The Christmas Invasion

Prior to seeing The Christmas Invasion, I was largely of the opinion that it was going to suck. Yes, such an articulate viewpoint. To be more specific, I thought David Tennant was going to be brilliant, but that the story would suck. Now I’ve seen it, I know that I was right and I was wrong. David Tennant is brilliant, and the story was a wonderful piece of entertainment.

We all saw those clips of Santas with machine guns and killer Christmas trees. And we were told it would be a Christmas-themed Doctor Who story. How could that not be nauseatingly bad? Well, simply because it isn’t really as much of a Christmas-themed story as we were led to believe. The Saint Nick hitmen feature only briefly in the beginning, and there’s only one killer tree – and most of us probably saw that scene already prior to the screening. That’s really the extent of it. What we really have is an alien invasion story that merely takes place over the yuletide, and we spend more time with the prime minister trying to deal with it than we do with scenes of cracker-popping and carol singing.

The Doctor spends a good deal of the episode comatose, with only a couple of brief spells of consciousness in the first 40 minutes, no doubt in order to prevent the audience going completely mad waiting to see the acting tour de force that David Tennant is as the new Doctor. So when we’re not watching Harriet Jones and her staff coming to the quick realisation that no amount of “We don’t need the Yanks – we’ll handle this ourselves”-style nationalism will stop the Sycorax from turning humans into cattle, we’re watching Rose facing the possibility that her Doctor is gone, and no-one will save the Earth.

While I think Russell T Davies the executive producer has done wonders in bringing back the show for the 21st Century, I had not been too chuffed with Russell T Davies the writer during Season 1. This is the man who decided that what Doctor Who needed was farting aliens, Earth-centric stories, and melodramatic soap opera. But I have to concede that even during disposable fluff like Aliens Of London, Davies the writer is never boring, the dialogue is electric, and characters come to life. However, things improved with Bad Wolf / The Parting Of The Ways, and they reach even greater heights in The Christmas Invasion. I just couldn’t help but be drawn in, and 60 minutes later, was annoyed because I wouldn’t get more of it until about March.

As to the alien invasion plot, it’s fairly standard. Aliens want the Earth for all the natural goodies it can bring them, for the chance to make use of an inferior race as slaves, and because conquering planets is what they get off on. And unless the mysterious Torchwood get their act into gear, that’s exactly what will happen. So here we get our first sniff of what Torchwood will be all about. They’re kind of like the Foreign Hazard Duty of the comics, or the Section 31 of Star Trek, though at this stage Earthbound. It’s not really until the end of the story, when the prime minister orders them to destroy the Sycorax ship that we see just what kind of a force they are. I can just picture the real leaders of the country watching that and thinking, “Hmm, you know…” I have to say I was really annoyed at Harriet Jones’ rapid descent into megalomania. Yes, it would’ve been unrealistic to have a virtuous prime minister, you know, one that isn’t a completely egocentric fundamentalist who thinks the world works in black and white, but I like Penelope Wilton, and had hoped she’d be around a bit longer. The Doctor’s ‘six words’ maneuver, which ends her career almost instantly however, is just wonderful. A classic example of what makes the Doctor different from other action heroes – a few words can do far more damage than say, a sword fight. Speaking of which…

I just had this feeling that David Tennant would be good as soon as I heard he was to take over from the ‘fantastic’ Christopher Eccleston. I don’t know why that is. All I’d heard from him at that point were a few Big Finish performances. Then when I saw him at the end of Episode 13, I was convinced. So I was hardly expecting to be even more convinced in The Christmas Invasion, but ever second Tennant is on screen, he’s just marvelous. Energetic, quirky, humorous, powerful, confidant, and the very image of someone who’s clearly enjoying himself. As soon as he’s revived by a cup of tea, he strides out of the TARDIS and takes command of the situation at a pace that is effectively Tom Baker x2. I loved the way he verbally takes time to figure out who he is, while at the same time engaged in a sword fight with the Sycorax leader on the roof of their ship Star Wars-fashion. And it all culminates with that great “No second chances” line, where we see the undercoating of steel beneath the 10th Doctor’s cheerful exterior, minutes before we get another taste as he destroys Harriet Jones. But perhaps the greatest example of where he differs from Eccleston’s Doctor comes as the end, where, while his former self wasn’t into ‘domestics’, the new Doctor happily sits down with the ‘family’ for Christmas dinner. And it really does look like a family. This is a Doctor even Jackie likes. Thank god. If she’s not verbally jousting with him, she can only be less annoying.

I don’t have much of an opinion of the Sycorax themselves, frankly. Like the Autons, they just aren’t given enough screen time to be anything more than goofy Klingons. And the translation pieces in the Sycorax ‘great hall’ are very Star Trek VI. Their menace is well-established though when they nearly make 1/3 of the world walk off buildings, and it was at that point I felt the story was really getting good. But you know, perhaps it doesn’t really matter if the Sycorax aren’t fully developed as fully-fleshed evil villains, since it really transpires that the greater villains are possibly a lot closer to home. And it’s far easier to feel threatened by villains in the human guise.

The anti-war message is about as subtle as the anti-media message in The Long Game, ie – not very, but Wilton and Tennant act it beautifully. I look forward to seeing further clashes between this Doctor and the government in the future. Very reminiscent of what we saw with the 3rd Doctor back in the 70’s, but darker. And it all suggests that the Torchwood spin-off will be far more interesting than I’d previously thought.

So overall, I’d say this is textbook example of why it’s stupid to pre-judge something before you’ve even seen it. Unless we’re talking about David Tennant, whom I just know is going to make Season 2 an unforgettable experience. We even got the bridge back in the theme music. Please tell me that's a permanent change.

And of course, there was the Season 2 trailer. A brief snifter of things to come, in which we see among other things, tantalizing clips of Sarah Jane Smith’s return, a truly battered K9, and a nanosecond’s glimpse of the new Cybermen. I can’t wait. Looks like next January and February are going to be every bit as painful as last time.