Sarah -
Donnnnnnnnnnnaaaaaa!!!!!!!!
Harry -
Donnnnnnnnnnnaaaaaa!!!!!!!!
Wew, this story is a thrill ride from start to finish, and a much-needed palate cleanser. The rapport between David Tennant and Catherine Tate is instantaneous and hilarious.
Sarah -
Oh, Donna, you're just what we needed after all the high drama of Rose's departure.
Harry -
RTD won't let us forget about Rose anytime soon, but at least she's no longer the be all and end all. Cue the wedding march!
...which lasts for all of 10 seconds before Donna Noble is launched -- glowing and screaming -- through the ether, high into space and right into the TARDIS. A first-in-a-series of "what? what? what?" moments ensues as the Doctor is totally befuddled as to how she could have gotten on board. She's equally baffled, but all she wants is to get back to the church. I love how the pace of dialogue speeds up immediately as they riff back and forth.
Sarah -
I was trying to take notes to help me decide on on a favorite line for the wrap up, but there are so many it’s going to be hard to settle on one. RTD clearly had a ball writing this story.
The Christmas special stories are usually on the lighter side, with more serious undertones, and "The Runaway Bride" is no exception. Underneath the wacky buddy comedy, there a strong sense of loss for both the Doctor and Donna.
The Doctor, of course, is still dealing with the loss of Rose. The end of "Doomsday" was such a surprise the first time around. He has just said goodbye to Rose for what he thinks is the last time when this strange woman in a wedding gown turns up. I remember being so confused about what was going on.
Donna, meanwhile, has been snatched from the altar just as she is about to marry a man she thinks loves her. The flashbacks to her pursuit of him are uncomfortable, but Lance’s betrayal is just heartbreaking.
Harry -
The TARDIS lands in the wrong spot and the Doctor notices it is acting strangely, as if it is recalibrating. He and Donna try to hail a cab and more comedy ensues over fancy dress, cab fares and lack of pockets on a wedding gown. Finally, Donna jumps in a cab and takes off without the Doctor -- who just noticed that the killer Father Christmases from last year have returned.
I liked how the Doctor casually noticed "Oh, it's Christmas." Watching this story at the start of summer lent itself to the same jarring effect.
Sarah -
Christmas is really not a safe time to visit Earth. I love that Donna has no memory of the previous year’s Christmas invasion or any of the other alien invasions of recent years. While the Doctor is always focusing on the big picture, Donna seems to be incapable of focusing on anything other than what is happening to her at that moment.
Harry -
Donna speeds along before noticing that her cab has taken the wrong exit, and is in fact being driven by a robo Santa. Cue the wildest car chase ever seen in Doctor Who.
Flying it on manual, the Doctor bumps and judders his ship along a motorway in pursuit of the cab. He tells Donna to jump out of the cab into his arms. Naturally, she'll have none of it, but he asks her to trust him. She makes the leap, the TARDIS soars away, and they are off to find Donna's wedding party.
Sarah -
The car chase is wonderfully silly and so much fun.
Harry -
And then...
"You had the reception without me."
Donna is stunned when she finds her family and friends whooping it up.
Sarah -
I’m on Donna’s side here. Nice family.
Harry -
Everyone has questions, but no one seems to know exactly what happened. From what we've seen of this group, they seem an angry lot.
Sarah -
They don’t hold back, that’s for sure.
Harry -
Donna recounts the background of her employer, H.C. Clements -- owned by Torchwood. The Doctor studies the video of Donna disappearing from the church, and identifies huon particles, something that existed during the earliest beginnings of the universe. He's surprised to find them still active. While he's wondering about that, the Father Christmases surround the reception, activate the Christmas tree inside, and it unleashes a barrage of small grenades.
Sarah -
Doctor Who is so good at making the domestic terrifying. I’ve worried about spinning Christmas trees with grenade ornaments ever since.
The Doctor, Donna, and Lance head off to H.C. Clements to investigate, which includes a quick spin on three segways that just happen to be waiting for them. How else would you chase aliens?
Harry -
Ah, the marvelous but much maligned Segway. It never did catch on, and the trio riding them in the tunnels under H.C. Clements is positively quaint. They have discovered a secret floor hidden deep beneath the Thames Barrier. There's also a laboratory that is filled with huon particle containers and a mysterious man-made chasm that does even deeper into the Earth. Torchwood has been busy down here too.
