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shadowhiveSo today I started the Christmas ep rewatch of Doctor Who. It’s unlikely I’ll get beyond the 10th Doctor specials before the day (I should’ve started this before but didn’t think too). It’s been so long since I’ve watched any of them, so here is the thoughts on The Christmas Invasion
The ep is the first Christmas Who ep, which became such a stable of the new series until recently (when, for some reason, it switched to being new year). The ep is the first one of the Tenth Doctor, though he spends most of it recovering from his regeneration (which sometimes happens). Since he’s out of action the story is mostly focussed both on Rose (and her being confused by the regeneration and frustrated by his resting) and Harriet Jones, who is now prime minister (and is dealing with the aforementioned invasion)
One thing this story does well is turning ordinary things and making them scary. The band of santas that turn out to be pilot fish and the killer Christmas tree? They’re all scary as well as being ordinary and ridiculous at the same time. This is then followed by the scariness of people being blood controlled onto the roofs of buildings, being made to walk to the edge with family trying to stop them.
Another thing it does well is show how people handle a crisis without the Doctor being around. The Prime Minister and UNIT ado their best to resolve the situation peacefully but of course the Sycorax aren’t interested in that.
The main things to be said about this ep is what happens next. Towards the end the doctor wakes up, just in time to save the day. He challenges the sycorax leader to a duel and wins (but loses a hand, which does end up coming back) but then said leader goes back on his word before dying. Everyone is sent back to earth, the blood control is ended and the sycorax leave…
Only for their ship to be destroyed by Torchwood, with a weapon akin to the Death Star.
The Doctor then decides that Harriet Jones needs to have her rule ended which… well it doesn’t put end well (see the end of series 3, then children of earth for why). Is her wrong for this? Personally I think so. Harriett has a point, he wasn’t around for most of the ep and the Sycorax (shown to be untrustworthy) could have just come back with bigger numbers. Failing that, they could have just as easily pulled the same stunt on a different world, one which didn’t have a defender like the Doctor. The Doctor’s six words to bring her down also doesn’t make much sense. Of course the Prime Minister would ‘look tired’ after a day which included: the existence of aliens being made public, one third of the population heading to the edges of tall buildings, being abducted by said aliens (whose spaceship os right above London!), watching two aides get killed in front of her. Anyone would be tired after a day like that, so why would that matter?
Unanswered question: the UNIT major offhandedly mentions that Martians ‘don’t look like that’ when they see the sycorax, which means UNIT a know what the Ice Warriors look like. Cept none of the eps of old Who had UNIT encounter Ice Warriors. So what’s the story there?
The episode ends with a coming soon trailer, showing clips from the first half of series 2 which, honestly, features so many awesome eps.
Tomorrow I’m hoping to watch The Runaway Bride, which I’ve also not seen for so long.
***
As mentioned in the last post, I’m doing snowflake so here’s the promo:
Yesterday I ended up being so drained so didn’t do The Quarry like I hoped. I did do some more Pokémon and did one of the gyms (yay!). Foolish did a stream though alas, his pretty hair is gone 😔 I took psychic damage from each cut so stopped watching but… ugh
The net has been flicky again lately which is so annoying.
I tried the m and s reindeer bao buns a few nights back… but alas the two I had weren’t nice. They were too thick and nowhere near enough filling and it makes me so sad (and also they were kinda crunchy?)
Twitter tried to put out a disastrous new policy a last night, then backtracked and now it seems Elon might be stepping from running it. If so good because that man is so thin skinned and petty.
I’m sure I had another thought but my head is empty.
Now I’m watching the Xbox uk stream while mum is zzz and then… I dunno. I might fic some or do Pokémon or something. (And hopefully do The Quarry some more later) or I might work some on the who red post
The ep is the first Christmas Who ep, which became such a stable of the new series until recently (when, for some reason, it switched to being new year). The ep is the first one of the Tenth Doctor, though he spends most of it recovering from his regeneration (which sometimes happens). Since he’s out of action the story is mostly focussed both on Rose (and her being confused by the regeneration and frustrated by his resting) and Harriet Jones, who is now prime minister (and is dealing with the aforementioned invasion)
One thing this story does well is turning ordinary things and making them scary. The band of santas that turn out to be pilot fish and the killer Christmas tree? They’re all scary as well as being ordinary and ridiculous at the same time. This is then followed by the scariness of people being blood controlled onto the roofs of buildings, being made to walk to the edge with family trying to stop them.
Another thing it does well is show how people handle a crisis without the Doctor being around. The Prime Minister and UNIT ado their best to resolve the situation peacefully but of course the Sycorax aren’t interested in that.
The main things to be said about this ep is what happens next. Towards the end the doctor wakes up, just in time to save the day. He challenges the sycorax leader to a duel and wins (but loses a hand, which does end up coming back) but then said leader goes back on his word before dying. Everyone is sent back to earth, the blood control is ended and the sycorax leave…
Only for their ship to be destroyed by Torchwood, with a weapon akin to the Death Star.
The Doctor then decides that Harriet Jones needs to have her rule ended which… well it doesn’t put end well (see the end of series 3, then children of earth for why). Is her wrong for this? Personally I think so. Harriett has a point, he wasn’t around for most of the ep and the Sycorax (shown to be untrustworthy) could have just come back with bigger numbers. Failing that, they could have just as easily pulled the same stunt on a different world, one which didn’t have a defender like the Doctor. The Doctor’s six words to bring her down also doesn’t make much sense. Of course the Prime Minister would ‘look tired’ after a day which included: the existence of aliens being made public, one third of the population heading to the edges of tall buildings, being abducted by said aliens (whose spaceship os right above London!), watching two aides get killed in front of her. Anyone would be tired after a day like that, so why would that matter?
Unanswered question: the UNIT major offhandedly mentions that Martians ‘don’t look like that’ when they see the sycorax, which means UNIT a know what the Ice Warriors look like. Cept none of the eps of old Who had UNIT encounter Ice Warriors. So what’s the story there?
The episode ends with a coming soon trailer, showing clips from the first half of series 2 which, honestly, features so many awesome eps.
Tomorrow I’m hoping to watch The Runaway Bride, which I’ve also not seen for so long.
***
As mentioned in the last post, I’m doing snowflake so here’s the promo:
Yesterday I ended up being so drained so didn’t do The Quarry like I hoped. I did do some more Pokémon and did one of the gyms (yay!). Foolish did a stream though alas, his pretty hair is gone 😔 I took psychic damage from each cut so stopped watching but… ugh
The net has been flicky again lately which is so annoying.
I tried the m and s reindeer bao buns a few nights back… but alas the two I had weren’t nice. They were too thick and nowhere near enough filling and it makes me so sad (and also they were kinda crunchy?)
Twitter tried to put out a disastrous new policy a last night, then backtracked and now it seems Elon might be stepping from running it. If so good because that man is so thin skinned and petty.
I’m sure I had another thought but my head is empty.
Now I’m watching the Xbox uk stream while mum is zzz and then… I dunno. I might fic some or do Pokémon or something. (And hopefully do The Quarry some more later) or I might work some on the who red post
no subject
Date: 2022-12-19 05:47 pm (UTC)I hope you enjoy Snowflake. There are some fun challenges planned.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-20 07:55 pm (UTC)I hope so too! Oh yayy