As much as The Christmas Invasion has some truly excellent moments I don't think it was the best first outing for Ten. The big problem is that he spends two thirds of the episode just sleeping as Rose and the gang worry about him and what to do. To be fair this section is trying to explore how Rose feels about the Doctor changing but story couldn't really do much with this thread because Rose couldn't interact with the Doctor and confront the differences in personality between Ten and Nine. If anything I think this is probably my favourite Mickey episode so far. Not to give Noel Clarke any sort of props but he is charming and affable here in contrast to how grating I found him in most of series 1.
This pretty middling plot is balanced by some engaging stuff happening with UNIT and Harriet Jones. Seeing her leading the nation through a crisis was an engaging beat to follow. I didn't love what they ultimately did with her character. While the her destroying the Sycorax itself was interesting it felt like it existed more to demonstrate the way Ten could be brutal rather than Harriet's character and what led her to making that decision.
The episode really kicks into high gear once the Doctor wakes up. And when he does the episode is so so fun. Getting to know this new iteration of the Doctor and how he holds himself was engaging. His version of silliness (because let us not forget Nine was goofy as hell at times) was really engaging. There was a bouncy physicality to Ten here that was so fun to watch. But again he's not all goofs. Moments like him eventually killing the Sycorax leader ("No second chances. I'm that sort of man." is a fantastically delivered line by Tennant) and what he does to Harriet Jones did a good job of establishing his tenor of menace.
I have yet tome come to an opinion about his dynamic with rose because the episode really doesn't give us a chance to see that but I'm hopeful I won't spend all of series 2 resenting that Eccelston left the show.
Review by TshepisoBlockedParentSpoilers2023-10-10T05:33:32Z
As much as The Christmas Invasion has some truly excellent moments I don't think it was the best first outing for Ten. The big problem is that he spends two thirds of the episode just sleeping as Rose and the gang worry about him and what to do. To be fair this section is trying to explore how Rose feels about the Doctor changing but story couldn't really do much with this thread because Rose couldn't interact with the Doctor and confront the differences in personality between Ten and Nine. If anything I think this is probably my favourite Mickey episode so far. Not to give Noel Clarke any sort of props but he is charming and affable here in contrast to how grating I found him in most of series 1.
This pretty middling plot is balanced by some engaging stuff happening with UNIT and Harriet Jones. Seeing her leading the nation through a crisis was an engaging beat to follow. I didn't love what they ultimately did with her character. While the her destroying the Sycorax itself was interesting it felt like it existed more to demonstrate the way Ten could be brutal rather than Harriet's character and what led her to making that decision.
The episode really kicks into high gear once the Doctor wakes up. And when he does the episode is so so fun. Getting to know this new iteration of the Doctor and how he holds himself was engaging. His version of silliness (because let us not forget Nine was goofy as hell at times) was really engaging. There was a bouncy physicality to Ten here that was so fun to watch. But again he's not all goofs. Moments like him eventually killing the Sycorax leader ("No second chances. I'm that sort of man." is a fantastically delivered line by Tennant) and what he does to Harriet Jones did a good job of establishing his tenor of menace.
I have yet tome come to an opinion about his dynamic with rose because the episode really doesn't give us a chance to see that but I'm hopeful I won't spend all of series 2 resenting that Eccelston left the show.