The Runaway Bride (TV story)

The Runaway Bride was the 2006 Christmas Special of Doctor Who.

It was the show's second Christmas special since its revival and the second Christmas special starring David Tennant as the Doctor.

It marked the first change of companion since the 2005 revival had begun, and also introduced the modern-era concept of the "one-off", one-story companion. Though Donna did later return for a full series of her own, the original plan was for her only to appear in this episode, thereby blazing a trail that others like Astrid Peth, Jackson Lake, Christina de Souza and Adelaide Brooke would follow. This episode marked the first appearance of Sylvia Noble.

The Runaway Bride was also, from a production point of view, the start of the third series of the programme though, as with most Christmas specials prior to 2012, the episode was considered a standalone.

This episode also featured the first spoken reference to “Mr. Saxon”, first referenced on a newspaper in Love & Monsters, who became the story arc of the following episodes.

The concept and title had been considered by head writer Russell T Davies since the BBC Wales incarnation of the show was greenlit in 2003. It had intended to be a series 2 episode, but, after Russell learnt with little warning from Jane Tranter at the BAFTA screening of The Parting of the Ways that not only was there to be a 2005 Christmas special, but a 2006 one as well, Bride was moved ahead to the Christmas slot and "took on a whole new lease of life" as a story following Billie Piper's departure from her role as Rose Tyler but before the new companion, introduced at the start of the full third series, came in. Bride's spot was replaced by Tooth and Claw, which in turn was bumped up from episode 6 to episode 2. (DWMSE 14)

In 2020, The Runaway Bride became part of the Time Lord Victorious multimedia event.

Summary
Killer Santas, exploding baubles, an alien spaceship shaped like a giant star — Christmas with the Tenth Doctor is anything but a silent night...

Plot
Donna Noble is escorted down the aisle by her father, Geoff to her waiting groom, Lance Bennett, at her Christmas Eve wedding. Halfway down the aisle, she is surrounded by a mysterious golden glow. Screaming in horror, Donna dissolves into a cloud of energy that goes flying up through the ceiling. The guests are left baffled. Was Donna just abducted?

In outer space, the TARDIS is orbiting a supernova; the golden energy enters the time machine. Inside, a tearful Tenth Doctor has just finished saying his farewell to Rose Tyler when he looks up to see Donna; she is shocked to find herself in the odd location. He is flabbergasted as to how she ended up in the TARDIS. While the Doctor gets increasingly confused as to how she somehow got inside while the TARDIS was in flight, Donna becomes equally angry and confused as to what's going on.

Donna is irate at being stolen from her wedding and accuses the Doctor, demanding answers; she even threatens to sue him. She thinks her friend Nerys got her back with an elaborate prank. She yanks open the doors and finds herself staring out into deep space. Shocked back to her senses, she realises the Doctor is an alien and what she is seeing is real. The Doctor cannot figure out how she gained entrance to the TARDIS, and Donna demands that he return her to the church. She gives very detailed information as to where it is, since the Doctor is an alien. She spots Rose's shirt and accuses him of having abducted other women. The Doctor tells her it belongs to a friend, but "she's gone".

The Doctor tries to get to the church in Chiswick but accidentally lands the TARDIS near Oxford Street. Donna calls him a Martian, then storms out of the TARDIS. She then sees that the outside is smaller and, going into shock again, she rushes off. The Doctor rushes after her, telling her to go back; however, she is too weirded out to want to. The Doctor then notices that it's December 24, 2007; he wonders why she chose to get married today. Donna tells him that she hates Christmas and plans to honeymoon in Morocco. Donna tries to get a taxi, but the taxi drivers believe that she is dressed for a fancy dress party, drunk, or a drag queen. She goes to a payphone, which the Doctor zaps with the sonic screwdriver to work. Donna calls her mother, Sylvia telling her frantically where she is; the Doctor goes to get her money for a cab. However, the Doctor notices familiar masked Santas. They are the robotic scavengers from the previous year's Christmas, levelling their weapons disguised as band instruments at him. He distracts them by using his sonic screwdriver on the ATM to make it spit out money, causing a crazed rush from the nearby crowd.

