BBC’s revival of Doctor Who in the mid 00’s started pretty well with Christopher Eccleston starring as The Doctor. But if one thing could truly be held against it, it’s that The Doctor didn’t get a huge amount of character development. The show was very much focused on Rose (Billie Piper) and her journey from a retail worker living in a council estate in East London to being a time travelling hero alongside The Doctor, and usually far more compassionate than he when faced with impossible scenarios.
So, with the show being a hit with critics and viewers alike, where could showrunner Russell T. Davies and the BBC take the show next? The answer seems quite obvious really, make The Doctor more relatable!
Following the destruction of the Dalek armada at Satellite Five, The Doctor (Eccleston) used his remaining life force to save Rose. In typical Time Lord fashion, he regenerated to give himself new life energy, but at the cost of his appearance and personality. Enter David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor!
Series Two of the show primarily focuses on one of The Doctor’s other major foes from the original show, the Cybermen, as well as sowing the seeds for two spin-off shows, ‘Torchwood’ and ‘The Sarah-Jane Adventures’. Rose remains as The Doctors companion for this series as the universe is expanded upon even more, with worlds and races that will crop up in the subsequent series. Series Two ends with a climactic battle between the Daleks, the Cybermen, and The Doctor as he saves Earth from their simultaneous invasions. In doing so Rose is transported to a parallel Earth and is unable to return.
So, with the show being a hit with critics and viewers alike, where could showrunner Russell T. Davies and the BBC take the show next? The answer seems quite obvious really, make The Doctor more relatable!
Following the destruction of the Dalek armada at Satellite Five, The Doctor (Eccleston) used his remaining life force to save Rose. In typical Time Lord fashion, he regenerated to give himself new life energy, but at the cost of his appearance and personality. Enter David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor!
Series Two of the show primarily focuses on one of The Doctor’s other major foes from the original show, the Cybermen, as well as sowing the seeds for two spin-off shows, ‘Torchwood’ and ‘The Sarah-Jane Adventures’. Rose remains as The Doctors companion for this series as the universe is expanded upon even more, with worlds and races that will crop up in the subsequent series. Series Two ends with a climactic battle between the Daleks, the Cybermen, and The Doctor as he saves Earth from their simultaneous invasions. In doing so Rose is transported to a parallel Earth and is unable to return.
Series Two is perhaps the strongest series of the Tennant Era on an episode-by-episode basis as it allows the natural progression of Rose’s storyline from the Eccleston Era. The two characters already have chemistry and everything we’re shown is new. Even when some villains return such as Cassandra and the Daleks, nothing feels like a repeat of what happened in Series One. Piper is still fantastic as Rose and continues to develop alongside Tennant, and the two have fantastic chemistry that makes Rose’s departure from the show such an emotional gut punch. There are definitely some issues with filler content as there was in Series One, but because Tennant & Piper’s chemistry is so strong, as is the worldbuilding that is done to set up the spin-off shows and episodes in future series, that Series Two is overall extremely strong.
Series Three introduces audiences to Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), a medical student who joins The Doctor after she helps him save a hospital full of people. This series primarily deals with The Doctor trying to let go of Rose and move on as he struggles to come to terms with the damage he inadvertently does to normal people’s lives. It culminates in The Doctor discovering that another Time Lord has survived the Time War, angered by The Doctor not finding him he takes over Earth under the title ‘The Master’. The Doctor and The Master battle for Earth as Martha joins the Unified Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) and builds an army to rebel against The Master.
Series Four sees The Doctor travel with Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) whom he had met in the immediate aftermath of losing Rose. Together they travel the universe and explore why Donna is somehow linked to the TARDIS. The series ends with Donna becoming a Human/Time Lord hybrid and joins forces with Martha, UNIT, Torchwood, Sarah-Jane, and Rose to aid The Doctor in destroying the creator of the Daleks, Davros, and returning a stolen planet Earth back to its rightful place in the universe.
