TARDIS Report: Reviews Come In

Post-transmission reviews from the press have started coming in. The Sunsays that "it's hard to believe it is less than a year since the Beeb brought back this cult classic. But the Timelord's battle against the ugly Sycorax really was the jewel in the BBC's crown yesterday. From the moment the Tardis hurtled out of the sky and crash landed in a council estate, you knew you were in for something special. New doc, David Tennant has not just stepped into Christopher Eccleston's impressive shoes, he jumped into them at full pelt -- not an easy feat. The only thing slightly dodgy was his accent — a mixture of Dick Van Dyke and Tiny Tim. But I can just about forgive him that as his comic timing was one of the best things about the Christmas special. ... David brings back the humour and is not as menacing as Eccleston, while Billie Piper was a real jingle-belle as she tried to stand up to the aliens. But the Christmas special is a tribute to writer Russell T Davies, who masterminded the Dr Who revival and whose words crackle and spit hotter than a roast turkey dinner. If this is anything to go by, roll on the next series..."

The Times also has choice words: "Casanova, in pyjamas, fighting the Sycorax with a broadsword? What greater gift could womankind receive on Christmas Day? Of course, gay men always give the most exquisite and generous of gifts, so it was little wonder that Russell T. Davies, the head writer and fairy godfather of Doctor Who (BBC One), made the 'Christmas Day special' not just a treat for those ovulating on the 25th -- which, to be frank, would have been every female viewer at the point where David Tennant burst out of the Tardis for the first time -- but a thrill for everyone. Personally, I don't know anyone who harboured a single doubt over Tennant making a totally splendid and, more importantly, very hot Doctor. And this complacency has proved to be wholly correct. He's twinkly, he's foppish, he's clever, he's taller than you'd expect, and he's clearly going to roam across the galaxy, making anything with receptive genitalia stare into their drinks, sighing: 'Gvenx attr! dopo'. This Doctor revival works so well because everyone involved is a fan, and therefore knows what other fans want from their Doctor. In many ways, it's like multimillion-pound fanfic -- stories written by fans, where decades of frustration with the plot not going the way they want is vented -- and so Leia and Han end up shagging frenetically, through access-panels in their snow-suits, in an ice corridor on Hoth. This sense of finally getting your hands on your idols, and making things go the way that you have always dreamt of, is why every episode of the new Doctor Who series has a moment that makes the Doctor fan simultaneously shivery and tearful. Obviously you'd have to go a long way to beat the last episode of the last series, when the Doctor and Rose had to kiss out of both galactic and medical necessity ('You need a Doctor.' YES! YES! YES, I DO NEED A DOCTOR NOW!) -- but Christmas Day came pretty close. Having seen off the evil leader of the Sycorax while dressed in his pyjamas ('Oooh, very Arthur Dent'), the Doctor turned to the Sycoraxian hordes on their spaceship. 'Go across the Universe, and tell whoever you meet that the Earth is DEFENDED!' the Doctor said. Of course, what he meant was that the Earth 'is defended by ME, Sexy Who, over another 12 episodes this year, and with a shooting schedule confirmed up until 2007'. And that, frankly, is something I would like to go across the Universe telling everyone I meet."