He goes off in search of Donna and finds her taking off in a cab, its driver yet another of the robotic Santas. Donna quickly realises her cab is not taking her to the church and finds the Doctor has engaged the TARDIS in pursuit of the cab on the highway, watched by two astonished children in the back of a car. The Doctor urges Donna to jump from the taxi to the TARDIS, which she is reluctant to do and asks if the woman he lost trusted him. The Doctor confirms this and assures her the friend he lost is still alive, and tells her to jump, which is echoed by the children watching from their car. Donna, after some hesitation, jumps into the Doctor's arms and the TARDIS spins off into the sky with the children cheering it off.

The TARDIS lands on a roof. Donna sits on the ledge, as the Doctor uses a fire extinguisher to put out flames inside the control room; all that excitement put too much strain on the old girl. He tells Donna that the TARDIS needs some rest before she can be used again; he then notes playfully that for a spaceship, it doesn't really do too well when it comes to flying. Seeing Donna is cold, the Doctor lends her his jacket. She jokes that he is way too skinny as the coat wouldn't fit an average-sized man. The Doctor asks if he missed her wedding, to which she confirms; he tells her that she still has the honeymoon, which Donna passes off as just a holiday.

Donna laughs that it's too bad he doesn't have a time machine; then they could just go back to when she vanished. Not wanting to disturb her more, the Doctor subtly says it would be impossible due to the laws of time; he can't go back along someone's personal timeline. The Doctor gives Donna a bio-damper ring to stop the Santas tracking her; he asks Donna to talk about herself, so he can figure out why she's being targeted. To the Doctor's surprise, Donna missed the Sycorax's attempted invasion the previous Christmas (she was asleep with a hangover). He then learns she works at a security firm called H.C. Clements, where she met her husband-to-be, Lance; she was interested in him because as head of H.R., Donna found it odd he would bother to get coffee for a temp. Donna says they went out for a while and Lance asked her to marry him. (However, as the flashbacks show, Donna was the one constantly pestering him to get married; he eventually gave in.)

The Doctor takes Donna to her reception, where Lance is dancing with Donna's bridesmaid Nerys. Donna is shocked and furious that her friends and family are having the wedding reception without her; Nerys points out that it was already paid for, so they didn't want to waste it. Donna snaps back at her. Sylvia Noble, Donna's mother, demands to know about her bizarre phone call and how she pulled off that disappearing act. The amount of attention she's getting causes Donna to break down and cry; they stop questioning her. Donna gives a wink to the Doctor; she's faking to make them feel bad for her.

The party continues, and during the dancing, the Doctor spots a woman with long blonde hair dancing; it makes him think of Rose, upsetting him again. He then borrows a mobile phone to look up H.C. Clements. He learns the firm is, or rather was, owned by the Torchwood Institute. The Doctor catches sight of the wedding photographer showing someone his camera and goes to see what's so interesting. The Doctor sees the footage of Donna vanishing in golden light, asking for a replay; to his shock, Donna was infused with Huon particles, a source of energy that hasn't existed for billions of years. Horrified, the Doctor realises that the bio-damper can't hide Donna.

The Doctor grabs Donna and they run outside to find the hall surrounded by the Santas. Seeing one of them holding a remote, the Doctor looks back at the trees. When Donna asks why he's concerned about them, he retorts "They kill!" The Doctor yells for everyone to get away from the trees, earning laughter. However, everyone soon goes silent; contrary to what the Doctor believed the ornaments are flying off the trees. The crowd watches in awe until they start crashing into tables and exploding. Everyone, with Angelica being the loudest, panics before taking cover, as the Doctor rushes to the DJ equipment. The Santas enter, with the Doctor taking the mic and telling them they blundered; they let a man with a sonic screwdriver near the sound equipment. Using the speakers, the Doctor creates a sound so powerful it shakes the roboforms apart.

The Doctor scans the head of one of the Santas, realising they aren't scavengers anymore; someone has taken command. The Doctor traces the signal outside, finding that the signal is coming from space. Inside a star-shaped spaceship, an alien calls him a clever boy before cutting the signal. Without a signal, the Doctor decides to investigate H.C. Clements, asking Donna to take him there; she points out that she doesn't have pockets for keys. She drags Lance along since he has a car.

The Doctor asks Lance to take Donna and him to H.C. Clements, learning that after Torchwood One's destruction in the Battle of Canary Wharf, someone else took control of the company; Donna has no recollection of it, claiming she was in Spain, even when the Doctor mentions that there were Cybermen in Spain as well. Donna says she was scuba diving at the time; the Doctor sighs that she's always missing the big picture. The Doctor finds a basement level not on the floor plans and the three go there, finding themselves in a long tunnel that leads to the Thames Flood Barrier. They find transport - segways. The Doctor and Donna exchange glances between each other before bursting out laughing.

