Doctor Who: Every Christmas Special Ranked From Worst To Best

7. The Runaway Bride

Doctor Who Christmas Specials
BBC Studios

Tinsel Factor: 4

Star Quality: 8

Laughter Lines: 10

Thrill Meter: 5

Christmas Spirit: 3

Soapy Spoilers: 4

Total Score: 34

Following the ratings success of The Christmas Invasion, the Doctor Christmas Special had already become a ‘thing’, but this is one of only a few that can truly be called stand-alone episodes. It requires very little knowledge of the previous season, and isn’t introducing the next companion, Doctor or series arc.

Donna Noble was very much written here as a one-off companion, getting near on the full experience all in a single adventure: she is taken into space, where she sees the stars, and back in time, to when the Earth was formed. Never has the dynamic between the Doctor and his sidekick been more fun, and casting such a well-known comedian as Catherine Tate provided the perfect tonic to the intensity of his relationship with Rose.

Unlike Rose, Donna was written to be the equivalent of the casual viewer, and her reactions towards the Doctor are both hilarious and realistic, such as when she accuses him of abducting women, threatening to call the police or sue him. When she finally concedes he is in fact an alien, she calls him a Martian, much to his irritation.

Christmas itself is rather ineffectually treated, with a rehash of the same gimmicks we saw in The Christmas Invasion, but for sheer entertainment value The Runaway Bride certainly hits the right notes.

Contributor
Contributor

Paul Driscoll is a freelance writer and author across a range of subjects from Cult TV to religion and social policy. He is a passionate Doctor Who fan and January 2017 will see the publication of his first extended study of the series (based on Toby Whithouse's series six episode, The God Complex) in the critically acclaimed Black Archive range by Obverse Books. He is a regular writer for the fan site Doctor Who Worldwide and has contributed several essays to Watching Books' You and Who range. Recently he has branched out into fiction writing, with two short stories in the charity Doctor Who anthology Seasons of War (Chinbeard Books). Paul's work will also feature in the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme collection (A Clockwork Iris, Obverse Books) and Chinbeard Books' collection of drabbles, A Time Lord for Change.