The Christmas Invasion (2005) Review

Fun fact: David Tennant was so enthused about his recent villainous turn
in Harry Potter that his first take on the Doctor was to simply keep
playing Barty Crouch Jr. It was the tongue-licking that finally forced Billie Piper
to give him "the talk".

The Christmas Invasion is complete nonsense, but is anchored by a strong debut performance by David Tennant.

WRITTEN BY

Russell T. Davies, clearly focusing more on establishing the characteristics of the new Doctor rather than story.

PLOT

Shortly after the TARDIS crashlands back at the Powell Estate, an aggressive species known as the Sycorax threaten Earth and it's up to the human race to protect themselves as the Doctor sleeps through the invasion...

ANALYSIS

The story itself is waffle that feels like RTD made up as he went along for the sake of just having something going on. As a threat, the Sycorax are incredibly thin - they're basically meanies who want Earth's goodies, and have no consistent way of going about it. The first half of the episode is truly dire, with cheesy Christmas-themed "pilot fish" things pursuing the Tylers and Mickey whilst the most interesting part of the story is taking a nap.

RTD's choice to keep Tennant out of the picture until the very end doesn't work in my opinion. Yes, it shows how important the Doctor is to the story as everything falls apart without him, but the problem is that so did my interest. If the episode had been good enough to warrant my full attention, then I might've been on the edge of my seat, waiting to see the Doctor fix this chaotic situation, but instead, I was mostly just bored because I could see that RTD clearly didn't care about anything here except his idea for introducing the new Doctor.
The fact that the Sycorax seem completely unaware of the Doctor's existence on Earth whilst the pilot fish somehow know enough to pursue his companions shows how lazy the plotting is. It's all just an excuse to get Earth into enough trouble so that the Doctor is the only one who can solve everything.

That being said, the transition to a new Doctor is handled spectacularly well. In a fairly short amount of time, RTD manages to show off various different facets of his personality whilst also proving without a doubt that he is the same individual as Eccleston's incarnation. And of course, Tennant is very likable in the role and so the episode ends on a very positive, charming note. But it doesn't make me forget that the majority of it was just blah.

CHARACTERS

David Tennant is incredibly peppy and excited to be playing the Doctor, and his infectious enthusiasm brightens up the entire episode. However, it's not all fluff. Tennant clearly took a lot of cues from Eccleston, and I could really see echoes of the Ninth Doctor when I was looking at him. At times, it genuinely felt like I was watching that Doctor in a different body, and I think that's the strongest aspect of post-regeneration stories. Despite his more immediately approachable exterior, the ruthlessness is still clearly there.

And I'm not just talking about the unsubtle "no second chances" moment, but rather the scene where the Doctor deliberately alters Earth's history by undoing Harriet Jones's tenure as Prime Minister out of personal prejudice towards the woman. Morally speaking, I was on the Doctor's side of the argument, but it was an incredibly rash action from him.

Billie Piper does not come out of The Christmas Invasion looking very good. Whilst I can understand her grief and confusion over losing the Ninth Doctor, I cannot stand daft accusations of how "the Doctor wouldn't be like this, he'd wake up and do something!". Does Rose not understand how illness works? She seems to have developed some kind of superhero perspective of the Doctor, which is both dangerous and gives off a delusional impression. However, I don't think that's intentional, I believe RTD simply wanted the audience to briefly have doubt in the new Doctor before reaffirming him. The way he did it was just hamfisted, that's all.

It was great to see Penelope Wilton reprise the role of a much more confident and iron-willed Harriet Jones. You almost get the sense that she's developing into the new series version of the Brigadier until that twist of an ending. Turning Harriet into a morally ambiguous figure was a great choice to unbalance the episode's positive mood, but in retrospect, I am kind of sad that her character is essentially shelved after this. I feel like had she remained Prime Minister, we could've had more interesting interactions with her and the Doctor.

Nothing new to really say about Coduri or Clarke, as they're basically there to support Rose, again. They're good actors and all, but we'll have to get into Series 2 before we see them really evolve independently.

