The David Tennant Era - Final Thoughts

Harry -

As eras go, this one was as grand as they come. An energetic Doctor, big blockbuster stories, and New Who at its pop culture peak.

Sarah -

Oh, those heady days of the RTD Era! The mere existence of Doctor Who was nothing short of a miracle. Everything was awesome just because it existed. Well, maybe not everything, but I was willing to let some (or maybe a lot of) stuff slide because it was Doctor Freaking Who on my television, which I never thought was going to happen again.

Revisiting the Tennant Era has been challenging. So many of the things I was able to brush off on first watch really got under my skin this time around.

Harry -

Totally agree. The giddiness of watching season after season of New Who was great when it first happened. Having completed a repeat view of this era, there was so much that got under my skin. The arrogance of the Doctor. The season-finale blockbusters that were so much noise without much story. RTD's maternal issues playing out every time we met a companion's mum. And complicated relationships taking over from simple friendships when it came to the Doctor's travelling companions.

Sarah -

Seriously, what is it with RTD and mothers? Writing every companion's mother as difficult is positively pathological!

Harry -

We encountered some brilliant new aliens, from the Sisters of Plenitude to the Weeping Angels to Vashta Nerada. Historically, we met Queen Victoria, William Shakespeare and Agatha Christie. I loved all of these encounters and they delivered on what we love and expect from Doctor Who.

Sarah -

And two fabulous new companions! Martha and Donna are both favorites of mine, despite how they're treated by the show. My favorite Martha moment is when she walks away from the TARDIS because she knows she deserves more. It feels a little obvious to have her end up with Mickey, another companion treated badly by the Doctor, but in my head cannon they're having a wonderful life together.

Harry -

Yes, it was nice to see a couple of characters who endured "complicated relationships" in the show find happiness with each other. While kicking Sontaran asses.

Sarah -

I was so angry when Donna was robbed of all her growth the first time around and was just as angry this time around. I hope Donna has a wonderful life with her husband -- and her lottery winnings.

Harry -

Donna ranks very high on my list of fave companions and I will not forgive RTD for the way he wrote her out of the Doctor's life. Once again, Big Finish saved the day by rolling out new audio adventures for them, and they've been great!

I have to go back to the blockbuster finales as what was most disappointing from this era. The stakes in these stories were so wildly massive and just unfathomable (from the fate of the Earth all the way up to the fate of existence itself) that they were hard to engage with.

Sarah -

Right? I like a good finale, but they got to be just too much.

Harry -

But there were some wonderful gems in this era. "School Reunion", "Human Nature/The Family of Blood", and :Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" will always be classics of this era for me.

Sarah -

Absolutely. Now that we've finished the era, I'll probably dip back to watch old favorites now and then, but there will be other stories I don't think I'll be rushing to see.

Harry -

Yeah, it was good to rewatch this era right around the 10-year anniversary of Tennant's departure. Given some distance and some contrast with subsequent eras, it settles nicely into the history of the show. At the time it was so loud and mega, seemingly the be all and end all of the revived series, but now I think of it as just one way to do Doctor Who. As with all previous eras, I'll check out certain episodes again, but there are some I'm glad we may never have to watch again.

Sarah - 

We started this project just after Matt Smith's first series ended and I decided at the beginning that I would avoid rewatching stories until we reached them in our marathon. This means I've been waiting to rewatch the Smith era for 10 years! I am so ready to move on. 

Harry - 

Same here!  Farewell Tennant and RTD, on to Smith and Moffat!

Sarah - 

Allons-y!

Our marathon resumes with Story #203: The Eleventh Hour...

Story #202 - The End of Time (2009-2010)

Harry -

We have finally reached The End of Time, and I'm feeling fine. Sarah let's break out the gin to toast the end of another era.

It's got to be over a decade since I watched this and the "victory lap" ending was as cringeworthy as remembered. However I was surprised to find the story leading up to it was better than I thought. Definitely better on a rewatch.

Sarah -

I was hoping to have the same reaction as you, but I think I liked it even less on this rewatch. At the very least, I know I won’t ever have to watch it again.

On the upside we have Wilf as the Doctor’s companion. Hooray! Unfortunately, it’s also Christmas time, so we know nothing good will happen. Cue the resurrection of the Master by some lame cultists devoted to him, which leads to the massacre of innocent people in a quarry. Remember how excited we were when John Simm was announced as the Master? How naive we were. I’d almost rather watch Eric Roberts’ performance. Almost.

Harry -

John Simm's Master was very jarring at first. Very hyper and over the top, a dark reflection of David Tennant's Doctor. As Doctor Who has rumbled on for over 50 years, each iteration of the Master has shed a layer of Roger Delgado's initial quiet coolness and become more bouncy-bouncy bonkers. We have watched this character grow increasingly insane over time. This Master continues the progression. I remember not liking him when this season first aired, but over time he's become a favourite, probably because of his performance in the Capaldi era which we will get to.

