(TV.com sucks for thread names: IMDB is better now for this sort of thing. (link, spoils titles for Season 2) )

Skipping Season 1 (2005) for a moment, I thought this was a pretty good intro for David Tennant, but it really lacked that initial post-regeneration moment. Then again, not all Doctors have had that benefit. Good work by the ensemble, though it appears that Rose has backslid a bit. Though perhaps she was just unsure about this Doctor and a bit more nervous. And a stunning turn for Harriet Jones, Prime Minister.

The Children in Need special, which was filmed after The Christmas Invasion but shown about a month before, filled in that post-regeneration moment.

The BBC had the Children in Need special streamed on their website for awhile, but took it off.

Ten's final outfit in The Christmas Invasion with the suit, overcoat and trainers/sneakers is nice and not over the top.

Next season looks like it will be a blast.

ETA: SnoodMasterK pointed at a great link on the music thread, which has "Song for Ten" aka the "song that plays when he picks out his clothes and then they sit down for dinner." That song just brings up so many hopeful feelings.

I always figured they had Rose as a bit hopeless, to counter accusations that she was a Mary Sue. Some viewers were vocal in their disappointment that she was often just as useful as the Doctor, or more so, in season 1. So The Xmas Invasion has Rose trying her best, but ultimately only being an average human against aliens, so standing little chance. And then there's the Doctor's heroic arrival to make the audience sit up and take note...


And yes, the Children in Need special touchingly deals with Rose being confronted with the new Doctor, and wanting him to change back. And it has the Doctor convincing Rose he's the same through hand holding!

RTD's said all along, really, that the Doctor works in the new show as much by *inspiring* others to save the world as doing it himself. This led to some sniping from fans that he was "Doctor Useless" and I think RTD said in interviews that TCI was an attempt to show what he meant by that: without the Doctor to lead them, everyone goes to pieces. Those other people that saved the day in those other episodes wouldn't have been able to if not for the Doctor and TCI is the evidence.

Yeah, but how many of them got into sword fights with the villain? In TCI, Ten doesn't inspire anyone to save the day. Ten wakes up, kicks ass, and takes names, which is a radical departure from Nine.

God, I loved this show when I saw it at Christmas. I commandeered the tv for an hour and made the rest of my family watch it too, and they all really enjoyed it.

Maybe it was because it was a Christmas special, but it seemed so much bigger than any of the previous series. So much more...epic. And it's not that the special effects were better (the bit when the TARDIS comes flying into the council estate at the beginning was pretty bad, as was the killer Xmas tree). Just the whole feel of the show.

And David Tennant was fantastic. I had only seen him in Harry Potter prior to this, although I've since seen some of Casanova, and he really impressed me. He managed to pull off sword fighting in his pyjamas, and that bit with the hand was just brilliant - 'And this hand? It's a FIGHTIN' HAND!'

I'm not sure but I think they may have been given a seperate budget exclusively for the Christmas episode, instead of for an entire season. I'm pretty sure this is the case as they shot it seperately from the upcoming season. So they probably had more money to work with than their average episode.



Probably my favorite bit of the whole thing is when he grows his hand back and freaks out the Sycorax leader. "Witchcraft!", "Timelord." I get shivers evertime. I love 10 when he's being serious and dark, Tennant is just as excellent doing those moments as he is with the comedy.

It's kind of confusing. From my limited understanding, Christmas Invasion was comissioned with series two. But it does not count toward the 13 episodes of series two. It's a separate entity and therefore had its own budget.

Also consider that some of the sets were pre-existing such as the TARDIS, the Tyler family house, etc..so they had more money to spend on the new sets as well.

Actually The Christmas Invasion was budgeted as part of Series Two. But because of its primetime holiday programming it was given special attention.

TCI and the first episode of Series Two are due out on DVD (one of the vanilla releases without extras) in May this year. UK R2 PAL discs only.

There is much speculation since we aren't privy to the actual cost of Series One, but it seems Series Two and Three were given slightly larger budgets. Series Three will include another Christmas special (story as yet unwritten and unknown).

