Visit the official Doctor Who website

Visit the official Doctor Who website
Look to the future

Asylum seekers...

Asylum seekers...
Refuge of the Daleks

Doctor Who picture resource

Doctor Who picture resource
Roam the space lanes!

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website
Step back in time

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood
Armed and extremely dangerous

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures
Fearless in the face of adversity

Call on Dani’s House

Call on Dani’s House
Harmer’s a charmer

Intercept the UFO fabsite

Intercept the UFO fabsite
Defending the Earth against alien invaders!

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse
Programmable agent Echo exposed!

Hell’s belles

Hell’s belles
Naughty but nice

Love Exposure

Love Exposure
Flash photography!

Primeval portal

Primeval portal
Dressed to kill or damsels in distress?

Charmed, to be sure!

Charmed, to be sure!
The witches of San Francisco

Take on t.A.T.u.

Take on t.A.T.u.
All the way from Moscow

Proceed to the Luther website

Proceed to the Luther website
John and Jenny discuss their next move

DCI Banks is on the case

DCI Banks is on the case
You can bet on it!

On The Grid with Spooks

On The Grid with Spooks
Secret agents of Section D

Bridge to Hustle

Bridge to Hustle
Shady characters

Life on Ashes To Ashes

Life on Ashes To Ashes
Coppers with a chequered past

Claire’s no Exile

Claire’s no Exile
Goose steps

Vexed is back on the beat!

Vexed is back on the beat!
Mismatched DI Armstrong and bright fast-tracker Georgina Dixon

Medium, both super and natural

Medium, both super and natural
Open the door to your dreams

Who’s that girl? (350-picture Slideshow)

Monday 25 December 2006

Several Holidays for the Doctor!


At 6.35pm, 41 years ago, “Doctor Who” was broadcast on Christmas Day. It looked as though “The Feast of Steven”, episode seven of the twelve-part epic “The Daleks’ Master Plan”, would remain the only episode of the series afforded that privilege. Until last year. Forty years on, “The Christmas Invasion” became the second time of such an illustrious event. On this occasion, it wasn’t simply because the next Saturday’s episode just happened to fall on 25th December. It was a bona fide special. Now, here we are with the second specially prepared episode, “The Runaway Bride”, making it a hat trick and pitting the tenth Doctor against more killer robot Santas than you can point a sonic screwdriver at! Especially from a moving TARDIS down the M4!! But that original Christmas episode wasn’t without acknowledging the fact. Realising that they never got a chance to celebrate Christmas during their recent visit to Earth, the Doctor produces a bottle of champagne and some glasses…

The Doctor: “Here’s a toast, a happy Christmas to all of us.”

Steven: “The same to you, Doctor, Sara.”

The Doctor: “And incidentally, a happy Christmas to all of you at home!”

3 comments:

Old Cheeser said...

Yes it was nice that the original series acknowledged Christmas in that way.

So, what did you think of "The Runaway Bride" then? I enjoyed it on the whole.

Catherine Tate (although rather shrill and loud in places, and occasionally too reminiscent of her comedy show characters) had an excellent rapport with David Tennant and there was some great dialogue between them. Speaking of Mr Tennant, I was pleased to see his annoying face pulling and silly mannerisms were very much subdued here. He seems much more comfortable and natural in the role now, which was good to see. Sarah Parrish's Empress of Racnoss was menacing and looked amazing, although a shame she wasn't more "mobile". The scene when the Dr floods the spider's nest was actually very disturbing as the Empress screamed "My babies!" and the Dr just stood there impassively. And I loved the TARDIS / taxi chase scene. The trailer for Season Three whetted my appetite nicely too (although why did they have to give the game away about the Daleks?)

TimeWarden said...

You’ve made some good points, giving rise to a number of interesting questions. I’ve replied in a new post on my blog’s front page. Otherwise, I might never have got round to reviewing the Christmas Special, despite having reviewed every episode in the last series!

Old Cheeser said...

Thank you - I shall go read your review now!!