Doctor Who: The Runaway Bride (2006)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Best movie ever!

Awesome Movie

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

I can recall the feeling of utter joy knowing that the legendary, fabulous Catherine Tate was going to guest star in the Christmas Doctor Who. The Christmas Invasion had showed us that the Christmas specials were actually good viewing, not just hammed up fillers seeking viewing figures with cheap stunts and rubbish plots.We'd had a glimpse of Donna in Doomsday, and I think from that cheeky clip we realised the Doctor wasn't going to have an easy time with the flame haired noisy one.It wasn't the best by any means, the story is a bit limp, the Robot Santas have been re-used from last year (cheap and lazy!!) but who cares we've got Donna, I know we've only just said goodbye to Rose, and I love Rose, but Donna is possibly she show's best companion (PLEASE one day return.) Sarah Parish, a normally top notch British actress is given a pretty naff part, the Empress of the Racnoss, not the best Who villain of all time, and seems doomed to the one appearance.How sad that Howard Attfield who played Donna's dad Geoff died not long after making this.Lighter then the normal episodes, silly, bad and wonderful. The Runaway Bride was the perfect Christmas day romp, it's a fun 8/10, not to be taken too seriously, but praise it for giving us Donna.

Lets start with what this episode did well...Firstly, The TARDIS chasing the London cab being driven by a robot down the motorway. Brilliant! Some brilliant dialogue and some brilliant acting (from Tennant at least) and a genuinely tense scene, even though I'm fairly certain we all new she was going to jump. Kudos to the effects team though, it looked excellent!Secondly, it did well to bridge the gap between series 2 and 3. We saw The Doctor trying to get over the loss of Rose, and although this wan't played on too much when it was done it was done well and I'm pleased these scenes took up some of the time in this episode rather than any from the next seriesFinally this episode showed a darker side to The Doctor. A side that would kill off an entire species. This is something that's been missing from a lot of NuWho and I'm pleased they brought it into this episode.Now onto what they didn't do too well (Basically two of the actors)Firstly Catherine Tate. While she improved as the episode went on, and she certainly improved when she was made a full time companion, for the majority of this episode she just seems to get by on shrieking her lines and it gets a bit tedious after about a minute.However Catherine Tate loses out on the worst performance award to Sarah Parish as the Empress. I realise this was probably down to the direction rather than Parish herself but the way she delivers her lines is just plain annoying. To me anyway.So, overall a good episode that could have been great if Tate and Parish hadn't been cast (or at least directed in a different way)

The Doctor barely has had time to get over Rose before he finds himself with another woman in his Tardis – this time a bride on her wedding day. The Doctor cannot figure out how she got there but a quick return to earth later reveals robots disguised as Santa who are after Donna and, whatever the reason, it probably isn't a good one. On the run from her would-be captors, the Doctor starts to piece together a reason for alien interest in his new (unwilling) companion involving a former Torchwood facility.Everybody sat to watch this and I'm sure it will have been one of the biggest ratings winners across the Christmas period, which I imagine leaves the makers with the problem of trying to tailor the special to meet this diverse audience. With the normal series it can bring out certain aspects (the silliness, the darkness, the relationship etc) across different episodes and accept that some viewers will like some episodes but not others, but with these one-off things you only get one shot. Hence here then we a mix of comedy, special effects, action, monsters, dark character traits and hints at an inner pain in the Doctor. Needless to say no one aspect gets done really well but none gets left completely out – and it more of less manages to stay on the fine line between giving everyone something as opposed to annoying everyone!However depending on your point of view there will be parts that don't work. Personally I really enjoyed the hints at the darker nature of the Doctor (eg his single-mindedness in wiping out the creatures) and his feelings of loss regarding Rose and I would have liked more of that. However I knew this was never going to slow down and be about that so I accepted that we would have lots of Santa robots, exploding baubles and so on. This all works reasonably well and produces a solid enough piece of family entertainment that should please fans of the series even if everyone will have some reservations about some of the aspects of it. For me one of these things was the casting of Tate. I think towards the end she got better but for the first half her "Eastender's reject" act just grated on me and I didn't find it funny (which I think was the plan) and I thought she clashed heavily with some of the quiet moments attempted early on. Which was a shame because I though Tennant was best in these moments – moments where he was allowed to be a character rather than a panto-hero-come-action-figure. Of course he does the latter well enough as well but as usual I did wish that he didn't greet everything that happens with a big "oh, of COURSE" burst of recognition and instant understanding. Parish hams it up a bit too much as the Empress of the Rachnos; I didn't mind her accent so much but her "jokes" didn't fit her character and I would have liked her to have been more ambiguous (after all – if they did create the earth as a rock to "hibernate" then the humans are not really their fault). The writers do bring a touch of this out at the end but it is too little to really justify as anything. Gilet is solid enough in a minor role but nobody really steps up to adequately fill the hole left by Piper – for that we have a very fast pace that never really lets up for longer than a minute or two.Overall then, a lively and enjoyable Christmas special that has lots of energy and something for everyone in the delivery. The lack of quiet moments and character exploration was a bit of a disappointment to me (particularly as they hinted at doing it) but it was still quite enjoyable. That said, the presence of Tate's mostly annoying performance did distract me but also made me realise what a job Agyeman has ahead of her in the new series because the "partner" role is an important one to get right.

The run away bride as a Christmas special was fantastic, with all the sadness of eastenders Doctor who brought back that little piece of fun. Catherine Tate was superb and David Tennant was brilliant as always (and as tasty as always too) After doomsday I wasn't sure if I could laugh again knowing that Rose had gone and the doctor was grieving, however, I was chuckling all the way through and it was nice to see that even through all that chaos the doctor still had time to remember his now lost friend. The episode was full of wit and their transport devises had me in stitches and the spider monster was great I really have nothing bad to say about this episode.I did notice and maybe others did too, but did anyone else notice how in that episode so many of the settings were similar to ones we've seen before. For example, when they are climbing that ladder (new earth) the whole underground layer (new earth) when Donna is walking around the outside of the tardis( first episode ever). There almost seem to be and under layer of episodes put together in a memory of Rose, but it was very subtle to see.I recommend that people see this, if they haven't already.