The Christmas Invasion

Russell T isn’t a technically great writer of classic Doctor Who stories. There’s no real reason for this, except perhaps for pondering that maybe one is either born with or without the ability, as a tired Robert Holmes once observed when hunting about for decent writers in the early seventies. And yet one cannot doubt that Davies "has" something. Maybe like the series itself, technical imperfections (like the fact we had to wait three weeks of the first series to find a story that finished properly) are surpassed by a charm, a personality, a character, some would say a genius. If Doctor Who were a science, Russell would be like the student who partied the evening before, but ultimately used his invention and imagination to forge an end of term essay that was eventually far more satisfying than that knocked out by the bod that knew all the answers but presented them in such a dry way. So despite everything, God help the day when he leaves the Moffatt’s and the Cornell’s to write a whole season and Doctor Who disappears back up its own flawless, perfectly written old arse.

"The Christmas Invasion" is a lot like Big Finish’s "Storm Warning", an adventure I personally loathed. We are introduced to a new Doctor, who is unpredictable and eccentric, a long time is then taken up with establishing series staples (in this case, writing in a few monsters to colour in the trailers) before everyone gets beamed aboard a big space ship and stands around talking for the rest of the episode. But what saves this story is the difference between the aforementioned respected writers, and Russell, who is more concerned about pleasing the public (you know, the ones who make up the ratings and ultimately decide if the show is a success or not) than the fans. It helps that Tennant makes a slightly greater first impression on TV than McGann did on audio – whilst neither failed, Tennant just FEELS more likeable. And this is largely because of the words Russell has given him to say. Within his first few moments of being what Sarah Jane might call ‘compos mentis’ he has pulled off a hilarious impression of the previously menacing Sycorax ("I DON’T KNOW!") nicknamed the leader "Big Guy" and confiscated his weapon like a slightly irritated school teacher. The weakness of "The Christmas Invasion" was that it all strayed slightly too close to what we deeply fear Doctor Who could turn into – something that takes itself too seriously. Star Trek. Before the new Doctor arrived it was exactly that. Aliens which were really humans with funny teeth and latex bits on were menacing the Earth in a weird language that could easily have been Klingon. Symbolically, as the Doctor turned up with a jaunty "did you miss me?" (Yes!!) the language turned into English and the pretentiousness disappeared. The show then did what Star Trek would never do and made fun of everything. As if to prove the point, the Doctor then began to launch into a very Trek-like speech about the beautiful nature of humanity before pausing to say "…. No, sorry, that was The Lion King!". "Storm Warning" lacked this genius, and so ended up being REALLY like Star Trek.

Russell has anti-invented Doctor Who by not re-inventing it at all, but simply proving that everything we had to start with was fine, if not brought out with the care it deserved. "The Christmas Invasion" wore Doctor Who’s budget-scrimping origins on it’s sleeve – which other show would present what appeared to be an entire alien race, but only have one guy that speaks? And a threat to the whole planet? Well why not just show a shot of lots of people with the Eiffel Tower pasted into the background! But the story was packed with so many crowd-pleasing moments that they made it a joy to watch, both for me and for my parents, once again. "It’s quite scary, but at the same time it’s funny," observed my Mum half-way through, particularly enjoying the line about the Queen’s speech being cancelled, for some reason. I think that without these flashes, not fan-pleasing moments but public-pleasing moments, the whole thing would have skated rather too close to becoming dreary and pretentious. But lest we sell Russell short, because if this episode showed his weaknesses as his writer it also proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that his is the magic touch we need to continue the revival, he also included one of the most excellent storyline twists the show has yet attempted since it returned. The idea that, first, Harriet Jones Prime Minister (the modification of her catchphrase being the one gag that didn’t work, even for the parents) would destroy a whole ship full of life forms against the Doctors wishes, and secondly that the Doctor would then in retaliation bring her down with six beautifully played words, was superb. It threw a curveball at her character, showed a stunning nasty side to a tale that was about to end traditionally, and finally gave this new Doctor a rather lovely and unexpected twist to his character… a darker side. "This is the sort of man I am," he uttered as he strode away. Which is, evidently, one we will enjoy getting to know very much indeed.