|
The Christmas Invasion Format Reviewed: TV Review The Tennant era begins in earnest with an hour long Christmas special, billed as everything you would expect from a Christmas programme, but with all the usual Doctor Who trimmings. The story sees many recurring cast members pressed back into action, with now Prime Minister Harriet Jones played by Penelope Wilton joining Camile Coduri and Noel Clarke playing Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith respectively. The guests put in admirable performances, and Coduris (oft criticised here) portrayal is not too embarassing. The story itself is very credible, with the plot well thought through and realised. I particularly like the idea of blood control as a method of subjugation by the alien menace, the Sycorax. The story also covers a lot of ground and moves along at a fair pace, but at no point was the viewer either left confused or bored. Another good aspect to the story was the references and mickey-takes about the political situation in the UK, and it's relations to the USA. Doctor Who has often done this in the past, particularly in Jon Pertwee era. My only niggle here was that I wasn't entirely convinced that Harriet Jones' reaction would have been to blow up the Sycorax ship on its retreat. It was explained away quite well, and Tennants line to bring her government down by saying she looked tired was very interesting, but it still wasn't a fully convincing plot point. Elsewhere in the story, I was particularly intrigued by the Torchwood references. The Doctor Who spin-off show was announced a couple of months before the airing of the Christmas Invasion, and has caused quite some excitement within the Doctor Who fan community. Many, myself included, thought that Captain Jack was an excellent character who was well realised by John Bannerman, and I for one would have preferred it if he had stayed on in the Tardis. The last two things I wasn't overwhelmed by though about the story was firstly that the sword fight wasn't as well realised as we could have hoped for, and that the Doctors hand regenerates when cut off during this sword fight. After the recent Star Wars prequels, sword fighting on-screen has been taken to a somewhat higher level, and within the time-frame and budget of Doctor Who, it is always going to be a bit second-rate compared to Ewan McGregor leaping around. And the Doctor just sprouting a new hand? I'm not sure I quite buy that. Onto the performances of the two main characters, David Tennant and Billie Piper. As the scene shown in the Children in Need Special largely dealt with the regeneration, the scene was set for a 'who am i' type performance from Tennant. Piper puts in a strong performance as essentially the main character for the majority of the story, until Tennant recovers to save the day. To me, Tennants performance was delightful. His blend of humour and seriousness was more than a little reminiscent of the wonderful Tom Baker and was, to me, captivating. Changing the lead actor in any series is always a large gamble. Despite Doctor Who having done this many times, one is always concerned that the next change will bring another end to the show. If Tennant continues in the vein he has, I see no reason for this to be a concern though. Overall, this is a good story that keeps the viewers interest from start to finish. Tennants performance is a contrast to Christopher Ecclestons dark quality, and provides new avenues for his hopefully long era as the Doctor. Finally, it is always good for Doctor Who to acknowledge something I have been saying for years, that tea is fantastic, and really is the drink of choice for all heroes. Rating:  |