The Christmas Invasion

"The Christmas Invasion" was a home-grown "Independence Day"-esque adventure with more brain to it.

A great way to introduce the tenth doctor, though it waould have been nice to see more of him. Generally I find post regeration trauma something a bit old hat now, and something to be got through as a necessity, so that a new era can properly get going. However, it's all new to the new fans I suppose......

Generally the episode had good pace and built up well. The Christams menace bits worked well though it would have ben nice to have had a bit more of them. They seemed to do their bit and then go too soon. The build up of the alien menace was good, with Penelope Wilton a strong presence- let's hope this character gets used again. It was, I suppose, predictable that the doctor would stagger from his sickbed to save the day but Tennant did it with such quirky style that it was wonderful. He's going to be excellent. Not quite such a domianting presence as Eccleston, but commanding in a different way nevertheless. A new man with a new enthusiasm for life, the time war-scarred brooding doctor laid to rest.

Plenty of good doctorish moments in evidence here- particularly at the end when, having routed the aliens, he breates the PM for an unnecessary (maybe) attack on them. Lovely stuff. And for me the best "scre moment" was the hypnotised people climbing onto the roof. Would they jump? Probably not on Christmas day, but it worked.

This episode was bursting with great ideas like this, and an extra chunk of time would have been nice to let them all swim around a bit more. Nontheless a good shot, dramatic and funny, and gets the "new doctor" out of the way so next series can begin in full swing.

Won't it be good to have a doctor with some longevity again? With two seasons and two specials under his belt Tennant will, in terms of screen time, be the longest doctor since Davison. If he does a third season he'll be the longest since Tom Baker. At last- an era that will be a proper era. Roll on season 28!