Special 2 The Christmas Invasion

The Christmas Invasion isn't just a fun festive adventure and the first traditional Christmas special of Doctor Who (not counting episode 7 of The Daleks' Master Plan, titled The Feast of Steven, which was the last episode to air on Christmas Day back in 1965), it's also the very first post-regeneration story of the revived series. Regeneration is shown as a rough thing to cope with for the Doctor and his companion alike. The script handles the post-regenerative trauma amidst killer Christmas trees and an alien invasion, giving every aspect of the story proper breathing space. The alien invasion plot never really feels palpable and doesn't get going properly before it has been defeated by the Doctor. The ending has a The Silurians (1970) vibe to it, and it's both surprising and oddly touching. The story also allows us to get glimpses of the new Doctor's personality.

David Tennant is amazing from the outset, directly taking his incarnation into new directions and swimming straight into the heart of the viewer. The rest of the regular cast is great as well, with Camille Coduri putting in a particularly funny performance. Rather than bringing back UNIT, this story brings back Harriet Joens (you, know who she is) from Aliens of London / World War Three (2005), now PM of the UK. Penelope Wilton relishes on playing the character. She is pretty bad-ass here, despite her annoying qualities.
Sean Gilder is the first actor I feel makes an iconic turn as a monster. His Sycorax Leader is as cool as it's creepy and over-the-top.

The new Doctor is lovingly full with energy, babbling away and being erratic. Despite spending large chunks of the adventure passed out, he still manages to help his friends fend off the alien threat. He's a bit like the Third Doctor in Spearhead from Space (1970).

Rose has to cope with accepting the new personality of the Doctor, a struggle that comes across very well. She is supported by Mickey and Jackie, whose earlier experiences have helped them understand Rose's situation better. Rose also has to step in as the Doctor when the man himself is incapacitated, a task she's not very comfortable with.

The Sycorax is a great alien race, sadly not used again within the TV show. They look cool and have a pretty nice idea for their invasion.

The production works well, from the sets to the pretty good-looking CGI. The direction is top-notch as usual.

Well-paced, with room to deal with everything it needs to, this is a quick adventure to sit through, mostly driven by the new leading man.

The atmosphere feels festive at first until the focus shifts to the alien invasion and the new Doctor. That's when things turn effectively creepy and exciting at the same time. The Tenth Doctor has an amazing scene talking with the Sycorax Leader, quoting The Lion King and establishing his persona.

This story not only established the traditional Christmas Special, running consequently until 2017 but also ushered the series into a new golden era, which lasted until the early Steven Moffat era.

This is not the best Christmas special, but it's a strong start of the fan-favourite David Tennant era and one that can always be rewatched.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

The government people talk about, whether the Sycorax could be Martians, deciding that they can't because Martians look completely different. Well, that's right at least, since Martians look like Ice Warriors!

Torchwood has been established somewhere between the ending of Series One and this episode.

The "Yes, I know who you are" running gag introduced here is overused a bit, but it's funny occasionally.

The Doctor has previously engaged in a sword duel with the Master in The Sea Devils (1971) and the King's Demons (1983).

The Doctor's hand chopped off by the Sycorax leader here becomes an important plot detail later on.

This story also starts the running gag of Christmas Specials with fake snowing.

Score: 89/120

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.