| 167 – "The Christmas Invasion" | |||
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| Doctor Who episode | |||
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Others
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| Production | |||
| Directed by | James Hawes | ||
| Written by | Russell T Davies | ||
| Produced by | Phil Collinson | ||
| Executive producers | Russell T Davies Julie Gardner | ||
| Music by | Murray Gold | ||
| Production code | 2.X | ||
| Running time | 60 minutes | ||
| First broadcast | 25 December 2005 (2005-12-25) | ||
| Chronology | |||
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| List of episodes (2005–present) | |||
"The Christmas Invasion" is a 60-minutespecial episode of the Britishscience fiction television programmeDoctor Who, first broadcast onBBC One on 25 December 2005. This episode features the first full-episode appearance ofDavid Tennant as the Doctor. It is also the first specially producedChristmas special in the programme's history, commissioned following the success of thefirst series earlier in the year, to see how well the show could do at Christmas. It was written by showrunner and executive producerRussell T Davies and was directed byJames Hawes.
In the episode, principally set inLondon, the newlyregeneratedTenth Doctor is out of action, leavingRose,Mickey andJackie to combat the invasion of an alien race known as the Sycorax. The Sycorax demand that either humanity have to surrender half of themselves as slaves or one third of them will die through the Sycorax's blood control.
"The Christmas Invasion" was watched by 9.84 million viewers, the highest-rated episode of the Tenth Doctor, up until the "Voyage of the Damned", which achieved an audience of 13.31 million viewers. The episode received positive reviews from critics, who welcomed Tennant to the show, and is considered one of the best Christmas specials of the show, with its success leading to the Christmas special becoming an annual tradition.
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The newlyregeneratedTenth Doctor takesRose back to her old estate, and collapses in front ofMickey andJackie. They take the Doctor to Jackie's flat, where they put him to bed. Mickey and Rose go Christmas shopping, but are attacked by robotFather Christmases using flamethrowers disguised as trombones. The couple get a taxi back to her home where they discover a new, unfamiliar Christmas tree, which starts spinning with razor-sharp blades. Rose, Mickey and Jackie shelter in the comatose Doctor's bedroom. The Doctor wakes up and destroys the homicidal tree with hissonic screwdriver, before again losing consciousness.
Early on Christmas morning, the British-launched Mars space probeGuinevere One is intercepted by a giant spaceship heading for Earth. When the probe's broadcast is shown on Earth, the face of aSycorax appears. He uses blood control to cause a third of the world's population to go into a hypnotic state and threatens to make these people jump to their deaths from high buildings unless half of the world's population is given to them as slaves.Harriet Jones, thePrime Minister, attempts further negotiations with the Sycorax, and is teleported aboard the ship.
Rose, Mickey and Jackie evacuate the Doctor to theTARDIS as the Sycorax ship approaches London. The TARDIS is detected by the Sycorax and is teleported aboard their ship, but Jackie is left behind. Rose buys enough time for the Doctor to finally recover. The Doctor shuts down the Sycorax blood control and then challenges the leader to a sword duel for the Earth. The leader severs the Doctor's hand, which he immediately re-grows due to leftover regeneration energy. The Sycorax leader submits, but then attempts to attack from behind. The Doctor hits a button with a satsuma he found, triggering part of the wing to fold and dropping the leader to his death.
The Doctor orders the Sycorax to leave Earth and never return, before taking the humans back to Earth. As the Sycorax ship moves away, Harriet ordersTorchwood to destroy the ship. The Doctor becomes furious, threatens to bring down Harriet's government with 6 words, before whispering to her aide: "Don't you think she looks tired?"
After choosing a new outfit, the Doctor joins Rose, Jackie, and Mickey for Christmas dinner. They watch Harriet on television fending off rumours about her health, with avote of no confidence looming.
