The Runaway Bride
Russell T Davies is on record as saying that he likes
Christmassy Christmas specials. None of
your Lovejoy Goes to Prague for
him. No surprises then, that The Runaway Bride was set on Christmas
Eve. But the Christmassy elements were mostly
a reprise of last year’s Christmas
Invasion: robot Santas, a killer Christmas tree, a snatch of Slade, a snowy
ending. The cynical might think that he
was just going through the motions and writing a Christmas special by
numbers. The more charitably inclined
might cling to the possibility that he intends to start a new Christmas
tradition, with robot Santas becoming as much a part of the festivities as
Wizzard and Christmas cards with penguins on.
Stripping away the Christmas wrapping, we are left with an
episode that is fairly light on plot, with some great set pieces and
entertaining one-liners. Catherine Tate
is no doubt a talented actress, but all her characters are deeply annoying. Donna was no exception. However this did set up some great dialogue. Donna’s failure to grasp the “bigger picture”
owing to being hung-over or scuba diving during recent alien invasions was
amusing. However my favourite line was during the chase scene along the
motorway. The Doctor is trying to persuade Donna to leap out of the taxi and
into the TARDIS. Donna protests “I’m in
my wedding dress!” and the Doctor replies “Yes, you look lovely. Now JUMP!” Other dialogue triumphs included
“this time it’s Personnel’, but am I the only one who noticed that the “doesn’t
even know where Germany
is” line is straight out of Bridget
Jones: the Edge of Reason?
The chase sequence itself was excellent. We have never seen
the TARDIS doing anything quite like that before. The Doctor’s piloting skills have clearly
improved since last Christmas, though not much.
I was also impressed by the Empress of Racnoss costume,
which looked authentically spidery. But
I did feel that Sarah Parish was rather wasted – it could have been anyone overacting
away in there. There were some large holes
in the plot – and I don’t just mean the one down which the Racnoss children
were flushed at the end. The Racnoss
ship has been at the centre of the Earth since the planet was formed. The Empress, who has been lurking somewhere
since the Dark Times without anyone noticing her fairly distinctive-looking
ship, suddenly decides to take advantage of a newly-vacant Torchwood base under
the Thames Barrier to bore a hole to get them. Surely she could have found
somewhere rather more remote to commence operations? And with all that access to alien technology,
is a Segway really the best means of transport Torchwood could come up with to
get from the basement of HC Clements to the secret base?
Still, it’s Christmas, and the Doctor has only just been
through a traumatic experience with Daleks and Cybermen and jettisoning Rose in
an alternative universe. He deserves a
nice easy adventure. Pass the turkey
sandwiches.
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