The Christmas Invasion

Well, well, well, even the best of us can be wrong!

Let me tell you, I had decided to compensate for my terrible fears for Series 2, and Doctor Who’s whole future, by drastically lowering my expectations. I fully expected this to be rubbish – I had to, or I just couldn’t bear the disappointment (ignoring the malicious voice which kept saying “but surely it can’t be worse than ‘The Parting of the Ways’! Can it?”).

Imagine my surprise when, instead of a frothy high-camp Christmas satire in which the Doctor is even more sidelined than usual, I got another James Hawes spectacular! The effects, it has to be said, were great. That, and the direction, went a long way – it really felt like a fresh start, and was consequently immeasurably better than that previous episode in the summer, at whose name I shudder, which looked tatty and awful, as if all that remained of the dwindling series budget had been spent on a bunch of unnecessary and not-particularly-good-looking space shots, rather than sets or actors. (Still on PotW here, if you’re puzzled)

Aherne was all Who-ed out on that one, it seems to me, but Hawes, after the triumph of ‘The Empty Child’, is still fresh as a daisy, and very well suited to the show. His depiction of the controlled humans, and the UNIT headquarters at the Tower, were simply excellent. The sense of scale was enormous, and the episode gained extra credibility from it. RTD produced by far his best script as well, that much is obvious.

Of course, his legendary (notorious) wit misfired at times, as you would expect: the ever-more loopy Harriet Jones’ insistence on introducing herself as “Harriet Jones, Prime Minister”, to her immediate subordinates was one of those bits you just sit through in polite silence, the indulgent smile on your face slowly growing more strained (although it did lead to a funny moment where even the alien leader knows who she is).

Although Billie Piper shone – again, who’s surprised any more? – as Rose, who filled the ‘dramatic glue’ role, holding the whole thing together with assurance and panache, David Tennant was really at the centre of this episode – both in terms of our expectations, which were largely focussed on him, and literally: he motivated much of the plot. It is to Russell’s credit, though I doubt he’ll keep it up, that he managed to both: a) keep the necessary tradition of post-regenerative trauma going, and b) tone down Rose’s capabilities sufficiently to allow the Doctor, when he does get his get-up-and-go back, to take over the story. And this he did, in incredible style.

Tennant is probably the best Doctor since Davison already, in terms of sheer quality of acting, definitely outshining Eccleston, and Colin Baker and McGann, pretty much – maybe even McCoy at his sinister best! This (and the CiN special) have been one of the highlights in Doctor-performances in this dreary post-“Androzani” world; something of a treat! Plus, the dialogue achieved classic (if cheesy) status at times - “Did you miss me?”; “Witchcraft!... Time Lord!”; “It is defended!”. The only thing really conspicuous by its absence was the Sycorax leader exclaiming “WHO ARE YOU???”, and the Doc replying dramatically “I am the Doctor!” If I had been writing it, I’d have put that in! (this isn’t a criticism)

The only really dodgy bits were the threat of Christmas mass-suicide, broadcast for a family audience – although we can’t really complain, we want Doctor Who to be weighty drama, after all! – and the ending, an apparently deliberate snub from atheist Russell to the whole notion of Christmas spirit, and the idea of the redemptive ending. After Mrs Thatcher… sorry, Harriet Jones… blows up the aliens, and the pretty-pretty, Bridget Jones snow begins to fall, we are told that it’s actually ash, and the accompanying meteors are bits of spaceship. Hmm, nice. What should have been a perfect, utterly romantic ending, is spoiled rather grotesquely. It would have been really nice if RTD had let us have our happy, indulgent, white-Christmas-and-meteor-shower ending. But no, he’s a serious writer. (I console myself with the thought that the aliens weren’t actually very nice, really, and the ash is at least frozen ‘cos it’s been so high up)

But it remains good for all that, very good. Near-perfection is all the more annoying for falling a little bit short, but this time I’m not going to let myself dwell on how amazing it could have been – I fell into that trap with “Rose”, and, later, “Dalek”. Instead I’m going to do my best to relish the Doctor’s epic sword duel with the Sycorax leader, the sense of impending doom in the first half of the story, the TARDIS’ telepathic language circuits re-engaging and leading up to the Doctor opening the doors, the Doctor re-growing his severed hand and proving himself categorically a better hero than Luke Skywalker – and of course the Doctor defeating the warlord with a satsuma...!

I expect if I rewatch it I will begin to find Jackie’s manic monologue, the spinning Christmas tree, the ‘Lion King’ bit, the “Sycorax rock” line, Rose blathering about Gelth Confederacies (or something) and particularly that damn ending, intensely annoying. Solution: don’t rewatch it! Preserve the memory of a happy Christmas reunion with the Doctor, just as I remembered him. (Got to rewatch the trailer though, with the Face of Boe, Sarah Jane, K9, and the Cybermen! Oo-wah!)

So yes, for the moment, it’s good. And the key to it all is, that the Doctor was just so… well… proactive. It’s the first time since the McCoy years, Hawes’ previous (Steven Moffat-authored) masterpiece excluded, that he’s actually done something, wrested control of the story, influenced events, had an effect, busted a gut, prevailed through his wit and strength and mysterious Time Lord powers!

It was just lovely to get who I regard as ‘the proper Doctor’ back, after all this time. It was like awaking from an unpleasant, leather-jacketed, “fantastic” nightmare to find that the Doctor is back with us again, God is in his heaven, and all’s right with the world – at least for now. Henceforth (if this happy trend continues) I will be pleased to regard Series 1 as an intermission. Hmm, let me see now, what shall we call it…?

A ‘hiatus’.