The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)

178 – "The Runaway Bride"
Doctor Who episode
The Doctor tries to persuade Donna to jump into the TARDIS.
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companion Catherine Tate (Donna Noble)
Others Sarah Parish – Empress Don Gilet – Lance Bennett Howard Attfield – Geoff Noble Jacqueline King – Sylvia Noble Trevor Georges – Vicar Rhodri Meilir – Rhodri Krystal Archer – Nerys Zafirah Boateng – Little Girl Paul Kasey – Robot Santa
Production
Directed by	Euros Lyn
Written by	Russell T Davies
Script editor	Simon Winstone
Produced by	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Incidental music composer	Murray Gold
Production code	3.X
Length	60 minutes
Originally broadcast	25 December 2006
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "Doomsday" "Smith and Jones"

"The Runaway Bride" is a special episode of the long-running British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. It was produced the Doctor Who Christmas special for 2006, broadcast on 25 December, the second Christmas special after the previous "The Christmas Invasion" which introduced the third series while not actually being part of it. It features Catherine Tate as Donna, who appeared in the TARDIS at the end of the previous episode, "Doomsday".

The episode opens immediately following the events of "Doomsday". The Doctor, still upset at the loss of Rose Tyler, is shocked to find a woman in a wedding dress standing in the TARDIS console room. The woman angrily accuses him of abducting her from her wedding and demands to be returned. She angrily rips open the TARDIS doors, to see that she's actually in outer space. She tells the Doctor her name is Donna, and he does several tests to find out how she got into the TARDIS in-flight. The Doctor returns her to Earth, where she storms off to find a cab to return to her wedding. The Doctor is accosted by robotic Santas, and uses the TARDIS to fly alongside the taxi Donna is in to rescue her from the Santa that is driving it. The flight overloads the TARDIS, and the Doctor is forced to set it down on a nearby rooftop. The Doctor gives Donna a ring that will mask her from the Santas, and escorts her back to her wedding.

The Doctor meets Donna's groom, Lance Bennett, whom she had met and fallen in love with while working with him. He reviews the video footage of Donna's disappearance from the wedding and recognizes that she managed to absorb a great deal of huon particles, which would have drawn her to the huon particles contained in the TARDIS. The Doctor realises that the ring he gave Donna cannot mask the huon particle signature, and soon the reception hall is attacked by more Santas. The Doctor is able to use the music sound system to disrupt the attack and trace the control signal to a ship in orbit around Earth, but he quickly loses track of it.