The rest of the cast are all basically props, so I'm not even going to get into them. They all work fine for what they have, but they're not remotely rounded or memorable characters.

NOTES

*The Born Again minisode would probably slightly disrupt the pacing of the episode, but I can't help being irritated that the first chronological scene with Tennant's Doctor was cut out.

*Satsuma is such an odd word. I prefer tangerine(which is what the Twelfth Doctor will call them).

*As of this episode, Earth is overall aware of alien life.

*Whilst I didn't really have a problem with the Bad Wolf arc's resolution, it does create an awkward precedent where one wonders why Rose doesn't simply do it again. I mean, she'd most likely die this time, but it'd be kinda worth it to save Earth. Mickey brings it up actually, but she shoots him down with a vague "I feel like it's forbidden" line.

*I don't mind the Doctor growing a new hand, but why doesn't he bleed for a second? The fleshy CGI stump looked really awkward to me.

*The Doctor's pyjama-and-bathrobe combo is an obvious visual reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy(written by Douglas Adams, who edited the scripts for season 17).

*Why do the Sycorax have a button on the outside of their ship that causes part of the ship to be detracted?

*I liked the subtle callback to Harriet being ignored at 10 Downing Street - she makes sure her underlings get coffee and asks them their names.

*Why would Harriet mention on live TV that the Queen is on the roof?? Not to mention "I don't know what to do". That won't create panic at all.

*The charged lightning whip is very similar to Ferengi weapons from Star Trek: The Next Generation(albeit more deadly here).

*I love the use of tea as a plot device.

*Apparently, the Doctor is familiar with Days Of Our Lives, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy as well as Lion King, and it had to be from his previous incarnations. The fact that he's familiar with Adams's work in-universe is particularly bewildering, as the Fourth Doctor was seen reading a book by Oolun Coluphid in Destiny Of The Daleks.

*I don't really get how the Doctor asking Alex "doesn't she look tired?" ends up toppling Harriet's regime? Did he somehow make it subliminal or just putting the thought into his head made him start to question her and spread it around? If it's the latter, isn't he aware that's just what the Doctor wants? Because he said those words would topple her regime in Alex's earshot. So I think he should be aware that he's being manipulated here.

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) At one point, Major Blake informs Llewellyn that "Martians don't look like that", which seems to be a reference to the Ice Warriors. They've never fought UNIT onscreen, but in Castrovalva, the Fifth Doctor did recall battling them alongside the Brigadier.

2) There's a lot of season 7 vibes in this episode. The Doctor's speech about Earth making noise and being noticed is very close to how the Brigadier introduces UNIT in Spearhead From Space. The British 'Guinevere One' probe also brings to mind the 'Recovery Seven' from The Ambassadors Of Death and how its capture resulted in alien contact.

3) The character of Harriet Jones first appeared in Aliens Of London/World War Three, which set up her rise to power as Prime Minister.

4) Torchwood is established as a contemporary institute, after being mentioned in Bad Wolf.

5) Rose attempts to improvise a defence for Earth, which references the Slitheen, the Gelth, the Shadow Proclamation, the Mighty Jagrafess and the Daleks, all of whom appeared or were mentioned in the previous season.

6) We see the TARDIS's wardrobe near the end of the episode, which contains various clothing easter eggs(including the Fourth Doctor's scarf and Steven's The Celestial Toymaker sweater).

7) Mickey suggests opening up the console again to operate the TARDIS, as Rose did in Parting Of The Ways.

8) The Doctor cheers Rose up with his predecessor's catchphrase, "fantastic!".

BEST QUOTE

"From the day they arrived on the planet and blinking stepped into the sun. There is more to be seen that can ever be seen, more to do than... hold on, that's the Lion King. But the point still stands!" What can I say, I love the Lion King and I love Doctor Who.

CONCLUSION

Don't really care for it, but it's a solid demo for Tennant as the Doctor.