5. The Christmas Invasion (Christmas Special - 2005)
Note: Before you watch this episode, you really should watch the Children in Need Prequel that precedes it. It's only a little over 7.5 minutes, but it's some nice background into what's happening. So now that weve seen a regeneration, we can now see what happens when it goes just a
little bit wrong. In the case of The Doctor, you miss most of Christmas Day as a race of biological magicians hold a portion of humanity hostage on Londons rooftops. This could be considered the first (and probably most important) of Doctor Lite episodes: episodes in which the companions, or other secondary characters, drive the action. The Doctor doesnt turn up that much in these episodes, giving everyone else a chance to shine. Through this episode we find Roses mother (Jackie) and boyfriend (Mickey) trying to adjust to the fact that Rose is so in and out of their lives that they have to just accept the fact that shes going to be an known (yet absent) quantity in their lives. Its episodes like this that either show us that A.) The world is full of people clever enough to be Companions, but not lucky enough to be chosen or B.) the Companions are still pretty awesome, but they need The Doctor as much as he needs them. Oh, and on top of all of that, The Doctor further grows out his hair (as well as his personality), fights an alien in his pajamas, and destroys a Prime Minister with the flick of a sentence.