3. Over a thousand years of saving the universe, and do you know the one thing I learned? The universe doesnt care.
The Doctor we meet in The Snowmen has withdrawn completely from the world. Hes lost his Ponds, who were for him home. Hes retreated to a cloud, he only comes out at night (seriously, re-watch the episode: hes not outside during the day until the very end), and he embracing a rather cynical view of human nature. The reasoning he offers for his refusal to engage in the world, possibility-of-the-end-of-the-universe be damned, is that the universe doesnt care. The implication here is that, if the universe doesnt care (taken another way, if capital-G God doesnt care), then why should the Doctor care? Its a moment of illumination for the audience of the new Doctor we meet in The Snowmen, and Smith delivers it brilliantly. Hes looks so very, very lonely, as he tells Strax his new philosophy of life, and he almost smiles once or twice in there, like its almost a relief to not care anymore. But, of course, by the end of the episode the Doctor will have met a girl who made him care about the universe again. And maybe the universe doesnt care or make bargains, but Clara wouldnt have been there if she didnt.