The Mirror 's Jon Cooper also praised Coleman and the new side of the Doctor that was shown , comparing it to Rose Tyler ( Billie Piper ) challenging the Ninth Doctor ( Christopher Eccleston ) . However , he felt the character @-@ heavy story was to the detriment of the plot , which was " a classic Who set @-@ up that ultimately suffers from a lack of explanation [ and ] more set @-@ pieces than a coherent whole " . He felt that the episode may not have been accessible for casual viewers , but offered much for fans in time for the programme 's fiftieth anniversary . Dominic Cavendish of The Daily Telegraph gave " The Snowmen " three out of five stars , disappointed that it was not as scary as it had been hyped to be . While he was positive towards Smith and the TARDIS on the cloud , he criticised Strax and the " Sudoku @-@ like complexity " of the script .