12 Reviews of Christmas - Doctor Who: The Runaway Bride (2006)

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Today, for 12 Reviews of Christmas, I'd like to jump back into the world of Doctor Who. We took a look at the 2005 Christmas special last year, so this year, I'll be looking at the 2006 Christmas special: The Runaway Bride. 

         Shortly after the events of the Season Two finale, Doomsday, the Doctor gets an unexplained visitor in the TARDIS: a woman in a wedding dress. The woman in question is Donna Noble, and she simply appeared on the TARDIS from out of nowhere. Well, seemingly from out of nowhere. You see, she was walking down the aisle during her wedding, and she started glowing, and eventually teleported onto the TARDIS. The Doctor takes her to the reception, but is concerned that she had absorbed a significant amount of huon particles. The reception is suddenly attacked by robots dressed as Santa Claus, and the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to destroy them by manipulating the sound system. Upon scanning the robot Santas, he learns that they're being remotely controlled from space. 

          The Doctor discovers that Donna and her fiance Lance work for a security firm secretly owned by the Torchwood Institute, and the three head to investigate, finding a tunnel under the Thames Barrier, along with a lab producing the huon particles, and a pit leading to the center of the Earth. Emerging from the pit is a massive spider like creature calling itself the Empress of the Racnoss. Many years ago, the Racnoss had been driven to the point of near extinction by the Time Lord, due to the fact that the Racnoss devoured entire worlds. It turns out that the Empress, who'd been hibernating at the edge of the universe, used Torchwood to gain the equipment needed to produce huon particles, which Lance had been feeding to Donna for the purpose of using her to free the Empress' children and resurrect the species. The Doctor and Donna escape, and the Empress uses Lance as a substitute by force feeding him the huon particles and dropping him into the pit, where the Empress' children devour him. 

           Traveling back billions of years, the Doctor and Donna discover an inert Racnoss ship, learning that the Earth formed around it. Returning to the present, the Doctor offers the Empress a peaceful resolution, but she refuses, forcing the Doctor to detonate explosive baubles from the robotic Santas, flooding the base with water from the Thames. The Doctor is ready to sacrifice himself, but Donna convinces him to escape with her. The Empress escapes to her ship, which was weakened by an earlier attack and is destroyed by military forces. The Doctor offers Donna the chance to travel with him, but she refuses. 

            Honestly, of all the Doctor Who Christmas specials, The Runaway Bride is my least favorite. David Tennant is still really terrific as the Doctor, and Catherine Tate was pretty funny as Donna Noble. Trust me, their dynamic definitely improved during the fourth season. Unfortunately, the Racnoss felt like weak adversaries, and the story just felt too nonsensical, and didn't feel like a genuine Christmas special. However, the Racnoss' ship looking like a giant star, referred to as the Christmas star in later episodes, was pretty cool.  Not a perfect Christmas special, but I still enjoyed it as a one-off episode of Doctor Who. I'm giving it a rating of 3.95/5. 

         This is Chuck signing off, and I'll be back tomorrow with my review of the Disney+ holiday film Noelle as 12 Reviews of Christmas continues. 

            

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