra explains Strax's alien origin as well as her own to the officer, much to his astonishment. She explains that she was awoken from underground by a train and initially disliked humans, though that changed when she fell in love with Jenny, which leaves the officer flabbergasted. On the carriage ride home, during a discussion about the Doctor's retirement, Jenny notices it is beginning to snow. Vastra voices that the snow is impossible due to the fact that there are no clouds in the sky.

Continuity

The (Second) Doctor previously encountered the Great Intelligence in the serials The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear. In these encounters the Great Intelligence uses robot yeti as its physical presence. The events of The Web of Fear are alluded to by The Doctor.

Vastra, Jenny and Strax first appeared in "A Good Man Goes to War". Strax's death in that episode is stated by the Doctor as having been reversed but it is not explained in full.

Production

Writer Steven Moffat stated that he wanted an "epic" quality to the Christmas special. He compared the withdrawn Doctor seen at the onset of the episode to the First Doctor (William Hartnell) in 1963 and the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) in 2005. He also attributed the idea of a retired doctor to a plot proposed by Douglas Adams in the 1970s, but rejected by the then production team. Matt Smith said that Clara was different from her predecessor Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), which allowed the audience to see a different side of the Doctor. Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax previously appeared in the episode "A Good Man Goes to War" of the previous series, where they are part of an army of allies the Doctor recruits. Vastra and Jenny proved to be popular, and Moffat considered a spin-off, though he did not have the time to do it. Instead, he decided to bring them back.

"The Snowmen" was originally intended to be produced in the fourth production block of the series and be the first episode Coleman shot as her character; however it did not begin filming until the week of 6 August 2012 after Coleman had worked on later episodes while Moffat was writing the Christmas special. Scenes featuring Coleman and several guest stars in a Victorian setting were filmed in Newport, Wales, while Coleman and Smith were also spotted filming in Bristol two weeks later on 21 August. The park and Georgian buildings featured are in Portland Square, Bristol, where filming took place overnight on 21-22 August 2012.

"The Snowmen" is the debut of a redesigned TARDIS interior, as well as a new title sequence and variation of the theme tune. The Doctor also sports a new costume, tying in to the purple colour scheme, which Smith described as "a bit Artful Dodger meets the Doctor".