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The Christmas Invasion

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The Christmas Invasion is a 60-minute special episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It began production in July 2005, and was broadcast on Christmas Day 2005 in the United Kingdom and on Boxing Day 2005 in Canada.

Synopsis

It is Christmas, but there is little cause for celebration as the Earth is invaded by the alien Sycorax. It is up to Rose and the newly-regenerated Tenth Doctor to save the world once again, with a bit of help from her boyfriend Mickey and her mother Jackie. But will the Doctor recover in time, and can Rose trust a Doctor with a new and unfamiliar face?

Plot

"I demand to know who you are!"
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"I demand to know who you are!"

It is Christmas Eve, and as Jackie prepares presents and Mickey works in the garage, both of them hear the distinctive sound of the TARDIS engines. Rushing out into the street of the Powell Estate, they see the TARDIS blink into existence above them, ricochet off a few buildings, then come to a crashing halt. A strange man stumbles out of the police box doors, greeting them before collapsing. Rose follows, and to Jackie and Mickey's questions, identifies the stranger as the Doctor.

They bring the Doctor to Jackie's flat and dress him in pyjamas belonging to Howard, Jackie's current beau (who has the habit of keeping pieces of fruit in his pocket for snacks). While Rose discusses the Doctor's change of appearance with Jackie, they do not see a wisp of vortex energy emerging from the Doctor's mouth, which then floats into space. On television, Prime Minister Harriet Jones and project director Daniel Llewellyn give a press conference about the Guinevere One space probe, which is about to land on Mars. In space, however, the probe is swallowed up by an island-like spaceship.

That evening, Rose and Mickey go Christmas shopping, but are attacked by a group of masked Santas armed with lethal musical instruments. Managing to escape when the tuba mortar brings a giant Christmas tree down on the Santas, Rose realises that the Santas must be after the Doctor, and she and Mickey rush home. When they reach the flat, Rose notices a new addition: a Christmas tree none of them bought. Before their eyes, it comes to life, whirling around with razor-sharp branches.

The three retreat to the bedroom, the "Christmas tree" in hot pursuit. Rose places the sonic screwdriver in the still-comatose Doctor's hand and asks him to help her. Reacting instinctively, the Doctor rises as the tree bursts through the door and disintegrates the tree with the screwdriver. He then strides outside the flat to see who was remotely controlling the tree. From ground level, the Santas stare up at the Doctor, but transmat away when the Doctor points the sonic screwdriver at them. The Doctor calls them "pilot fish" and collapses in pain, saying that Rose woke him up too soon: he is still regenerating. The energy leaking from him has attracted attention, and if the "pilot fish" could trace it, then something bigger is coming...

The first signal from Guinevere One arrives: a distinctly alien face, which is soon broadcast all over the world. Llewellyn is escorted by Major Blake to the Tower of London, which houses a facility run by the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). There, he meets the Prime Minister and her aide, Alex, who tell him that the cover story is that a student in a mask hacked into the television signal. Llewellyn is shaken to realize that extraterrestrial life does exist, and that both the British government and the United Nations are aware of this. A technician, Sally Jacobs, explains that the signal did not come from Mars but 5000 miles above the planet's surface, which means that there is a ship, and it is moving rapidly towards Earth.

As Rose and Mickey use his laptop to monitor UNIT's readings, the aliens send another signal. The aliens speak in their own language, but Rose does not understand it. Normally, the TARDIS would translate it for her, but it seems that with the Doctor unconscious, that function is not working.

At UNIT, Blake orders the use of translation software. With no sign of the Doctor, Jones asks Blake about "Torchwood". She knows that she is not supposed to know about them — not even the United Nations knows — but she wants them to be ready.

The software rather imprecisely translates the message. The aliens are the Sycorax, and they are claiming the planet as their own, demanding surrender or "they" will die. Their word for "human" also appears to be similar to that of "cattle", temporarily baffling UNIT. Jones declines to surrender, warning the Sycorax that the planet is armed. As dawn rises over London, the Sycorax respond. With a wave of the leader's hand, blue energy sweeps over a third of the world's population, mesmerising them. The mind-controlled people climb to the highest spots they can find, climbing to the roofs of buildings and poised to jump.

