3.X: The Runaway Bride (2006 Christmas Special)
Synopsis: It's Christmas Eve, and Donna Noble's wedding day. She has been doused with ancient Huon particles, which only exist in one place: the TARDIS. The particles magnetise, and just seconds after the Doctor has said goodbye to Rose Tyler, Donna is brought inside the vessel. Over the past year, she has worked at HC Clements, a key-making firm onced run by Torchwood, developping Huon particles in liquid form from Thames water. A giant red female spider, the Empress of the Racnoss, is currently controlling the firm and needs a key, a living Huon carrier, to awaken her children, to create an empire on Earth. She has been working with Donna's fiance to poison the bride through coffee made with Huon-laced water.
In a trip back in time 4.6 billion years, the Doctor realises that the Racnoss ship is harboured at the centre of the Earth. The Racnoss will devour the human race if allowed to go free, and the Empress refuses the Doctor's offer to find her and her offspring another home. The Doctor, in a dark rage, drains the Thames, drowning the Racnoss infants at the centre of the planet.
Fortunately, Donna stops him before he can drown himself, and points out that he needs someone to hold him back. But, she does not want to be that person, so he continues on his journey, alone for the moment.
Golden Comic Moment: When the Doctor's just being the Doctor, and begins machine-gunning, each companion has her response. Rose asked a lot of semi-coquettish questions, Martha "just nod[s] when he stops for breath." But Donna wanted him to cut to the chase. Already, one year before Donna becomes a full-time companion, we see the extreme version of what the Doctor and Donna's relationship would become: the Doctor on a roll, Donna putting on the breaks and basically taking the piss out of him.
When she appears in the TARDIS, he begins thinking aloud, shining a thing-a-ma-bob in her face, and running at the mouth, "There's some sort of subatomic connection, something like a temporal field. Maybe something pulling you into alignment with the chronon shell. Maybe it's something macrobudding your DNA with the interior matrix. Maybe a genetic..." which is interrupted by a good smack from Donna.
Later, when he's working out how and why the Huon particles work on her body, he is literally screaming at her, "Oh, the wedding! Yes, you're getting married. That's it! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle, your body is a battleground! There's a chemical war inside! Adrenaline, acetylcholine, wham go the endorphins! Oh, you're cooking! Yeah, you're like a walking oven, a pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away! The particles reach boiling point... Shazam!" which is met with another good smack.
Granted, in her series 4 run, she doesn't smack him anymore, but there are a few moments when she reacts to his ranting with phrases like, "Yeah, Earth girl, remember?" and "Are you talking rubbish, or what?" And as we all know, thanks to Donna, sometimes the Doctor needs someone to stop him!
Golden Fangirl Moment: When the commotion dies down for a few minutes, and the Doctor and Donna have time to rest, they take refuge upon a London rooftop. The Doctor makes a gesture which we have never seen him make before: he takes off his jacket and gives it to the woman who is cold. The fact that she uses this opportunity to point out how thin he is (and not in a good way) does not dampen the effects of this very sweet gesture! The Doctor is often obtuse about being a gentleman, and over the next year, it's just going to get worse. But for the moment, he is sensitive to her needs, and instead of going back inside and finding her another coat, he gives her the clothes off his back. It's very Doctor, and very un-Doctor, all at once.
Cringeworthy Moment: And so begins the angst over Rose, a theme of longing and guilt which will become all-too-prevalent in series 3. Longing, guilt and never talking about it properly! All those times when he could have explained what happened to Rose either to Donna or Martha! All those times when he could have discussed his pain, talked about how he'd loved her, perhaps could have saved her, never got to tell her how he felt... well, everyone would have felt better! As it is, Donna finds a purple jacket aboard the TARDIS and freaks out, and the Doctor reacts by creating for himself a culture of secrecy, of making the subject of "Rose" into a very sore spot, something untouchable. It's the elephant in the room for the rest of the Tenth Doctor's life, even when Rose comes back!
Donna: How many women have you abducted? (grasping Rose's jacket)
Doctor: That's my friend's.
Donna: Where is she then, popped out for a spacewalk?
Doctor: She's gone.
Donna: Gone where?
Doctor: I lost her.
Donna: ... How do you mean, lost?
Doctor: Responds with an angry, taciturn expression.
Golden Moment: When Donna gets abducted in a taxi, the Doctor dashes into the TARDIS and gears up to save her. What a hero, eh? He rigs the console with a bunch of string so that he can fly the thing while he's standing at the door. And then, we see the police box come down out of the sky in the distance, and it literally bounces on the motorway and then flies after the taxi. And even better: children witness it! How freakin' cool is that? How scary it must be, as a seven-year-old, to look across to another car speeding down the freeway and see a woman frightened out of her wits and banging on the windows. But then, how vindicating to see the TARDIS in the distance with the universe's cleverest man inside, ready to save her! We can all relax - the Doc's got this one.
Why I Beg to Differ: It's difficult to sum up why DWM chose the Golden Moment that it did, mostly because it doesn't do a very good job of explaining. It goes into a narrative aimed at Donna when she turns the Doctor down. "You should reel him in, precious girl. But you can't face that life every day... And yet... he should have someone... someone like the friend he used to have. The one he lost. The friend he's avoided talking about all day... get him to tell you who she was!"
And in the final words of the episode, the Doctor says, "Her name was Rose." And this is DWM's Golden Moment.