At the end of the corridor, they discover a lab filled with tubes of water. The Doctor explains that Huon particles were being created from water and are being stored in liquid form. He explains that his people created them, making Lance ask who he works for; the Doctor tells him he's freelance. The Doctor quickly does a scan of Donna, revealing to her that she's saturated with the particles. The TARDIS is the only other place in the universe where Huon particles exist; when the ones in Donna activated (due to the raging hormones the stress of her wedding day caused), it created a magnetic effect that pulled her inside. He dumbs this down for Donna and Lance by using a pencil and mug to demonstrate his explanation. There is an immense hole in the floor of the room. The Doctor surmises it was dug by Torchwood's laser technology and extends to the centre of the Earth.

As they explore, a half-humanoid, half-spider teleports into the lab. The Doctor recognises it as one of the Racnoss, a race thought wiped out billions of years ago by the Fledgling Empires in the Dark Times. The Racnoss calls herself the Empress. She has fashioned a large web above the pit, where the body of H.C. Clements still hangs. "My Christmas dinner!" the Empress laughs. The Doctor talks to the Empress, wondering if there are any other survivors; this species is a threat as they eat EVERYTHING, destroying whole planets. The Empress defends this as her species are born starving; it's not their fault intentionally, just their biology.

Donna takes control of the conversation to distract the Empress, as Lance sneaks behind it with an axe. However, right as Lance raises the axe to strike, the Empress turns and both start laughing. Donna can't figure out what's going on, making Lance point out she's stupid. The Doctor, who had been suspicious of Lance the moment he heard his job title "head of human resources", sombrely asks Donna how she met Lance again; she says over coffee, before coming to the conclusion she missed before. Lance was spiking her coffee with Huon particles every day; they needed to incubate in a living being until they were ready for use. The Empress needs the Huon particles for what's at the bottom of the hole.

Lance then explains that he only went through with marrying Donna to make sure she didn't leave; he had to put up with tortuous hours of listening to her gab on and on, calling her "the never-ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia". But now, he can finally be free of her and resume his life, callously rejecting Donna's declarations of love, declaring that it "was what made it easy". The Doctor and Donna are targeted by the roboforms under the Empress' control, the Doctor reverses the particle activity with a vial of liquid Huon particles he'd collected earlier. This causes the TARDIS to materialise around them so they can escape; the Roboforms open fire, but the TARDIS shrugs off the shots and dematerialises. The Empress is not thwarted. With the knowledge gained by dosing Donna, she knows how to achieve the same result with Lance. She begins to force feed him the Huon liquid while trapping him in her web.

The Doctor takes the TARDIS to the creation of the Earth to learn why the Empress has dug into the core of the planet. He tempts the distraught Donna into looking, and they notice a Racnoss spaceship arriving to hide from being exterminated by the Fledgling Empires. The Doctor fast-forwards time outside the ship, asking Donna what's happening; she tells him that the Earth is forming around the ship. The Doctor realises that the ship is the actual core of the Earth; that's why the Empress needs Huon particles, to awaken her "children". If that happens, the Racnoss will eat everything and everyone on Earth; worse, they'll likely destroy the planet to free their ship.

As the Doctor explains his realisation, the TARDIS suddenly shakes and the doors shut. The Doctor yells that the Empress has doused Lance with Huon particles and the pull is dragging them back to 2008. However, to avoid directly returning, the Doctor uses percussive maintenance on the extrapolator, which now appears to have TARDIS coral growing around it, to skip sideways into an empty corridor. As he listens at a door, Donna is captured and suspended in the Empress' web. The Doctor realises she is gone, then opens the door to find a black cloaked robot aiming a weapon at him. The Empress activates the Huon particles, which purge from Donna and Lance and fall down the hole. Knowing her fellow Racnoss will be hungry, she prepares to drop meat down for them. Lance asks her to choose Donna; she considers it but decides to send Lance down instead for being rude. With the web severed, Lance falls, screaming. Donna is now horrified of sharing his fate.

Meanwhile, the Empress' ship descends over the city, taken for a Christmas star until it fires on the city, causing panic and destruction; one little girl is nearly electrocuted by a laser before her father pulls her out of the way. The Empress catches the Doctor as he sneaks back into the laboratory, in disguise as a roboform. The Doctor cuts the spider web with his sonic screwdriver, with Donna swinging on a strand to him; however, it's too long and Donna hits a wall with a comedic metallic clank. "Thanks for nothing," Donna sneers.

