The Runaway Bride ( TV story ) The Runaway Bride was the second Christmas special of the BBC Wales era of " Doctor Who " . 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 Noble 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 is also the first of the " Mr . Saxon " Arc . 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 ) The episode makes a lot of references to Rose , as the story takes place straight after her departure in " Doomsday " . The Doctor would continue to be hung up on losing her , until their reunion in " The Stolen Earth " . 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 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 he gets increasingly confused as to how somehow got inside in flight , Donna becomes equally angry and confused as to what ' s going on . Donna is irate at being stolen from her wedding and blames 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 , going into shock again and 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 , 2008 ; 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 and a drag queen in that order . She goes to a payphone , which the Doctor zaps with the sonic screwdriver to work . Donna calls her mother , telling her frantically where she is ; the Doctor goes to get her money for a cab . However , he 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 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 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 particle s , 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 takes 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 , realising they aren ' t scavengers anymore ; someone has taken command of the roboforms . The Doctor traces the signal outside , finding that the signal is coming from space . Inside a star - shaped spaceship , an alien calls him clever 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 dissolution 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 ; this entire situation is ridiculous - they ' re going to chase after aliens on segways ? At the end of the corridor , they discover a lab filled with tubes of water . The Doctor explains that Huon particales were being created from water and 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 particales . The TARDIS is the only other place in the universe where Huon particles exist ; when the ones in Donna activated ( due 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 pen and cup 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 teleport s 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 . As the Doctor talks to the Empress , wondering if they ' re 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 ax . However , right as Lance raises the ax 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 somberly asks Donna how she met Lance again ; she says over coffee , before coming 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 about ridiculous pop culture things . But now , he can finally be free of her and resume his life . The Doctor notes that Lance ' s involvement was in his job title " human resources " . 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 find a Racnoss spaceship arrive 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 plane 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 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 inside for being rude . With the web severed , Lance falls , screaming into the light before . 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 . She 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 . " Thank a lot . " Donna sneers . He 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 them 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 them into the air and uses the remote to control the ornaments 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 tunnel 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 ( no - one is in charge of H . C . Clements now , so the business will be shut down ) . 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 .