I suppose DWM feels that this is sort of a release for the Doctor, or a victory for Donna, that he says her name even though he doesn't want to. Perhaps it makes him strike out into the world again searching for a new companion, but mostly, we're not quite sure, so therefore, it's hard to argue.
But! When discussing disaster on Doctor Who, a (mostly) likeable character in peril, what could possibly be more of an indicator that something really cool is about to happen than the TARDIS coming down out of the sky in the distance?
In a trip back in time 4.6 billion years, the Doctor realises that the Racnoss ship is harboured at the centre of the Earth. The Racnoss will devour the human race if allowed to go free, and the Empress refuses the Doctor's offer to find her and her offspring another home. The Doctor, in a dark rage, drains the Thames, drowning the Racnoss infants at the centre of the planet.
Fortunately, Donna stops him before he can drown himself, and points out that he needs someone to hold him back. But, she does not want to be that person, so he continues on his journey, alone for the moment.
Golden Comic Moment: When the Doctor's just being the Doctor, and begins machine-gunning, each companion has her response. Rose asked a lot of semi-coquettish questions, Martha "just nod[s] when he stops for breath." But Donna wanted him to cut to the chase. Already, one year before Donna becomes a full-time companion, we see the extreme version of what the Doctor and Donna's relationship would become: the Doctor on a roll, Donna putting on the breaks and basically taking the piss out of him.
When she appears in the TARDIS, he begins thinking aloud, shining a thing-a-ma-bob in her face, and running at the mouth, "There's some sort of subatomic connection, something like a temporal field. Maybe something pulling you into alignment with the chronon shell. Maybe it's something macrobudding your DNA with the interior matrix. Maybe a genetic..." which is interrupted by a good smack from Donna.
Later, when he's working out how and why the Huon particles work on her body, he is literally screaming at her, "Oh, the wedding! Yes, you're getting married. That's it! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle, your body is a battleground! There's a chemical war inside! Adrenaline, acetylcholine, wham go the endorphins! Oh, you're cooking! Yeah, you're like a walking oven, a pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away! The particles reach boiling point... Shazam!" which is met with another good smack.
Granted, in her series 4 run, she doesn't smack him anymore, but there are a few moments when she reacts to his ranting with phrases like, "Yeah, Earth girl, remember?" and "Are you talking rubbish, or what?" And as we all know, thanks to Donna, sometimes the Doctor needs someone to stop him!
Golden Fangirl Moment: When the commotion dies down for a few minutes, and the Doctor and Donna have time to rest, they take refuge upon a London rooftop. The Doctor makes a gesture which we have never seen him make before: he takes off his jacket and gives it to the woman who is cold. The fact that she uses this opportunity to point out how thin he is (and not in a good way) does not dampen the effects of this very sweet gesture! The Doctor is often obtuse about being a gentleman, and over the next year, it's just going to get worse. But for the moment, he is sensitive to her needs, and instead of going back inside and finding her another coat, he gives her the clothes off his back. It's very Doctor, and very un-Doctor, all at once.
Cringeworthy Moment: And so begins the angst over Rose, a theme of longing and guilt which will become all-too-prevalent in series 3. Longing, guilt and never talking about it properly! All those times when he could have explained what happened to Rose either to Donna or Martha! All those times when he could have discussed his pain, talked about how he'd loved her, perhaps could have saved her, never got to tell her how he felt... well, everyone would have felt better! As it is, Donna finds a purple jacket aboard the TARDIS and freaks out, and the Doctor reacts by creating for himself a culture of secrecy, of making the subject of "Rose" into a very sore spot, something untouchable. It's the elephant in the room for the rest of the Tenth Doctor's life, even when Rose comes back!
Donna: How many women have you abducted? (grasping Rose's jacket)
Doctor: That's my friend's.
Donna: Where is she then, popped out for a spacewalk?
Doctor: She's gone.
Donna: Gone where?
Doctor: I lost her.
Donna: ... How do you mean, lost?
Doctor: Responds with an angry, taciturn expression.
Golden Moment: When Donna gets abducted in a taxi, the Doctor dashes into the TARDIS and gears up to save her. What a hero, eh? He rigs the console with a bunch of string so that he can fly the thing while he's standing at the door. And then, we see the police box come down out of the sky in the distance, and it literally bounces on the motorway and then flies after the taxi. And even better: children witness it! How freakin' cool is that? How scary it must be, as a seven-year-old, to look across to another car speeding down the freeway and see a woman frightened out of her wits and banging on the windows. But then, how vindicating to see the TARDIS in the distance with the universe's cleverest man inside, ready to save her! We can all relax - the Doc's got this one.
Why I Beg to Differ: It's difficult to sum up why DWM chose the Golden Moment that it did, mostly because it doesn't do a very good job of explaining. It goes into a narrative aimed at Donna when she turns the Doctor down. "You should reel him in, precious girl. But you can't face that life every day... And yet... he should have someone... someone like the friend he used to have. The one he lost. The friend he's avoided talking about all day... get him to tell you who she was!"
And in the final words of the episode, the Doctor says, "Her name was Rose." And this is DWM's Golden Moment.
I suppose DWM feels that this is sort of a release for the Doctor, or a victory for Donna, that he says her name even though he doesn't want to. Perhaps it makes him strike out into the world again searching for a new companion, but mostly, we're not quite sure, so therefore, it's hard to argue.
But! When discussing disaster on Doctor Who, a (mostly) likeable character in peril, what could possibly be more of an indicator that something really cool is about to happen than the TARDIS coming down out of the sky in the distance?