The Doctor offers the Racnoss one last chance: he will take her kind to a planet where they will threaten no one. She calls him funny, declining his offer, then tells the firing squad to aim, but they shut down as the Doctor calmly says, "Relax". He pulls a remote resembling a very flashy RC car controller from his pockets (which he says are bigger on the inside); the Doctor reprogrammed the roboforms to only obey him. The Empress proudly declares that the roboforms will not be necessary; her children will dine on Martian flesh tonight. The Doctor reveals that he is not from Mars, but Gallifrey.

The Empress is enraged as she exclaims, "They murdered the Racnoss!" The Doctor simply responds, "I warned you... you did this," and holds out a few of the explosive Christmas ornaments ominously. The Empress realises she has gone too far and pleads for mercy, but it is MUCH too late — the Doctor throws the baubles into the air and uses the remote to control them like remote-controlled bombs to blow holes in the tunnel. Water from the Thames rushes in, swirling around the Empress and then reaching and travelling down the hole to the Earth's core, drowning the Racnoss within.

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, and it takes her yelling out to the Doctor when they are both soaked, "Doctor! You can stop now!" to snap him out of it, at which point a look of terror comes across his face as well as if he realises what he has done. They escape into the TARDIS while the Empress teleports back to her ship, vowing to scorch the Earth; the Doctor replies that the opening of the Secret Heart and the Webstar's assault on London has drained its energy and left it defenceless. Humanity isn't, however, and the powerless Webstar is blown out of the sky by Challenger 2 tanks under orders of "Mr Saxon", presumably destroying the Empress and the Racnoss species with it.

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.

Cast

 * The Doctor – David Tennant
 * Donna Noble – Catherine Tate
 * Empress – Sarah Parish
 * Lance Bennett – Don Gilet
 * Geoff Noble – Howard Attfield
 * Sylvia Noble – Jacqueline King
 * Vicar – Trevor Georges
 * Taxi Driver – Glen Wilson
 * Nerys – Krystal Archer
 * Rhodri – Rhodri Meilir
 * Little Girl – Zafirah Boateng
 * Robot Santa – Paul Kasey

Uncredited cast

 * DJ - Mark Haste
 * Iris Bennett - Sandra Scott
 * Stan Bennett - Ash Croney
 * Robot Santas - Ken Hosking, Adam Sweet, Richard Tunesi, Joe White, Pete Symonds, Marc Llewellyn-Thompson

Animals

 * Donna once had a dog, which she would have got rid of if Lance married her.

Food and Beverages

 * Lance made Donna coffee, which got them talking.
 * Lance mentions Pringles, and how Donna seemed to get excited when there was a new flavour.

Individuals

 * "" orders the destruction of the web star.
 * Lance says that Donna talked excitedly about "Brad and Angelina", "Is Posh pregnant?", X Factor, the Atkins diet and feng shui.
 * Connie decorated the tree.
 * Lance's parents are Iris and Stan Bennett.
 * Donna thinks Nerys is behind her suddenly appearing in the TARDIS.
 * On her first day of school, Donna was sent home for biting.
 * When trying to hail a taxi, passersby assume Donna is either drunk or in drag.
 * Lance is the head of HR.

Influences

 * Russell T Davies took inspiration from classic Hollywood screwball comedies starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

Locations

 * The church Donna and Lance are getting married in is called St Mary's. It's on Haven Road.
 * Donna planned to have her honeymoon in Morocco.
 * According to Lance, Donna cannot point to Germany on a map.

Music

 * The Roboforms play God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen when in their Santa disguise.
 * Two songs are heard during Donna's wedding reception: "Merry Xmas Everybody" by Slade, and an original song, "Love Don't Roam", which makes reference to Rose's disappearance. "Merry Xmas Everybody" would be heard again in the parallel world of Turn Left. It was also heard previously in The Christmas Invasion. It's heard again during the dream crab dream of Last Christmas.

Objects

 * The Doctor compares Donna to a microwave and a pressure cooker.
 * Lance pretends to attack the Racnoss with an axe.

