By the time the second Christmas rolled around Tennant was already firmly entrenched in his role as the Tenth Doctor and had come off a strong season with a wonderfully melancholic finale (that would later be undermined... But that's in seasons to come) where he lost Rose to another dimension.
So naturally, this special will be a Christmas-themed, wedding-themed rom-com!
Okay, maybe not quite that bad... But for more of the running time than I'd like it seemed to be.
I barely watch TV, to the point that I didn't know who Catherine Tate was, which apparently baffled people. Plenty of Doctor Who fans seem to dislike her, or did in this first appearance anyway. I... Wasn't terribly bothered. Mostly, I disliked how long it took for The Runaway Bride to get interesting.
Because it does get interesting eventually... It just isn't in a hurry.
The Racnoss Empress might not be the most mobile of monsters, but that never stopped Doctor Who before! The alien menace is cool and hilariously overacted, like all Christmas panto villains should be!
The episode is just so focussed on the characters that aren't as interesting or funny as Russel the Davis thinks they are (something of a running theme), but the sci-fi is good stuff when it gets to it. This is returned to in the fantastic Turn Left much later in Tennant's run, which adds a little more weight to it too.
