Doctor Who: 2x00 "The Christmas Invasion"

Ok, so I lied on Sunday.  Things got a bit rough, but we should be back on schedule Friday.  The official Doctor Who review schedule has been updated with these changes and with previous episode review links, if you want to catch up.  One Thursday, July 4th, I'll post two reviews to catch up with the schedule because there's no better way to celebrate USAmerican Independence than writing and reading reviews of British television shows!

We have made it to Series 2 of Doctor Who!  Starting next Sunday, every Sunday for the next six weeks, I will post reviews of Sherlock episodes, rather than Doctor Who episodes.  If you didn’t catch it earlier, I posted statistics for Series 1.

DOCTOR WHO REWATCH: SERIES TWO, EPISODE ZERO: “THE CHRISTMAS INVASION”

The new Doctor is introduced, and some badass women get things done, and are then punished for it.

Doctor Who: 1x00: “The Christmas Invasion” Written by Russell T. Davies

The Summary:

Jackie and Mickey are going about their lives on Christmas Eve, when suddenly: the TARDIS engines!  They run to find the TARDIS on a crash course, and once it finally lands out stumbles a man they’ve never seen before but is wearing the Doctor’s clothes and seems to know them.  He then collapses in a dead faint.  Rose emerges and explains that the stranger is the Doctor and that he changed somehow.  They get him to bed in the Tyler apartment, and Rose and Jackie take care of him, neither understanding what’s happening.  Rose and Jackie talk a bit, and Rose finds out Harriet Jones won the election for Prime Minister and has made many great reforms as well as supporting a project to send out a probe to Mars.  Rose goes out with Mickey to get some Christmas presents since she hadn’t been expecting to be back for Christmas and has no money.  While out, they are attacked by a brass band dressed as Santa Clauses whose instruments are actually guns and flamethrowers.  They run back to the house.  When they get there, they find Jackie’s Christmas tree has been replaced with a killer Christmas tree.  They lock themselves in the bedroom the Doctor is sleeping in, and Rose tries to wake him up.  It isn’t until she whispers in his ear that she needs him that he wakes up, and defeats the tree just before they’re all about to die.  He stumbles out of the apartment to confront the killer Santa Clauses, who he refers to as pilot fish, and warns Rose there will be something bigger coming.  He passes out again.  Meanwhile, the Guinevere One space probe encounters aliens, and Harriet Jones runs the response team like the BAMF alien fighter that she is.  She reveals that she’s become even more competent since the last time we saw since apparently she’s read up on aliens quite a bit.  Rose, Mickey, and Jackie spend a long night in the apartment waiting for news or for the Doctor to wake up.  The aliens called the Sycorax make contact and demand that they surrender.  Harriet Jones, who rebuffs the USAmerican President’s attempts to take over the situation, sends a reply that’s basically a huge piss-off.  The Sycorax reply by somehow controlling a third of the world’s population into walking to the edges of tall building’s roofs.  The response team figures out that they are controlling the blood of type A positives, as that blood type was in a vial on the placard of Guinevere One.  Harriet Jones asks for help from something called “Torchwood,” since there is no sign of the Doctor.  She then makes an address to the people, and asks the entire world that if they can reach the Doctor to do so and ask for his help.  Rose breaks down while watching it, since it seems the real Doctor no longer exists.  The Sycorax ship breaks atmosphere, and Rose decides to hide Jackie, Mickey, and the Doctor on the TARDIS.  Harriet Jones and part of her team are teleported onto the Sycorax ship, but they recognize the TARDIS’s energy signature and teleport it on as well, without Jackie onboard.  Not realizing that they’ve moved, Rose goes to check on Jackie and ends up stepping onto the Sycorax ship, Mickey hears the commotion, drops the open tea thermos on the TARDIS floor and runs out after her.  Rose tries to threaten the Sycorax with the Shadow Proclamation, which she’s heard the Doctor do many times in the past, but the Sycorax realize she really doesn’t know what she’s talking about.  Meanwhile, the tea drips onto the console and wakes the Doctor, completely revitalizing him.  As the Sycorax are talking in Sycoraxic, the TARDIS suddenly starts translating it into English for all the humans, and Rose realizes the Doctor is awake.  Just as she turns to look, the Doctor exits the TARDIS.  He goes on a ramble, as he tries to figure out his new regeneration’s mannerisms and personality.  He releases the people on the roofs from the blood control then challenges the Sycorax leader to a duel, which he wins, but only after getting his hand cut off (and regrowing it).  Afterwards he commands the Sycorax to leave and gets the humans all back to Earth.  They all celebrate, but Harriet asks the Doctor how many more there are, and he tells her there are thousands of other races and to expect to get used to having visitors.  The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey begin to leave, when Harriet Jones orders Torchwood to fire on the retreating Sycorax.  The Doctor is an ass and dismantles her entire administration, then he picks out a new outfit and “does domestics” with Rose, Mickey, and Jackie by having Christmas dinner with them.  Though this isn’t the first reference to Torchwood (that’s one of the Weakest Link questions in “Bad Wolf”), it is the start to the Torchwood arch.

