This year's Christmas episode of Doctor Who gave fans a real holiday gift by finally letting us know that Jenna Coleman will remain on for at least another season of the series.
This comes after much speculation that this episode, "Last Christmas," was Coleman's last as Clara Oswald, companion to the Doctor. Earlier this year, rumors circulated that Coleman was leaving the series and that her character would say her goodbyes in the Christmas special.
Please note that the following contains spoilers for "Last Christmas."
Clara's fate hung in the balance during the previous episode, "Death In Heaven," when the Doctor and Clara parted ways with hugs and lies. In "Last Christmas," which featured a very Inception-like storyline featuring dreams within dreams created by face-hugging crab-like creatures, the end of the episode showed the Doctor not visiting Clara again until 62 years after the events of the previous episode, with Clara grown old, certainly too old for traveling in the TARDIS.
However, we soon learn that this was merely another dream within a dream and once the Doctor and Clara really wake up (we hope), the two reunite and Clara agrees to join the Doctor once more on his adventures. The episode ends with the announcement, "The Doctor and Clara will return in 'The Magician's Apprentice.'
After the episode, Coleman announced her intention to stay with the series.
"It's wonderful," Coleman says. "I get a whole other series of stories with the Doctor and I couldn't walk away with the story being unresolved. "There is so much more to do. I think they've finally just reached a point where they really understand each other.
"The arrival of the 12th Doctor has just kind of dropped this whole bombshell and allowed the dynamic to totally change, so I think just when Clara was feeling more comfortable in the relationship, it has suddenly thrown something new up."
"I'm thrilled," says Peter Capaldi, the actor behind the 12th Doctor. "Jenna has just been fantastic and such a pleasure to work with."
Last night's episode marked the first Christmas special for Capaldi as the Doctor. And according to the Radio Times, most fans of the series enjoyed this particular outing as he took a very Scrooge-like turn during the episode, perhaps smiling on camera as the Doctor for the first time.
Coleman's character, Clara, also traveled with 11th Doctor, Matt Smith, which means that next season officially marks her as the longest-running companion in the series' history since its revival in 2005.
