Deck the halls with more christman ro-bots… falalalala… you get it.
Season three started with yet another holiday special… well, I’m starting to think all season will start like this. I do hope they become a little more diverse, because it’s seriously getting a bit boring watching the same Christmas robots do their business. However, I was warned that Christmas specials tend to be a little soppier… a little more emotional. Funny enough, this aspect of the episode hardly bothered me, in fact, I thought it provided for the best moment of this one hour run!
In which we meet Donna… I was a bit surprised, mostly because at the end she didn’t jump into the TARDIS with the Doctor, is she not going to be the new assistant? If not, then that’s fine. I honestly can’t gather up my thoughts about her, is she annoying, or funny? Or both? Because although she was played by a capable actress, it’s almost as if half the dialogue she wrote was written by a fantastic writer, and the other half by a pillock.
Her entire episode-long arch seemed to jump around, either developing too quickly, or too slowly. This caused for a somewhat disjointed experience that damaged the episodes enjoyment for me. However, we still got to see the Doctor mourning Rose (something I do hope carries on, since it’s simple, yet well-acted).
The threat was pretty… silly. A giant spider, very oddly acted, was definitely something I wasn’t expecting! Either for the good or for the bad, it was definitely an unexpected turn of events for the episode. The husband being a bad guy, yes, this was totally more expected if not blatant.
I do like the way Donna was developed overall though, no matter how disjointed the process felt. She is a character that tends to latch on, easily. Which makes her susceptible to being hurt… which is something the Doctor JUST went through, so it was a bit odd seeing them part ways at the end of the episode. Man, I would have actually been pretty heartbroken if the Doctor left without saying a goodbye.
As I said above, I found the emotional segment at the end of the episode the best part, as it harbored better acting in it than the entire episode combined. As per usual, this Dr.Who episode had just the right amount of campy to make me laugh at how silly the villain was. Thankfully it wasn’t “the absorber” silly… but it was still fairly cringe worthy in some areas.
Overall, it was a decent starter episode, full of solid dialogue and a somewhat wasted introduction to a character I’m guessing we will see reappear soon enough. On to the rest of the season!
Grade: B
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At the time “the Runnaway Bride” was made Catherine Tate was BIG in the UK. She wad the comedienne of the moment. She is actually quite funny and if you want to see her original comedy creations her biggest characters are Nan, a foul-mouthed old lady, and Lauren the teenager who “ain’t bovvered” There was a miscommunication at the time where the DW team thought CT would be too busy for a full series and she thought they only wanted her as a one off, and that’s all I’m saying about that.
This episode was good as Xmas episodes go. Generally the Xmas eps are classed as epX or such of a series since they don’t fit in the usual run.
The Rachnos I believe were an old foe, so this was a call back for the older fans. I can’t quite remember the plot fully and it’s almost 12 here, Xmas day 😀 new Xmas ep in a few hours.
Look toward to your future reviews 😀
Donna ended up being my favorite companion, the fans are usually split in two by her, who loves her and who hates her. As for this episode, well…mhe…This show did much better, but there is not much to complain about neither.