Every Doctor Who Christmas Special Ranked From Worst To Best

The Runaway Bride was Tennant's first special with a series already under his belt, and after the departure of Rose Tyler in the recent Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday two-parter, a simple, entertaining festive romp was just what the doctor ordered. The episode first introduced us to Donna Noble (the titular runaway bride), who appeared as a one-off companion before returning for a full run of episodes in Series 4.

And despite Catherine Tate's character being a little annoying at times, her banter with Tennant is so zippy and fun that it's easy to forgive her abrasive attitude. The Runaway Bride by no means reinvented the Who formula - it's a bog-standard episode with a Christmas paint-job - but it reinforced that the characters are what makes this show great, and that strong chemistry and witty dialogue can easily elevate formulaic and simplistic material.

The robotic Santa villains are cheesy as hell but they do add to that campy Who charm, and with ridiculous highlights like the TARDIS taxi rescue, the creepily-designed Empress of the Racnoss, and the Doctor travelling back to the literal inception of the planet, the episode is basic B-movie Doctor Who at its very best.