Doctor Who: Ranking Each NuWho Christmas Special

The first Christmas special of NuWho is also the first episode of the David Tennant era of the show and, as such, has a wonderful nostalgic quality. Much simpler in scale and structure than say, Voyage of the Damned or The Next Doctor, The Christmas Invasion benefits greatly from the way it successfully denies us the Tenth Doctor for so much of the episodes run time.

The Doctor and Rose return to present day London immediately following the regeneration at the conclusion of The Parting of The Ways. Rose, understandably, is a bit confused and upset that the man she is falling in love with has suddenly changed faces. The Doctor gets time to say a quick “Merry Christmas” before passing out in a post-regenerative sleep.

This proves to be a bad time for a nap however, as robotic Santas turn up, along with a killer Christmas tree. It’s all very goofy and truth be told this is where the nostalgia goggles play a big part.

The episode gets really intriguing though with the introduction of the Sycorax and their strange blood spell which causes all of a certain blood group to climb to the nearest tall structure and stand at the edge, awaiting orders to jump.

Eventually of course the Doctor does wake from his sleep, just in time to challenge the leader of the Sycorax to a sword fight. It was a near-perfect introduction to a Doctor who would be more action-oriented than his predecessor had been, and Tennant is confident and note-perfect in his vision of The Doctor right from the beginning.