History Recap / DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride

-->'''Donna:''' That friend of yours... what was her name?
-->'''The Doctor:''' ....Her name was Rose.

* YourMom: Donna and the Doctor are stuck in the middle of nowhere and trying to take a cab back to the church. Eventually, they realize neither of them has any money. The cabbie dumps them out and all we hear is Donna scream, "And that goes double for your mother!"
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'''Original air date:''' December 25, 2006

'''Production code:''' 3X

Written by Creator/RussellTDavies.

JustForFun/TheOneWith the bovvered bride, lots and lots of hurled insults, and ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E7TheIdiotsLantern another]]'' [[EvilIsHammy ham-tastic alien]].

* OffTheShelfFX: The villains use a remote control which is essentially a modified UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 controller.

The Doctor stoically — coldly, even — watches as the water pours in, flames rush up and the Empress screams in anguish for her children. Donna's look grows horrified, as it seems as though the Doctor has no will to live without Rose. It takes Donna yelling out to snap him out of it, at which point a look of terror comes across his face, realizing how close he came to permanent death. They escape up a ladder while the Empress teleports back to her ship, vowing to scorch the Earth out of spite. But the Doctor assures Donna that between her using up all her huon energy, and the Webstar's assault on London, the Empress is defenceless.

* VillainousBreakdown: When the Doctor reveals his true home, the Racnoss Empress goes from gloating to horrified shrieking:

The Doctor enters the chamber disguised as a roboform, but the Empress instantly sees through him. He frees Donna, who swings to (almost) safety before hitting a wall. The Doctor offers the Empress the chance to go to a planet and exist peacefully, but she refuses and orders her roboforms to fire. The Doctor, anticipating her, overrides them with the remote control the roboforms used earlier. He then reveals that he is a Time Lord by telling her what planet he's really from: Gallifrey.

The Doctor returns Donna home, but she is desolate, having lost her job and her fiancé the same evening. The Doctor uses a burst of energy from the TARDIS to make it snow, hoping to cheer her up. He invites her to join him in the TARDIS. She declines, but encourages him to find someone, recognising he has just lost someone himself and that sometimes he needs someone to stop him from doing something terrible. The Doctor tells her briefly about Rose, and then disappears into his TARDIS.

!!Tropes:

* AnAsskickingChristmas: In keeping with New Series tradition, this time complete with an actual tank.

* ChristmasEpisode: The pilot fish are continuing to impersonate Santas. [[AnAsskickingChristmas The Doctor kicks their ass down the drain.]]

* AnAssKickingChristmas: In keeping with New Series tradition, this time complete with an actual tank.

* ChristmasEpisode: The pilot fish are continuing to impersonate Santas. [[AnAssKickingChristmas The Doctor kicks their ass down the drain.]]

* CrappyHolidays: Although a lighthearted romp with a stupidly hammy villain, this is considered one of the darkest episodes because it shows the Doctor going over the edge.

* DontMakeMeDestroyYou: A Tenth Doctor trademark — he generally gives the baddies a chance to walk away. In this case, he tells her he could give her and her children a chance on another planet.

* GenocideDilemma: The Doctor even had to go through with it ''again''. It's a split-second decision and he ''gives'' the Empress of the Racnoss a chance to drop the VillainBall… but in the end the Doctor decides to drown the last offspring of an extinct species to save the Earth.

* HeelRealization: {{Downplayed}}, the Doctor once again realizes he's being rude when he glances over and sees Donna crying over the realization she's been played a fool by Lance. And on her wedding day.

* KarmicDeath: Lance wanted the Racnoss Empress to feed Donna to her children as a sacrifice. The Racnoss Empress however, is unimpressed with him readily abandoning his so-called "wife", feeds ''him'' to her children instead.

'''Empress:''' ''[annoyed]'' YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO SAY "I DO!"!!!!!!!!!

JustForFun/TheOneWith the bovvered bride, lots and lots of hurled insults, and ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E7TheIdiotsLantern another]]'' ham-tastic alien.

* HateSink: The Empress of the Racnoss is the main antagonist of the episode, but she's ultimately too entertaining to hate and appears to [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes genuinely love her children.]] [[LoveInterestTraitor Lance]] on the other hand is a smug {{Jerkass}} who, after revealing to be allied with the Empress, tells Donna that he couldn't stand her and gives a cruel TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about how annoying and stupid she is. Zero tears are shed when [[KarmicDeath the Empress feeds him to her children]], and Donna even admits that he deserved it before withdrawing the comment.

JustForFun/TheOneWith the bovvered bride and lots and lots of hurled insults.

* EarlyInstalmentWeirdness: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime Wilfred Mott]] is an important member of the Noble family but doesn’t appear at the wedding. His first appearance is the [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned following Christmas special]] and his relation to the Nobles isn’t revealed until the episode after that. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem The Sontaran Stratagem]]" explains this away by saying that he was down with flu and thus couldn't attend.

* OrSoIHeard: After the Doctor rescues Donna from being kidnapped by an evil robot Santa, she laments that they've missed her wedding service, and says she wishes he had a time machine so they could go back and change things. The Doctor mumbles that even if he did, he couldn't go back along someone's personal timeline, "apparently".

* HateSink: The Empress of the Racnoss is the main antagonist of the episode, but she's ultimately too entertaining to hate and appears to [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes genuinely love her children.]] [[LoveInterestTraitor Lance]] on the other hand is a smug {{Jerkass}} who, after revealing to be allied with the Empress, tells Donna that he couldn't stand her and gives a cruel [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Reason You Suck Speech]] about how annoying and stupid she is. Zero tears are shed when [[KarmicDeath the Empress feeds him to her children]], and Donna even admits that he deserved it before withdrawing the comment.

* ArcWords: Series/{{Torchwood}} and orders from "Mr. Saxon".