Pudsey Cutaway

Doctor Who
2005 Children In Need Special


Okay, so Doctor Who's a huge success, and it's getting a Christmas Special.  Hooray!  Before that, though, there's a scene for Children In Need.  Excellent!  There's no point getting your hopes up: it'll just be a bit of fun to raise money.  Cross your fingers and it might not involve the cast of Eastenders.

Well, yeah, you could do that.  Or you could give us the first six minutes of a brand new Doctor.  That's six minutes of completely unmissable Doctor Who.  And they did it for free!

Somehow, Tennant + Eccleston's costume = early Lennon.

There's obviously no plot to speak of, which is nice as there's no plot for there to be any holes in.  It's pure character development: Rose, echoing the younger members of the audience, isn't sure if this man truly is the Doctor.  Fair enough.  David Tennant proves that he is.  What's not to love?

He's immediately funnier than Eccleston.  "I... have got... a mole!"  And more frantic: the craziness is typical for a newly-regenerated Doctor, and Tennant does it without forcing it.  The script handles the what-the-hell-just-happenedness of a regeneration with a beautifully crafted back-and-forth, and there isn't a word out of place.

Tennant's got a lot to do here, from silly to loveable to downright weird.  His lunatic expression as he says "Faster!  Let's open those engines!" is almost scary.  Best of all, though, is the moment where he calms down, and recalls their first meeting.  The way he whispers, that little thing he does with his eyes, the way he says "Run."  He dances between fizzing excitement and magnetic Doctorliness with ease.  Yep, he's the Doctor all right.

Billie Piper's great, too.  Her mistrust makes perfect sense, and it's essential for the audience.  It's a bit eh guessing the Doctor might randomly be a Slitheen – Slitheen, Slitheen, Slitheen, don't forget about the Slitheen! – but Rose was never the brightest bulb.

And, we're done.  It's tiny.  It's perfect.  Tick.