Doctor Who Episode Guide - The Christmas Invasion
Table of contents for doctor who episode guide tenth doctor
- Doctor Who Episode Guide - The Tenth Doctor
- Doctor Who Episode Guide - The Christmas Invasion
- Doctor Who Episode Guide - New Earth
- Doctor Who Episode Guide - Tooth and Claw
Teaser:
It's Christmas Eve when Jackie Tyler and Mickie Smith hear the familiar sound of the TARDIS arriving near the Powerll Estate in London. Instead of a tidy landing though, the TARDIS crashes down and when the doors open a man appears and promptly passes out. But this isn't the Doctor they are familiar with…
First Broadcast: 25 December 2005
Running Time: 58′54″
UK Rating: 9.2 million
Writer: Russell T Davies
Director: James Hawes
Cast:
The Doctor - David Tennant
Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
Harriet Jones - Penelope Wilton; Danny Llewellyn - Daniel Evans; Alex - Adam Garcia; Sycorax Leader - Sean Gilder; Major Blake - Chu Omambala; Sally - Anita Breim; Sandra - Sian McDowall; Jason - Paul Anderson; Mum - Cathy Murphy; Policeman - Sean Carlsen; Newsreader 1 - Jason Mohammed; Newsreader 2 - Sagar Arya; Newsreader 3- Lachele Carl;
Notes:
Harriet Jones (played by Penelope Wilton) appeared in series one of Doctor Who in the episodes Aliens of London and World War Three and is now Prime Minister.
There are a number of historical Doctor Who references in this episode incuding ones to UNIT, The Ice Warriors and the fourth doctor's scarf.
Links:
Doctor Who - Tenth Doctor Episode Guide
« Doctor Who Episode Guide - The Tenth Doctor - Doctor Who Episode Guide - New Earth »
Have any information about this episode? Please post a comment below.
Eoghann Irving is amongst other things the creator and Editor of Solar Flare. He has a life long interest in all forms of science fiction and fantasy and a pressing need to share this interest with anyone who will listen. Find out more at his personal website eoghann.com..| 2.9 |
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Well worth listening to is the Christmas Invasion Commentary Track which is available for legitimate download here: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/xmascommentary.mp3
Okay, the episode itself. It’s odd to feel oneself getting used to solid production values, top-notch effects and decent actors when talking about Doctor Who, but it is worth mentioning given the particularly low production values - even by Doctor Who classic series standards - of previous Doctor Who specials, notably the awful Children In Need charity episodes (”Five Doctors” excepted). Regeneration episodes are also notably poor and directionless. This, however, is as solid as any 2005 season episode.
It’s written by RTD himself so you have to prepare yourself for a certain amount of kitch, and what with the Christmas theme, things could have gone way out of hand. As it happens, there isn’t as much as I had feared - a very brief scene with some killer robot Santas (which were never fully explained; if the aliens were capable of controlling humans, why bother with robots?) and another very brief encounter with a spinning christmas tree of death (again, why?). All in all only about 40 seconds of kitch, which is pretty good for an RTD episode. However I am beginning to tire of this silliness, so was grateful that it didn’t interferre as much as I feared.
The Doctor spends most of the episode ill in bed, and according to the commentary, RTD wanted to illustrate just how helpless Rose and indeed the whole of Earth would be without the Doctor. This is further re-inforced by Penelope Wilton’s excellent reprisal of her role of politician Harriet Jones, now Prime Minister. Since she cannot rely on the Doctor to defend Earth, she puts a devastating plan codenamed Torchwood into action. This harks back to a number of British millitary actions where we have historically been guilty of overkill (Dresden carpet bombing, the sinking of the Belgrano and the Amritsar Massacre to name but a few), supposedly to deter others from attacking or rebelling against us.
There are a number of very direct Hitchhikers’ references throughout the episode (the Doc spends most of the time in a dressing gown, similar to the Hitchiker’s hero Arthur Dent; H2G2 author Douglas Adams also wrote some classic series episodes), and nods to several previous Doctor Who costumes at the end of the story.
Tennant puts in a superb performance once recovered, a little angrier and far more boysterous than the sullen, shellshocked Ecclestone’s Doc. This serves to highlight the clowning around that the supporting characters of Rose’s family and friends had previously been guilty of - they are noticably toned down in this episode despite it being focussed heavily on Rose’s compatriots.
A good, but not great, episode. Tennant shines, but this is hopefully the last we’ll see of the family kitch fluff for a while. That said, it did draw in the ratings, so maybe the family angle is what kept almost half the population hooked.
Jan 31st, 2006
Reply to “Doctor Who Episode Guide - The Christmas Invasion”