Season's Greetings! It's hard to believe that 10 years ago today , we were blessed with the first full-fledged appearance of the ever-popular incarnation of the Doctor played by Scottish-born David Tennant (albeit in limited form, due to the nature of his Doctor spending the majority of this episode in his pyjamas Arthur Dent-style and sleeping with fruit), nor that it's been ten years since the introduction of the now traditional Doctor Who Christmas special – the only one prior also celebrating its 50th anniversary today in the form of The Feast of Steven. But as per the norm this year, to celebrate the festive season and David Tennant's introduction into the magical world of the Doctor, it only seems appropriate that we look back at an episode which really be considered more highly due to what it brings in.
Set swiftly on in Rose (Billie Piper) and the newly-regenerated Doctor (Tennant)'s adventures following from a near-death experience with the Daleks in Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, the TARDIS crash-lands back on the Powell Estate to a shocked Jackie and Mickey (Camille Coduri and Noel Clarke respectively) with an awful lot of questions. With the Doctor now out of action, Rose can do little but live life as per normal, but with both a set of evil Santas and later a rock-based species known as the Sycorax – who embarked upon the planet for slavery purposes when they come across a UK-built satellite meant to be a call for contact – there's no time for celebrations for the Tyler clan and newly-elected Prime Minister Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton, reprising her role from Aliens of London/World War Three). Will the Doctor-les team be able to get past these two threats or will they succumb to their demands?
Story-wise, you have a very simplistic tale with an easy-to-follow premise: Doctor resting, Santas briefly turn up as early invasion, then main threat turn up. There's a slight level of complexity in the form of how the Sycorax make themselves known, but it's nothing intelligent; just a little more in-depth than the rest of it. And indeed, within the story comes some interesting character beats, as for the first time in six months the viewer gets a deeper delve into the thoughts of Rose, who takes a good proportion of the focus as the audiences' guide to this new version of the Doctor. Also helping is the level of entertainment involved; the more comedic tale has bizarre twist and turns such as the murderous festive ornament ("I'm going to get killed by a Christmas tree!") and even some witty dialogue from time to time; not to mention keeping true to form with the sciencey know-how with the refreshing appearance of alien dialect and the sequences in the UNIT base. If there is a gripe in the story, it is perhaps that it takes just a little too long to get things started, with just a lot of worrying about for the Doctor's health which frankly is repeated throughout numerous parts of the episode – understandable in terms of the characters being intrigued by this occurrence, but a little annoying for audiences.
In terms of villainy, the Sycorax are a little lacking. Certainly, they show true might early on with their ability to take control of a percentage of the Earth's population and the amount of damage caused by the arrival of their ship (with effects which have dated a little but still leave a strong impact), but as soon as the Doctor turns up and shows them up, they come across a whole lot weaker, not helped by their rather disappointing ending which – while making for an interesting conclusion in terms of the humanoid characters – just seems undeserving. Granted, it's that which makes it all the more powerful, but it's still a little iffy. Plus the Pilot Fish are a simple threat which do feel like they could have been cut out quite easily if not for the fact that they add some additional action to the piece. Interesting spectacle, but they don't reach any level of note outside of that until The Runaway Bride the following Christmas. Both races have good designwork though, and as aforementioned the presence of actual alien dialect makes for a far-memorable species.
As far as an introductory episode for a new Doctor goes, the lack of actual Tennant is an interesting decision by writer/showrunner Russell T. Davies (god that feels refreshing to type). By no means a new approach for the series, it is an odd choice to have him somewhat comatose for an otherwise festive episode. Certainly, he gets his moments during the first two acts and a heroic return in the third against the Sycorax leader, and Tennant himself is a fine actor during these sequences, but unlike past introduction stories you never really come to gripes with what this new Doctor is like – he doesn't know yet, and as such we don't either. Meanwhile, the entire Tyler clan remain on form in the Doctor's absence with Piper taking a good shot at keeping control over things. The return of Penelope Wilton is always a welcome sight with evident character growth in the 6-7 months since her first appearance, with her assistant Adam Garcia doing a good enough job as a simple employee. As for the UNIT personnel, there isn't really anyone of note, with Daniel Evans, Chu Omambala and Anita Briem all being serviceable enough – the same of which can be extended to Sean Gilder as the leader of the Sycorax.
The Christmas Invasion may have some minor niggles, but this Christmas special is just the right amount of festive and focused on its key story, of which is a fine one which just needed a little more tuning. Acting is fine, but as far as introductory episodes go Tennant's is best presented in the final third. Thankfully what precedes it makes the pay-off all the more satisfying, so The Christmas Invasion is saved by that. It's a fine episode to re-watch, but a tad overlong. 8/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment