You know who I feel sorry for? Adric. The poor guy was the Doctor's companion throughout one of his traumatic regenerations and eventually dies whilst trying to save the planet Earth and the Doctor barely gives him a second thought. Roll forward 5 more regenerations, Rose gets trapped in a parallel world and he won't stop bloody moping about her!
Picking up straight from the end of Doomsday, the Doctor looks up from the TARDIS controls to find a bride randomly standing opposite him. It's Catherine Tate as the fantastic Donna Noble! She's perhaps a bit more shouty here than she would be in later episodes (oops spoilers!) but I always loved the character.
Some really exciting moments in this one including the TARDIS chasing a taxi cab down the street, crashing into other cars etc. How this never got reported to the police I'll never know! Unless the other drivers thought the TARDIS was the police? It does say "Police Box" on it after all.
The main plot of the story involves a giant spider, the Empress of the Racnoss who has come to Earth in order to awaken all her children who are buried in the centre of the Earth. In order to do this she needs a certain type of energy and has manipulated a guy called Lance into effectively turning Donna into the key that is needed to release them.
Of course with Catherine Tate in a starring role you are going to get a fair bit of comedy and there are some hilarious moments with my favourite probably being when herself and the Doctor are desperately trying to hail a taxi in order to get Donna back to the church in time for her wedding. After several failed attempts Donna decides that they are not stopping as they think she is in fancy dress due to the fact that she is in a wedding dress. Just as she is thinking this, a motorist shouts to her "Get off the sauce darling!" to which she realises "They think I'm drunk". It only gets worse when a second car drives past and the guys shout "You're fooling no one mate". Poor Donna "They think I'm in drag!!!"
Rose gets a fair few mentions in this episode which I suppose was only to be expected. She was the first of the new series companions to leave and the effect that her departure has had on the Doctor is pretty devastating.
Overall I'd say this was a much better Christmas episode than the 2005 special, but I think I would be in the minority there. A lot of people did not like Donna as a character and hearing the news that she was going to return as a full time companion in 2008 made some fans very nervous. But I loved the idea. As a slightly older woman she escapes the growing cliche of having the companion falling in love with the Doctor and being all dewy eyed over him.
Upon being offered the chance to become a full time companion at the end of this story, Donna turns the Doctor down, much to his embarrassment. She realises how crazy his life is and she could not handle a life like that. She is terrified by him.
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