A week or so’s worth of anticipation culminates in this… the unveiling of our #1 in our Christmas Countdown. If you have been following along you’ve probably already guessed it by process of elimination but it is 2005’s The Christmas Invasion. What can we say, you never forget your first special. The first of the modern run of Christmas Specials not only had to entertain the masses, it was the first post-regenerative story in the modern era and had to educate viewers in that as well.
Then RTD made the bold decision to work against viewers expectations by withholding Tennant’s full appearance until the last third of the story. But what sets this story ahead of all others in our opinion is it’s sense of scale. While very much a Christmas story, the invasion as the title suggests was massively global, and the way the cast reacts seems very in keeping. Rose’s increasing helplessness and courage in the face of the threat make the story work. Piper was probably never better than here. And Tennant showed in his brief twenty minutes many of the manic qualities which defined his early run of stories.
Just for grins a couple of years back SFX Magazine did their own genre countdown of 35 Christmas episodes across series… Their (Doctor Who) results were:
- #22 – The Feast of Steven
- #16 – Voyage of the Damned
- #14 – The Unquiet Dead
- #11 – The Next Doctor
- #9 – The End of Time Pt I
- #8 – The Runaway Bride
- #5 – The Christmas Invasion
For the sake of completeness in the SFX survey #3 in their countdown was the 1965 Avengers story Too Many Christmas Trees — highly, highly recommended and #1 was an episode of Supernatural.
Happy Holidays to all… enjoy The Snowmen.