The Christmas Invasion

I'm sure I'm not the only one that's already watched The Christmas Invasion more than once. Just to make sure. Just to be absolutely certain that there was no mistake. It really is as amazing as it seemed first time round!

First off and most importantly, there's the new Doctor. Having enjoyed David Tennant's performances both in TV dramas like Secret Smile and in the Big Finish audios ( looking back, Dalek Empire III almost seems an audition piece) I was always fairly confident he would raise to the challenge but I was amazed at just how good his debut was. The Tenth Doctor is a quirky, fascinating and above all unpredictable character. One minute he's funny, quoting The Lion King or puzzling over fruit found in his dressing down. Then he's scary, turning on Harriet with righteous fury or calmly dispatching the Sycorax leader. And finally we have him doing what Eccleston's joyless creation seemed incapable of - delighting in the small things of life. That, more than anything, made me believe absolutely that David Tennant is the Doctor. Watching him enjoy a Christmas meal with Rose and co. it seemed like a deliberate link was being to drawn to the great Doctor moments of the past; Paul McGann's happiness at his new shoes, Sylvester McCoy's quiet musings in a cafe or Peter Davison's much quoted but timeless defence of the small and beautiful things in life.

Billie Piper was her usual excellent self. It's not an original sentiment, but she really is a Sarah Jane for the 21st Century, a companion who will become a 'blueprint' for those that follow. And just as Sarah only really came into her own once she was paired with Tom Baker, I feel that the best is yet to come from Rose now she has a new Doctor to knock around the Universe with. Her long suffering boyfriend Mickey has finally stopped being an irritant. Partially it's because he no longer has to be the butt of the Ninth Doctor's endless need to prove how much tougher he is than anyone else. But more importantly, his situation has made him sympathetic. He's in love with a girl who can never stay, Pip to an intergalactic Estella. At the end when he's forced to accept that she's going to go off again, it's hard not to feel sorry for him, because unrequited love is universal.

The character of Harriet, ably played by the wonderful Penelope Wilton, is one of the real successes of the new series. In Aliens of London she was stuck with playing against the staggeringly dumb looking Slitheen. In The Christmas Invasion she finally has proper, scary monsters to confront and we begin to see the real steel that underlies her compassion. Her decision to commit to destroy the Sycorax ship whilst morally wrong is also understandable and her plaintive 'sorry' to the retreating Doctor is oddly moving. This also serves to highlight another way in which the Tenth Doctor scores over the Ninth; motivation. When Christopher Eccleston's Doctor kicked Adam out of the TARDIS and condemned him to life of misery it was the pitiful act of a character who simply enjoyed the chance for power over a young man that Rose had taken a shine to. By contrast, David Tennant's Doctor punishes Harriet not for personal reasons, but because she has committed mass murder. This bodes well for the future development of the Tenth Doctor, but I hope that we haven't seen the last of Harriet. After all, the Brigadier murdered the Silurians and was back straight away in Ambassadors of Death.

Which leads me nicely to the Sycorax. Or, as they could be called, Star Trek monsters done properly. They had all the fury of the Klingons and the hunting instincts of Voyager's Hirogen, but scored over both of them in design (shades of Faction Paradox?) and sheer, arrogant nastiness. The stone spaceship was a nice piece of design, with just the right touch of Giger and Quatermass. With any luck, we'll be seeing more of this new race. Hopefully if they do come back, we won't be subjected to the attempts to make aliens behave more like humans which bedeviled the back end of Star Trek Voyager. The Sycorax are basically bastards and all the better for it. Roll on the action figure!!

All in all then, The Christmas Invasion was a triumph. A terrific new Doctor who could well become the best, a great companion getting better and a new and horrible race of aliens. The trailer at the end whetted the appetite nicely for what is to come, especially the return of K9 and the intriguing looking cat people. Though what I really want at the moment is for our new Doctor to meet Davros...