Checking the UNIT staff's medical records, Llewellyn discovers that all the affected people have A+ blood. The Sycorax found the sample of A+ blood that was sent with various other materials on Guinevere One to identify the human race in case of alien contact, and are somehow using that as a control mechanism. Desperate now, Jones gives an emergency broadcast on television, pleading for the Doctor's help if he is out there. She also informs the public that the Queen's Christmas speech has been cancelled because the Royal Family are "on the roof".

Just then, the shockwave of the Sycorax ship entering the atmosphere shatters windows all over the city; the gigantic craft takes position above the centre of London as the frightened population watch. Rose, driven to despair by the Doctor's comatose state and not knowing what else to do, asks Mickey and Jackie to help move the Doctor to the safety of the TARDIS. Jackie gathers various supplies, including a thermos flask of tea.

The Sycorax transmat Jones, Alex, Blake and Llewellyn up to their ship. The leader removes his helmet, revealing a skinless face surrounded by a mantle of bone. His hand hovering over a large glowing button, he demands immediate surrender, or he will order the controlled humans to jump. Llewellyn tries to reason with the Sycorax, but is reduced to a pile of bones by the leader's energy whip, as is Blake when he protests. Half of the world will be sold into slavery or a third will die; it is Jones's choice.

As Rose and Mickey move the Doctor into the console room, Jackie goes back to get more supplies. Rose, having apparently given up, broods by the console as Mickey tries to use the TARDIS scanner to tune into what is happening, but the time machine's advanced technology is detected by the Sycorax. Outside, Jackie watches helplessly as the TARDIS is transmatted up. Rose steps out of the TARDIS, not realising that they are aboard the Sycorax ship and screams when she sees the aliens. Mickey rushes out after her, dropping the flask of tea, which spills and starts dripping through the grilles at the base of the console next to the Doctor's unconscious form. He breathes in the fumes created as the tea sparks against various components.

Rose tries to bluff the Sycorax by quoting various things and races she has encountered on her travels, commanding them to leave, but is answered with laughter. The Sycorax leader taunts her attempts to pass off second-hand knowledge as authority, but as he gloats, his alien words start turning into English. Rose realises that the TARDIS translation is working again, and that can mean only one thing. On cue, the doors of the police box open and the Doctor stands there, smiling as he says, "Did you miss me?"

Easily deactivating the Sycorax leader's energy whip and breaking his staff, the Doctor bluntly tells the alien to wait while he gets more important things out of the way; namely, getting reacquainted with his friends. Disappointed at not being ginger haired, and somewhat annoyed at Rose's speed in giving up on him, he tells them that all he needed was a "good cup of tea; a superheated infusion of free radicals and tannin. Just the thing for heating the synapses." As the Sycorax leader demands to know who he is, the Doctor blithely strides across the ship's floor, nattering on cheerfully and still working out what his personality is like in this new incarnation. He walks up to the glowing button, discovering that it is being powered by blood and quickly deduces about the blood control. The Doctor tells the leader that in his unstable state, when he sees a large glowing button he just cannot help himself — and to everyone's shock, pushes it.

However, instead of sending the possessed crowds on Earth to their deaths, it simply releases them from the Sycorax control. The Doctor explains that blood control is like hypnosis: you cannot hypnotise a person to death as the survival instinct is too strong. The Sycorax were bluffing, and the Doctor merely called them on it. The leader says that they can still conquer Earth with an armada, but the Doctor demands that the humans be left alone, challenging the leader to single combat for the planet.

