Funny how quick the #DoctorWho Xmas special became a ‘tradition’, even after just one.
RTD sets the template here for the next few years, a riproaring adventure full of Christmas fun. Bizarrely annoying some fans, who wanted something with the complexity of Blink or Midnight.
On Christmas Day!🙄
At last, another room in the TARDIS! Well, okay, the console room redressed.
You have to laugh at how, whenever we get a scene of a Doctor choosing their new clothes, every other outfit in the TARDIS wardrobe is completely insane, and there’s really only one option. #DoctorWho
Incidentally, the original as-broadcast version of ‘Song For Ten’ (not the Neil Hannon version on the soundtrack) was briefly available to download on the BBC #DoctorWho website, which I nabbed at the time…
https://www.dropbox.com/s/60c3lesadnegaxu/Song%20For%20Ten%20%28Original%29.mp3?dl=0
I like the unexpected use of Ian Dury and the Blockheads on the soundtrack as the Doctor lists his favourite things about 1979… and then pulls a face at the thought of Thatcher.
Cancel this woke BBC nonsense now! 😄 #DoctorWho
School Reunion: Sarah Jane! And as the Doctor said, “K-NIIIIIIIIIIINE…!”
Tennant plays the reunion so well, both as the Doctor and, on the meta level of him meeting a childhood hero. He even seems to be attempting a Tom Baker face here. #DoctorWho
Rose’s petulant jealousy over Sarah-Jane is another step towards her character becoming annoying and dislikable, even if it does ultimately end up being very funny between them.
And as for her annoyance at Mickey coming aboard… bloody hell! What a miserable cow. #DoctorWho
“We can’t use the TARDIS, we’re part of events now!”
Um… yes, just run that one by me again?
*cough!* Handwave! *cough!* #DoctorWho
It’s more of ‘Moffat’s Malfunctioning Tech’ (TM) at fault. I mean… putting aside the time windows… the droids massacred the crew and chopped them up to use their organs!
I hope there was some kind of 51st century inquiry after which the manufacturers were jailed. #DoctorWho
This right here is one of the worst moments in all of #DoctorWho - the Doctor forgetting about Mickey holding the button… then he and Rose snigger about it like a pair of smug, giggling pricks…🙄
Honestly, you feel like reaching through the screen and giving them both a slap.
I’m sorry, I know it’s meant to be poignant but… I can’t help but laugh at the death of Cyber-Sally Phelan. 🤭
It’s just… Nick Briggs doing his deep booming Cyber voice while saying “WHERE’S GARETH? ITS BAD LUCK FOR HIM TO SEE ME BEFORE THE WEDDING…!”
😅😅😅😅#DoctorWho
The Idiot’s Lantern: not much to say about this one, a middling episode for the middle of the season. The faceless people are a suitably creepy image. For those of us of a certain age, reminiscent of Sapphire And Steel.
Rose got over Mickey’s departure fairly quickly! #DoctorWho
The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit: this is one of the best stories of the modern era so far, and on this season two rewatch, one of the few that still holds up to how I felt about it at the time.
Notable for the introduction of the Ood… and that orange spacesuit! #DoctorWho
A proper old-school #DoctorWho quarry… but with some CGI enhancements made to look about a million times better than they ever have before.
The multi-threat cliffhanger of the pit opening, the Ood turning evil, the planet starting to lose orbit, etc, is excellent.
“I couldn’t save the Ood. Only had time for one trip.”
You’re in a time machine! Just go back a bit earlier and bundle them all in the TARDIS ffs!
Poor old Ood. No one gave a shit. 🤷🏻♂️ #DoctorWho
Love & Monsters: well here we are, the most RTD of all RTD episodes. Peak RTD. The ultimate litmus test of whether you’re on board with his vision of #DoctorWho or not. A brilliant love-letter to fandom accompanied by a warning of its obsessive side.
Best episode of the season.
Not to mention it’s Camille Coduri’s best performance as Jackie, as we get an insight into “those left behind” in the Doctor’s world.
Oh, but a minute of Peter Kay running around in a green fat suit and it’s “Worst. Episode. Ever!!!” 🙄 #DoctorWho
To be fair, that chase sequence at the end is slightly cheesy, but it’s a minor moment in an otherwise superb story.
And then we have the audaciousness of that ending with paving slab Ursula… 😅 It’s that sort of ‘not-giving-a-fuck-ness’ I want to see again in RTD2. #DoctorWho
“Not you too Bob!”
The commentary on the Olympics throughout is utterly mental, some of the most bizarre dialogue ever in #DoctorWho, especially “the Olympic dream… is over!”
Just because the runner dropped the torch??
Army Of Ghosts /Doomsday: RTD takes the ‘TV show references’ bit from the season 1 finale and tweaks it into his patented trick of a montage of actual celebs reacting to whatever wacky events are going on.
And why does Jackie’s TV pick up French and Japanese channels? #DoctorWho
But first, their bitch-off was quite entertaining too…
“You are superior in only one respect!”
“What is that?”
“You are better at dying!”
And it’s not helped by the fact that there are no words to express just how much I. Do. Not. Give. A. Shit. about the Ten/Rose “romance”. 🙄 It leaves me completely cold.
Top comedy moments here. Should have had a laugh track. 😜 #DoctorWho
Donna pulling the Santa mask off the taxi driver to reveal a robot is a nod to Terror Of The Autons, surely?
That whole motorway chase sequence is still brilliant. Pity the poor guy whose car roof gets bumped by the TARDIS. How do you claim that on the insurance? #DoctorWho
It’s a feature of RTD’s #DoctorWho that he always kept in mind how kids / casual viewers might only have general memories of previous stories, not specifics.
People don’t care about the exact details of the Robot Santas, they’ll just remember “Oh, the bad guys from last Xmas!”
Gavin Winters
Dan Hatton