The Christmas Invasion (TV story)
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While Rose, Jackie, and Mickey try to help the Doctor as he suffers the instabilities of post-regenerative shock, the Earth comes under attack by a sinister race known as the Sycorax.
Summary
Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith are preparing for the holiday season when the TARDIS makes a violent appearance at the council estate. Rose emerges from the ship with the newly regenerated Doctor, who wishes Jackie and Mickey a Merry Christmas before collapsing, after which he slips in and out of consciousness. Later, Rose and Mickey are attacked first by a group of sinister Santas while Christmas shopping, then by a killer Christmas tree back at the flat. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Harriet Jones learns that a recently launched Mars probe has been captured by the Sycorax, who have plans to invade and conquer Earth.
References
Arthur Dent, blood, Daleks, Christmas, Mars, satsuma, Slitheen Parliament, tea, The Lion King, Torchwood
Cast & Characters
- The Doctor - David Tennant
- Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
- Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri
- Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke
- Harriet Jones - Penelope Wilton
- Sally - Anita Briem
- Daniel Llewellyn - Daniel Evans
- Alex Klein - Adam Garcia
- Major Blake - Chu Omambala
- To be announced - Sean Gilder
Notes
- A behind-the-scenes preview of this episode was released with the Season 27/2 DVD box set.
- Some early reports suggested that the enemy would be the Cybermen. Tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that Shaun Dingwall would return as Rose's father, Pete Tyler, and that this episode would be set on an alternate Earth. However, all of these claims were proven to be incorrect when the episode was broadcast.
- This story features David Tennant in his first full episode as the Doctor. He previously made a brief appearance at the end of "The Parting of the Ways", when the Ninth Doctor regenerated into Tennant's Tenth Doctor, and in a 7-minute "mini-episode" for Children in Need.
- This is the first Doctor Who episode clearly labelled as a Christmas special. However, the seventh episode of The Daleks' Master Plan, titled "The Feast of Steven", was also written as a Christmas episode and was first broadcast on 25 December 1965. Previous stories centered around Christmas include the previous season's "The Unquiet Dead" and the novel, "Christmas on a Rational Planet."
- According to press reports released before this episode was broadcast, producer Russell T. Davies stated that he believed Christmas specials should include traditional Christmas items such as sleigh bells, snow, reindeer, and Santa.
- The song being played by the Santa Claus band which attacks Rose and Mickey is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." This song is traditionally associated with the story, A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, whom the Doctor and Rose met in "The Unquiet Dead."
- The first shot in this episode, in which the Earth and its moon appear, is reused footage and was originally the opening shot from "Rose".
- The Tenth Doctor speaks with an accent similar to Rose's but unlike the Ninth Doctor's Northern one. In a radio interview broadcast on 23 December 2005, Tennant explained that a line of dialogue had been scripted for this episode which explained that the newly regenerated Doctor had imprinted on Rose's accent, "like a chick hatching from an egg," but the line was deleted from the final episode.
- Just before the opening credits sequence, Jackie says the line "Doctor? Doctor who?", continuing a long-running in-joke.
- This episode features Penelope Wilton as MP Harriet Jones. Wilton previously guest-starred as Harriet Jones in the Ninth Doctor episodes Aliens of London and World War Three. At the end of the latter episode, the Doctor claimed that she would become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the country's "Golden Age". By the time of The Christmas Invasion, she has won a general election with a large majority.
- Before this episode was broadcast, a fictional tie-in website for the Guinevere One project was created and launched by the BBC. The site includes an introduction by Harriet Jones and an interview with the project director, Professor Daniel Llewellyn. The site claims that the probe was developed by the British Rocket Group. The organisation's logo partially appears in this episode, in the televised press conference with Professor Llewellyn. The name of the organisation was first mentioned in Remembrance of the Daleks and is a reference to the British Experimental Rocket Group from the Quatermass science fiction serials of the 1950s. David Tennant previously starred in the 2005 BBC remake of The Quatermass Experiment as Doctor Gordon Briscoe.
- Harriet Jones's response to the American President's message, namely that she "is in control of the situation and doesn't want him using this as an excuse to start a war" may be an in-reference to the Iraq War and Tony Blair, whose critics have accussed him of being a puppet of George W. Bush.
- Early in this episode, a Routemaster bus briefly appears. However, Routemasters were actually removed from active service on 9 December 2005, approximately two weeks before the episode was first broadcast, and at least one year before the date on which the episode is supposedly set. However, a small number of these buses remain in London, touring the city's streets on "heritage" routes aimed principally at the nostalgia market.
Influences
- Besides being the name of the invading aliens, Sycorax is also the name of the witch in Shakespeare's play, The Tempest.
- The Sycorax, with their curse-like blood control technology and bone-motif costumes, are slightly similar to Faction Paradox, a time-travelling voodoo cult created by Lawrence Miles that were recurring villains in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novels.
- Guinevere One, the name of the probe that Earth sends to Mars, references the myths of legend King Arthur. In those stories, Guinevere was Arthur's Queen consort. Her name is an old French form of the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, which can be translated as "white shadow". Her adulterous affair with Arthur's chief knight, Lancelot, and betrayal of her husband lead to the downfall of their kingdom.
- The Doctor's sword duel with the Sycorax leader, particularly when his hand is cut off, suggests the light-saber duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in "The Empire Strikes Back."
- The Doctor complains that the bathrobe and pyjamas Jackie has given him to wear are "very Arthur Dent." Arthur Dent is a character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, created by former Doctor Who script editor Douglas Adams. The Doctor's mention of Arthur as "a very nice fellow," suggesting he has actually met him, together with the fact that the book the Fourth Doctor reads in "Destiny of the Daleks" is written by Guide author Oolon Caluphid raises the question of how much of the characters and events set in the Guide stories also occur in the Doctor Who Universe.
- When speaking to the Sycorax of the great potential humans possess, the Doctor realizes he is quoting from The Lion King.
Continuity
- British manned missions to Mars were previously featured in The Ambassadors of Death.
- UNIT is now headquartered in the Tower of London.
- This episode first introduces Torchwood, - which is first mentioned in "Bad Wolf," - and we are told it is so secret even the United Nations does not know of its existence, and the Prime Minister isn't supposed to know, although Harriet Jones somehow does.
- The Doctor's speech to PM Harriet Jones about how "Earth is drawing attention to itself" recalls a similar statement made by the Brigadier in "Spearhead from Space." Jones's destruction of the Sycorax ship and the Doctor's angry reaction are similar to the conclusion of "Doctor Who and the Silurians," in which the Brigadier uses explosives to seal off the Silurian hibernation chambers even as the Doctor departs to begin peace negotiations.
- The Time Lord regeneration process takes up to fifteen hours to complete. During this time, a Time Lord can regrow severed appendages.
- The chemical components in tea can complete the healing of brain synapses and neurons recovering from the regeneration process. This may be why the Fifth Doctor said he was "rather fond of it" in "The Awakening," as the Zero Room, which served the same function, was jettisoned from the TARDIS during the events of "Castrovalva."
Quotes
- Mickey: "Where's the Doctor?"
Rose: "That's him. That's the Doctor."
Jackie: "What do you mean, that's the Doctor? Doctor Who?"
- Rose: "(The Doctor)'s got two hearts."
Jackie: "Anything else he's got two of?"
- Jackie: "I'm going to be killed by a Christmas tree!"
- Translated message from the Sycorax leader to Rose: "You are very, very funny. Now you will die."
- The Doctor: "This new hand is a fightin' hand!"
