It seems like there is a breath of fresh air now that Rose isn’t
in the story although clearly there was going to be the occasional mention of
Rose. The last Christmas Special had to introduce the Doctor and spent most of
it with David Tennant in bed so this time it could be a proper Christmas
Special. The thing to remember is that the Donna Noble that appears in this
episode isn’t the one that would return in series 30. So the annoying way that
Catherine Tate performs as Donna isn’t the way that she would continue to be
like. The thing about her performance is that it’s very much like some of the
characters that she played in her sketch. More about her later.
The comedy is quite good. One moment is when drivers think
that Donna is drunk or in drag. What helps the comedy work is that both David
Tennant and Catherine Tate are very good comedy performers and work well
together.
One of the most impressive set pieces is the Doctor trying
to rescue Donna from a moving Taxi whilst its on a motorway being driven by a
robot Santa. The special effects used to make the TARDIS move around look
really good and quite an exciting moment. Another impressive aspect of this
story that works well is the Empress of the Racnoss. Close up it looks like
good make up and prosthetic but when you see the whole thing it looks vast and
impressive. Even her ship is very well designed and it almost seems a shame
when she is transported to earth. Sarah Parish plays the Empress and gives a
what could have been a rather comedic role.
The thing about Donna is despite being a rather brash personality.
She’s not totally annoying. After enduring Rose it was just nice to have
something different and on this rare occasion, the brashness is forgivable. It’s
a good performance from Catherine Tate who has a less than enviable job of taking
Billie Piper’s spot as lead companion.
Donna was supposed to be getting married to Lucas who turns
out to be working for the Empress. At the time I didn’t see it coming but now it
seems rather obvious. I’m not always quick when it comes to this sort of thing.
I know when it was announced that she was going to be a companion that a lot of
people thought that this was a terrible idea but I knew that they would tone
down the brashness and she would become more palatable.
The company that Donna works for turns out be owned by
Torchwood and they build it around the Thames Flood Barrier. It’s quite amusing
that RTD used such a rather low key feature of London in such a way.
The story itself is rather good and moves along at a nice
pace with some impressive moments throughout. The references to Rose were
tolerable and Donna was used in a good way. At the time it was designed to be a
festive holding piece until Martha joined the show. It was a nice Christmas
Special and it was fun and in many ways a stronger special than the previous one.
The NEXT TIME trailer that was shown at the end of the episode did a good job in
reminding me how strong this series was and just how much there is to look
forward to.
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