The Christmas special is a tradition in British television series, and while this is the first story forDoctor Who clearly labelled as a Christmas special, the seventh episode ofThe Daleks' Master Plan, titled"The Feast of Steven", was written as a Christmas episode, even featuring afourth wall–breaking Christmas wish to the viewers byWilliam Hartnell.[1] Christmas specials became an annual staple forDoctor Who,[2] until 2018, where it was replaced by a New Year's special. Although not shown at Christmas, "The Unquiet Dead" was set on Christmas Eve, 1869.[3]
The production of the special, along with the entirety of the second series, began before the broadcast of the first series, and therefore none of Davies' team knew if the script would ever see production.[4] Davies wished to have an adversary having a prosthetic face while retaining the actor's actual eyes and mouth; he also stated that he had always found the idea of Santa, "an old man creeping into children's rooms at night", creepy. As a result, the enemies fought included the alien Sycorax, as well as murderous robot Santas. Seeking also to endear Tennant's Doctor to those who had grown to attached to the Ninth Doctor, he brought back Harriet Jones as Prime Minister, a future event that the Doctor had mentioned in "World War Three".[1]
The episode shared a production block with the first two episodes of the next series, with primary filming for the special taking place between 22 July and 19 August. Additional shots were filmed sporadically in the lead-up to the special in September-November, along with the required CGI effects.[5][6]
The episode's opening shot is a repeat of the opening shot of "Rose".[7] The cone-shaped building which has all its glass blown out from the ship's shockwave is30 St Mary Axe, also known as the Swiss Re Building or "The Gherkin". The climactic scenes of the episode were shot on location at Wallis House,Brentford, one of theGolden Mile's few remainingArt Deco buildings, and parts of the episode were filmed at theClearwell Caves inGloucestershire.[1]
The Tenth Doctor speaks with anEstuary English accent, in contrast to theNinth Doctor'sNorthern one. In a 23 December interview onBBC Radio 1, Tennant explained that a line had been scripted for the Christmas special explaining that the newly regenerated Doctor had imprinted on Rose's accent, "like a chick hatching from an egg," but the line was cut from the final programme.[5][8]
This special was the first full episode to starDavid Tennant as the Tenth Doctor; he appeared only briefly at the end of "The Parting of the Ways" for the regeneration sequence. His costume was chosen just before filming began, one more casual and lighter, contrasted withConverse shoes and a long coat with a lot of fingers, because Tennant likes to play about with his costume in what he terms "pocket acting".[1]Penelope Wilton returned asHarriet Jones, as a means to add continuity between the two Doctors. A fan of her character, Wilton begged that Jones not be brought down at the end of the episode but the script remained unchanged.[1]
Noel Clarke andCamille Coduri also returned as Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler respectively. They were both set to appear in many episodes in the second series, so as soon as the success of the first series seemed assured, their contracts for the second series were drawn up.[4][9] It was also confirmed at the BAFTA preview of the series one finale thatBillie Piper would return for the Christmas Special and all 13 episodes of the second series.[7]
Trailers for the special first appeared on 26 October on BBC One.[6]A7-minute "mini-episode", set between "The Parting of the Ways" and "The Christmas Invasion", was shown as part of theChildren in Need charitytelethon on 18 November 2005.[10] Interviews with the cast and crew followed up during the next month: such as Tennant's onITV1 on 13 December, and Davies' with theSunday Herald on 19 December.[11][8]
On 3 December 2005, the annualChristmas edition of the BBC'slistings magazineRadio Times was released, featuring aDoctor Who cover to tie in with the special.[12] This was the first timeDoctor Who had featured on the Christmas edition cover in the show's forty-two-year history, and the first Christmas cover for an individual BBC television drama sinceEastEnders in 1986; the ChristmasRadio Times cover usually features artwork of a generic Christmas scene, with Doctor Who being the first one featured in 16 years.[11][8] Russell T Davies later confirmed in the episode commentary that theDoctor Who section of the issue contained a hidden message explaining what saves the Doctor: many of the paragraphs in the articles have an oversized first letter, which taken consecutively spell out "A cup of tea".[8]
During the live broadcast, the front page of the official BBC website stated: "THE CHRISTMAS INVASION is on BBC One NOW. HARRIET JONES SAYS: Switch this website off for Britain." The tie-in website "Who is Doctor Who?" was also updated with a message from Mickey referencing the Guinevere One website, and an appeal tothe Doctor to bring back Rose.[8]
The song playing during the wardrobe sequence, "Song for Ten" (named in reference to the Tenth Doctor), was composed byMurray Gold for the episode and sung byTim Phillips.[13] The closing credits had a new theme arrangement restoring the traditional"middle eight" section of the theme, which had been omitted in the 2005 series. This was performed by theBBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Gold. This arrangement was subsequently used for the closing titles of the 2006 series.[14]
Various pieces of music featured in this episode were released in December 2006 as part of theDoctor Who Soundtrack (produced by Silva Screen). These included the "Song for Ten", the music played behind Harriet Jones' speech and the music played as the spaceship arrives over London.