Sarah - 

I’m already counting the seasons to the return of the Master!

Harry - 

The resurrection scene was definitely bad. The cult, the massacre, the barely plausible Gallifreyan biology that makes Time Lords immortal, bleh. At least Lucy Saxon took a measure of revenge and threw a spanner into the works, screwing up the process and leaving the Master more a flickering flame than a fully-formed being again.

Speaking of comebacks, I wonder how tempted RTD was to write Donna back into one more story. If he really wanted, he could have found some way for the Doctor to restore and preserve her mind for at least one more adventure. New Who's showrunners seem to have carte blanche. However it's interesting that it didn't happen. Instead, we got Wilf as the companion and it was a smashing time. Wilf leading his own merrie branch of L.I.N.D.A., what a riot.

Sarah -

Donna’s return was one of my favorite parts of the story. I hope she’ll be very happy with her husband and that lottery money won’t hurt! Wilf’s band of Doctor-hunters were adorable, but I’m not sure about the lady who couldn’t keep her hands to herself. Still, he probably has it coming after the Queen Bess comment.

Harry -

And so the early part of the story bounces between three corners. The Master reborn and bonkers, the Doctor in pursuit, and Wilf & Co. in pursuit of the Doctor.

An air of mystery is added by a mysterious woman who delivers enigmatic messages to Wilf. Surprisingly, RTD let her remain an enigma.

After a couple of confrontations with the Doctor, the Master is kidnapped by some paramilitary thugs and the story kicks into another gear. The Master is briefly held captive by Joshua Naismith, a man of unlimited wealth and power. Briefly. Feigning that he will help Naismith harness a piece of alien technology that can supposedly make humans immortal, the Master rigs it up to instead transform all humans into Master-clones. A Master Race! Very clever. But like all of the Master's schemes in New Who, it's all high concept but filled with holes. We will see this pattern repeat itself: the Master/Missy creates a massive army, but fails to think through all the ramifications and the entire project collapses. As they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Sarah -

I feel exhausted just thinking about this nonsense. The Master is the, well, master of bonkers schemes, but this one takes the cake. Just what we need, a whole planet of the “Master” race. And when did he start being able to shoot electricity and fly? I can’t even tell you how much I loathe this plot line.

Harry -

It's totally in keeping with the modern era's Master in that his/her plots are nonsense, as if the point to the entire thing is to get a reaction from the Doctor. Get a room already!

Sarah -

The whole Obama/recession storyline is silly. And the mispronouncing of his name got under my skin. While I’m on a tear here, what the what with the creepy Naismith? The way he looks at his daughter may be the grossest thing in Doctor Who’s history.

Harry -

Eww eww Naismith. Please do not get a room!

Sarah -

And then we have the Time Lords, making their first return since Trial of a Time Lord in 1986. They’re as irritating as ever and I’m more than ready for Gallifrey to be destroyed.

Harry -

I don't recall if the return of Rassilon was known before this story aired. 

Sarah - 

I definitely remember being surprised the first time around, so I’m guessing not. 

Harry - 

Timothy Dalton's performance was scene-chewingly amusing, but I'm not sure what we were meant to think at the end. Was Rassilon not all that great after all, his scheme broken up by the lightning-flinging Master? Or had the Master evolved into some entirely new kind of being, able to fling lightning at the mighty Rassilon? Best not to expend too many brain cells on it. After all, Wilf is knocking.

And so the Tenth Doctor meets his demise. Not by the Daleks or Cybermen, not by some stupendous new monster, but by poor old Wilfrid Mott trapping himself in a chamber that's about to go nuclear. Ever since "The Caves of Androzani", I've wanted to see another story where the Doctor sacrifices a life in order to save just one person, not in some grand space opera setting but in a quiet corner of the universe. We got that here and it should have been great but for RTD blowing the regeneration up into the most self-indulgent, eye-rolling ordeal of all time.

Sarah - 

Right? It would have been perfect if the Doctor just regenerated and moved on. To be fair, if there’s one person worth dying to save it’s Wilfrid Mott. 

Harry - 

There's no need to go over the victory lap. It sucks and I'm not a fan, but it was RTD's farewell and he deserved to have his way after resurrecting the greatest TV show of all time. I really can't say anything else nice, so let's wrap it up.

Sarah - 

The victory lap may be the most egregious thing ever in Doctor Who, let’s leave it be. 

Harry - 

Best Line:

Wilf enters the TARDIS for the first time: "I thought it would be cleaner."

Favourite Moment:

Tough to pick one. I liked some of John Simm's manic moments. Gross but riveting.

Lasting Image:

Wilf's final goodbye to the Doctor.

5/10

Sarah - 

Best Line: 

Doctor: "I'd be proud."

Wilf: "Of what?"

