The Tiger Who Came To Tea: The Christmas Invasion

Ooh, it's that same beginning shot from Rose!

50dw50@50dw50 it feels so strange being nostalgic for NuWho

Vicki Davidson@VickiDavidson1 Seems like a long time ago now. So much has happened. Tennant. Matt Smith. Now on to Peter Capaldi.

I know, time flies! 10 years soon! Look at the changes between An Unearthly Child and The Three Doctors, though.

But here's Jackie decorating the tree and planning for a lonely xmas, hoping against hope...

Mickey works in a garage, and he hears the sound of xmas - Noddy Holder has declared xmas open!

They can hear the TARDIS! And sure enough here it comes...

50dw50@50dw50 love the crashing Tardis, i used to work for the royal Mail i am glad it gives the van a kick on the way down

And here's the Doctor!

But probably not the one they were expecting...

50dw50@50dw50 He really suits 9's costume

"Merry Christmas!"

"Doctor Who?" Ah, the gag that never gets old...

Still Murray Gold's best stab at the theme?

50dw50@50dw50 yes!

Jackie wonders what else the Doctor's got two of... One track mind.

Seems the Doctor is laid up with a bad case of time gas or something.

Rose is really shaken up by the regeneration but not so much she doesn't wonder where Jackie got men's pyjamas from...

On the news Harriet Jones announces a new space probe. That's bound to go well.

Rose tries to take her mind off the new Doctor with some xmas shopping with Mickey.

This Santa band seem a bit suspicious.

They don't tend to have flamethrower trombones as a rule...

Hang on where's Jackie got that new tree from?

Killer tree! Great effect that spinning tree!

50dw50@50dw50 i have to say the spinning xmas tree is one of my favourite bits of Doctor Who ever!

Rose shoves the sonic screwdriver in the Doctor's hand and he wakes just long enough to knacker the tree.

The Santas don't fancy a scrap, and they beam away.

"They were just pilot fish."

The Doctor collapses with the time burps again.

Something is coming. Winter?

The Killer Xmas tree always seemed an Auton kind of thing to me.

They'd be great for an Xmas spesh - all that plastic around...

On the news, contact with the probe has been re-established, but there's a shock in store...

Seems the probe's been captured by some roaring creature. Oo-er!

Prime Minister Harriet Jones travels to UNIT HQ in the Tower of London.

UNIT know that Martians look completely different...

PM Harriet Jones (Yes, we know who she is) has a pretty-boy assistant.

The creatures have elongated skull-like heads and red robes. Rose can't understand a word.

RTD-era fashionable US-bashing there.

Seems the TARDIS doesn't translate when the Doctor's incapacitated...

Aye aye, what's this "Torchwood" Harriet's on about?

They've started to translate and it seems the aliens are called Sycorax... and they rock.

"The Doctor wouldn't do this..." says Rose, the self-appointed Doctor expert. Do one, Rose.

The Sycorax casts a spell and people all around the world suddenly zone out and make for the roof.

You can really tell the recycled locations in this era. Roses's tower block, street from Army of Ghosts...

Rose mopes, Beardy Prof works out it's his fault - they've used info from the probe to control people who have A positive blood.

That's me, I'd be up there on the roof with them. A plus!

MAW Holmes@MAW_H Meanwhile, Dave's not doing much, is he...?

No & the story is much the worse for it, IMO. I get RTD's "keep 'em keen" idea, but it scuppers the episode.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H It's that "without the Doctor" thing writ small, but when he does wake up, he utterly nails it...!

Yes, definitely. And to be fair it shows that thing that others can try to be the Doctor but don't cut it.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H which works... :-) - (but we all just want to know what the new Doctor is actually like when we're watching his episode one)

The catch 22 of regeneration stories, I guess. Necessary 'journey' but not satisfying to sit through.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H Has ANY regeneration story ever completely satisfied...?

Power of the Daleks, Spearhead from Space and The 11th Hour all pull it off, I reckon.

Doctor Who Comics@doctorwhocomics Power, Spearhead and Eleventh Hour?

Snap! :-D

MAW Holmes@MAW_H Agree totally, but even Spearhead has that "coma" episode (contractually obligated shape of things to come)

Yes, takes a whole episode to get going, and then they repeat it with less and less success down the years! Not too bad here, tho.

50dw50@50dw50 Twin Dilemma is brilliant, i voted it best of the year

Other Pete@other_pete I love it when they go the other way and let the new Dr hit the ground running like 9+11, and 4 after a few larks

Yeah; the confused wandering completely scuppered the TVM, for example.

Now Rose gives us some truly awful whinging.

The Sycorax ship enters the atmosphere with a sonic boom that shatters evey window everywhere, some places.

The ship is part asteroid, and all MASSIVE.

Rose decides to do a runner in the TARDIS, and enlists Mickey to do the heavy lifting...

...while the Sycorax invite Harriet and the lads to come on up.

Turns out the Sycorax "heads" are helmets, but their real heads beneath aren't any less alien.

Beardy Prof steps up and is electro-whipped down to his skeleton. He won't be doing that again.

The UNIT-type goes next, and guess what?

50dw50@50dw50 they are brilliant, where do they get their ideas from?

Mamma mia! The Sycorax will wish they'd never been born. Meanwhile Rose thinks they've just gotta get right out of here.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H ...and he has just "killed a man"

The sycorax detect advanced technology and beam the TARDIS up with Rose, Mickey and the Doctor aboard...

Jackie's tea spills all around the Doctor, and it surrounds him like a vapour...

To no-one's surprise, Rose makes a terrible Doctor.

But all of a sudden, the Sycorax leader seems to be talking sense...

And, AT LAST, here's the new Doctor!

He clocks Rose and Harriet, and is disappointed he's not ginger.

Ginger is the best colour to be, to be fair.

Love his "I DON'T KNOW!" roar.

The new Doctor susses the Sycorax's "blood control" but loses the plot a bit with the Lion King.

Now he's challenging the Sycorax leader to a swordfight for the planet. Feeling better, then.

They take the fight outside, which is handy. Whoops, spoke too soon...

MAW Holmes@MAW_H "I'm pretty sure that's Barry Island out there..."

Simon G@SimonGa Don't you hate it when that happens. You are fighting a Sycorax on Christmas Day & lose your hand.

It's a tradition now, sprouts, the Great Escape and fighting-a-Sycorax-and-losing-your-hand! :-D

And now we see a hitherto unsuspected ability - he regrows his hand!

Still some regeneration energy about, then.

The Doctor defeats the leader but spares his life.

Is Arthur Dent real in the Doctor Who universe? Oolon Coluphid seems to be in Destiny of the Daleks, and the 7th Doctor quotes Douglas Adams in Ghostlight.