CHRISTMAS!
CHRISTMASCHRISTMASCHRISTMASCHRISTMAS
- Crap. I haven't finished my Christmas shopping.
Still... CHRISTMAS!!
And what would Christmas be without a young Smith in an Attic giving a few reviews on Christmas? Exactly the same as every other Christmas, of course! I only started these reviews this year, after all.
Given that this is my first Christmas reviewing stuff, I thought to myself - 'Smith, you really need to give a review on something classic, something regular - something quintessentially British and Christmassy all at once; something bold, iconic, and preferably something that you've already seen so all you need to do is refresh your memory and you'll be able to review it without, you know, paying money for it.' So yeah, Doctor Who Christmas Specials it is.
The Christmas Invasion.
Yes, nitpickers, it's not technically the first - there was another made starring the First Doctor, William Hartnell, early in the show's history. I won't be reviewing that one, since I plan to only do the NuWho episodes and because... Well, I haven't seen it and have no particular interest in trying to find it and watch it.
So The Christmas Invasion starts at the beginning of Season Two of the new series of Doctor Who, or the end of the first depending how you choose to look at it. While I, personally, see it as a bridge between the two series, if I had to pick I'd say it's a part of Season Two as, for me, Eccleston's departure was what marked the definitive end of the First Series. Now this immediately put it in a difficult position; though many people now consider Tennant to have been the greatest Doctor to have graced the show (I don't, if anyone's wondering) that wasn't the feeling we had when we saw him in the Series One finale, The Parting of the Ways. In fact, most people I knew thought he was too young, or too happy, or too effeminate.
Yes, there were people who felt that way.
But looking back at Eccleston's performance, it's easy to see why people were so upset. It bothers me to this day that he left so quickly; I honestly think he'd be remembered as the best by many more than just me had he had a run as long as Tennant's, or even Smith's. Either way, people loved him in Season One, and were reluctant to see him go - meaning Tennant needed to pull something great out of the bag in this episode for the transition to be relatively painless.
The episode begins with the TARDIS pretty much crashing outside the Tyler... er... appartmenthold, I guess, and Mickey and Jackie running out to find a strange man emerge. He angrily goes on about how he needs to tell them something important, when he remembers - 'Merry Christmas!' Then he collapses in front of them.
It's a pretty clever way of showing what the episode will be about - Christmas, and the Doctor being unconscious for about half the episode.
The episode is pretty involved, so I'll try to shorten it as best I can in terms of plot: The people of Britain have sent out a probe to Mars, and it gets picked up by a large alien spaceship. Harriet Jones, Prime Minister (and yes, she actually keeps calling herself that way past the point it's still actually funny) finds herself threatened by these aliens to surrender, or everyone with a certain blood type will step off a roof. See, they become sort of hypnotised and walk up to a roof, where they stand near the edge for a while. It's actually pretty eerie, made worse by the fact that she's constantly trying to get in touch with the man who helped her in an episode in the previous series, The Doctor.
He, meanwhile, is still recovering from the TARDIS radiation stuff he absorbed from Rose at the end of the previous episode and is in no position to help the people of Earth. It turns out he can barely save himself from a killer Christmas tree - and yes, they have one of those and it is so ridiculously brilliant to see.
After Mickey and Rose wander about getting attacked by alien Santas and there's a joke made about a guy Jackie knows (you know what I mean by know, right? You know, knows him? If not, you're probably too young. Ask your parents) having fruit in his dressing gown pocket that the Doctor is wearing while he recovers, the TARDIS, along with Mickey, Rose and an unconscious Doctor are taken to the alien ship, who are revealed to be called the Sycorax. They meet Harriet Jones and some of her staff, who were taken up to the ship to negotiate a surrender of Earth.
Rose steps forward in a painful attempt to imitate the Doctor, using a bunch of stuff he said last series to try and intimidate them, but in a very unintimidating manner and quite frankly, in a way that makes no sense. The Doctor was often able to scare his enemies, but rarely - if ever - to the point that they would back off. He always needed to back up his threats, something Rose definitely cannot do. Assuming she is threatening them - personally, I couldn't really tell what message she was trying to get across, it was all very jumbled and incoherent.
In any case, the leader of the Sycorax laughs and starts talking in his alien language, which they have been using all episode since - with The Doctor out of commission - the TARDIS translator has been inactive meaning we can't understand what it's saying. Personally, I don't know why The Doctor being unconscious has anything to do with whether it functions or not; he's been unconscious before and it still worked fine. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but it seems like a bit of a convenience to build up the fact that he has woken up when the Sycorax leader starts speaking English.
As it turns out, all the Doctor needed was a cup of tea to get better, which had been spilled by Jackie in the TARDIS earlier. Ah, British TV, where a brew really does solve all your problems - including extra-terrestrial hostile takeovers. So he's back, and immediately takes charge of the situation, removing the mind control over the people on the roofs, challenging the Sycorax leader to a duel for the planet, and lamenting the fact that he's not ginger.
