What Did You Think Of The Last Christmas Costars?

Christian Cawley is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

With five key co-stars (plus a couple of elves), Steven Moffat still managed to keep things pretty tight in Last Christmas, enabling the guest cast to rise above the sort of one-line nonsense given to Tessa Peake-Jones in The Time of the Doctor or June Whitfield in The End of Time and introduce us to some interesting characters.

In our opinion they were all pretty memorable, so let’s take a look at Faye Marsay, Natalie Gumede, Nick Frost, Michael Troughton and Maureen Beattie.

Faye Marsay

Perhaps most notable was Shona, a lady with a Teesside/North Yorkshire accent (she’s from a small town called Loftus, midway between Middlesbrough and Whitby) who has set the Internet alight with her frankly awesome dance early on in the Doctor Who Christmas special. We shiouldn’t overlook her memorable, honest performance, either. Says the actress herself:

I'm going out tonight – I shall definitely be reprising the 'Shona Shuffle' after popular demand. Watch out Teesside!

— Faye Marsay (@FayeMarsay) December 26, 2014

Natalie Gumede

Best known to TV viewers as barmy husband beating copper Kirsty Soames in Coronation Street and as a runner up in 2013’s series of Strictly Come Dancing, Natalie Gumede was barely unrecognisable in Last Christmas in her role as a scientist on the polar base. It seems that the actress stuggles with claustrophobia, actually, and recalled some difficulty with the face-hugging Dream Crab prop.

“For the most part, I didn’t have to wear one. There were only a couple of moments I had to and the crew and director were really kind, only asking me to put it on at the last second. It wasn’t too unpleasant an experience, they made it as nice as they could.”

Nick Frost

Probably best known for his association with Simon Pegg (2005’s The Long Game) Nick Frost made a raher excellent Santa Claus, we thought. The star of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End and Paul also appeared in Spaced on TV with Pegg and Jessica Hynes (Human Nature/Family of Blood, The End of Time Part Two) so it was really only a matter of time before he ended up in Doctor Who.

Thanks for all the Santa goodwill. What smashing fun. Merry Christmas everyone… Merry Christmas…

#DrWho

— Nick Frost (@nickjfrost) December 25, 2014

Maureen Beattie

Brief flirting with Professor Fiona Bellows by the Doctor helped to push the story in Last Christmas along a little and Beattie – who eagle eyed Saturday night viewers may recognise from the early years of Casualty – made her mark on the story.

Perhaps most notable was her short “awakening” scene.

Michael Troughton

Even if he wasn’t the son of the Second Doctor, Michael Troughton would be linked to Doctor Who through his older brother David (The War Games, The Monster of Peladon, Midnight) and like Frost it was really only a matter of time before he appeared in the vicinity of the police box. As Professor Albert, he brought some inappropriate humour to the story, but his links with the show’s past (as well as reminding this writer of the late Rik Mayall thanks to his regular appearance in The New Statesman) made his casting particularly appropriate.

Oh, and he was on set for some of The Web of Fear, as he recalled in Doctor Who Extra…

Elves

You all know Dan Starkey from his regular appearances as domesticated Sontaran nurse/butler/warrior Strax, so his appearance in Last Christmas as the elf “Ian” (a slightly unimaginative name for one of Santa’s helpers) gave him some prosthetic-free screen time. Meanwhile, Wolf was played by Nathan McMullen, best known as Finn Samson in Misfits.

Samuel Anderson

Finally, and arguably the biggest surprise of the episode, was the presence of Samuel Anderson reprising Danny Pink from the afterlife in one of Clara’s dream states.

Kept this one secret!! Merry Christmas ya filthy #whovians!! And a happy new year

A photo posted by Samuel (@theblackpaddy) on Dec 12, 2014 at 12:02pm PST

There must have been a few damp eyes in the house when they said goodbye again…

So, who was your favourite Last Christmas guest character? What did you think of the supporting cast performances?

The post What Did You Think Of The Last Christmas Costars? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.