January 11: Children in Need Special / "The Christmas Invasion" / "Attack of the Graske"

A brand-new Doctor for a brand-new series...well, sort of.  Strictly speaking, the series doesn't begin until "New Earth" -- but the Christmas special is included with the series 2 boxset, so I'll count it as part of the series.  And before we even get there, there's a quick little scene to view -- officially known as the Children in Need Special, although it also goes by other names.¹⁶⁹  Other than giving us our first mini-look at new tenth Doctor David Tennant, there's not much of note here -- Rose wants the Doctor to change back, and the regeneration is causing the Doctor to become increasingly erratic and dangerous as he causes the TARDIS to go out of control.  Oh, and, oddly, he seems to know that Captain Jack is alive back in 200,100.  But that's about it.

No, the main event is "The Christmas Invasion" -- Doctor Who's first Christmas special.  (Not its first Christmas episode, as you may recall -- but "The Feast of Steven" wasn't a standalone special.)  We get our first real look at David Tennant as the Doctor, still dealing with the effects of the regeneration.  And, in a canny move, Davies sidelines the Doctor for much of this story, leaving Rose feeling helpless and Jackie and Mickey trying to help pick up the pieces.  The result is a planet on the brink of disaster, ready to be enslaved by an alien race.

The Martian probe is a nice idea (although why would you put an extrasolar friendship package on something heading to Mars?), even if it seems to suggest that mankind hasn't actually been to Mars yet -- true for the real world, but not for the Doctor Who universe, if The Ambassadors of Death is to be believed.  (Then again, we've sent people to the moon and still get interested when probes are sent there, so maybe we can let this slide -- but the Ambassadors of Death problem will rear its head again later.)  The way the crisis evolves is really well done -- having a third of the population under control and heading to the roof is a neat trick that helps provide a genuine sense of worry and tension.  (Incidentally, Wikipedia suggests it's roughly 28% of the world's population with A+ blood -- closer to a fourth than a third, but still within the ballpark.)  Plus we get to see UNIT back in action and the return of Harriet Jones, now the Prime Minister of the UK.  She gets a running joke of introducing herself to everyone, which is either amusing or tiresome, depending on your mood.  And another mention of something called Torchwood (after a fleeting mention in "Bad Wolf").

"Did you miss me?" ("The Christmas Invasion") ©BBC

But this episode is ultimately about providing a huge threat to the world that only the Doctor can fix and then leaving him out of the action.  The others try to cope in his absence (with some nice set pieces, like the robot Santa "pilot fish" and the surprisingly impressive spinning killer Christmas tree), and while the new Doctor regains consciousness from time to time to remind us he's still around, essentially the humans are left on their own -- despite Harriet Jones's on-air pleas for the Doctor to help deal with the Sycorax.  (Which leads to Rose breaking down and sobbing, "He's left me, mum."  Nice of her to have a sense of perspective.)  This seems to be demonstrating one thing: that Rose, despite traveling with the Doctor and having her horizons expanded as a result, cannot do what the Doctor does -- no better illustrated than in the scene where the Sycorax laugh at her after her attempt to posture the way the Doctor would.  And so it's up to the Doctor to step in, with that great reveal of the TARDIS translation circuit beginning to work again, as he swoops in and easily saves the day -- breaking the blood control over the A+ people ("That's all blood control is, a cheap bit of voodoo," the Doctor says afterwards.  "Scares the pants off you, but that's as far as it goes.  It's like hypnosis.  You can hypnotise someone to walk like a chicken or sing like Elvis.  You can't hypnotise them to death; survival instinct's too strong") and standing as the Earth's champion against the Sycorax.  This sequence is overflowing with great lines from the Doctor, from being disappointed in not being ginger to accidentally quoting The Lion King to fighting the Sycorax leader in a swordfight -- one where he gets his hand chopped off and grows another one back.  Tennant is really wonderful in this sequence -- I don't even mind "This new hand?  It's a fightin' hand!" -- and it's easy to believe that he really is the Doctor, just the way Davies presumably intended.

Great ending, too; it's nice to have a bit of a "down" ending, with the destruction of the Sycorax ship by Torchwood more than a little reminiscent of the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano by a British submarine during the Falklands War.  We get a great speech from the Doctor ("I gave them the wrong warning.  I should've told them to run as fast as they can, run and hide because the monsters are coming.  The human race") and the bit about six words to bring down Harriet Jones is really good too.  And I love how the snowfall on Christmas turns out to be ash from the Sycorax ship burning up in the atmosphere -- a wonderful subversion of the cliché.

It's got a compelling story, a great new Doctor, and some really clever writing.  It looks good and is suitably Christmas-y without being overly saccharine or sentimental.  It's even got a nice weighty storyline, instead of a throwaway plot.  "The Christmas Invasion" is one of the best Christmas specials they've done yet -- it's just a bit of a shame it came first, because you know it's not going to be quite as good as this at Christmas again.

And one last little treat: an interactive adventure (originally on BBC Red Button but also available online if you're interested) called "Attack of the Graske".  It's essentially a simple "choose your own adventure" game with specially filmed footage of the Doctor guiding you through the events.  It's rather cute (although I think they missed a trick by not having the word YOU showing up in the credits after David Tennant's name), but the thing that's most striking about it is how comfortable David Tennant is addressing the camera directly; he seems very committed, and it's easy to become a part of the Doctor's adventure.  The only main quibble is that the very last scene with the Doctor is the same no matter how you did -- although some of the earlier "bad" outcomes, where the Doctor is increasingly exasperated at you, are awfully amusing (and the "bad" ending with the family is way more entertaining than the good one -- I love the way the girl causes the Christmas tree to fall over).  Frankly, even though it's ultimately a bit of fluff, "Attack of the Graske" is far better than it really has any right to be.

(Oh, and my friend Charlie finds the line "Got as many doors as Jim Morrison" (so, three) incredibly funny for some reason.)







¹⁶⁹ A genuine title controversy!  There's no title given on screen; the DVD release just calls it Children in Need Special, which is usually what it's referred to, but some reference works call it "Born Again" for no clear reason whatsoever.  Russell T Davies referred to it facetiously as "Pudsey Cutaway" (after both the Children in Need's mascot Pudsey, and "Dalek Cutaway" -- which you'll recall is the "technically correct" title (somehow) for "Mission to the Unknown"), which really should be what we're calling it.