Series Three introduces audiences to Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), a medical student who joins The Doctor after she helps him save a hospital full of people. This series primarily deals with The Doctor trying to let go of Rose and move on as he struggles to come to terms with the damage he inadvertently does to normal people’s lives. It culminates in The Doctor discovering that another Time Lord has survived the Time War, angered by The Doctor not finding him he takes over Earth under the title ‘The Master’. The Doctor and The Master battle for Earth as Martha joins the Unified Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) and builds an army to rebel against The Master.
Series Four sees The Doctor travel with Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) whom he had met in the immediate aftermath of losing Rose. Together they travel the universe and explore why Donna is somehow linked to the TARDIS. The series ends with Donna becoming a Human/Time Lord hybrid and joins forces with Martha, UNIT, Torchwood, Sarah-Jane, and Rose to aid The Doctor in destroying the creator of the Daleks, Davros, and returning a stolen planet Earth back to its rightful place in the universe.
These two series often feel like they spend too much time regurgitating information we were told in Series One because each series has a new companion. Martha starts off by giving the vibe that she’s a discount Rose and the writers didn’t really know how to make her interesting, so all she spends her time doing is trying to get The Doctor to fall in love with her and forget about Rose. This rubs me the wrong way because Rose was such a great character, and the best way to piss people off about getting rid of her is to introduce a character who wants to act like she never existed. In fact, for a few of the early episodes Martha just seems to fall for any man who looks in her general direction and it can be very irritating. But thankfully Martha does develop into a great character late in the series, but considering she then only shows up sparingly following the Series 3 finale it feels like too little too late. She becomes this badass military woman who acts as a liaison between The Doctor and UNIT, and Agyeman really gets to sink her teeth into the character once this happens. So, it’s a shame to see so much of her time on the show wasted on being a ditsy love obsessed damsel in distress.
Donna on the other hand is a whole other kettle of fish. I don’t like Donna, at all, and I don’t know whether it primarily stems from the fact that she is this altruistically good person who will settle for nothing less than unrealistic ‘everybody is friends with each other’ peace, or whether it stems from the fact that I don’t really like Catherine Tate. I think it’s a bit of both. I find Tate painfully unfunny as her brand of comedy is repeating the same few words over and over whilst getting progressively louder and more hysterical; her sketch show in the 00’s was like it, and her character is like it, and it makes me want to tear my hair out. But add to this the fact that she regularly can’t seem to grasp the fact that sometimes you cannot save everyone, and that sometimes people die for a greater cause, is infuriating. The earliest example of this kind of behaviour is in the second episode of Series Four, The Fires of Pompeii, wherein she cannot accept that Pompeii will erupt and kill thousands, and that’s a historical fact that The Doctor cannot change without altering the course of history. It’s not something he likes doing, but even when he explains that if he could somehow convince these people to believe him and save them, that time would be irreparably broken. She sees him as a villain because he won’t tell thousands of people that they’re about to die in a natural disaster, and you know what I hate the most, is that it starts to wear off on him, and he then starts to believe that he can save everyone and screw the laws of time and space.
But I will give credit where it is due, Series Four has one hell of an impressive conclusion and is arguably the greatest two-parter episode of the entire revival run thusfar. Almost every major character from the last four series returns, as well as a good number of characters from the spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah-Jane Adventures. It’s fan service to the max and is a brilliant way to reward Whoverse fans for watching all three shows.
Donna on the other hand is a whole other kettle of fish. I don’t like Donna, at all, and I don’t know whether it primarily stems from the fact that she is this altruistically good person who will settle for nothing less than unrealistic ‘everybody is friends with each other’ peace, or whether it stems from the fact that I don’t really like Catherine Tate. I think it’s a bit of both. I find Tate painfully unfunny as her brand of comedy is repeating the same few words over and over whilst getting progressively louder and more hysterical; her sketch show in the 00’s was like it, and her character is like it, and it makes me want to tear my hair out. But add to this the fact that she regularly can’t seem to grasp the fact that sometimes you cannot save everyone, and that sometimes people die for a greater cause, is infuriating. The earliest example of this kind of behaviour is in the second episode of Series Four, The Fires of Pompeii, wherein she cannot accept that Pompeii will erupt and kill thousands, and that’s a historical fact that The Doctor cannot change without altering the course of history. It’s not something he likes doing, but even when he explains that if he could somehow convince these people to believe him and save them, that time would be irreparably broken. She sees him as a villain because he won’t tell thousands of people that they’re about to die in a natural disaster, and you know what I hate the most, is that it starts to wear off on him, and he then starts to believe that he can save everyone and screw the laws of time and space.
