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Towards the end of Last Christmas (the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas special), Shona has a Christmas Day itinerary, the last item of which is "Forgive Dave???", which she ultimately checks off.

Considering the (albeit brief) focus on this (and the fact that some of the other items seem to relate to the episode), is there some deeper significance to the Dave item in particular, whether in or out of universe? Is it some kind of reference or just a random unimportant detail?

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    This is pure speculation on my part, but I can't help now but wonder if there was some bad blood between Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat. If so, this could be a way of Moffat saying it's over.
    – Generic Geek
    Dec 28, 2014 at 5:02
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    Unlikely; Moffat and Davies have consistently praised each other very highly ever since Moffat took over, and they seem to get along quite well. Moffat has said on a few occasions that Davies is always the first one to send him a congratulatory e-mail after any of his episodes air.
    – Amy
    Dec 31, 2014 at 18:05
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    “Last Christmas, I Dave you my heart”?
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Feb 21, 2016 at 4:39

4 Answers 4

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There are a few possibilities IMO:

  1. Dave is a really common generic guy name. A let down perhaps, but it could simply refer to her significant other she's presumably estranged from and wants to forgive in the spirit of Christmas.
  2. It could be a pop culture reference. A Game of Thrones marathon was also on her list, as well as a second reference to Alien. This is a possibility, especially since Dave is a TV channel in the UK, and there are several TV shows with a Dave character.
  3. If you're a crazy fan with a ridiculous memory and unshakeable faith, Dave has actually appeared in-universe before in Forest of the Dead. In fact, there were two Daves there. But, considering the time of separation (both in reality and in-universe) and the little significance of the Daves, this is more of an interesting tidbit than anywhere near an actual link.
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    I don't think you require "a ridiculous memory" or being "a crazy fan" to recall the Daves from River's first appearance, just four years ago. Indeed, if you can't remember that, I'm likely to ask you: "hey! who turned out the lights?"
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Jan 8, 2015 at 17:43
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit - I very much doubt that Shona has any connection with those Daves though.
    – Tim
    Jul 28, 2017 at 2:05
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I have a sneaking suspicion we're going to see Shona again. Thus this is a new thread to be explored in the next season. I don't think there's anything more that we can say about it right now, since Dave was not mentioned elsewhere in Last Christmas.

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  • Right, especially since there were references to basically everything else from her list, and nothing about Dave it makes sense that it is an allusion to a future story.
    – Dave Johnson
    Jan 12, 2015 at 15:24
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Faye Marsay (the actress who played Shona) also played a character called the Waif in Game of Thrones. If you look at her list, right before "forgive Dave" is "Thrones Marathon". This is definitely referring to her stint on Game of Thrones. She died.

And Dave has just got to be a reference to David Benioff who is executive producer, showrunner and scriptwriter for Game of Thrones.

![The list in question]1

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    One HUGE problem with this theory, unless you own an actual TARDIS: Last Christmas is from 2014, and The Waif didn't even appear on Game of Thrones until 2015, and wasn't killed until 2016.
    – Martha
    Jul 27, 2017 at 23:53
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    This is just simply wrong, she couldn't possibly have been mad at him for killing her in a role she didn't even have yet.
    – Obsidia
    Jul 28, 2017 at 0:41
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    @Bellatrix weeeeeell... Ms Marsay first appeared in Game of Thrones in season 5, which was filmed between July and December 2014. Last Christmas was filmed in September 2014. I’d thus suspect Ms Marsay had at least been cast in Thrones when filming Last Christmas. The idea of “forgive Dave” being a reference to her Thrones character’s future death seems a stretch though.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Jul 28, 2017 at 11:59
  • Maybe she was trying to get on Game of Thrones and didn't make it and then before the episode was shot got the word she would appear?
    – DAs Looney
    Jul 31, 2017 at 16:00
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Dave is also mentioned in Nightmare in Silver. "Dave's discount interstellar removals... They were meant to be here six months ago, that's Dave for you, unreliable" Expect future character, Returned but always there.

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