Specials, Episode 2 | 1 part | First broadcast: 25 December 2006 | Writer: Russell T Davies | Director: Euros Lyn
Cast
- David Tennant as the Doctor
- Catherine Tate as Donna Noble
- Sarah Parish as the Empress of the Racnoss
- Don Gilet as Lance Bennett
Summary
Moments before her wedding, bride-to-be Donna Noble inexplicably materializes inside the TARDIS mid-flight, furious and demanding answers from a Doctor still grieving the loss of Rose. Tracking the strange Huon particles coursing through Donna’s body leads them to her fiancé’s sinister motives and to the ancient, spider-like Empress of the Racnoss, sleeping beneath London and awaiting a temporal key to hatch her starving children from the planet’s core.
Interesting Facts
- This special marks Catherine Tate’s first appearance as Donna Noble, a role she would reprise as a full-time companion in Series 4 two years later.
- It was the first Christmas special not to feature a former companion returning, instead introducing an entirely new temporary companion for a single outing.
- The episode’s climactic flood sequence beneath London was one of the most effects-heavy set pieces produced by the series up to that point.
- Donna’s choice to walk away from further travel with the Doctor at the story’s end was a deliberate subversion of the era’s usual companion send-off.
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