But I will give credit where it is due, Series Four has one hell of an impressive conclusion and is arguably the greatest two-parter episode of the entire revival run thusfar. Almost every major character from the last four series returns, as well as a good number of characters from the spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah-Jane Adventures. It’s fan service to the max and is a brilliant way to reward Whoverse fans for watching all three shows.
Then Tennant’s time as the Doctor draws to a close with five feature length ‘specials’ that deal with The Doctor’s impending death, his decision to ignore the rules the Time Lords had once placed on time travel, the return of The Master, and the Time Lord race trying to cheat death. The Doctor sacrifices himself to save Donna’s grandfather, Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins) before he regenerates into his Eleventh form.
These five specials are generally very high quality. Though the first two episodes, ‘The New Doctor’ and ‘Planet of the Dead’ are mostly uneventful, ‘The Waters of Mars’ and the two part ‘The End of Time’ are superb episodes that really showcase what can be capable in an episode of Doctor Who when they’re given a large budget and a longer running time. The Waters of Mars in particular is one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes of all time.
There’s a lot to digest in the Tennant Era, and it is generally of very mixed quality. For every great episode there is an equal bad one, and there’s a fair few that are just ok and very forgettable because they don’t do anything particularly interesting. Tennant is usually considered the best Doctor of all time and for good reason, because he’s bloody fantastic in the role and the fifty-four consecutive episodes he stars as The Doctor in are very focused on building his character specifically. We learn so much about The Doctor through Tennant’s run and he has such a broad range of emotions to convey all this information in that we connect with him in a way that has never been achieved before or since.
I would say the Tennant Era is worth watching for fans of science fiction, if only for Tennant in the role of The Doctor. If you are thinking of checking it out, then it does need to be watched alongside Eccleston’s Era as the storyline is a direct continuation of the events of that first series.
David Tennant is my Doctor. He is the Doctor that I watched growing up and he is the version of The Doctor I have the fondest memories of. I stopped watching shortly after his run ended and I’m only now revisiting with the determination to catch up to recent episodes around eleven years after he left the show. But having seen his run with adult eyes I’m able to appreciate his performance so much more, as well as see the big problems the show had in other areas during the same timeframe.
These five specials are generally very high quality. Though the first two episodes, ‘The New Doctor’ and ‘Planet of the Dead’ are mostly uneventful, ‘The Waters of Mars’ and the two part ‘The End of Time’ are superb episodes that really showcase what can be capable in an episode of Doctor Who when they’re given a large budget and a longer running time. The Waters of Mars in particular is one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes of all time.
There’s a lot to digest in the Tennant Era, and it is generally of very mixed quality. For every great episode there is an equal bad one, and there’s a fair few that are just ok and very forgettable because they don’t do anything particularly interesting. Tennant is usually considered the best Doctor of all time and for good reason, because he’s bloody fantastic in the role and the fifty-four consecutive episodes he stars as The Doctor in are very focused on building his character specifically. We learn so much about The Doctor through Tennant’s run and he has such a broad range of emotions to convey all this information in that we connect with him in a way that has never been achieved before or since.
I would say the Tennant Era is worth watching for fans of science fiction, if only for Tennant in the role of The Doctor. If you are thinking of checking it out, then it does need to be watched alongside Eccleston’s Era as the storyline is a direct continuation of the events of that first series.
David Tennant is my Doctor. He is the Doctor that I watched growing up and he is the version of The Doctor I have the fondest memories of. I stopped watching shortly after his run ended and I’m only now revisiting with the determination to catch up to recent episodes around eleven years after he left the show. But having seen his run with adult eyes I’m able to appreciate his performance so much more, as well as see the big problems the show had in other areas during the same timeframe.