Doctor: "If you were my dad."

Favorite Moment:

The return of Donna Noble!

Lasting Image: 

Wilf hugging the Doctor

3/10

Story #201 - The Waters of Mars (2009)

Sarah -
I've been looking forward to this story, which I haven't watched since the first airing. I remembered it being the best of the Specials year and I was not disappointed.


Harry -
Everyone acted the hell out of this one, especially Lindsay Duncan as Captain Adelaide Brooke. Wow!


Sarah -
Duncan is definitely one of my favorite guest actors of the Tennant era. She’s spectacular as Adelaide.


Harry -
The only memories I had of this story were the "Gadget gadget" droid, and the dripping monsters. But I forgot how much of a horror story this one was. More haunted house than base under siege. What happened to the infected crew members was horrific.


Sarah -
"The Waters of Mars" is a proper horror story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The junior member of the Smith household, let’s call her Ace, commented that the story reminded her of Alien. Alien is my favorite horror film, so I’m down with that.


Harry -
Wicked!


Sarah -
I love that the chaos starts with a simple carrot.


Harry -
A simple carrot, bitten by the first unfortunate member of the crew, bringing something very ancient back to life and setting off a chain reaction for Adelaide and her crew.

I can't recall if there was an expectation that a story set on Mars would include the Ice Warriors. They did get a shout out by the Doctor quite late, but the menace he encountered here was something else entirely. An ancient race or intelligence (that understood a Northern Martian dialect, apparently), that craved or depended so much on water that it was ready to travel to Earth and soak up its seas. It was up to the Doctor to stop this invasion before it even got off the planet. Only, once he realized where he'd stumbled into, and who he was among, and what day it was, he suddenly wanted to leave the Mars base as soon as possible.


Sarah -
It’s so rare to see the Doctor react this way, which just amps up the tension even more. He knows how this is going to end and watching it happen is unnerving. He keeps trying to get out of there, but can’t manage to do so.


Harry -
Half the time he was was standing in a doorway in his orange spacesuit, knowing he should leave but desperate to stay. He hung around, then got completely carried away at the end when he should have just left.


Sarah -
We’ve already called out Lindsay Duncan’s performance, but the entire cast is fabulous. Watching them be infected one by one is terrifying. Maggie’s transformation while talking to Yuri is especially effective. Sharon Duncan-Brewster’s performance well and truly scared me. The moment that broke my heart was Steffi starting the video of her children when she realizes she’s about to transform. That was crushing.


Harry -
The props and costume crews outdid themselves here. The monsters were very unique and very horrifying.

Each time a crew member fell victim to the infection was traumatic. I forgot how powerful this story was. 

It all leads up to a series of confrontations between the Doctor and Adelaide. First, when she cottons on to the fact that he knows more than he's admitting. Then, when she refuses to let him leave until he lets her know what he knows. Their final face-to-face was the most explosive of all. Having gone completely apeshit movie hero, the Doctor rescued Adelaide and two remaining crew members before the Mars base was completely destroyed. Knowing her future history, and realizing that it has been altered with potentially massive consequences, Adelaide rounds on the Doctor with fury. How dare he play god and tamper with human history, and then act all full of himself for having saved a few lives, when he might have prevented the disaster from the very beginning. I love how she completely tells him off.


Sarah -
YES! The Doctor has had that coming for a while. What happened to, "you can't rewrite history! Not one line!"


Harry -
It was something he badly needed to hear. Left alone again, he finally admitted to himself, "I've gone too far" with his Time Lord victorious shtick.

He seems to hallucinate the appearance of an Ood on a London street, before retreating to the TARDIS with destiny about to crash down upon him. What a wild story.

Shall we see how the Doctor's song ends?


Sarah -
Let’s go!


Harry -
Best line: "I hate funny robots."

Favourite moment: Adelaide rips the Doctor to shreds.

Lasting image: Andy, the first victim, transformed by the waters of Mars.

7/10


Sarah -
Best Line: 
Adelaide: State your name, rank, and intention.
Doctor: The Doctor. Doctor. Fun.

Favorite Moment: Adelaide telling the Doctor off for rewriting history.

Lasting Image: Maggie after her transformation.

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #202: The End of Time...

Story #200 - Planet of the Dead (2009)

Harry -
Here's a story I probably haven't watched since around the time it was first broadcast. I didn't remember much about it aside from the setting of a London bus crashed on a desert planet, and the one-off character of Lady Christina de Souza.


Sarah -
It's definitely the first time I've watched it since 2009. I wasn't looking forward to watching it, remembering that I wasn't a fan of it the first time out. With expectations so low, I found myself not as annoyed by it as I expected, but not particularly engaged by it either.


Harry -
Watching it again the other day, the opening scene where Christina plunders a golden chalice from a museum brought to mind of all things the Cartmel Masterplan. If I'm remembering it right, Cartmel had planned to write Ace out of the show in 1990 and replace her with a cat burglar. History did not pan out that way, but Cartmel might have been amused to see the Doctor teaming up with a cat burglar years later.

