Our take
The special that made Christmas night belong to Doctor Who. A new lead spends half the hour asleep and still steals it, the festive menace is played for real, and the ending has a moral bite that family Christmas telly rarely risks. Tennant's swaggering arrival, Rose's grief for the man she lost and Harriet Jones's fall from grace give it weight; the killer tree and robot Santas give it fun.
What happens
On Christmas Eve the TARDIS crash-lands on the London estate where Rose Tyler's mother, Jackie, is getting ready for Christmas. Out steps Rose with a stranger: the Doctor, newly regenerated, who greets them with Christmas wishes and collapses. While he drifts in and out of consciousness in Jackie's flat, Rose struggles to come to terms with his new face. A Christmas shopping trip with Mickey turns dangerous when a brass band of masked robot Santas attacks, and back at the flat a killer Christmas tree goes on the rampage. Meanwhile Prime Minister Harriet Jones learns that the Guinevere probe, a British craft due to land on Mars on Christmas Day, has been taken by the Sycorax, whose ship soon arrives over London. The aliens compel a third of the world's population to climb to the edges of tall buildings, and Harriet makes a television appeal for the Doctor's help. Aboard the Sycorax ship, still in borrowed pyjamas, he defeats their leader in a sword fight, losing a hand and growing it back, and the invaders retreat. When Harriet orders the retreating ship destroyed, the appalled Doctor sets out to bring her down, and news reports soon say she is leaving office. The day ends with Christmas dinner at the Tylers' and ash from the ship falling like snow.
Can the kids watch it?
Fine for most children from about eight; the robot Santas, the rooftop scenes and a sword fight bring some mild scares.
Cast and crew
Starring
- David Tennant as The Doctor
- Billie Piper as Rose Tyler
- Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler
- Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith
- Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones
Writer
- Russell T Davies
Director
- James Hawes