It'll be a shame if everywhere else in the world doesn't get to see the Children in Need special, because the transition between the end of 'Parting of the Ways' and 'The Christmas Invasion' seems rather arkward without it. Plus, it has Rose's initial reaction to the Doctor exploding and this random bloke taking his place, which you'd like to see, as opposed to her just stepping out of the TARDIS, saying 'That's the Doctor'.

For this reason, also. *squees at hand holding*
"I have got a MOLE..."

FYI, this was a 7 minute special that showed the immediate aftermath of the regeneration into Doctor #10. I quite liked it, although I very much wish the content had been incorporated into the Christmas Invasion, instead of being done almost after the fact. Also, Rose's hair is different.

But it was a good bit of character work, showing us the Doctor discovering himself, and slowly losing it.

We possibly need to come up with some accepted numbering convention for these 'side episodes' like Pudsey Cutaway, The Christmas Invasion and Attack of the Graske.

For instance, at the moment TCI is down as "2.0" and Cutaway is down as "2.X" but the official BBC-used production code for TCI is "2.X" (as in 2.Xmas, geddit!?) and AFAIK Cutaway doesn't have an official one at all!

Maybe Cutaway is a better 2.0, with 2.X for TCI and 2.i for AotG (since it's the BBCi special).

Anyway, yes, Cutaway was a very lovely piece and it's almost impossible to imagine that they originally hadn't intended to share these first moments between Ten and Rose with the audience. Between "oooh... I've got hair again! BIG hair!" and the attempts to feel out his new mole, it launched a thousand squees when it first aired, I can tell you.

Nuallain, I'm going to reply to the numbering comments here.

There's a separate Children in Need thread now.

For Azalaea's benefit, here's a recaplet --

Previously on Doctor Who, the Daleks invaded the Earth and the Doctor got some new teeth...

The Doctor starts prompting Rose to tell him what he now looks like and then decides to try and guess ''don't tell me... don't tell me..." He's pleased to discover he has "hair... BIG hair!" and "oooh... sideburns!" but best of all he likes the mole square between his shoulder blades that he can feel there but can't quite reach.

He breaks off from this when he sees Rose's lost and worried expression and asks her what's wrong. She insists he tells her what he's done with the Doctor and while he repeats that he explained he was about to change, she comes up with a theory that he was swapped with the Doctor by transmat beam and .. really reaching, worries that he's a Slitheen in disguise.

The Doctor manages to prove his credentials by reminding her of the first thing he ever said to her "Run!" and recapping their first meeting in Henrick's basement. He takes her hand and she recognises something of the Doctor in his eyes. "Hello!" he says, smiling. But Rose still isn't entirely happy and asks "Can you change back?" "Do you want me to?" "Yeah" "Oh... [beat] No."

The Doctor's hurt by this rejection and asks if this means she wants to leave him. She's kind of non-commital and the Doctor takes this as an attempt to spare his feelings. Taking the decision out of her hands, he sets course for London, Christmas Eve, 2006 in order to leave her back with Jackie.

But just then he doubles over in pain and pukes up a load of vortex energy. Collapsing across the console he starts to laugh maniacally and struggles to tell Rose that his regeneration has "gone a bit wrong" and that he can't control himself. Temporarily insane, it seems, he opens up the TARDIS engines to maximum and sets off dangerously fast through the vortex - trying to stop himself during second long moments of lucidity. The Cloister Bell begins to ring - signalling that the TARDIS itself is facing imminent destruction and the Doctor laughs again as he announces "We're all going to die!" and "Christmas! Here we come!"

Credits.

For the US broadcast (and assuming that they're in no hurry to start showing the second series straightaway), I imagine they could just glue this sequence onto the start of The Christmas Invasion, using it as a pre-credits teaser, and then move the rest of the clip into the main body of the show. That and a bit of carefully placed advertising could probably bump it up into a 1 1/2 hour for Christmas day 2006.

It's far too good a scene to give up, though.

