Side-lining the new Doctor in his regeneration story is a bold choice, which mostly pays off. Using Rose as an audience surrogate experiencing the confusion and fear themselves for the first time to introduce the concept to a new audience is a smart choice, and helps keep the momentum of the story going, and this should be commended. Additionally, the Sycorax are threatening enough to be a decent threat. Furthermore, the use of the extended characters is good.

But, while what we do see of the Tenth Doctor is enjoyable, and we see the flashes of his character we do come to expect, we needed more to aide this transition - we needed to see this in more depth, to become attached to the character. Compare this to Deep Breath and The Eleventh Hour, within those stories we know the incarnation really well, but here, we haven't seen enough of this Doctor enough.

However, these nit picks aside, there is nothing not to enjoy here - its solid, festive, fun and exciting.

You can't trick me into thinking he wasn't hot before, Russell.

Pretty solid first episode for Ten. I enjoy how the focus is on Rose and how she deals with the Change in Appearance, it does shine with some great domestic moments where RTD does some of his best work! The last few minutes with Tennant are easily some of his best in Who, he has so much energy and while this first appearance is not in the slightest similar to the Man we see in the End of Time. Never too big on the Christmas Specials personally, but this one is on the more solid side. The Camp works fine enough and our big Threat in the Sycrorax are excellent, I am surprised NuWho didn’t use them again. Overall, I like it, it’s fun, it gives a good impression on Tennant, pretty solid start to his Era!

I loved this then and I love it now.

This is one of RTD's best episodes and one of the best Christmas specials (it's definitely in the running for my vote).

David Tennant is great, even though he's unconscious for a sizeable chunk. Billie Piper is on top form, as are Camille Coduri and Noel Clarke. Penelope Wilton is simply wonderful as Harriet Jones and the script sparkles around these characters. Tennant's arrival aboard the Sycorax ship thrills and there are few better lines than the Lion King gag.

The Sycorax are a great monster and I love the idea of blood control. I have a bit of a fascination with 'mass panic' concepts (I love a good disaster movie - so you can imagine I'm a bit of a fan of Voyage of the Damned as well) and the scenes of people walking to the top of buildings whislt their loved ones impotently try to stop them is heartwrenching. The mother trying to stop her two children makes my stomach lurch in horror now I have two kids of my own.

The scenes of the Sycorax ship arriving owe more than a little to Independence Day (another favourite film of mine) and I love the fact Big Ben has scaffolding around it as a result of Aliens in London.

I remember on first watch finding the scenes of the Doctor bringing Harriet Jones down a little harsh and unnecessary. Watching it now, many years later after seeing a far darker 10th Doctor, as well as the War Doctor and the very grumpy 12th Doctor, it doesn't seem as out of character as it did back then (even after the tough 9th Doctor). His disappointment in human failure is totally in character, it's just rarely as on the surface as here (at least until Series 8/9). On the flipside, I think Harriet gives a powerful justification of her decision, particularly with her comment about how two men died whilst the Doctor was asleep.

It's very weird to have Torchwood referred to as now, in retrospect, we can imagine Jack pressing the button (I assume he's in charge by this point, I can't remember the timeline - at the very least Susie Costello must be in that bunker - or maybe it's Yvonne Hartmann. Actually, yes, it's probably her bearing in mind what happens at the end of Series 2). Back then, we didn't know what Torchwood was - it was just a word. How amazing to see what developed from that one anagram...

There's a lots of good Christmas stuff in this, particularly the spinning Christmas Tree - totally Doctor Who and totally RTD. The Robot Santas maybe a bit underdeveloped (never quite understood the whole Pilot Fish thing) but they give a good set piece blowing up a Christmas market. I always found it a bit odd, though, that they return - sort of - in the next Christmas episode. I also like the Doctor joining the Tylers for Christmas - which harks nicely back to the 1st Doctor celebrating with Steven and Sara.

A definite favourite of mine.

Banger Christmas special and a really good way to do post regeneration for new viewers I feel