Doctor Who: Every Doctor's First Episode Ranked Worst To Best
9. The Christmas Invasion
The Christmas Invasion runs the risk of making the same mistakes that Castrovalva did way back in 1982. However, it's thanks to Billie Piper's brilliant performance as Rose Tyler that the modern era's first post-regeneration story works as well as it does.
Ultimately, it's the story of the Doctor just needing a good lie down all over again, but with a bit of Christmas tinsel. However, the absence of the Doctor adds to the drama of the worsening situation with the Sycorax. If he doesn't wake up quickly and be the Doctor again, Earth is going to fall to an alien invasion.
Rose is the audience identification figure throughout, gradually coming around to the new Doctor, and reassuring the viewers at home that the new guy is going to be pretty great.
David Tennant then gets his big hero moment by ripping off The Lion King, defeating the Sycorax leader in a sword fight, and flinging a tangerine at a handily-placed button. It doesn't get more Doctorish than that.