Organisations

 * There is a Torchwood Institute base under the River Thames extracting Huon particles, which exist within the Heart of the TARDIS.
 * Donna's wedding dress is from Chez Alison.
 * There is a W H Smith near where Donna and the Doctor try to hail a taxi.
 * Donna describes H.C. Clements as a "posh locksmith".

Species

 * The Doctor asks Donna if Lance is a bit overweight with a zip around his forehead — alluding to the Slitheen.
 * After the Doctor informed the Empress that he is from Gallifrey, she screamed in anger, shouting, "They [the Time Lords] murdered the Racnoss!"
 * Donna repeatedly mistakes the Doctor for a Martian.
 * The Racnoss claims she has been waiting at the "edge of the universe".
 * Donna thinks there might be Dinosaurs under the Earth.

Sports

 * Donna, sarcastically, says she was playing ten pin bowling before she appeared in the TARDIS.
 * Donna was scuba-diving in Spain during the Battle of Canary Wharf.

Technology

 * The Doctor uses the Tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator, which seems to have been incorporated into the TARDIS.
 * The Doctor uses a bio-damper to keep Donna hidden from the robot Santas.

Websites

 * Whilst looking for information on H.C. Clements, the Doctor went past websites for WickedMail, UNIT, Torchwood House, Tech Minx, unknown, All Star Lookalikes, Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum, GWR, GEOCOMTEX, unknown, Fran Barker, Deffry Vale School, Defending the Earth!, Cheapserve, British Rocket Group, Boy*d Upp, unknown.