The Women:

Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Harriet Jones, Sally Jenkins, Sandra

The Conversations:

1. Rose and Jackie:  Jackie brings Rose a stethoscope and they talk about the Doctor’s condition and how he has changed.  The continuing conversation becomes about Harriet Jones, who is the new Prime Minister.   The rating: 0.5

2. Rose and Jackie:  Rose tries to get Jackie to leave the apartment then notices the Christmas tree has changed.  Because Mickey is present for the conversation, the rating: 1

3. Rose and Jackie:  Rose breaks down in Jackie’s flat after Harriet Jones’ speech.  The rating: 0

4. Rose and Harriet:  Rose leaves the TARDIS to find herself on the Sycorax’s ship, and greets Harriet, who asks after the Doctor.  The rating: 0

The Woman to Woman Quote of the Episode:

“Did more than that – stopped World War III with her.” – Rose Tyler (to Jackie Tyler, about Harriet Jones)

Nothing’s better than one badass woman admiring another badass woman.

The Tally:

Episode 2x00 Total: 1.5

Series 2 Total: 1.5

10^th Doctor Total: 1.5

Rose as Companion Total: 18.0

Russell T Davis Era Total: 18.0

For Further Discussion:  Harriet Jones, Prime Minister

Spoiler Warning for Series 3 and end of Series 4.

“She’s Prime Minister now; I’m eighteen quid a week better off.  They call it Britain’s ‘Golden Age.’” – Jackie Tyler

“Send them a reply.  Tell them, ‘This is a day of peace on planet Earth.’  Tell them, ‘And we extend that peace to the Sycorax.’  And then tell them, ‘This planet is armed, and we do not surrender.’”

I’m not going to talk a lot about Harriet Jones because WhovianFeminism on Tumblr has already done a great job defending her and condemning the Doctor’s actions, but I just want to share some of my feels and ask that you do the same down in the comments section.

Harriet Jones is quite possibly my favorite fictional politician.  Even when the Doctor was in the game in “World War III,” it was Harriet Jones who ultimately took charge and took responsibility.  Throughout the episode she is remarked upon to be a great Prime Minister (e.g. Jackie’s comments about how much better off she is since Harriet Jones took office) and shows herself to be a brilliant leader in a crisis.

Harriet’s great sin is that she listens to and learns from the Doctor.  She asks the Doctor at the end of the episode about other aliens and he basically tells her to get used to attempted alien invasions.  So, she does exactly what he had decided was the best course of action in “World War III” and launched a missile at the aliens.  The Doctor’s response to a woman saving her planet in the best way she could is to depose her with a comment on her appearance.

One of my favorite things about RTD’s Doctor Who is how often the Doctor gets his comeuppance.  The Doctor is shown to be the one who sinned against Harriet by revealing his actions give the Master room to come into power – rather than the three term “Golden Age” that was supposed to occur, and by revealing how firmly Harriet Jones still stood by the Doctor and would do anything to save the Earth in “The Stolen Earth”/”Journey’s End.”  I don’t think she would have had any better of a chance of survival against the Daleks had the Doctor not deposed her, but I do think she could have done more before her death.  And I do think the Doctor should and did feel guilt (eventually) about the crime he committed against her.