Sarah -
I'm sure Cartmel would have had something to say about that. No one loves discussing his work more than he does.

I didn't remember much about the story besides Lady Christina and the bus, so it was a surprise to see Daniel Kaluuya as Barclay, long before his international stardom.

Harry -
That was definitely a "whoa!" moment.

There weren't many others here. After the museum alarm triggered a pursuit and bus chase, Lady Christina and the Doctor end up on the other side of the universe with a collection of baffled passengers. Back on Earth, the police call in UNIT, and the typical UNIT activities unfold. Roll in with heavy artillery, take total control and seal off the area until something Doctory happens.

Sarah - 
It was all a bit predictable, wasn’t it?

Harry - 
Things were a bit more interesting on the desert planet. The Doctor and Lady Christina strike up a friendship and go exploring. They discover another wreck, that of a spaceship piloted by anthropomorphic flies. The aliens were vastly superior in design to the buggy aliens from "The Web Planet", but they weren't given much to do. As characters go, they seemed to be as baffled as the folks back on the bus.

Sarah - 
Bafflement all around. It was sad when the aliens were killed while the Doctor was trying to get everyone back to the bus. 

Harry - 
To add some pressure to the situation of the broken down bus, the threat of a coming storm arises. The "storm" is in fact a swarm of metal-shelled, omnivorous flying beasties and it's feeding time.

So, the Doctor and Lady Christina utilize their skills and cleverness to figure out how to repair the bus, and the Doctor connects with UNIT to get their help in sorting out the mysterious portal through space.

Enter Dr. Malcolm Taylor. A force of nature all his own. I forgot that he was in this story as UNIT's brilliant and excitable scientific advisor. His scenes added some levity to the story, with a Quatermass gag thrown in.

Sarah - 
Malcolm is my favorite part of the entire story and I’m always down for a Quatermass reference.  It made me remember when we planned to watch one episode of The Quatermass Experiment at Chicago TARDIS and ended up staying up much too late to watch the whole story.  That was so good!

Harry - 
It was a great series.  The Holstian theme music still resonates.

And cue the race to the finish! The Doctor and Christina hoof it back with some fancy alien technology to power the bus. Malcolm rigs up the time portal, and UNIT stands by with guns ready. They went hog wild once the bus was back through with a few stray alien beasties, blasting them out of the sky and damn the consequences.

Earth saved, hurrah, etc.

Once the aliens are done away with, the Doctor helps Lady Christina slip away and escape on the alien-powered flying bus... which gave me a thought.

With a few tweaks, this could have been an Iris Wildthyme story. Swap her in for Lady Christina, give the story a more gin-soaked flavour, and find a way to introduce Panda. Maybe the crew of the second wrecked ship could have been tiny anthropomorphic pandas instead of insects. Iris rescues one and they become inseparable. Wahey!! The imagination runs riot thinking about this.

Sarah - 
Get Paul Magrs on the phone -- it’s time for a rewrite!

Harry -
Proof that it would not be too difficult to weave Iris into the show.  She would have made this one of the best stories ever.  I want this now!

Sarah -
The story is passable, I guess, but there’s little to inspire. 

Harry -
Well sure now that I've been whipped into a Wildthyme frenzy.

Sarah -
When Big Finish announced their Lady Christina series, I just shrugged. 

Harry -
I'll take Katy Manning any day.

Sarah -
I have no need to rewatch this episode anytime soon. 

Harry -
Are we still talking about this episode?

Sarah -
Ready for a trip to Mars? 

Harry -
Wahey!

Sarah - 
Best Line: 

Malcolm: Fifteen Malcolms. It's my own little term. A wavelength parcel of ten kilohertz operating in four dimensions equals one Malcolm.
Doctor: You named a unit of measurement after yourself?
Malcolm: Well, it didn't do Mister Watt any harm. Furthermore, one hundred Malcolms equals a Bernard.
Doctor: And who's that? Your dad?
Malcolm: Don't be ridiculous. That's Quatermass.

Favorite Moment: Malcolm meeting the Doctor.

Lasting Image: The bus is the most iconic thing about this story. 

4/10

Harry -
Best Line:

Captain Magambo: "I don't believe it. Guns that work."

Favourite Moment: Definitely Malcolm. "I LOVE YOU!!"

Lasting Image: the publicity shot of the Doctor and Lady Christina always comes to mind first.

5/10

Our marathon continues with Story #201: The Waters of Mars...

Story #199 - The Next Doctor (2008)

Harry -
The mind plays tricks, as Jackson Lake would attest.

