👍🏼(7.8) = GOOD!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

This is the story that started the annual tradition of the Doctor Who Christmas special with RTD. It is also, incidentally, the first episode for the new Doctor, David Tennant.

The story combines a traditional British Christmas feel with familiar faces (Rose, Jackie, Mickey, and Harriet "We know who she is" Jones) trying to cope with an alien invasion while figuring out who or what the man calling himself the Doctor is, all while the man himself spends a bulk of the story unconscious (this feels like a callback to Spearhead from Space, 1970).

This approach to introducing a new Doctor by landing him in a familiar setting surrounded by different people helps us accept the change and realise that we are still watching the same show. Simultaneously, this modern interpretation of Doctor Who emphasises the companions and their worldview.

The main plot itself is a rather simple alien invasion plot, but it turns pretty fun towards the end once the Doctor gets going properly. The twist that the Sycorax use blood to control Earth's population is pretty good. The entire sequence, from the Doctor waking up, blabbering around, and quoting The Lion King, to him fencing with the Sycorax leader, losing his hand, and then winning the battle with a satsuma, is a captivating and engaging experience. For me, this entire sequence marks Tennant's transformation into the Doctor.

Billie Piper, Camille Coduri, and Noel Clarke are all on fire here, with Piper leading the fray very well and Coduri doing the comedy bit. Mickey proves to be very resourceful here, which seems appropriate for the character. David Tennant is very comfortable in the lead role already, but he's also a bit all over the place so far, though that’s probably the point.

This is also the episode that reintroduces Harriet Jones from Aliens of London/World War Three (2005) as a running gag. Okay, then, Russell! But at least she shows some of her determination and prowess. UNIT is also back in full force, and we get the first mention of the Series 2 arc, the mysterious Torchwood organisation.

To this day, The Christmas Invasion manages to make Christmas creepy. Killer Santas and spinning Christmas Trees of Death make sure of that! At the same time, there's enough of a comedic tone here to not make things too gruesome.

Murray Gold contributes an epic score, but the visual elements are simplistic; the big visual effects haven't aged well; the fencing scene appears a bit clumsy; and the costumes still look fantastic.

The final few moments, with Harriet Jones deciding to shoot down the Sycorax ship, are a New Who equivalent of a similar conclusion in The Silurians, showing the vile sides of humanity that the Doctor frequently loathes. This scene also shows that the new Doctor can have some of Nine's darker sides left.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• It seems tea is everything the Doctor needs to get a jump start! What a British way of putting it!
• I love the moment where the Sycorax leader begins speaking English in mid-sentence, followed by the Doctor entering the scene.
• They already dropped the "Yes, I know who you are" gag three times in this episode, and it's already old.
• The Doctor's fencing is always such a cool scene, but the one seen here pales in comparison to the one between Three and the Master in The Sea Devils.
• The line, "This new hand is a fightin' hand," is very cringeworthy.
• The end of this episode establishes the RTD-era running gag, which is that the snow falling is always something else than snow.