I used to quite like this episode when I was young. Unfortunately, it really failed to hold up on rewatch, and I'm forced to come to the conclusion that this does a really poor job of executing on its premise. We'll start with the positives; Tennant and Tate's chemistry is absolutely on point. They're one of my top TARDIS teams to begin with, and this story gave them a lot to bounce off each other. It's quite funny, though some of the jokes felt rather forced at times. E.g., I laughed at the detox scene, but it was ultimately just a lot of padding that didn't go anywhere.

The fact that the Doctor had just been poisoned really fails to tie in with the rest of the story, and that's kind of the main issue I have with the whole thing; all the elements of it that shout "Christie", from the cyanide to the jewel thief to the cast of suspects are just window dressing. At no point is motive brought into the conversation. The alibis are pointless; everyone's lying and no one can corroborate anything. The jewel theft subplot is skimmed by and barely affects the plot at all. The plot gestures vaguely at the cast of suspects, a hastily assembled lot of caricatures pulled out of a Clue game* with no defining opinions or characteristics among them. This isn't a murder mystery; it's just mystery-themed. There's no drive to flesh out the plot any further because that would take away time that could be spent slobbering all over Agatha Christie as the Greatest Writer of All Time, much like Roberts' treatment of Shakespeare in s3.

Now. Am I being a bit unfair here? Perhaps. It would be difficult to squeeze a fully thought out Christie-style caper into the space of a New Who episode. On the other hand, it's difficult to say it couldn't at least have been done better. Roberts clearly bit off more than he could chew with this one; the weakest of s4 by a wide margin. If you want a proper murder mystery in Who, go watch The Robots of Death.

*literally! You've got the maid, the colonel, the young socialite, the wealthy older dame, the reverend, and the professor named after a fruit. I wasn't kidding about this being mystery-themed.

Quite an enjoyable, tense story; the pacing did occasionally dip, but for the most part it held up well across all four parts. The script itself was fairly average, and the actual use of antimatter was utter technobabble, but some excellent acting, solid effects, and great sets really sold it. Felt rather Star Trek-y, really.

Some very early 'timey-wimey' concepts getting explored here in the uncertain space of fate and free will; unfortunately, it never quite gets off the ground, owing in large part to an uninspired main conflict and underwhelming guest cast (they did well enough, but it was difficult to distinguish one Morok from the others, and ditto the Xerons). The first episode was nicely spooky and atmospheric, and the main cast all got a chance to shine (aside, alas, from Barbara), but the latter three episodes were a bit of a slog. I get the idea that this was meant to be a comedy, and there were some legitimately funny moments, but it seemed unwilling to commit to the premise, resulting in a less than satisfactory story. I enjoyed it well enough, but I don't see myself watching it again.

A nice romp, extremely camp and enjoyable. The plot is a bit thin, and both the Chimerons and the Bannermen are pretty flat, but most of the other side characters are great (except Billy, who felt like a cardboard cutout for most of the run). Ray was especially delightful, though I'm glad we ended up with Ace as a companion instead. I'm not sure why the Americans were there, but I'm glad they were. Overall, it's not one I'd go to rewatch, but it makes for fun background noise.

Kind of all over the place, fairly underwhelming, overall one of Moffat's poorer Christmas episodes. The idea of the Time Hotel was compelling enough, but the execution really wasn't adequately explored. Actually, that's true of most of this story; characters like Joy, Anita, and Trev were all set up to be quite interesting, and I did like all of them, but there wasn't enough time spent with any of them to make an impression. The arc of the Doctor getting stuck on Earth as a handyman was interesting, and the threat of the Star Seed was as well, but ramming one into the other like that was a tonal mishmash that detracted from the narrative flow more than it supported the theme of the Doctor being lonely and needing to be around someone (very original, by the way, certainly hasn't been the central theme of countless other Christmas specials).

On the positives, as I said, I thought the characters were interesting and likeable, if underdeveloped. I especially liked how the Doctor was done; Moffat does do a good 'smiling through the pain' Doctor, after all, and when he was verbally eviscerating Joy... yowch. His... semi-apology afterwards was good as well. "There is no bad way to save a life," indeed. It's giving Seven.

The Bethlehem bit... eh. I didn't love it, I thought it was weird, kind of a twist to end on... I suppose it was a bit inevitable, really, given the whole Christmas star thing.

Overall, I thought it was fairly mediocre and saccharine, but that's Christmas specials for you. Most likely I'll enjoy it more on a rewatch when it isn't the middle of the holiday season.

A compelling, pulse-pounding read. I really felt invested in all of the characters, even the ones that the narrative was unable to flesh out as much as the others (mainly Onfim). A good historical story makes you care about the fate of people that have been dead for centuries, and this certainly managed that. The aliens were compelling as well, with their complex family dynamic -- trying to show care for one another despite their vastly different perspectives on life and visions for Ran's future really struck a chord with me. The villain was legitimately chilling in its motives and actions (and its self-denial? Its refusal to acknowledge the fear that drove its monstrous conquest? Magnificent). And of course, the Doctor and Ruby were excellently realized. I love a good pair of besties in the TARDIS. My only complaint is that the conclusion was... somewhat underwhelming. It was a good ending, a nice 'hoist by their own petard' defeat that I love to see, but the execution was a little too quick and simple after everything it took to get there. On the whole, though, a thrilling read.

Overall, this was quite an engaging read with some compelling speculation about alien biology and psychology, and the tension between fearing the unknown and desiring not to be alone in the universe. Points off, however, for the really confusing naming conventions; I couldn't keep track of who all of the Ix were, and there were parts of the book that I found difficult to follow as a result.

On the whole, an impressively gripping read, although you can certainly tell that this was adapted from a story that originally didn't have the Doctor in it; the revival of the main Sontaran and Rutan characters was a tad hamfisted, and the fact that Steg's second death is a mirror of his first doesn't help. Nor, for that matter, does lampshading it. That being said, this was a compelling depiction of the Sontaran-Rutan conflict, nicely paced, and packed with interesting characters. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

An impressively rollicking story that manages that rarest of feats; giving all three companions something to do that meaningfully contributes to the story. The companions' relationships with one another were well-developed as well. Richard Mace was a delightful rouge, the Tereleptils were thrillingly villainous, and the android... well, they can't all be winners. The Grim Reaper motif was a good idea, but I'm not sure it quite came across. Overall, a nicely made serial that kept up a reasonable pace throughout.

Of the four Decades Collection books I've read ('70s, '80s, '90s, and this), this is definitely the weakest both in terms of overall story and relevance to the purported timeframe it's meant to represent. Sure, there were a few throwaway lines about fashions of the time, but it's set in a house from the 1800s. The most 2000s thing about the book was the Ninth Doctor, and unfortunately, Nine didn't come off very well here -- he often feels uncaring or apathetic. That may be due to the narrator, a twelve-year-old girl who has just seen her mom and brother get kidnapped by lightning creatures, taking against him, but there are times when it seems he doesn't care about anyone but Rose.

The monsters are fairly uninspired, the plot is plodding, and at the end of the day, I really didn't care about it all that much.