The newly regenerated Tenth Doctor barely had time to relax because planet Earth was suddenly threatened by an alien invasion by the Sycorax on Christmas Day 2005! U.N.I.T reached out to the Doctor who was recovering in the Powell Estate, London with Rose Tyler, her mother Jackie and her boyfriend Mickey Smith. The Sycorax were a warrior race that wore the bones of their victims! The Sycorax controlled a third of the human race to the brink of jumping off of roofs, this was blood control. The Tenth Doctor engaged in a sword fight with the Sycorax leader and ultimately used a satsuma to win the day! Not bad for a man in his pyjamas! The Christmas Invasion was the first official Doctor Who Christmas Special.
The Christmas Invasion
★★★★☆
TX: 25/12/2005
Written by Russell T Davies Directed by James Hawes
The TARDIS crash lands on the Powell Estate, London on Christmas Eve 2005. The newly regenerated Tenth Doctor stumbles out followed by Rose. Jackie, Rose and Mickey help the Doctor into bed so that he can recover from his regeneration. However, he won’t be able to get much peace and quiet! Whilst out Christmas shopping, Rose and Mickey are attacked by a brass band of Robot Santas. Upon returning to Jackie’s flat, the group are attacked by a killer Christmas tree, which the Doctor wakes up and destroys with his sonic screwdriver. The Doctor says that the Santas and the Christmas tree were pilot fish, and that they were the precursor to a full scale alien invasion. The Doctor is soon proven right when the UK government announce that the British Guinevere One space probe has made first contact with an alien race called the Sycorax. The probe contained an A positive blood sample, which the Sycorax use to control a third of the world’s population to walk to the rooftops and prepare to jump. A gigantic Sycorax spaceship arrives above London and hangs in the air. The Doctor, Rose and Mickey (inside the TARDIS) are beamed aboard the Sycorax ship. The Sycorax try to blackmail Harriet Jones (who is now UK Prime Minister) into surrendering half of the world’s population into slavery. However, the regenerated Doctor wakes up on the Sycorax spaceship and engages in a swordfight with the Sycorax Leader, during which the Doctor loses his hand (but he grows it back thanks to his regeneration). Captain Jack Harkness later retrieves the Doctor’s hand, puts it into a jar and brings it back to Torchwood to use as a “Doctor detector”, the Doctor’s “handy spare hand” (Torchwood: Day One, Utopia, The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End). The Doctor wins and orders the Sycorax leader to leave Earth forever. The Sycorax leader agrees but then shortly tries to kill the Doctor again. The Doctor uses a satsuma to make the Sycorax Leader fall to his death. The Doctor tells the Sycorax court that Earth is defended! In The Shakespeare Code, the Doctor accidentally gives William Shakespeare the name Sycorax, which Shakespeare later uses in his play The Tempest. Upon returning to London, Prime Minister Harriet Jones (whom the Doctor and Rose previously met in Aliens of London/World War Three) orders the Torchwood Institute to destroy the retreating Sycorax ship. This is an allegory for Margaret Thatcher’s aggressive sinking of the retreating General Belgrano ship during the Falklands War of 1982. I hated Margaret Thatcher and I hate the Tories! Doctor Who has featured many attacks on Margaret Thatcher, most notably in The Happiness Patrol. Russell also took a swipe at Margaret Thatcher in It’s a Sin. The Doctor deplores Harriet Jones’s actions as a war crime and he deposes her, using just six words to topple her government. The recovered Doctor spends a happy Christmas Day with Rose, Jackie and Mickey. Rose decides to continue travelling in the TARDIS with the new Doctor as she now trusts his new face. Mickey and Jackie still have their reservations however as they know that Rose is not safe during her travels in time and space. Some elements of the plot of The Christmas Invasion were borrowed from The Ambassadors of Death, i.e. the Mars Probe. I wish aliens would just come in peace for a change! It’s time for another gentle reminder that David Tennant is the best Doctor! David Tennant is the best Doctor, it’s a fact not an opinion! You either think that Tennant is the best Doctor or you’re wrong! There will never be a better Doctor than David Tennant! David Tennant gives one of his best performances in this incredible story, proving once and for all that he will always be the best Doctor, a fact not an opinion! 🥹 Meeting David Tennant was genuinely one of the best days of my life. How could anyone think that David Tennant is not the best Doctor?! The TARDIS has a huge wardrobe! Over the years, many of my girlfriends have cooked and cleaned for me, as well as doing my washing and ironing for me too, like a dutiful housewife.
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