Story notes

 * A controversy occurred during the filming of this story as guests at a hotel were awakened and frightened by gunfire and explosions during the filming of one scene in the street below, including one who had just returned from the conflict in Israel.
 * Though set at Christmas, this story was filmed in late July, with an average temperature of thirty degrees centigrade. David Tennant was quoted as saying he was "blinking boiling" during filming.
 * As part of the 2006 Children In Need concert, a four-minute clip from this episode was shown. It features Donna riding in a taxi, unaware that it is being driven by a Robot Santa. The Doctor gives chase in the TARDIS down a motorway and tries to persuade Donna to jump between the two vehicles. The unveiling of Christmas-special preview footage for Children in Need became an irregular tradition afterwards, with the 2008 campaign featuring a preview of The Next Doctor and the 2009 edition a preview of The End of Time, Part One.
 * This is the first appearance of companion Donna Noble. She also receives a lead credit at the start which, normally, only the Doctor and his companion(s) receive. She returned in Partners in Crime and left in Journey's End, both in Series 4. She reappears in The End of Time but only as a guest star.
 * Catherine Tate was unable to attend the traditional first cast read-through of the episode. David Tennant's then-girlfriend and former guest star Sophia Myles (The Girl in the Fireplace) read the part of Donna Noble on this occasion.
 * The reprise of the cliffhanger scene from Doomsday had to be refilmed for The Runaway Bride as the change of cinematographers resulted in a discontinuity in terms of lighting between the earlier footage and that shot for the special. (DCOM: The Runaway Bride)
 * The "TARDIS car chase" sequence was the first part of the episode to be publicly screened when it was shown at the Doctor Who: A Celebration Children in Need concert on 19 November 2006. However it wasn't included in BBC Radio Wales live simulcast of the event, so was only seen by the concert's audience. It wouldn't be seen by the wider public until its inclusion in CON: Music and Monsters broadcast on BBC One several hours before the Christmas Special itself.
 * Unlike previous Doctor Who aliens, The Empress of the Racnoss was not created using CGI. This decision was made quite early on so that the Empress could fully interact with the other characters. Weighing half a tonne, the main body was like a giant puppet and was worked by control rods. It was operated by four technicians as well as by Sarah Parish herself. When inside the costume, she was positioned as if on a see-saw so she could move the body up and down simply by shifting her weight slightly.
 * In the DVD commentary it is confirmed that a scene filmed, but cut from broadcast, would have continued on from Donna pointing out a piece of Rose's clothing by showing the Doctor angrily throwing it through the open TARDIS doors and into space. Executive producer Julie Gardner explained to David Tennant in the commentary that it was cut as being too melodramatic. The cutscene was not included with the other deleted scenes on the DVD release.
 * It was suggested that the Torchwood helicopter be used for certain shots by Patrick Schweitzer; this was turned down.
 * The Doctor references Gallifrey by name for the first time on-screen since the revival of the series.
 * David Tennant and Phil Collinson Banknotes.jpg Elizabeth II|link=Special:FilePath/David_Tennant_and_Phil_Collinson_Banknotes.jpg]]For legal reasons, the production team made obviously fake banknotes for the scene where money comes flying out of a cashpoint. The £10 notes feature the Doctor's face and the phrases "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ten satsumas" and "No second chances — I'm that sort of a man". The text is a reference to the Doctor's actions and dialogue near the end of The Christmas Invasion. There were also £20 notes featuring Phil Collinson. These had the phrase "There's no point being grown up if you can't be a little childish sometimes" printed on them, misquoting the line originally spoken by the Fourth Doctor in Robot, "There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes." All notes and the cash machine were labelled "London Credit Bank" and have become sought after collector's items since the airing.
 * A new version of the Doctor Who logo is introduced in this episode. This is the first time the logo has changed without the title sequence changing with it.
 * The title sequence reverts to its original colours after being modified for Series 2.
 * During their audio commentary, David Tennant and Julie Gardner reveal that a sequence was shot but cut in which the Doctor and Donna took a bus to get to Donna's wedding reception. Actress Bella Emberg would have made a second appearance as Mrs Croot (from Love & Monsters) during this scene.
 * Another deleted sequence mentioned by Tennant and Gardner during their commentary involved the Doctor, Donna and Lance travelling to H.C. Clements in Donna's pink Smart car. During this sequence, David Tennant's parents, his sister-in-law and his two nieces all appeared as extras in the background. However, none of them ended up in the finished episode.
 * This is the first episode of the revived series to feature a completely different cast from the series opener.
 * The end of Doomsday is featured as part of the pre-title sequence, although the scene was actually refilmed. In his online podcast commentary for the episode, David Tennant explained that this was due to a change in lighting supervisors, and the one hired for this episode liked to light the TARDIS interior differently; the scene therefore had to be refilmed in order to match. The Doctor Who logo in the opening credits has been slightly redesigned from the previous one, with more background detail and flare on the "lozenge" that the words "Doctor Who" sit on.
 * Sarah Parish has co-starred with David Tennant in two other BBC One dramas: Blackpool (2004) and Recovery (2007).
 * Sarah Parish is on record as having insisted on taking a role as some kind of weird monster when being approached by the production team for this very reason.
 * The climax originally took place at Stonehenge. Russell T Davies was unable to come up with a satisfactory rationale for Stonehenge's involvement, however, and so the idea was abandoned at an early stage.
 * The vicar had four lines in the shooting script, but the part was cut to one line in the transmitted version.
 * The TARDIS chasing a car down a motorway was an idea Russell T Davies had from childhood memories of driving along motorways with his family, fantasising about catching sight of the TARDIS whizzing past the other vehicles. The scene was originally meant for School Reunion, but it was scrapped because it derailed the plot.
 * This was originally meant to be the sixth episode of season two. It was decided that the light-hearted tone would be better suited to a Christmas special.
 * Russell T Davies initially didn't want to introduce a new companion, preferring to wait until Smith and Jones. Instead, he decided that Donna would make a suitable short-term companion, bridging the gap between Rose Tyler and Martha Jones. Like Adam Mitchell, she would help to demonstrate that not everyone had the mettle to travel in the TARDIS; but she would also help establish the importance of the Doctor always travelling with a companion.
 * At one point, the chase along the motorway was related to a satellite navigation system being controlled by the Empress of the Racnoss; this element would eventually be given to Helen Raynor for The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky.
 * Whereas The Christmas Invasion had been made in a recording block alongside several other episodes, it was decided that this special would be filmed on its own, at the start of the production schedule for Series 3. As such, it comprised the entirety of Block One.
 * The first scene David Tennant and Catherine Tate filmed was the rooftop scene, having been away from the series for three months. Tate's involvement was still a secret, but fortunately, the lofty location helped prevent onlookers from recognising her.
 * While filming the car chase, the production team was assisted by the Cardiff Police, who enacted a rolling roadblock during the early morning hours.
 * Bella Emberg reprised her role as Mrs Croot from Love & Monsters for an encounter with the Doctor and Donna as they dismounted a bus, but this scene was cut in editing.

Ratings

 * 9.3 million viewers (UK final)

Filming locations

 * This is the first episode to be filmed in the new Upper Boat studios.
 * Filming also took place in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (which represented the Torchwood base).