The swordfight goes from inside the ship to its exterior, but the Doctor is clearly disadvantaged, and in the midst of it, the leader cuts the Doctor's hand off. However, the Doctor is still in the first 15 hours of his regeneration cycle, and regrows his hand, allowing him to gain an advantage over the Sycorax leader and triumph. Holding the leader at sword point at the ship's edge, the Doctor extracts an oath from the leader to leave the planet and never return, in return for the Doctor sparing his life. As the Doctor walks back, celebrating his victory with Rose, the leader tries a final attack whilst the Doctor's back is turned, but the Doctor calmly bounces a satsuma he finds in Howard's dressing gown off a control button, opening a section of the ship's wing beneath the leader and sending the alien plunging to his death. The new Doctor is not a man willing to grant second chances.

The Doctor sends the other Sycorax on their way with a reminder that the planet Earth is defended. Transmatted back to London, Jones asks if there are more aliens out there and the Doctor notes that there are thousands; the human race is being noticed more and more. As Jones ponders this, visibly troubled, Alex receives a telephone call and quietly informs Jones that Torchwood are ready. Jones seems reluctant, but nevertheless gives the order to fire. Five green beams converge as one over London, and the resulting energy burst destroys the Sycorax ship as it heads into space.

The Doctor glares at Jones, furious, but she tries to justify the use of the weapon (engineered from a crashed spaceship ten years previously) as defending the planet, especially since the Doctor cannot be there all the time. The Doctor bitterly says he should have warned the Sycorax to run as the real monsters, the humans, are coming. When Jones asks if she should consider the Doctor another alien enemy, the Doctor warns her that he can bring down her government with just six words. He whispers them in Alex's ear: "Don't you think she looks tired?"

Jackie, Mickey and Rose serve Christmas dinner in the flat. The Doctor looks through the TARDIS wardrobe, finally settling on a brown pinstripe suit and a long brown coat. He joins the others for dinner, and they watch Harriet Jones on the television, fending off rumours about her ill-health and a pending vote of no confidence in the House of Commons. Outside, what looks like snow is falling over London, accompanied by shooting stars, but the Doctor points out that it is, in fact, ash — the remains of the Sycorax spaceship. It is a new start for Earth, however; with so many people seeing the Sycorax ship, there is no covering up the existence of aliens this time.

But there are new worlds to see and explore. With a now-trusting Rose by his side and eager to continue their travels, the Doctor looks up into the sky to choose a star for their next destination, assuring her that it will be, in the words of his previous incarnation, "fantastic".

Cast

Popular culture allusions

This episode had a higher than usual number of allusions to popular culture.

The organisation that developed the spaceprobe, as mentioned on the website, is the British Rocket Group. Its logo is half-seen in the background during the televised press conference. This is a reference to the British Experimental Rocket Group from the Quatermass serials of the 1950s. The British Rocket Group was first mentioned in Doctor Who in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988). David Tennant starred in the 2005 BBC remake of The Quatermass Experiment as Dr Gordon Briscoe.

Harriet Jones' desperate televised plea to the Doctor is reminiscent of The President's similar plea to Superman in Superman II, and the effect of the energy weapon that Torchwood uses to destroy the Sycorax ship resembles that used by the Death Star in .

When the Doctor is trying to persuade the Sycorax leader to spare humanity, he finds himself quoting the first few lines of the song "The Circle of Life" from the 1994 Walt Disney film, The Lion King.

Arthur Dent is mentioned by the Doctor, in reference to the dressing gown he is wearing. The Doctor previously quoted The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in Ghost Light; and mentions Oolon Colluphid in Destiny of the Daleks. Whether the Doctor actually met Dent or if he was just teasing Rose is unclear. The late Douglas Adams, the creator of Hitchhiker's Guide, was script editor for Doctor Who during 1979-1980, and wrote or co-wrote the serials The Pirate Planet, City of Death and Shada. At the time The Christmas Invasion was in production, a big-screen adaptation of Hitchhiker's had just been released. Coincidentally, both that film and this episode contain an identical joke ("Anything else he's got two of?").

Most significantly for the series, the Torchwood subplot itself seeds the upcoming spin-off.

Trivia

References

External links

Reviews

 


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