Doctor Who/Recap/2005 CS the Christmas Invasion

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See, there's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that, I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. It's all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy? Right old misery? Life and soul? Right-handed? Left-handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor, a liar, a nervous wreck? I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob.
—The Doctor

It's become traditional for a new Doctor's first serial to deal with regeneration trauma. The Tenth's is fairly mild—compared to, say, the Sixth's brief homicidal mania—and consists of him spending Christmas unconscious in bed.[1] It's an interesting foreshadowing of what would become important themes in the next few series of Doctor Who and its spinoffs: what happens when the Doctor isn't there to save the day.

Christmas Eve, and the TARDIS comes screaming down out of the sky into the Powell Estates. The new Doctor stumbles out of it and into the arms of Jackie and Mickey; he wishes them a happy Christmas before passing out in their arms. Understandably confused, they nevertheless help Rose carry him up to chez Jackie and get him settled in bed.

Mickey takes Rose out for a bit of last-minute Christmas shopping, where they are attacked by deadly robot Santas. Back at the flat, they are attacked by a deadly robot Christmas tree. The War On Christmas has never been so literal. The Doctor wakes up long enough to explain that the robot Santas aren't the threat—they're just after the residual energy from his regeneration—the real threat is the Sycorax warship that's just coming into view.

Meanwhile, about a third of humanity has zoned out and started climbing to the rooftops. This includes the royal family, but Harriet Jones (Prime Minister[2]) encourages the British people not to panic. This doesn't exactly work, as the Sycorax leader pops up and demands that either the leaders of Humanity sell half of the species into slavery... or that third will leap off the rooftops. Rose and her companions have been paying attention to what's going on, thanks to Mickey's hacking skills and they all slide into the TARDIS.

Unfortunately, without anyone realizing it, the TARDIS is quickly stolen up into the Sycorax spaceship. Rose and Mickey exit the TARDIS in shock, finding themselves alongside a delegation from the Earth led by Harriet Jones (Prime Minister) trying to bargain with the Sycorax. Of course, Mickey spilled tea all over some of the TARDIS controls as he went out to see what Rose was screaming about, but it seems to be fine aside from some random smoke and sparks. Rose, realizing how utterly screwed over everyone is without the Doctor, tries to bluff her way out of the problem by using random phrases and words she's picked up from the Doctor. It doesn't work.

Luckily, however, Rose has bought just enough time for the Doctor to finally finish off his regeneration cycle. As it turns out, the tea that Mickey dropped was just enough to jump-start the Doctor back into consciousness. Within a few seconds, the Doctor gleefully bounces around their ship, gives them a speech, realizes it's from The Lion King and improvises a brief investigation instead, and decides that the Sycorax are simply bluffing—that their blood control is simply old voodoo and can't actually hurt anyone. All the while, he's running around and trying to figure out what kind of man this new body will make him. Manic and lucky, apparently. Within seconds, the Doctor challenges the Sycorax to a quick challenge for the fate of the Earth, to be decided in a swordfight to the death. You know, the usual.

Luckily, the Doctor wins the fight in his jammies and chamber gown -- "very Arthur Dent"—but not before losing a hand.[3] Which he grows back, thanks to still being early in his regeneration cycle. The Doctor then demands that the Sycorax leave the Earth and tell any aliens who wish to conquer the planet that it is defended. Also, since no one can possibly deny alien life anymore, Earth has now officially made first interstellar contact. Finally. And all ends well on Christmas...