The Doctor wins the duel - after losing a hand and growing another - but when the Sycorax leader tries to stab him in the back (almost literally) he throws a Satsuma at a conveniently placed switch that causes the floor to open beneath the alien invader, and he plunges to his death.
The time travelling hero then announces to The Sycorax that they are to tell other species and let them know of its riches, people and most importantly - that 'It. Is. Defended'. This draws a concerned look from Harriet Jones, but the Sycorax send them back and retreat. However, before they can get away, Harriet Jones orders a mysterious group known as Torchwood (admittedly not so secret now) to open fire, and they destroy the ship using some sort of weapon that looks alien in nature. The Doctor is livid, and confronts her in a pretty shouty but effective scene in which he threatens her, and she - who has seen how dangerous he is - doesn't bat an eyelid. Until she thinks he has said something to her aide which will bring down her rule as Prime Minister - and she panics.
The episode ends with Rose and The Doctor having Christmas dinner with Jackie and Mickey, before heading back to the TARDIS for more travels, while Harriet Jones' mental health is called into question and it's hinted there will be a vote of no confidence that will remove her of her position.
The Christmas Invasion is pretty good. It's not my favourite of the Christmas Specials, but that is partly down to the fact that - well, it isn't entirely a Christmas special. Sure, the backdrop is Christmas, and the airing date was December 25th, 2005, but it's also an introductory episode for Tennant. And on both ends, it does a decent job.
Part of the problem for the Christmas element is that it's a little too plot driven. A lot is happening, and honestly there isn't much that's heartwarming and fun surrounding the episode aside from the Christmas dinner scene near the end. The whole Torchwood, blood control and blowing up of the Sycorax are a little dark, and while that's fine for a Christmas special to have, it just seems a little out of place in the way that it's done. It certainly doesn't feel very much like the Christmas element is prevalent enough within the actual story for it to feel like it is first and foremost a Christmas Special, since you could very easily remove anything Christmas related and the plot would be just about the same.
As for an introductory episode to a new Doctor, this one takes a pretty bold approach by not actually having him particularly present for about half of the special. These sorts of episodes usually annoy me, but in this case it really works. It piles on the tension, as things get gradually worse and worse and we, the audience, become more and more desperate for the Doctor - any Doctor - to appear and save the day.
The fact that it takes place on the modern Earth scene with characters that we've gotten to know over the past series means we still have a familiar element and aren't scratching are heads and wondering why we should care what's going on, as well as being able to focus almost entirely on the Doctor when he does appear. And, when we finally see the Doctor everyone was so sceptical about, we are relieved, our view of him immediately being a pretty positive one. It's an example of a changeover done right, for the most part - and one which holds up even better when contrasted with the Matt Smith introductory episode (which in my opinion went about introducing the new Doctor in a completely different way that just did not work).
That said, it's a bit heavy handed on the whole thing with him not knowing what sort of person he is. Constant repetitions of 'that's the man I am' got very grating, and I felt like I was being hit over the head with the idea over and over again. Then when I rub my head and groan in pain, they hit me again. It really takes away from the episode, which was otherwise doing an excellent job of introducing a new Doctor to the audience.
The Harriet Jones stuff was some of my favourite elements, going back and watching it, having seen her character arc of sorts come to an end in The Stolen Earth, and I really think she's one of the best supporting characters that wasn't a companion the show has had. I love that she refuses to become dependent on The Doctor in the end, realising that humanity needs to be able to defend itself because he won't always be there to defend them. The way she challenges his authority is fantastic, and she actually brings him up short for possibly the only time in the episode - in fact, he completely ignores her argument and topples her regime. It's a wonderful moment, after seeing him almost dance his way through the whole Sycorax thing with childlike energy until his final speech to them, to have him behaving deadly serious with this woman who he feels betrayed his trust and is in many ways no better than the monsters he fights is a great moment that hammers home the intensity that Tennant would bring to the role.
I actually feel the parts of the episode that don't hold up too well are the bits without The Doctor. On the one hand, I like the risk they took there and I think it had the effect they desired; on the other hand, it means that the first half of the episode can really drag, and at times feels a little incoherent. The stuff with the killer Christmas tree and alien Santas seemed to be nothing more than keeping the main characters that weren't unconscious busy, as I can't remember it actually contributing anything significant to the plot given the amount of time it took up.
The Christmas Invasion was a solid start to Tennant as a Doctor, and a decent first Christmas Special for NuWho that would remain a tradition up to this day, eight years on, that shows no sign of stopping anytime soon (I hope). It may not be my favourite, but it's still pretty good for all that.
I'm a Smith in the Attic, and these are my stories.
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