It was surprising that we are got to this story so late in the Tennant era. It feels like it came much sooner, perhaps before we'd even met Donna Noble. But here it is, part of that handful of specials that mark the extra "half-season" that Tennant hung around for. Interested in other projects, but not quite ready to relinquish his hold on the sonic screwdriver, Tennant worked out a reduced load of stories with RTD so that they could enjoy one more year as Doctor Who's star and showrunner.

What I remember most about "The Next Doctor" is that from the moment this special's title was announced, speculation was rife that we'd catch a glimpse of Tennant's successor, and maybe even see a regeneration take place. After all, it had been one whole episode since the last time we'd been teased with a regeneration. Snark aside, there's not much else that stands out for me in rewatching this story. What were your memories going in, Sarah?


Sarah -
I definitely remember the chaos unleashed when David Morrissey turned up in the trailer for "The Next Doctor". The title was a clever ploy on RTD’s part. I imagine ratings for the Christmas special would have been higher than usual that year. 

I think the concept of having the Doctor’s memories imprinted on Jackson Lake’s brain is brilliant. It’s clever to have the Doctor think he’s meeting his successor when he’s not.


Harry -
As mindbenders go, it was positively Moffatesque.


Sarah -
In retrospect, I think it would have been a more interesting episode if the truth about Jackson Lake had been revealed later. The Cyberking nonsense is nowhere as compelling as the mystery of the Next Doctor.


Harry -
Oof!  The Cyberking.  I guess it was meant to shakeup a bog standard Cybermen-invade-Earth story.  In this case, the reveal came way too late.  Mercy Hartigan was totally forgettable as the villain-slash-human stooge.  Neither her backstory nor her motivation to conspire with the Cybermen was given much thought, making her one of the worst adversaries in the Tennant era.  Naturally, she got her just desserts in the end and the Cyberking got zapped out of existence.  I really would have liked to see the Cyberking in a different setting, maybe somewhere rural where you could really play up the wicker man folk horror aspects.  Cybermen feeding terrified peasants straight into the belly of the monster.  That sort of thing.  Hopefully somewhere out there is a fan fiction along those lines.

Anyway, it's all over, hurrah and happy Christmas.


Sarah -
I usually cut Christmas stories a lot of slack and try to just enjoy the episode, but this is the beginning of the Tennant lap of honour year so it’s bound to be more than a little annoying. I don’t really have much else to say.


Harry -
Same here.  Not much note taking took place during this rewatch.  Happy to move on.


Sarah -
Best Line:  If you could stand back, sir. This is a job for a Time Lord.

Favorite Moment: The Doctor’s confusion when he meets Jackson

Lasting Image: For better or worse, the massive Cyberman stomping around London 

4/10


Harry -
Best Line: I'm the Doctor. Simply, the Doctor. The one, the only and the best.  [loved the delivery, such oomph!]

Favourite Moment: Jackson unveiling his TARDIS.

Lasting Image: Terrified peasants being fed to my alternate-universe rural Cyberking.

5/10

Our marathon continues with Story #200: Planet of the Dead...

Story #198 - The Stolen Earth / Journey's End (2008)

Sarah -
There's a reason I haven't watched this two-parter since first broadcast. There are some nice moments with the TARDIS Superfriends, but mostly I find it extremely annoying. I doubt I'll be going back to watch this anytime soon.


Harry -
There is no doubt that when RTD puts on a blockbuster, it's one hell of a blockbuster. A Doctor and a half, multiple companions from different eras, Torchwood, UNIT, K-9... it's a surprise they couldn't find a way to send someone on a ride in Bessie. Whew!

It takes so long to give everyone adequate screen time that part one is almost half over before the Superfriends can rally to face the invasion of the new Dalek empire.


Sarah -
It’s great getting the old gang together and "The Stolen Earth" is watchable. I’m not going to complain when Martha, Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Sarah Jane, Mickey, Jackie, and Harriet Jones turn up, but it all ends up feeling like “A Very Special Episode of Doctor Who.” So much of the dialogue is so, so very cheesy.

Things get worse in "Journey’s End". I can’t even with so much of this story. There are few things I truly loathe in Doctor Who and the Handy Doctor tops the list. WTF, RTD? Rose getting her little Doctor clone boyfriend makes me want to yell at the screen.


Harry -
The other inescapable hallmark of the RTD era is that the Doctor has to have a girlfriend, or a wannabe girlfriend, and when the girlfriends can't have the Doctor, then they get other boyfriends instead. RTD just loves to play matchmaker. I think it's all shit, but it is what it is. Let's move on.

Look at us! It's possible for people to not like some aspects of Doctor Who without moaning and trolling and avowing to hate the show forever because it's been ruined for us. Some people need to have a word with themselves.


Sarah -
As soon as we’ve finished discussing this story, I will revert to believing none of it never happened.


