8. The Runaway Bride
The Runaway Bride is by no means a bad Doctor Who episode - it just falls short because we've seen it all before - only one year before to be precise. Rustic spaceships that don't look like spaceships? Robot Santas on London high streets? Murderous Christmas trees? It's all shamelessly lifted from 2005's The Christmas Invasion - and is an early example of RTD attempting to bottle lightning twice. There are things to be enjoyed here - although not Catherine Tate, whose Donna Noble is almost unbearable for the duration (and thankfully toned down her skull-piercing shrillness and short temper when promoted to series regular for David Tennant's final series). The Racnoss' Spider web ship looks gorgeous, Tennant's unleashing of the wrathful, 'No Second Chances' Time Lord, so promised the year before, is chilling and serves as one of the most memorable moments of the RTD era, and there's some lovely post-Rose angsting (before it got a bit too much). It's a shame Davies clearly thought we'd all be too drunk and full to notice or care that this was little more than a remake of his previous Christmas story. Aliens coming to London on Christmas Day? They even make a joke of the device's repetitiveness in our next entry...