Doctor Who: Every Festive Special Ranked From Worst To Best

7. The Christmas Invasion

Doctor Who The Snowmen Christmas special
BBC Studios

This is where it all began for NuWho's festive specials. 7pm, BBC One, Christmas Day, 2005.

The Christmas Invasion is a good, if unspectacular episode. The Sycorax take control of a third of the population using their blood, before Harriet Jones (then current Prime Minister) blasts them to kingdom come while they run away. It's also got robot Santas, and a whirling Christmas tree of doom. Nice.

What elevates this episode though is that it's the first full outing for David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor.

Although he spends most of the episode asleep, once Ten is awake, he is awake. He wows us immediately with his charm and wit, while also teasing a darker side when he mercilessly dispatches the Sycorax leader.

A great introduction to Tennant and Doctor Who at Christmas, The Christmas Invasion still holds up all these years later.

 
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Contributor

Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.