Harry -
Let's go back to the Dalek invasion. Now this one was believable -- as the believability of these things go. We won't see scores of Dalek ships and legions of attacking Daleks on this scale for a while. Entire planets have been shifted to one place and their combined gravitational pull has enough energy to power the reality bomb, the most destructive weapon ever created. A scheme on this level requires the strategic tactics of the Supreme Dalek, the scientific brilliance of Davros, and the jibbering madness of Dalek Caan. It's the ultimate troika of doom.

While the Superfriends gather and rally together, the Dalek leaders are dismissive of one another, each wanting to be the ultimate leader. Except for Dalek Caan who sits there flailing and giggling and prophesying disaster and death.


Sarah -
Dalek Caan is all kinds of wackadoodle. The whole idea is completely batty.


Harry -
I always liked how the Supreme Dalek wanted nothing to do with Dalek Caan: "The abomination is insane!"

Julian Bleach plays an excellent Davros, frighteningly cold and contained when he comes face to face with the Doctor. It's only when he starts going on about the reality bomb that his megalomania kicks in and he delivers a classic Davros rant. The essence of Davros is so terrifying: he wants the absolute power to destroy everything in the universe and is ready to unleash that power. He would be totally satisfied to live in an empty universe, completely lifeless but for himself and his creations. It's completely mad.


Sarah -
I have nothing but good things to say about Bleach’s performance. This is about as positive as I’m going to get. Now it’s time to get back to ranting. 

On to the faux regeneration: “Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to. Why would I? Look at me.” I yelled not very kind words at the Doctor at this point. Hint: they rhyme with “duck who.” Seriously, get over yourself, already.


Harry -
The Tenth Doctor is at his worst when he lets everyone know how delighted he is with himself.  It's a bad look.


Sarah -
And then the greatest insult. Donna’s memory wiped. Honestly, I don’t even want to talk about this anymore. It all just makes me too angry. RTD should have ended it here.


Harry -
The wildly inconsistent application of mind-wiping in Doctor Who causes no end of dismay.  Surely, having just demonstrated that he could reverse a regeneration and prevent his own death in a very show-offy manner, the Doctor should have been able to reverse the effect it had on Donna.  Forcing her character to forget everything was one of RTD's worst crimes.

The blockbuster begins with a bang but ends on a very sour note.  I really liked the first part, but massive points got deducted over the creation of a "Doctor boyfriend" for Rose, and the inexcusable ruination of Donna.

For an era that is very well remembered, the Tenth Doctor's final stories are tinged with a lot of disappointments and bad memories as a viewer.  Yes, Sarah, let us move on!


Sarah -
Best Line: 
Donna: "Oi, watch it, spaceman."
Handy Doctor: "Oi, watch it, Earth girl."
At least it made me laugh

Favorite Moment: The end.

Lasting Image: Harriet’s prescient Zoom meeting. 

3/10


Harry -
Best Line: the Daleks playing along with the "Yes, we know who you are" gag.

Favourite Moment: Tennant and Tate impersonating each other as the DoctorDonna and clone Doctor.

Lasting Image: the Superfriends all around the TARDIS console.

4/10

Our marathon continues with Story #199: The Next Doctor...

Story #197 - Turn Left (2008)

Harry -
That was some heavy stuff. Kind of timely, but deeply grim. I've not been looking forward to watching "Turn Left" again, and it was just as bleak as I remembered.


Sarah -
We watched "Turn Left" over a month ago, shortly before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.


Harry -
Yeah, things have gotten in the way of our marathon of late.  But we are still here!


Sarah -
I’m still not sure I’m ready to discuss it, but we’ve got to get through it.

On the positive side, it’s a well-crafted episode, from RTD’s script to Graeme Harper’s direction. The cast is amazing, especially Catherine Tate. Everything else is heartbreaking.

On an alien planet, Donna meets a fortune teller who launches her into an alternate timeline where she has never met the Doctor. Every day that was saved by the Doctor is undone - the Racnoss Webstar attacks London, Sixty million Americans are killed when they turn into Adipose babies, ATMOS covers the planet in a toxic fog and the Torchwood team dies trying to stop the Sontarans, and Sarah Jane Smith’s death is reported. NOT SARAH JANE!


Harry -
During the Judoon action on a hospital in London, medical student Martha Jones is also killed. Not Martha! Incredibly bleak, and it keeps getting worse for planet Earth.


Sarah -
So much sadness. What else could possibly go wrong? I guess Donna could have a massive beetle on her back, which is creepy as heck and a fanwank Sarah Jane spider callback at the same time.

In the midst of the chaos, Rose returns, looking for the Doctor, who is apparently dead, and reminding Donna about the raffle ticket she bought at work. Surprise, she wins the raffle prize of a Christmas break at a spa in the countryside -- when the Titanic crashes into Buckingham Palace and a mushroom cloud rises over London. The Doctor wasn’t there to stop it.


Harry -
Following the story through Donna's eyes, the continuous appearances by the mysterious blonde woman were very unsettling.


