But that wonderful start: everything is fast and funny from the very minute that the Doctor and Donna start to spark off of each other in the Console Room. Say what you like about Rose, but that relationship never produced any on-screen fizzle like this. Tennant and Tate create a thrilling dynamic in scenes full of screwball banter and sharp jokes. And then, joy of joys, what a Christmas present from Uncle Russell: a proper TARDIS chase. It's magnificent and the show knows it. Donna's deadpan "You have got to be kidding me," voices the thoughts of many older viewers while the greek chorus of backseat kids lets children at home connect directly to the wonder of the TARDIS careering down the motorway. It is a high point in the history of a show that must constantly prove it has new tricks up its sleeves. There was some cheering from our sofa as the TARDIS finally spiralled away into the sky.
There's only one thing wrong with this opening and it is the bright summer sunshine that threatens to wash all thoughts of Christmas from the screen. It hardly matters, and it certainly doesn't spoil anything, but it is odd how the festive specials have so often concerned themselves with the mere trappings of Christmas. This time we get robot Santas, exploding baubles and (a very loose connection this) the star-shaped, but web-constructed, Racnoss spaceship. It's not a problem though because suddenly Doctor Who itself had become a Christmas tradition. All these years later the idea of a seasonal episode has been cemented into our expectations along with paper crowns, sprouts and Slade, but even back in 2006 it was starting to feel quite normal. Is it a little unsettling that customs can be created so very quickly?
Doctor Who fans are used to such sudden changes, constantly being given new Doctors, new companions, new series schedules and so on. I certainly don't have any problem getting used to Donna. She is so much fun to watch, so funny, so prickly but deeply compassionate. Tate is excellent too and she makes Tennant raise his game - or is it just that this is the first time we see the tenth Doctor meet somebody he has to win over? Either way, this pairing is a joy.
Some of this is hindsight though. I didn't feel this strongly about Donna at the time and the difference is that I know now that she will return. RTD has experimented a lot with 'one-off' companions, and it's definitely an interesting idea, one that is perfectly suited towards the Special episodes. But these guest characters never quite have the same impact. Astrid, Christina, Jackson Lake - although I can enjoy their story, there's no point in becoming attached to them as they'll be gone again in a moment. This was true for Donna originally, but now The Runaway Bride is only the beginning of her story and, in retrospect, her being in this story feels like foresight. Clever trick that.
I didn't much care for the second half of this episode on first viewing. It felt disappointing after that great opening twenty minutes and I didn't appreciate the oddness of Sarah Parrish's Racnoss Queen. Was no-one taking this seriously? This time there was none of that. It's just flat out fun. The Racnoss is visually fantastic and Parrish hardly seems over the top at all. I still don't understand what the Segways are for (do the robots use them? What did the production team feel they added?) but everyone looks like they are enjoying themselves and, believe it or not, that's actually what Christmas is all about.
We enjoyed ourselves too, although William could only give this a seven. "I liked the TARDIS chase and I'm impressed that the military showed up at the end. It wasn't all left to the Doctor this time." He also liked the references to Rose, which, if nothing else, help tie this all together with the immediate events of Doomsday. Christopher continues to perplex. He said Donna was "a little bit rude" and that the Racnoss was "a bit talky" without explaining whether these were things he liked or not. Then he gave this episode nine out of ten and I asked what had made him deduct a point.
"The Doctor defying the law of weather [making it snow]," he said. As ludicrous fan-complaints go, at least it's original.
NEXT TIME...
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