I dunno, they didn't do that when CBC showed it. Also, it was never intended to be part of TCI and was only written and filmed long after TCI was finished (which is why their are some continuity errors arising from the console room being slightly updated in Cutaway and then lapsing back for TCI)

When TCI was being written they obviously had the option of starting in the TARDIS but decided, for whatever reason, that jumping straight to the crash landing would work better. I'd imagine they still think that.

Most likely, I think American fans who didn't happen to download it during the week or two it was on the official site will probably get to see it first on the S2 boxset, where it will probably be hyped as 'exclusive content' ala the preview mini-episodes on recent 24 boxsets.

Yeah, but still - "Here we go - Christmas Eve!" is a much better credits line than "Doctor Who?"

Not only was the dialogue cute, but it was also the way David Tennant said it. Its in the way he was so manic and hopping about even before he really started to lose control.

You didn't get much of him in "The Parting of the Ways" and you really don't see as much of him until he fully wakes up in "The Christmas Invasion".

The special also addressed why we didn't go back for Captain Jack.

After going back and watching "Rose" in preparation for the SciFi Channel debut, I was surprised to realized "Rose" and "The Christmas Invasion" both begin with the zoom in of Earth to UK to London to the Powell Estate.

The version I saw also didn't have any "previouslies", so someone who skipped the 2005 series could more or less jump in without too much difficulty.

...which was stupid. The Doctor shouldn't have known that Jack was still alive and even if he did, leaving him stranded in completely the wrong century on a spacestation full of corpses so that he can rebuild an Earth that isn't even his is a pretty lousy thing to do.

Of course, the Doctor might have been talking rubbish so that he wouldn't have to tell Rose that Jack was dead. But I'd rather they hadn't mentioned it at all.

I hadn't thought of this possiblility (that the Doctor was just making it up for Rose's benefit), but I kinda hope that that's it. I mean, the Doctor had no way of knowing that Rose had brought Jack back to life, and Rose didn't remember, and them thinking he was dead was the only reason I could think of that they'd leave him behind. So, finding out that they both knew he was alive and just left him there was very upsetting to me. Although finding out about Jack getting his own series did help a little.

Other than that, I really enjoyed CiN, especially the conversation between Rose and Ten as to whether he could change back. I thought Tennent was especially good during that exchange (it was all in the way he paused, and the facial expressions), and it really helped me to warm up to him.

I'm a bit confused, though. What is "Cutaway"? Did I miss something, or is that just an alternate name for CiN?

Up until CiN, I had assumed that the Doctor was leaving Jack for dead. When he threw that line in about leaving Jack to rebuild the Earth, part of me wanted to believe, like you said, that he was just saying that because he DOES still think Jack is dead, and doesn't want to tell Rose. But, then again, the Doctor knows, or should I say, claims that he knows, "all that was, all that is, all that ever could be." And it does seem, at the end of "Parting of the Ways" that he realizes that Rose is bringing people back from the dead (I assume she brought everyone on Earth back, not just Jack) and setting things "right" (undoing the Dalek invasion.)

But, still, like you said, leaving Jack behind when you know he's still alive is pretty lousy, so I'm choosing to believe that the Doctor thinks Jack's dead, and doesn't want Rose to know.

(We should, eventually, get the whole story -- John Barrowman is supposedly signed on to appear in Season 29, or, in other words, Series 3. If Torchwood is a hit, I don't know how that will work, since they've been saying that there will be no crossovers between the two, but that's what I've heard.)

I wouldn't take that literally. If that was the case, he wouldn't have to perform the seance in The Unquiet Dead or panic when he sees the Dalek in Dalek - or do any of the other things that suggest he doesn't actually know what's going to happen next.

I loved that the Cloister Bell was ringing in that scene - a nice bit of continuity with the original series.

Apaprently the title that Russell T. Davies has for the CiN episode, punning on the original "Dalek Cutaway" episode from the original First Doctor run.

How much of a geek do you have to be to find that incredibly funny? Because however geekish it is, that's how geekish I am.