Sarah -
Right? Who the heck is she and why does she keep turning up? With Chiswick destroyed, Donna, Sylvia, and Wilf become refugees and resettled in Leeds, sharing a house with two other families. Soon, the lovely Italian family they live with is shipped off to a “labour camp.” Can things possibly get more bleak?


Harry -
The point to the story was to show just how many times the Doctor and his friends had saved the Earth, and without him there would be global catastrophes in short order. The story could have been titled "What If?" I don't know if an entire episode of the season needed to be dedicated to this. The story could have been told in future-flash-forwards or something. By the time Rose reveals all and Donna accepts her role in correcting the course of history, I really wanted it to be over, especially when the stars in the sky all started going on. That added an element of cosmic horror to the whole thing.


Sarah -
It’s such an emotionally draining episode. I was absolutely ready for it to be over asap.


Harry -
And then, enter UNIT! Or rather, Rose and Donna enter a secret UNIT location. There, a recovered TARDIS has been wired up for a longshot attempt to send Donna back in time, to the fateful moment where her timeline changed course and set all of these catastrophic events in motion. It makes one's head spin to think of how many insignificant decisions may have altered one's life entirely. For Donna, it was a matter of changing directions at an intersection.

But she's not even sent off with a cheer and a surge of inspiration. Right before the switch is thrown, Donna learns that what Rose and UNIT have put together is essentially a roll of the dice with no certainty to succeed. And by the way, Donna will die so that her parallel self can live.

I don't know at what point in the writing process RTD completely abandoned the notion that Doctor Who is a children's show, but good grief!


Sarah -
It’s horrifying and I don’t think I ever want to watch this episode again. Donna is the hero, but we have to watch her die. And this isn’t even the worst thing that’s going to happen to her this season.


Harry -
Anyway, the roll of the dice leads Donna to put herself in the path of a truck, causing a fatal collision and sending her other self back on the "correct" life path. By the end I felt nothing but grim, hollow feelings for this story. In a parallel universe, maybe the alien fortune teller could have delivered all of this context to Donna through a spell or trance, and let her and the Doctor get on with a merry adventure.


Sarah -
Anyway, it’s over and that’s enough for me.


Harry -
So things aboard the TARDIS are back to normal, but for the two mysterious words that the blonde woman asked Donna to relay to the Doctor: "Bad Wolf." Judging by his reaction, the trouble has only just begun.


Sarah -
It’s careening our way. Ready to wrap up this season?


Harry -
Best Line: the one that stuck with me was Rose's quiet, devastated reaction to learning that the Doctor was dead. "I came so far."

Favourite Moment: This one was an ordeal from start to finish.

Lasting Image: Donna and Rose.

4/10


Sarah -
Best Line:
Donna: "Well, what do you keep telling me for? What am I supposed to do? I'm nothing special. I mean, I'm, I'm not. I'm nothing special. I'm a temp. I'm not even that. I'm nothing."
Rose: "Donna Noble, you're the most important woman in the whole of creation."

Favorite moment: Everyone singing Bohemian Rhapsody

Lasting Image: Donna with the beetle on her back. 

5/10

Our marathon continues with Story #198: The Stolen Earth / Journey's End...

Story #196 - Midnight (2008)

Harry -
Here's a dark little story that feels overlooked as this season builds up to its blockbuster finale.

The end-of-season and regeneration blockbusters have become a staple in New Who. I always thought an interesting regeneration story would be similar to this one. The Doctor is trapped in a contained space with a group of people whose lives he saves but at the cost of his own. This is why "The Caves of Androzani" is one of my favourites. The Doctor dies in order to save a single life.


Sarah -
I LOVE this story. It may be my favorite of series 4. There’s little I love more than a successful bottle episode -- base under siege in a very small space!

"Midnight" was written in a weekend by RTD when the original script was deemed too similar to "The Unicorn and the Wasp". I can’t resist making a comparison to "Horror of Fang Rock", my favorite Doctor Who story, when Terrence Dicks was called in on short notice and created one of his greatest stories.


Harry -
Winging it is an established highlight of each era of Doctor Who.


Sarah -
The Doctor and Donna are taking a break on the leisure planet Midnight. The Doctor has signed up for an excursion to see the Sapphire Waterfall, while Donna’s plan is to relax at the spa. (Having recently watched "Orphan 55", I couldn’t help but think of Graham, “I am going to sit over there for three hours, then I'm going to get up and sit somewhere else, and then cocktails.” That’s my kind of holiday.) We’re off on our companion-light adventure, with the Doctor, six other passengers, and three crew members on the shuttle bus to the waterfall.


Harry -
He could not persuade Donna to come along, but the Doctor's enthusiasm is still infectious. He's practically bouncing in his seat like a youngster embarking on a school trip. He's very cute here.


