Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Paul Evans This instantly picks up where The Parting of the ways left us, Tennant is now the Doctor and suffering trauma from his regeneration. Rose heads for her mum's place to spend Christmas but is soon being chased by Robotic killer Santas and lethal Christmas trees. The Sycorax make their first and only appearance, positioning their ship above London and controlling people with A+ blood. PM Harriet Jones pleas for the Doctor's help, who is bed ridden. The Doctor recovers in the nick of time to save the day.The humour once again belongs to Jackie and Mickey, there are some great lines throughout, my favourites being Jackie's 'I'm gona get killed by a Christmas tree,' and Harriet's 'did we ask about the Royal family, oh they're on the roof,' love it!! The concept of the killer Santas acting as pilot fish for something bigger is a clever one. Harriet Jones (love or hate I know) shines once again, she goes from scatty and lovable to cool, controlled and scared at the end where she destroys the Sycorax. The Sycorax themselves are extremely well designed. We only get about 16 true minutes of David Tennant, but what we get is brilliant. Moment of the episode must be the destruction of the Sycorax ship, and the Doctor's reaction to Harriet.The imagery again is superb, it looks so good, its production values are extremely high, the scene of the mass of people walking onto the rooftops is a very powerful one. I applaud the Christmas Invasion for its originality, it would become the format for the annual seasonal adventure. Had this one not worked it would never have recurred. The Christmas link is well devised, it doesn't feel forced. It's a great episode, with some real high points, it's hard really to pick fault with it.What is the significance of the 6 words? was it paranoia that caused Harriet's demise?I was a huge Eccleston fan, but it wasn't long before Tennant surpassed Eccleston in the role to become arguably the best Doctor to date. I can remember watching the Coming Soon trailer, and being utterly blown away by it.9/10

Max_cinefilo89 The 2005 Doctor Who Christmas special was a gamble from the very beginning. Sure, Russell T. Davies had successfully resurrected Britain's most popular sci-fi show, with the aforementioned special and a second season getting confirmed after only one episode had aired, but a lot of that had to do with Christopher Eccleston's oddball but charming work as the Ninth Doctor. Therefore, the sight of him leaving the show after just one season meant whoever replaced him would have to do a brilliant job at the very least. Luckily, Scotsman David Tennant (Casanova in the eponymous Davies-written BBC miniseries) was up to the challenge, and The Christmas Invasion marks a terrific debut for his tenure as the Tenth Doctor.So, here's the story: it's Christmas Eve 2005, and a mysterious spaceship is in orbit right above Earth for a change. Newly elected Prime Minister Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) wishes to take matters into her own hands (something about an organization called Torchwood), but it becomes pretty clear the planet is going to need a miracle. Of course, the TARDIS happens to have landed in London, but unfortunately the Doctor is suffering from regeneration side effects, slipping in and out of consciousness as time starts to run out, leaving it to Rose, Jackie and Mickey to deal with the alien threat.With no time to mourn Eccleston, The Christmas Invasion jumps straight back into the action, delivering an exciting threat, good guest work (Wilton never disappoints) and the usual good team effort from Noel Clarke, Camille Coduri and Billie Piper, showing they may have lost their Doctor but not their passion and will to have fun with the material. And a lot of fun there is, mostly in relation to the new Doctor: in particular, Coduri has the privilege of getting away with a naughty joke about Time Lords having two hearts ("Anything else he's got two of?") and a fun "Doctor who?" gag when confronted with the Doc's new face.Which begs the question: what about Tennant taking over from Eccleston? Well, he pulls off the job with the expected mixture of quirkiness, giddiness and plain Britishness, ditching his own Scottish accent (and Eccleston's Northern tones) for a London voice that indicates he's not afraid to make the role his own. No more "fantastic" then (the scene explaining why he dropped the catchphrase was deleted from the TV broadcast, but is available on the DVD), but it's still, rather unmistakably, the Doctor. Not only is the character's chemistry with Rose intact, he also deserves kudos for not only saving the world while trying not to lapse into a coma, but also for spending 90% of the episode in his PJs and making it look cool in that unique Doctor Who way.In a nutshell, The Christmas Invasion is proof that RTD's formula for the Doctor still works, and with Tennant on board, the possibilities appear endless. Quite fitting for a time-and-space-traveling alien, don't you think?

Theo Robertson I know many , many people were looking forward to seeing this . The British TV audience had just been treated to a story featuring Christopher Eccleston regenerating into David Tennant at the end of Parting Of The Ways , one of the most beautiful , heart touching scenes the programme has ever or will ever succeeded in doing . Would Russell T Davies be able to keep up the momentum ? Yes is the answer but I shouldqualify this by saying The Christmas Invasion is wonderful in someplaces and rather mediocre in other places Without doubt RTD knows what makes the show work - imagery . If you're my age you'll remember peers discussing the show with phrases like " I remember the one with the giant maggots ...the giant spiders ...the monsters that came out of the sea " In years to come this story will be remembered as " The one where the Christmas tree comes to life and tries to kill Rose , Jackie and Mickey " . This is a great and amusing scene and as Jackie screams " I'm gonna be killed by a Christmas tree " you'll be totally amused . Almost as good is the scene where Rose and Mickey dodge the killer Santas with their ray guns . If you find all this bizarre and far fetched then I'm afraid you just don't understand the spell DOCTOR WHO has cast over generations of audiences for decades and I pity you There are problems and like the successes they're down to RTD . Why is it he has to give a ridiculous name for an alien race ? In this case it's the Sycorax who come across as bad pantomime pirates . Another point is the continuity where the Doctor gets his hand sliced off but is able to grow a new one because several hours after a regeneration a time lord can do this which sounds like cheating and I don't believe for a moment RTD envisaged the severed hand as a plot point for season three of the show . Tennant spends most of his debut in bed which in hind sight is something I'd wished he'd do in all of his stories . I certainly didn't take to him as he falls out of the TARDIS bellowing " I dunnit " in his irritating mockney geezer accent but while being better in latter stories he is often quite worse so The Christmas Invasion deserves at least seven out of ten

trekkstr I wonder if the character of Danny Llewellyn is in reference to Robert Llewellyn who played the android "Kryten" on "Red Dwarf"? And major Blake of U.N.I.T. reference to "Blake" from 'Blake's Seven"? Just a thought. I will look for other references as time goes on.I really liked this episode. One it brought back U.N.I.T. and mentioned the spin off show, Capt Jack will be part of "Torchwood". I hope U.N.I.T. will be part of the show more often as they were with the second and fourth doctors. It will be good to see Capt Jack back as part of his own spin-off show. A very different character type that you don't see in any "Dr. Who" episodes. Trekkstr