[Small voice] I found it funny. [/Small voice]

I don't think it was meant to be pandering to non-Brit views of the British (stiff upper lip, always drink tea, all that nonsense) - but rather it was a British show poking fun at the foibles of the British. A comparable situation would be a Canadian show poking fun at our obsession with hockey, or an Indian show poking fun of their obsession with cricket.

Back on topic - I loved this episode. It was my first exposure to new Who (I'd seen 1 serial from the Tom Baker era, but that was it) and I was instantly sucked in. It helped, of course, that I tuned in just as the Doctor awoke, thereby missing the slower first half.

The Royal Family on the roof bit cracked me up, as did the Lion King reference. I even forgave the overly-convenient-button-for-collapsing-just-that-particular-part-of-the-ship bit, cause DT's delivery of "No more second chances. I'm that kind of a man" was that good.

Did anyone else find that the end, with 10 and Rose holding hands, was maybe a bit too shippy? I mean, 9 and Rose definitely had chemistry, but they kept a certain distance. Considering the fact that the Doctor apparently doesn't do romantic relationships, the only way they can work this out is if (speculation alert!) Rose's exit arc involves her falling in love with someone else, forestalling any potential relationship with the doctor.

The 'saved by tea' bit actually has a scientific basis. Free radicals are known to cause celluar damage in the brain and scientific studies have shown that simple tea will actually neutralize them and prevent the damage. It won't undo the damage, but we can presume that the free radicals were preventing the Doctor's brain cells from completing their regeneration (damagine them as quickly as they could regrow) and, after the tea fumes neutralized them, the cells finished regenerating and he recovered.

No, not really. I mean, Nine and Rose held hands all the time. I saw it as a reassurance-type thing - Rose is okay with regeneration and Doctor is reassured that she still wants to travel. I don't see it as anything more than that.

Nuallian woo! Thanks for the scientific explanation. I can just see me using that with deploying faux knowledgable voice and my mates going "Her and her bloody Doctor Who"..

My favourite bits?

"Sorry, that's the Lion King" HA! Such a fantastic, funny, very British entry there for Mr Tennant.

And a great demonstration that this Doctor gives you one chance, and one chance only with the whole 'Belgrano' thing. He can be cold too. I like.

I always wondered if that might be how Rose leaves in the end - she did mess up once in Father's Day, what if Mickey or her mum were in danger?

I also think its meant to be about renewal because she grabs his freshly-grown hand (and mentions it).

I've still got this episode on my Sky Plus. I watched it once, at Christmas. I liked it okay, but somehow I felt... unsatisfied. Lots of good jokes, lots of good heart and action. But Harriet Jones' transition from hero to zero felt a little clumsy, and Tennant just... eh. Grates. The lines are fantastic, but he's just too hyper and off-the-wall. Hopefully he'll settle down a bit. I'll probably rewatch before "New Earth" though.

I loved the bit with the Xmas tree. I spent Xmas day surrounded by squealing, sweetie-fueled nieces and nephews and during that scene - utter silence.

If they could just make that actually happen in my parent's house next year when my mum insists we watch "Rosemary and Thyme" or somesuch I'll believe in Santa again.

I thought of the holding hands thing as something that happened only in the new series, but rewatching ‘City Of Death’ recently, The Fourth Doctor and Romana II hold hands a lot when they're running around Paris (although of course Tom Baker and Lalla Ward ended up married in real life, so maybe that had something to do with it), so I thought it was interesting that the Ninth/Tenth Doctor holding hands with Rose wasn't without precedent. I think it's kind of cute and, like Alisa says, about reassurance.



It was possibly a little jarring after the way we saw her in ‘AoL’/‘WWT’, but I do think Harriet would have found pretty soon after becoming PM that as a woman in power, she had to be even tougher than a man in the same position. The Belgrano parallel does make me wonder whether Harriet is meant to remind us of a certain woman Prime Minister.

