On With The Christmas Lights

David Tennant and Billie Piper were in Cardiff as expected on this cold November evening at the Civic Centre to switch on the city's Christmas lights. Fireworks also marked the occasion, which began at 5:45pm with festivities hosted by Mel and Jase from Red Dragon FM's Breakfast Show, with dancers and a Christmas band and a song from Cardiff singing legend Frank Hennessy, then Tennant and Piper joining BBC Wales' Derek Brockway and Sara Edwards on stage for a few minutes. Before they arrived, the TARDIS materialised on the stage and the audience got to see a montage of clips from Season One for several minutes (which showcased the various location filming that was done last year in Cardiff, but curiously had no Christopher Eccleston clips). Tennant, when asked how he was finding being the tenth Time Lord, replied, "It's terrible. I'm having a miserable time. I'm leaving. Max Boyce is taking over.... No, I'm having a ball. I get my own TARDIS. I get my own sonic screwdriver. I get to hang out with Billie Piper, I'm having a great time." Tennant described the forthcoming Christmas episode as being "perfect thing for Christmas Day. Sit down with a big lump of turkey, put on a paper hat, pull a cracker and you'll have a great time," and mentioned that in upcoming episodes the Doctor and Rose face a werewolf and Tennant even gets to dress up as a woman in one episode. The lights were then turned on and fireworks went off, as Billie and David wished the crowd Merry Christmas in perfect Welsh ("Nadolig Llawen").

Reported BBC News, "The pair, who play the Doctor and his sidekick, Rose Tyler, switched on the city's Christmas lights. Tennant... told the crowd that he also gets to play a woman in the new series. ... Piper revealed to the crowd that other dangers the pair face in the sci-fi series, the second made by BBC Wales, include a werewolf as well as the Cybermen. Speaking from the stage moments before switching on the city's festive lights, she confided that the enemy in next month's episode is a Christmas tree. 'The Christmas tree attacks us. That's pretty exciting and quite threatening and scary at the same time,' she said. The Cyberman also seemed to have made an impression on her. She said: 'They are giants, absolutely terrifying (but) quite sexy actually.'" The article also noted that "The Christmas Invasion" doesn't have a firm time commitment yet on December 25: "[Russell T Davies] said he did not yet know what time the Doctor Who special would be broadcast, but viewers should expect to be frightened. He said: 'It's scary. That's why we can't show it after the Queen.'"

BBC Wales also covered the event, which is available online until 6.30pm Friday; Yahoo News also has coverage.

Below are several photographs taken for Outpost Gallifrey by two correspondents, Dave Greenham and Ian Golden, of Tennant and Piper in front of a huge cheering crowd outside the Civic Centre for the festivities and finally switching on the lights; click on each for a larger version. BBC News also has a collection of five additional photographs of the event. (Thanks to Justin Robinson, Ian Golden, Dave Greenham/DWAS, Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg)