The Runaway Bride struggles in its clearly audacious attempts to strike a strong balance between the multitudinous levels of world building featured within; continuing on from the sombre tone of "Doomsday", plotting the new trajectory for the Doctor's personal future now that his family's gone, additionally introducing us to a quirky future companion, setting foreshadowing in motion with "Saxon" in the S3 finale whilst also being a light hearted Christmas Special.
Hence, it's an episode which contains some genuinely brilliant smaller scale, quieter emotive character moments - but they somehow feel as though they don't quite fit together in a wholly satisfying way - lost in the melee of dramatic set pieces intertwined amongst impressive classic Who spectacle.
With the sheer amount of obstacles to jump, it's remarkable the narrative doesn't actually crumble under the weight of the pressure applied to the foundations of this installment - testament to Russell's sturdy writing - however, it does also undeniably leave the viewer wanting more, feeling as though we barely scratched the surface of the themes & arcs present throughout.
It's a good episode, undeniably - but it could've been so much more - had Davies been provided with the opportunity to flesh out the script with a blatantly necessary longer run time.
Hence, it's an episode which contains some genuinely brilliant smaller scale, quieter emotive character moments - but they somehow feel as though they don't quite fit together in a wholly satisfying way - lost in the melee of dramatic set pieces intertwined amongst impressive classic Who spectacle.
With the sheer amount of obstacles to jump, it's remarkable the narrative doesn't actually crumble under the weight of the pressure applied to the foundations of this installment - testament to Russell's sturdy writing - however, it does also undeniably leave the viewer wanting more, feeling as though we barely scratched the surface of the themes & arcs present throughout.
It's a good episode, undeniably - but it could've been so much more - had Davies been provided with the opportunity to flesh out the script with a blatantly necessary longer run time.