A voice suddenly calls out, welcoming Donna as the "key" to whatever is going on down there. Our friends come face to face with, for me, one of the most skin-crawlingly grotesque monsters in all of Doctor Who -- a giant humanoid-arachnid known as the Empress of the Racnoss. The Racnoss were an ancient race defeated by the Time Lords aeons ago, at the very dawn of the Earth's creation. The Doctor starts putting the puzzle together, but not before Lance reveals his true intentions.
Sarah -
It's one thing to want to be rid of Donna, but selling out your whole planet? Stupid Lance deserves everything coming to him.
Harry -
Lance has been conspiring with the Empress, dosing Donna with huon particles so that she will become a kind of trigger to awaken the Empresses' children. How they got there is baffling, but the Doctor and Donna manage a quick escape in the TARDIS.
Donna is shattered, her wedding day ruined and how her groom-to-be revealed as a villainous monster just as bad as the Empress. Having been through his own recent emotional upheaval, the Doctor tries to comfort her. But how can you, after something like that? Instead, he shows Donna the moment that the Earth began to be formed out of infinite particles of space dust, coming together and coalescing around... a Racnoss ship?
Sarah -
This is when I had to remind myself that this was a Christmas special. Sure, why not form the planet around a Racnoss ship? It's Christmas.
Harry -
The ship was shaped like a sparkling star, which was convenient.
Sarah -
I also noticed an Easter egg that we never would have caught the first time around in the line, “Orders from Mr. Saxon. Fire at will." (See you soon, Series 3.)
Harry -
RTD was good with the dropping of hints and teasers.
Sarah -
With the Doctor and Donna gone, Lance gets the honor of taking Donna's place in the Racnoss' plan. That'll teach you not to ally yourself with aliens, Lance. Don't you know it never ends well?
Harry -
Lance's betrayal of Donna and all of humanity made no sense. What could he possibly gain from the Racnoss plot? Lance was clearly the dumbest person in this story. A complete idiot who got what he deserved.
Sarah -
The Doctor and Donna defeat the Racnoss and save Christmas for another year. Hooray!
Harry -
I have to give a shout out to Sarah Parish. Considering that her mouth and eyes were the only parts of her not encased under makeup, she gave a hell of a performance. A particularly harrowing moment was when she grieved over her dying children when the Doctor opened the floodgates and drowned them.
Was that not incredibly dark for a Christmas story? The Doctor as the angry god, unleashing death and destruction without batting an eye. Still not over Rose, clearly.
Kudos to Donna for taking all of this -- this entire day of madness, excitement, fear and death -- and still being the same old Donna at the end of it.
Sarah -
Dropping Donna off at home, jobless and fiancé-less, the Doctor tries to cheer Donna up by making it snow. (Amusingly, this story was filled in the middle of a summer heatwave.) He invites her to join him in the TARDIS, but Donna declines. She tells him to find someone who will travel with him and keep him out of trouble. She may understand him better than Rose ever did.
Speaking of Rose, she's always in the background of this story, from Donna thinking the Doctor kidnapped and killed her at the beginning to him telling Donna her name at the end. Donna really does serve as a palate-cleanser for the next companion. Her advice that the Doctor find someone to keep an eye on him gives him permission to move on, whether he's ready or not.
It was an absolute delight to watch "The Runaway Bride" again. Catherine Tate and David Tennant work so well together and every scene is a delight.
Harry -
Hopefully our friends at Big Finish will be able to wrangle them into the recording booths again soon!
Sarah -
I'm looking forward to more Donna in Series 4, but first it's time for some Smith and Jones!
Harry -
Bring it on!
Sarah -
Best Line(s):
So many good ones to choose from, but this exchange made the laugh the hardest.
DOCTOR: Do you have this effect on everyone? Why aren't they stopping?
DONNA: They think I'm in fancy dress.
DRIVER: Stay off the sauce, darling!
DONNA: They think I'm drunk.
MEN IN CAR: You're fooling no one, mate!
DONNA: They think I'm in drag!
Favorite Moment: Donna landing on the TARDIS for the first time
Lasting Image: The TARDIS car chase
8/10
Harry -
Best line:
Agreed that it was hard to choose just one from among so many, but I liked this other little teaser that RTD planted (whether it was intentional or just a stroke of luck):
DONNA: Am I ever gonna see you again?"
DOCTOR: If I'm lucky.
Favourite Moment: the first rapid-fire encounter between Donna and the Doctor.
Lasting Image: Donna in her wedding gown.
8/10
Our marathon continues with Story #179: Smith and Jones...
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