Sarah -
The trip begins with an announcement by the Hostess, who is never named, that they will be taking a different route due to a diamond fall on the usual route, but no worries, the in-trip entertainment will keep them occupied. No one is very pleased with what’s on offer, so the Doctor sabotages the system, forcing everyone to talk to each other. The Doctor swaps stories with Val and Biff, provoking eyerolls from their surly son Jethro; discusses travel and breakups with Sky; and chats with Dee Dee about the Poosh and how her paper on it led to her role as Professor Hobbes. The good times continue as Hobbes presents a slide show on his research on Midnight, which seems to be the worst place to create a holiday destination. No one has set foot on Midnight due to Xtonic radiation that would vaporize any known form of life in seconds. Typical humans and their stupids ideas. This story really does have a lot in common with "Orphan 55".


Harry -
Completely unrecognizable from his previous roles in Classic Who, Hobbes is played by David Troughton aka King Peladon. Hobbes is just getting to the meat of his slide show when the excursion craft abruptly stops. What was to this point a cheery trip pivots to horror. The passengers and crew are about to encounter an unknown monster, while the Doctor is about to face another: the worst impulses of frightened humans. Loud, irrational and not to be reasoned with. The Doctor has his work cut out for him here.

Having checked in on Driver Joe and Mechanic Claude, who haven't the faintest idea why the shuttle has stopped, the Doctor returns to the cabin and tries to reassure the others. That lasts all of a few seconds when something starts banging on the vehicle. Everyone panics as the banging escalates. No matter how much Hobbes declares that nothing could possibly survive outside, the panic escalates with the banging until the ship is rocked violently. The forward section is torn open and Driver and Mechanic are vaporized in the radiation.

Everyone freaks but the Doctor tries to calm them down. Someone notices that one of the other passengers might be injured. At the front of the cabin, Sky Silvestry crouches with her head down, possibly hurt, possibly in shock.


Sarah -
Things are happening fast and the Doctor tries to take control of the situation, but nothing goes the way he expects. He so often walks into a situation taking charge with the help of a companion, but this time he just comes off as an arrogant ass and no one trusts him.


Harry -
It was fascinating to see the Doctor find himself in a situation where he couldn't charm his way past the skepticism of others.


Sarah -
Sky seems to be possessed by another being and when the Doctor starts talking she begins to say everything as he speaks. Then the Doctor starts repeating everything Sky says.


Harry -
This is a fantastic performance by Tennant and Lesley Sharp. I imagine it would have been just as grueling to rehearse this series of lines in synch as it would be a dance number or fight scene. This moment is one of the highlights of the season for me.


Sarah -
They are really amazing. I can’t imagine how long they had to rehearse to get that down.

The two women of color, Dee Dee and the “Hostess,” whom I must point out again is never given a name, are the only ones who don’t believe the Doctor is possessed. The mob mentality is so out of control that they are ready to throw the Doctor off the shuttle, goaded by Sky.


Harry -
Stupid humans!


Sarah -
In the end, the Hostess saves everyone, sacrificing herself by dragging Sky off the shuttle.


Harry -Un-fucking-believeable that the nameless Hostess sacrificed herself for the tourists. I'm this close to launching into my first-ever Marxist interpretation tirade.


Sarah -
The passengers who were ready to kill the Doctor are now filled with remorse, saved by a woman whose name they never bothered to learn.


Harry -
Did you catch that look the Doctor gave to Val Cane? Minutes earlier, she had been yelling to throw the Doctor out of the shuttle. Now she meekly tried to save face by blaming Sky. Ohh, if looks could kill. Absolute disgust!


Sarah -
That look could definitely kill! In the end, we also never find out what it was that threatened them on the shuttle.


Harry -
The best horror is unseen, right?


Sarah -
Always.

The Doctor returns to the spa, reunited with Donna and still shaken by his experience. We don’t know what happens to everyone else, but I hope Dee Dee gets a new job with someone who appreciates and respects her.


Harry -
Hobbes was probably still in denial at the end.  

What a great story. I have such bad memories of the way everyone behaved under stress that I've never been eager for a re-watch, but the opportunity to see it again as part of our marathon was very satisfying.


Sarah -
There’s so much going on, you can almost miss the Rose cameo on the shuttle’s monitor, shouting, “Doctor!” We move closer to the series climax!


Harry -
Something's building up!


Sarah -
Best Line: Donna keeping things in line, “That’s a date. Well not a date. Oh you know what I mean. Oh get off.”

Favorite Moment: Everyone being chummy on the shuttle before things fall apart.

Lasting Image: The passengers on the shuttle set.

8/10


Harry -
Best Line: The thing inside Sky suddenly takes control: "Oh look at that, I'm ahead of you." Creepyyy!

Favourite Moment: the Doctor bouncing with excitement during boarding.

Lasting Image: the Doctor and Sky face to face.

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #197: Turn Left...