It was broadcast on Christmas Day on BBC1, the first episode to debut on Sunday. The Canadian presentation on theCBC on 26 December 2005 was hosted by Piper, attired for the occasion in a redRoots "Canada" sweatshirt. She gave a special introduction to the episode, which was scheduled in a 90-minute-long slot. It premiered onBBC America in 2007, but was edited down to fit inside a one-hour timeslot with commercial breaks.[8]
Overnight ratings for the episode gave a peak viewing audience of 9.8 million viewers, and an average of 9.4 – the second highest rated programme of the evening, behindEastEnders, and only the 12th time the show had been top 10 for the week.[8][15] This episode was the highest-rated episode of theTenth Doctor era, with final ratings at 9.84 million, up until the "Voyage of the Damned", which achieved an audience of 13.8 million viewers.
The performance of Tennant was praised, especially how he so quickly "endears" the Doctor when he wakes up and "takes control of the plot", defusing the threat that "had griped the humans for hours in a matter of minutes". "The ferocity and fear" arising from the "power and voice", that terrified the humans is shown to dissipate the moment the Sycorax language is translated, a sign that "the Doctor has woken up".[16][17] Piper's performance was also praised, in "shouldering the episode", and encapsulating the "terror and helplessness" that the human race faces when the Doctor is indisposed, and "their resilience".[16]
The episode was characterised as one of many of Davies' attempts at "epic", being full of "big speeches and big emotions". Neither the Doctor's monologue about not knowing who he is and or the Sycorax defining him as Earth's champion, nor Rose's emotional breakdown when she thinks the Doctor has abandoned her were considered subtle. Even so,A.V Club's Alasdair Wilkins still called it a solid episode, achieving "the best of what it aspires to be", andRadio Times's Patrick Mulkern giving it a perfect score of 5 stars, finding that it mixed "the impact of the story" and "the jolly nature of the day" perfectly.[16][17]
It is considered one of the best Christmas specials of the show.[2] In 2014, more than 7,000 readers ofRadio Times voted "The Christmas Invasion" as the greatestDoctor Who Christmas special with around a quarter of the votes going to it, 24.92%, a whole 10% more votes than the second favourite.[18]
This episode was released together with "New Earth" as a basicDVD with no special features on 1 May 2006, and as part of a second seriesboxset on 20 November 2006. This release included an in-visioncommentary with Russell T Davies,Julie Gardner (Head of Drama forBBC Wales) and Phil Collinson, recorded before the story aired. This commentary was also made available as anMP3 on the BBCDoctor Who website.[19]
The ten Christmas specials between "The Christmas Invasion" and "Last Christmas" inclusive were released in a boxset titledDoctor Who – The 10 Christmas Specials on 19 October 2015.[20] The episode was also included as part of the "Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant" box set in 2018, containing this episode and all other episodes of the era, plus hours of DVD extras like documentaries, commentaries and more.[21]
| Author | Jenny T. Colgan |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Anthony Dry |
| Series | Doctor Who book: Target novelisations |
| Publisher | BBC Books |
Publication date | 5 April 2018 |
| Pages | 169 |
| ISBN | 978-1-785-94328-7 |
Anovelisation of this story written byJenny T. Colgan including the storyline fromthe 2005Children in Need special was released in paperback and digital formats 5 April 2018 as part of theTarget Collection.[22]
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