David Tennant ably steps into the shoes of the famous Timelord, as the first couple of episodes of the ‘second’ series of the reborn Doctor Who make it to DVD.
In fact, that’s not quite true. The first of the two is actually the excellent 2005 Christmas special, The Christmas Invasion, which not only marked Tennant’s first full story in the role, but also proved to be an excellent way to spend an hour. Taking place during the festive season, the story finds Earth under imminent threat of invasion, at a time when the Doctor is still getting over his regeneration. That means extra pressure for Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler, but also offers a welcome return to the series for the terrific Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones. Yet it’s the witty script and Tennant’s confident performance that define the episode.
The ‘proper’ start of the ‘second’ series was the slightly uneven New Earth, which scores well again in the humour stakes, but struggles a little more with the story itself. The Doctor and Rose find themselves billions of years in the future, called to a hospital where the feline nursing staff have a cure for every disease. Naturally, there’s something more sinister going on, and there’s the returning, unscrupulous last surviving human Cassandra (played again by Zoe Wanamaker) to deal with. But while it amounts to a fun episode, it’s slightly below the standard the show has set itself of late.
All considered though, as a kick off to the second series DVD collection, there’s plenty in the pair of episodes on offer here to enjoy, and plenty of potential in David Tennant as the Doctor. Now bring on the rest…!–Simon Brew
Wow what a series 0
“I’m in my wedding dress!” – Catherine Tate and a great giant alien spider for Christmas! What more can you ask for?! `The Runaway Bride’ is one of the most memorable, exciting and funny episodes of `Doctor Who’ from the new series. The second proper Doctor Who Christmas special, it features Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, the return of the killer Robot Santas, has got a car chase and features Sarah Parish as the rather monstrous and deadly Empress of the Rachnoss (a gigantic spider).Transmitted on the 25th December 2006, this story follows the tragic end of where the Doctor has just lost Rose Tyler to a parallel universe following the Dalek/Cybermen battle at Canary Wharf. With little time to grieve his loss, the Doctor suddenly finds a bride standing in the console room appearing out of nowhere. The Doctor wonders how she got there and the bride – Donna Noble – is convinced the Doctor’s an idiot and has kidnapped her. Determined to get rid of her, the Doctor tries to get Donna back to her church in Chiswick in time for the wedding. But on the way, they find themselves delayed and cornered off by Robot Santas (last appeared in ) who want to capture Donna and it all leads to a car chase with the Doctor in the TARDIS chasing Donna with a Robot Santa in a taxi.I really like Catherine Tate as Donna Noble in this story. Catherine is well known for her comedy sketch show `The Catherine Tate Show’, and to have her appear as a Christmas companion in a Doctor Who special is a real treat. Here she plays someone who doesn’t want to be in the TARDIS and just wants to get married (rather like Tegan who wanted to be an air hostess and eventually travelled with Peter Davison). Donna is a rather `ditsy and gobby’ sort of character (according to Catherine Tate) who loves the endless trivia like watching the X-Factor and finding out the best top Pringle. Donna can be quite rough and common on the face of it and has the tendency to go `Oy!’ a lot. But underneath Donna is a very compassionate and endearing character, to whom the Doctor likens to and eventually she to him. It’s no surprise that Donna eventually came back as a proper companion in the 2008 series with David Tennant (especially as Catherine Tate enjoyed playing Donna so much that she wanted to come back).I love Donna’s scenes with the Doctor when they’re running around London streets (filmed in Cardiff mind you) and they’re trying to get back to the wedding. I love it when Donna ridicules the Doctor for assuming she’s got a mobile as she doesn’t have any `pockets’ in her wedding dress. And the moment where Donna and the Doctor try to get a taxi and everyone thinks Donna is drunk for being in her wedding dress. And then when they eventually get into the taxi the two find they have no money and have to get out of the taxi again. Brilliantly funny stuff. Especially when Donna tells the Doctor to stop `bleeping’ her with his sonic screwdriver.I really like it when Donna shows concern for the Doctor in asking him about who it was he lost and the Doctor reluctant to tell her. Eventually he does tell her it was Rose he lost to Donna towards the end. I found the moment where the Doctor told Donna to trust her when jumping out of the taxi to get into the TARDIS and she asks if Rose trusted her and he says ‘yes’ to be very touching and endearing. I’m sure it helps for those who are missing Billie Piper as Rose to be reassured she’s never forgotten.David Tennant’s brilliant in this as well. He’s funny and he’s clever. He’s working things out as he usually does with his maniac enthusiasm. Love the moment when he uses the sonic screwdriver to boost the sound speakers to destroy the Robot Santas during the wedding reception. The moments where the Doctor gets slapped by Donna and he’s shocked are really funny. He certainly gets on well with Catherine Tate and the scene where they watch the Earth being formed and him being so enthusatic and excited were very enjoyable to watch. The Doctor’s sadness is explored over Rose and its truly shown and well-acted during the wedding reception as the song `Love Don’t Roam’ is performed in the background.Another superb guest star in this story is Sarah Parish playing the Empress of the Rachnoss. Sarah really enjoys playing an evil giant spider and it’s truly sounds frightening when she speaks and when she mocks Donna the bride and her would be husband. How they did the make-up and the special effects combined with the actress to make the Empress is very spectacular.The rest of the cast includes Jacqueline King as Donna’s mum Sylvia Noble; the late Howard Attfield as Donna’s dad Geoff Noble; and Don Gillet (from `Eastenders’) who plays Donna’s fiancée Lance Bennett. Just to say about Lance, there’s a certain shock story going on with his character in connection to Donna.I have…
Another classic from Doctor Who 0