Production errors

 * In the scene when Donna asks the woman if she could borrow £10 as it's Christmas, you can clearly see that Donna is wearing sports shoes instead of her usual white wedding shoes; Catherine Tate had been wearing sports shoes between takes.
 * Even though it is supposed to be Christmas, it is obvious that the special was filmed during the summer, because all the trees have leaves on them, etc.
 * When Donna returns to the reception, and the Doctor borrows a gentleman's phone, you see a menu item that says "Play". It is obvious that the HC Clements search that the Doctor does is a movie clip on the phone.
 * The mask of the Roboform which abducts Donna in the taxi has eye lenses on its Santa mask which change from plain blue to fake eyes like those seen on the masks of other disguised Roboforms.
 * When the Roboforms surround the hotel, they are armed with a flamethrower trombone, a missile-launcher tuba, a machine gun trumpet, a bugle of unknown ordnance, a tenor horn or euphonium of unknown ordnance, and the remote control for the bauble bombs. However, when they face the Doctor in the ballroom, the tenor horn/euphonium has been swapped for a curling, bugle-like instrument, looped over the Roboform's shoulder.

Continuity

 * The Doctor had previously encountered the Racnoss Empress when his fifth incarnation stumbled upon her conflict with the Time Lords. (AUDIO: Empire of the Racnoss)
 * The tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator is still integrated with the TARDIS systems. (TV: Boom Town, The Parting of the Ways)
 * The Doctor first called the Robot Santas "pilot fish" when they appeared before the Sycorax Invasion. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
 * later referred to these events. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
 * When the Doctor is standing waiting for the cash machine, the shop Henrik's is nearby. Rose Tyler worked there when she met the Doctor. A sign for Henrik's is also on the taxi that the Roboform used to kidnap Donna. (TV: Rose)
 * In a parallel world where Donna was not with the Doctor for these events, the Doctor would have died without regenerating after stopping the Empress of the Racnoss. (TV: Turn Left)
 * The upstairs section of the bar where Donna had planned her wedding reception has a Manchester Suite, as did Platform One. (TV: The End of the World)
 * Donna says, "St. Mary's, Haven Road, Chiswick, London, England, Earth, The Solar System!" When they entered Pete's World, Mickey Smith said, "London, England, Earth". (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) When the Tenth Doctor first came out of the TARDIS on the Powell Estate he said, "London, Earth, the Solar System!" (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
 * The Doctor remembers Rose Tyler in a moment from their time on New Earth. Rose's purple top, which Donna finds in the TARDIS, is the same one she wore during that adventure. (TV: New Earth)
 * The Doctor says that his pockets are "bigger on the inside." As did his fourth (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) and seventh incarnations. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)
 * The TARDIS starts to dematerialise, before taking off vertically into the sky. (TV: Fury from the Deep)
 * Donna puzzles over the fact that there's a secret base hidden right under a famous London Landmark. This prompts the Doctor into saying in a sarcastic tone, "I know. Unheard of." The Doctor previously dealt with an underground base that housed the Nestene Consciousness hidden under the London Eye, (TV: Rose) while Torchwood has another base in Canary Wharf (TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday) and UNIT has one at the Tower of London. (TV: The Christmas Invasion, The Power of Three, The Day of the Doctor)
 * Rosemary Kizlet's company would later be shown to be based at the Shard. (TV: The Bells of Saint John) The 3W Institute was inside St Paul's Cathedral. (TV: Dark Water / Death in Heaven) On a parallel Earth, Battersea Power Station was shown to be a Cyberman factory. (TV: The Age of Steel)
 * Donna wears the same wedding dress once again in her virtual life inside the data core of the Library. (TV: Forest of the Dead)
 * The Doctor is surprised that Donna doesn't remember Earth's recent encounters with the Sycorax (TV: The Christmas Invasion) and the Cybermen and Daleks in the Battle of Canary Wharf. (TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday)
 * The Doctor attended Donna's next two weddings. (AUDIO: Death and the Queen; TV: The End of Time)
 * The Sixth Doctor previously spent Christmas 2007 with Evelyn Smythe and the Cracker family. (PROSE: The Crackers)

Home video releases

 * This episode was released as the sole story on Doctor Who: The Runaway Bride, alongside the full Children In Need 2006 concert. Extras include Music and Monsters and the Dr Who Confidential/ Children in Need 2006 Special Concert.
 * It is also included in the Series 3 DVD box set.
 * It is one of seven stories that are included in the Time Lord Victorious: Road to the Dark Times blu-ray.