Plot
The newly regenerated Doctor, suffering side effects from his regeneration, crash lands the TARDIS in London. He exits to meet Jackie Tyler and Mickey, and collapses in front of them. They take him to Jackie's flat where she puts her boyfriend's robe on him and they put him to bed. Rose and Mickey decide to go out Christmas shopping while waiting on the Doctor to recover. While shopping they are attacked by masked Santa robots, and escape back to the flat. While attempting to wake the Doctor they are attacked by a lethal spinning Christmas tree. The Doctor wakes suddenly, using his sonic screwdriver to stop the tree. He tells them that his regeneration has gone wrong and theorises that the energy of his regeneration is luring an unseen foe to him. The Doctor passes out again and is returned to bed.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Harriet Jones prepares for a live broadcast from the space probe Guinevere One, set to land on Mars. The probe is swallowed by a giant spaceship heading for Earth. When the broadcast is shown, an alien face appears and identifies itself as being a Sycorax. The alien demands Earth's surrender and causes a third of the world's population to go into a hypnotic state. The Sycorax threaten make these people commit suicide unless they are given half of the world's population as slaves. One of the scientists discovers that all of the hypnotised people share the same blood type (A-positive), the same as contained in a sample on Guinevere One. Harriet attempts further negotiations with the Sycorax, and is surprised to find herself and her staff transmatted aboard the ship.
Rose, Mickey and Jackie evacuate the Doctor to the TARDIS as the Sycorax ship approaches London. Before Jackie can return with additional supplies, the TARDIS is detected by the Sycorax and is transmatted aboard their ship. Rose and Mickey exit the TARDIS, but not before spilling a container of tea on the floor that drips onto part of the TARDIS and begins to smoke. Rose attempts to bluff the leader of the Sycorax by invoking the Shadow Proclamation among other references. The Sycorax dismiss Rose, but she manages to buy enough time for the Doctor to finally recover. After smelling the tea and waking up, he wanders out of the TARDIS still in his robe and reintroduces himself to everyone. He shuts down the Sycorax blood control and then challenges the Sycorax leader to a sword fight for the Earth. During the fight, the Doctor's hand is severed off and falls over a cliff. Since the Doctor is still within the first 15 hours of regeneration he is able to grow a new hand, and then forces the Sycorax leader to submit. The Doctor and his allies return to the ship as the Sycorax leader attempts to attack the Doctor from behind. The Doctor hits a sensor with a fruit he found in his bathrobe, triggering part of the wing to fold and dropping the leader to his death.
The Doctor orders the Sycorax to leave Earth and never return before taking Rose, Mickey, and Harriet back to Earth. As the Sycorax ship moves away, Harriet orders Torchwood to fire on them, destroying the ship. The Doctor becomes furious with Harriet, who tries to justify her actions by reminding the Doctor that he is not always there to save them. He threatens to bring down her government with six words. Harriet firmly stands behind her decision, and the Doctor walks over to her aide and whispers: "Don't you think she looks tired?" That evening, the Doctor selects a new outfit from the TARDIS wardrobe and joins Rose, Jackie, and Mickey for Christmas dinner. They watch Harriet Jones on the television fending off rumours about her health and a pending vote of no confidence. The Doctor and Rose then prepare to set off again in the TARDIS.
Read more about this topic: The Christmas Invasion
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone is divine.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)