I really like Donna’s energy. Her no-nonsense attitude instantly complements 10’s hyperactivity. I think of 10s various companions, Donna is my favourite. Throughout the episode Donna keeps the Doctor grounded, and human, and helps to use this episode as an important epilogue for what happened with Rose at the end of the last season. Donna is often very acerbic, but when push comes to shove, she has her priorities right, and she has some stand out lines: “you’re a doctor, can’t you help”; “You need someone to stop you”.

Her decision to not follow the Doctor is a refreshing change from Rose who just discarded everything to join him, and I can emphasize a lot more with it. She needs to grow a bit before she’s ready to join the doctor anyway, the running gag of Donna not even recognising the past invasions is a great joke that almost breaks the 4th wall.

Production wise, I was not surprised to see them reuse the santa mobsters, gotta keep that budget low. I was surprised though with the tardis chase scene, the visual effects were pretty good there. This is the introduction of Donna’s theme in the background music, and I like the energy that it has. The giant spider monster actually looks pretty good and scary, but its let down by the over the top acting from the humanoid half sticking out the front. The final scenes with the water was miniatures! It looks pretty cool, we don’t see enough of that. It looks so much better than CGI water, which is notoriously hard to get right.

Random extra thoughts:

• Wilf is noticeable in his absence. I guess Donna is being walked down the asile by her dad? I don’t think we ever see him again.
• I like that with an almost throwaway “Mr Saxon” reference they’re being a bit more subtle with the series meme in this one.

They need to give Catherine Tate a spinoff show that’s just her trying to date anything or anyone in London that doesn’t turn out to be an alien.

I don’t think about this one all that often, but it’s pretty good.

It’s mostly just a romp, as the Christmas specials tend to be. The plot with the Huon particles is incredibly inconsequential, and I’m already beginning to forget it, two minutes after finishing the episode. And that’s fine, it’s not really important.

The big, “important” development is the introduction of Donna Noble, of course. I know there are people who aren’t big fans of Donna 1.0, but I like her, for all her abrasiveness. Catherine Tate has instant chemistry with David Tennant, and she deftly switches between Donna’s more…bellow-y tendencies and the moments of everyday sadness that she’s allowed to have. It’s easy to see why they decided to bring her back in the future.

Sylvia Noble is surprisingly abrasive herself in this one. It does make it easy to see where Donna gets it from, but in retrospect I find it a little jarring.

The Doctor’s eventual confrontation with the Racnoss Empress (played in a rather Klingon-like fashion, if I do say so myself) features him at his most wrathful, which I always enjoy. For some reason, though, I don’t think it quite makes the “the Doctor shouldn’t be alone” case in the way that it’s trying to.

There are two things about this episode that stick in my mind, for whatever reason. The first is the TARDIS chasing the cab down the motorway - lots of fun, especially with the two kids watching from the other car, cheering them on. Give me a follow-up on them, they should be adults now.

The second is, “with this ring, I thee bio-damp.” I’ve always found that very amusing, and will be taking no questions at this time.