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)

I was left pondering over a number of technical issues with this episode since the Doctor explained early on in his first incarnation about the danger of the doors being open whilst the TARDIS is in flight.Then there's the TARDIS scanner. The TARDIS has always had a scanner just as the TARDIS has always had a control in the centre control console to open the doors.There was no explanation either for the arachnid since the Doctor dealt with the planet of the spiders before he regenerated to his fourth incarnation. These stories are too short and are failing to provide any background. For a franchise that is older than Star Trek, it's coming up short when filling in the gaps, crossing the t's and dotting the i's. Perhaps I'm taking it too seriously as it does entertain you for a spare 40 minutes or so providing you ignore Catherine Tate.

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.