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From SCIFIPEDIA
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The Christmas Invasion is the title of the Christmas special that kicked off the 2006 season of the long-running program Doctor Who. It first aired in the UK on December 25th, 2005.
Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.
Synopsis
As Jackie Tyler prepares for a Christmas without her daughter Rose, and Mickey Smith busily works at a garage, they both suddenly hear the familiar strains of the TARDIS. Racing to the scene they are just in time to see the space / time vessel appear in the sky and then make a crash landing on the estate; but instead of the Doctor that they know, a complete stranger emerges, wishes them a merry Christmas and then promptly collapses. Rose emerges for the ship, and together the trio take the Doctor back to Jackie’s flat, where they dress him in a handy spare pair of pyjamas and leave him in bed to rest; however, they are unaware that strange vortex energy is still emanating from the Doctor, which wafts speedily out into space…
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Harriet Jones conducts a press conference covering the imminent arrival of space probe Guinevere One on the surface of Mars; however, out in space, the probe encounters a mysterious space vessel, and as it is taken on board all contact with Earth is lost.
Hoping to take her mind off the Doctor, Mickey takes Rose Christmas shopping, but they are promptly attacked by a band of sinister Santas, whose musical instruments dish out blasts of fire and a hail of bullets; Rose and Mickey escape in a taxi and head home, where they urge Jackie to take the Doctor to safety; however, Jackie’s new Christmas tree, which she recently found on her doorstep, suddenly comes to life and attacks them, whirling like a deadly dervish armed with razor-sharp branches. While Mickey and Jackie barricade themselves inside the Doctor’s room, Rose urges the Time Lord to wake up and help her; just as the tree smashes through the doorway, the Doctor regains consciousness and destroys it using his sonic screwdriver. Finding the three Santas outside controlling the tree by remote, the Doctor realizes that their attackers are like Pilot Fish – which swim alongside sharks taking pickings from the remains of the predators’ victims; they detected the Doctor’s energy emissions and decided to use him as a power source. As the Santas teleport away the Doctor declares that the threat has not ended - something else is coming… The Doctor collapses again, leaving Rose, Mickey and Jackie to return him to bed to resume his recovery.
Having re-established contact with Guinevere One, the project manager, Llewellyn, joins the Prime Minister at the Tower of London, site of the headquarters of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. But instead of the surface of Mars, the face of a hideous alien appears on screen; as the world’s population reels from the confirmation of alien life broadcast live on television, the P.M. is forced to release a cover story explaining events as a hoax. Back at the flat, Mickey uses his laptop to hack into U.N.I.T.’s systems, and learns that an alien spaceship is approaching Earth. When Rose fails to understand the next alien transmission, she realizes that something is wrong with the TARDIS. With the U.N.I.T. translation software decoding the broadcast, and no sign of the Doctor, the P.M. orders the top-secret organization Torchwood to be placed on standby.
The alien leader’s words are revealed to be declaring ownership of Earth and its inhabitants, but the P.M. refuses to surrender; the Sycorax leader responds by sending out an energy wave which compels one-third of the world’s population to climb up on to the roofs of high buildings. With millions of people on the brink of jumping to their deaths, the Sycorax leader then states his demands: either one half will be sold into slavery, or a third of humanity will die.
With horror, Llewellyn realizes that the people affected are all of blood type A+; it seems that the Sycorax have used the information concerning humanity that Llewellyn included on his Mars probe. With her options running out, the Prime Minister makes an emergency broadcast to the nation, desperately appealing for the Doctor’s help. The arrival of the huge, rock-like Sycorax spaceship in the sky above London is heralded by a sonic wave, which blasts out every window across the capitol; Rose becomes panic-stricken, and urges her mother and Mickey to help her hide with the Doctor in the safety of the TARDIS. As humanity’s spokesperson, the Prime Minister is teleported aboard the aliens’ ship to meet with the Sycorax leader, along with Llewellyn, Major Blake of U.N.I.T. and her aide, Alex; standing before hundreds of Sycorax crewmembers, Llewellyn attempts to reason with the aliens’ leader, but he and the Major are promptly killed. Back on Earth, Jackie leaves the TARDIS to get fresh supplies, while Mickey tries to operate the ship’s controls to access any transmissions; but the Sycorax detect this activity and teleport the vessel aboard their ship for investigation. When Rose and Mickey leave the ship they are immediately taken captive by the aliens; meanwhile, back in the TARDIS, a thermos flask of tea that has fallen to the floor drips its contents onto the electrical circuitry beneath the Doctor’s prone form… After the Sycorax leader declares that Rose speaks for her race, her attempts to bluff them into leaving only result in laughter and a death sentence; but as the Sycorax leader prepares to kill his next victim, Rose realizes that she can now understand his speech – that TARDIS is working again, which can mean only one thing: the arrival of the Doctor, who steps out of the TARDIS and promptly destroys the alien leader’s weapons – it seems that the superheated tea revived the Time Lord just in time. Unsure of how his new incarnation will behave, the Doctor deliberately behaves erratically, throwing the Sycorax leader off balance; the Doctor then deactivates the blood-control device, restoring the minds of the hypnotized humans on the planet below, allowing them to return to safety. Faced with the leader’s threat of summoning the Sycorax armada, the Doctor challenges the alien to a duel – with the fate of Earth as the prize. The leader agrees and a fierce sword fight ensues; the battle moves through the ship and out onto the vessel’s surface, where the leader presses his advantage and severs the Doctor’s hand. However, the Doctor’s body is still in the process of regeneration, and as everyone looks on, the Time Lord grows a new hand. Rose throws the Doctor another sword, and it isn’t long before he gains the advantage and has the Sycorax leader at his mercy; when the Doctor offers to spare the alien’s life if he leaves Earth immediately, the Sycorax agrees; but as soon as the Doctor’s back is turned the alien attempts to run him through; however, this new Doctor is not so forgiving – he operates a wall switch which retracts the ship’s wing and sends the Sycorax leader plummeting to his death. Choosing not to face the Doctor’s wrath, the Sycorax crew choose to flee, returning the Doctor, his friends and the TARDIS back to Earth before they leave. Heeding the Doctor’s words that humanity has been noticed, and that many more alien threats will come, the Prime Minister orders Torchwood to destroy the Sycorax ship – and five energy beams shoot out of the ground, converge into one powerful emission, and utterly destroy the retreating Sycorax ship. The Doctor is furious, refuses to listen to Harriet’s explanation that she used alien technology adapted by Torchwood to ensure Earth’s safety. With his allegiance to the P.M. now over, the Doctor makes a cryptic comment concerning Harriet’s apparent tiredness, before leaving with his friends. Some time later, the Doctor changes out of his pajamas and into a new costume chosen from the vast array of clothes inside the TARDIS’s wardrobe; he then joins Rose, Mickey and Jackie for a Christmas dinner, and together they watch a television news report covering details of a the P.M.’s health scare – it looks like Harriet’s days in power are numbered… Seeing snow, Rose, Mickey and Jackie head outside, but the Doctor explains that it is merely ash caused by the Sycorax ship breaking up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Realizing that the Doctor is about to leave again, Rose declares that she still wants to join him in their travels – and together they leave in the TARDIS for new adventures…
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