I think you're right about that Pooki. And yet, she still has to serve coffee to men. *eyeroll* That bit stuck out as really weird to me. Why was that necessary?

To show that she's down-to-Earth and accommodating, not treating people like crap because she's in a position of power.

She gave David a cup of tea because he was a guest, not because he was a man.

Hm. Maybe it's because I haven't seen the other episode she was in, and so didn't know serving beverages was a recurring thing for her, but it honestly irritated me when I rewatched this ep last night. It just seemed odd to me because on TV when men in similar positions of power (and the few times I've seen it IRL) are considerate in such a manner, they offer coffee (or whatever) but don't serve it themselves. It just seemed like a lame "oh, don't worry. She's powerful, but she's still feminine!" thing, which is kinda out of place on this show.

I dunno. Maybe I'm just hypercritical and bitchy because I'm pissed about having to read 100 pages of some lame ass theory book for the first day of one of my classes this week. Seriously, who the hell assigns their students such heavy reading before the class even begins? I know it's grad school, but I still need a break, even for just a few days, dammit.

The killer Christmas tree bit was so goofy that I had to love it, and in the commentary they talk about how proud they were that they actually got a tree to spin round like that, which makes it even more fun to watch.

She doesn't become a complete zero though, because Nine mentioned that she's re-elected twice more. She'll be blowing up aliens for years to come.

And "Harriet Jones, Prime Minister" - "We know who you are" will never stop being funny (to me, at least).

That's exactly the sort of person she isn't, though. You'll see in the next two Sci-fi Channel episodes how she had a much more humble beginning and how that has stayed with her.

One wonders if she did that through her life. One small bit I did like - she was getting to know the names of all the little people she interacted with, like Sally.

What really got me was that she still showed her photo I.D. each time she met someone, as if she was afraid they'd go, "Prime Minister? You? Prove it!"

I hope they do make the Children In Need special available to American audiences somehow. Without it, the start of The Christmas Invasion would be confusing, because it doesn't follow on from The Parting of the Ways.

One moment, the Doctor's about to take Rose to Barcelona (the planet, not the city!), but the next moment, he's suddenly stumbling out of the TARDIS in present-day London, talking like a mad man.

I would have been like: "Gosh, did something really bad happen to him in Barcelona?".

"And why is Rose still acting distant towards him? I guess she didn't like the trip to Barcelona."

I'd hope so. Was it broadcast in every country that showed The Christmas Invasion?

No, it was only broadcast on BBC One and made available worldwide on the internet for a limited time after broadcast.

I would say it's very unlikely to be included in any package being sold to other countries. However, there's a very good chance it will be on the Series Two boxset when that's released (probably around November)

TCI has only been broadcast in the UK and Canada thus far. The CiN special wasn't screened in Canada, so that seems to indicate that it won't be shown anywhere else as well. Although we really won't be able to know one way or the other until more countries air TCI...

Upon rewatching Aliens of London & World War III, I find it interesting that the Doctor says almost exactly the word about "This is brand new Earth, no denying the existance of aliens now." As obviously the spaceship hitting Big Ben was covered up as a prank, I wonder if the Sycrorax will be too. Possibly the next time the Doctor visits Earth, they'll have gone back to not believing in extra-terestials.

I think my second favorite bit from this episode was the "Sycorax rock!" Hee! It was just so unexpected and the guy's delivery was great. (My favorite bit, of course, is the whole "rude and not ginger" thing).

Also, I completely stand corrected on the whole Harriet/coffee thing.

I loved the last 15 or so minutes of the CI...basically once Tennant recovered and is about and being active.

I understand why they did the first 45 the way they did, but that still doesn't mean it didn't drag a bit. Esp as we're all waiting for the Doctor to recover and start taking care of the Sycorax...

I really liked that part too, and I think it's a follow-on from World War III.

The Doctor asks Harriet what the secretary's name is while he's putting the body in a cupboard. She says "I don't know. I spoke to him. I brought him a coffee. I never asked his name."

I think that's the kind of thing that would stick with her and she'd make sure she always found out a person's name in future.