...until Harriet Jones (Prime Minister) has them shot out of the sky by Torchwood. The Doctor, suddenly quite serious, decides to say a few simple words to end her time as Prime Minister ("don't you think she looks tired?") and then Rose and the Doctor go off into the TARDIS and fly off all happily, though a a bit troubled by the fact that the government of the UK is now crashing quickly and the 'Christmas snow' is really ash from the Sycorax spaceship. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Tropes

  • Arc Words: Harriet Jones calls Torchwood to take out the Sycorax warship.
  • Bad Santa: A whole brass band of them, complete with weaponized instruments.
  • Big Red Button
  • Bond One-Liner: "No second chances. I'm that sort of a man."
  • Catch Phrase: Harriet Jones's has been accordingly upgraded to reflect her new status, which is met with some exasperation from everyone else—since when did the Prime Minister actually need to introduce herself?
  • Christmas Episode / An Asskicking Christmas
  • Chekhov's Gun: The Doctor's hand is important in the series finales of Series 3 and Series 4.
  • Continuity Nod: Rose's address to the Sycorax is basically her rattling off whatever useless bits of knowledge she's gained about aliens over the course of last series.
  • Converging Stream Weapon: Used by Torchwood against the fleeing Sycorax.
  • Eagle Land: The United States immediately demands to take over the situation...not that Harriet cares.
  • Disney Villain Death: The Sycorax Leader has a particularly nasty one here. Like in most Disney movies, you never see the body, but boy, that was a very LOOOOOOOOOONG fall there.
  • Edible Ammunition: The Doctor defeats the Sycorax leader with a satsuma.
  • Emergency Presidential Address: The Prime Minister has to take over the time slot allocated to The Queen's Speech because the Royals are apparently among the people under alien control.
  • Epic Fail: Rose's attempt to talk to the Sycorax using random words she picked up from the Doctor. The vast majority are just the names of previous aliens of the week, and the Sycorax just wind up laughing at her.
  • He's Back: Did you miss him?
  • I'm Not Angry: Invoked by the Doctor in "The Christmas Invasion", against Prime Minister Harriet Jones.

Doctor: (to an aide) Don't you think she looks tired?

  • Instrument of Murder: The robot Father Christmases wield brass instruments that double as weapons, including a trombone-flamethrower.
  • Moral Dissonance: The Doctor deposes Harriet Jones, violating his own standards of not altering major historical events, inadvertantly causing her to be replaced by a genocidal Prime Minister, and then a Prime Minister who nearly hands over children to an alien race... and nobody ever, ever calls him on it. Not in this episode or anywhere else in the series.
    • The Doctor's conviction that he could get rid of the Prime Minister and alter the timeline just because she did something he didn't like may have been Foreshadowing for the A God Am I he would later display.
  • Mythology Gag: The Fourth Doctor's outfit can be seen while the Doctor picks out his new clothes.
  • Nations of the World Montage: we see people walking to the edge of buildings in Paris and Rome. With, of course, Eiffel Tower and Coliseum.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nice job bringing down the person you said earlier would be responsible for a golden age and paving the way for the Master's eventual takeover, Doctor.
    • To be fair, his brain almost collapsed during the episode due to being woken up too early. He must still have a screw loose.
    • It gets even worse when in one of the Doctor Who comics (Agent Provocator), he runs into a Sycorax Slaver who has been capturing aliens. After defeating him, the Doctor lets him live, and leaves the Sonic Screwdriver as a makeshift beacon to return his slaves to their homes, telling him that he will pay if he decides to do anything funny. Once the Doctor leaves, he proceeds to try to take the Sonic Screwdriver for himself....And promptly triggers the Doctor's trap, (Which the Doctor suspected would happen) earning him a Karmic Death. One really wonders if the Sycorax could be trusted to retreat in peace....
  • Phrase Catcher:

Harriet Jones, Prime Minister: (flashes ID badge) Harriet Jones, Prime Minister.
Everyone (including the Sycorax): Yes, I know.

Mickey: "We're having a picnic while the world comes to an end. Very British.

"THAT WAS MURDER!"

  1. ↑ Strangely, it's rather close to the Fifth Doctor's regeneration process, where the Doctor spent a lot of time sleeping before running around a lot.
  2. ↑ Yes, we know who she is
  3. ↑ This will be important (much, much) later
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