Companions: Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, Captain Jack Harkness, Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Wilfred Mott
The Tenth Doctor and RTD era winds down with five specials that range from disposable to essential.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories:
The Waters of Mars: 10/10
The End of Time: 9/10
The Next Doctor: 8/10
Planet of the Dead: 8/10
The Tenth Doctor’s final four stories start off with The Next Doctor and Planet of the Dead, which are good stories but really nothing special. The drama really gets ratcheted up with an all-time classic in The Waters of Mars, and concludes in a too-long story saved by emotional sensational performances. These specials are really unique because they give a glimpse of what the Doctor is like without a companion, and serves to re-affirm that as long as there is the Doctor, he needs a companion to keep him grounded. For David Tennant, spiky hair and all, he absolutely went out on top with a series of unforgettable performances.
8.75/10 The Tenth Doctor and RTD era goes out exhibiting the best of the era with some of its flaws
Story 202, Episodes 755-756, Doctor Who 2009 Christmas Special & 2010 New Year’s Special
Doctor: The Tenth Doctor
Companions: Wilfred Mott, Donna Noble, Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, Captain Jack Harkness, Martha Jones
In a monumental story closing the Tenth Doctor era, the RTD era, and the 2000s on Doctor Who, the Doctor affirms who he is.
The Review
The ‘Master Race’ is really an obviously clever bit of wordplay
There are a lot of parts of The End of Time that are silly and ridiculous, but as the story builds and builds it keeps getting better and better held together by two perfect performances from David Tennant and Bernard Cribbins. The worst stuff comes right away, the weird Harold Saxon cult that brings the Master back to life, but also his wife was part of an anti-Saxon secret group that leaves his body half-formed. He then proceeds to rant and rave about meat and literally eats people, jumping a million miles in the air and firing off ridiculous lasers. I feel so sorry John Simm had to do all this ridiculous stuff. It’s an hour long, but not much actually really happens in part one, but it feels all so orchestrally drummed up that we can’t help but be intrigued. The best moment comes when Wilf and the Doctor talk in the cafe, with the Doctor saying regeneration feels like death and Wilf making another pitch to the Doctor to restore Donna’s memories somehow. The Master using the Immortality Gate to turn every human on Earth into him is completely silly but actually works because of how hilarious it is to see John Simm dressed as all those different people. It gets better, but part one is a whole lot of build-up to the reveal that our mysterious narrator is a Time Lord, and the Time Lords are coming back, a reveal that comes out of absolutely nowhere but certainly hooks you!
Wilfred Mott, the Tenth Doctor’s final companion
In part two, I wish there was more interaction between the Doctor and Master, because their one conversation where the Doctor tries to convince the Master to travel the universe with him is so good. Thankfully the Capaldi era would give us all the Doctor/Master interplay we could ever ask for. Timothy Dalton as Rassilon is perfect for the role, he is imposing and is the perfect embodiment of the ugliness that had become the Time Lords. This story attempts to provide more justification that the Doctor had no choice to kill the Time Lords, and successfully shows how awful they are. Of course, the Doctor will find another way later, but for the concept of this story it works. The Time Lords implant the Master’s brain with the infamous sound of drums all just so they can try and pull Gallifrey back out of the Time War and onto Earth, Boxing Day 2009. For being nearly two and a half hours, the story is actually surprising light on plot, and could’ve been easily condensed. Still, it keeps us hooked with all the quiet intimate conversations. Several happen between Wilf and a mysterious woman only he can see revealed to be a Time Lord, one of two who voted against Rassilon. When the Doctor sees her, it’s clear, be it his mother, daughter, whomever, she’s one of the Doctor’s family. Some people have complained about this character, but I like how it expanded our knowledge of the Doctor while preserving the mystery.
Rassilon was the last card RTD had to play, and he played it
So with all this story’s problems, how can it be so good? It’s because David Tennant is fully embodying the final form of the Tenth Doctor, as all the charisma and arrogance is revealed to cover up the fear that he will slip back into being who he was before, the man who killed the Time Lords. With the Doctor’s stance on guns well known, him using Wilf’s old pistol and pointing it at the Master or Rassilon is dramatically effective. Tennant alone can’t save this story, Bernard Cribbins does, and even elevates it to great status. Cribbins had always been adorably charming as the bumbling but brave grandfather to Donna, but now in a brilliant turn he plays the Tenth Doctor’s final companion. Wilf’s character was an accident, from a brief role as a newspaper salesman in Voyage of the Damned to becoming the last companion of the Doctor’s most popular incarnation. When Bernard Cribbins bursts into tears as he and the Doctor sit on the Vinvocci spaceship, telling the Doctor he doesn’t want him to die, it’s hard not to well up with emotion. When Wilf is shooting missiles using an asteroid laser, it’s hard not to smile. This story exemplifies why I love this show because what it does is so unique, it has the biggest more adrenaline-filled crises and still dives right down to relatable characters that we care about.
“I don’t want to go”
At the end, the Master punishes the Time Lords and chooses to save the Doctor as Gallifrey returns to the Time War. The Doctor thinks he’s survived, but here’s those four knocks: Wilf, trapped inside a vault about to flood him with radiation because he saved a scientist out of kindness. The moment is the perfect completion to the Tenth Doctor’s character arc, he whines, he throws a tantrum about all the things that were left for him to do, but there was never a doubt. It didn’t matter that Wilf was old, that the Doctor might die, or never regenerate again, saving Wilf was the right thing to do. RTD gives us one last look at the characters from his wonderful era of 2000s Who, each better than the last. The Doctor gives Donna and Wilf a winning lottery ticket purchased with money from Donna’s late father, and Wilf gives one last salute. Smartly, we visit Rose as we remember her from Series 1, young and ready for so much adventure. As the Ood sing, the Doctor staggers to the TARDIS, and with a line that is effective but I do think was a little too brutal the Doctor says he doesn’t want to go. There, the Tenth Doctor dies a hero, who saved the world, but died saving just one man. The End of Time is too long, maybe too clunky, but at its core is the brilliant end to a brilliant era. David Tennant will be missed. Oh, and that is Matt Smith making a dramatic debut. GERONIMO!
The End of Time isn’t perfect, but it is everything we could’ve wanted from the Tenth Doctor’s final story.
9/10 Come on, no one finishes this story and isn’t affected
Companions: Sarah Jane Smith, K9, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, Captain Jack Harkness, Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Wilfred Mott, River Song
David Tennant’s final season brings the perfect duo of the Tenth Doctor and Donna, while the stories do not always hit classic status, some do, and they are rarely bad.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories:
Midnight: 10/10
Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead: 10/10
Partners in Crime: 8.75/10
The Fires of Pompeii: 8.5/10
Planet of the Ood: 8.5/10
The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End: 8.25/10
The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky: 8.25/10
Turn Left: 8/10
The Unicorn and the Wasp: 8/10
The Doctor’s Daughter: 7.5/10
The best part of Series 4 is seeing two talented actors in David Tennant and Catherine Tate having the time of their lives. Tennant is sneaky good still as the Tenth Doctor, inhabiting the role so completely and utterly that his performance is just a built in part of what we expect from the show now. In Donna, Doctor Who gets the most ‘basic’ of all the companions, but also the most compassionate and human of them all. The Tenth Doctor still has a lot to learn about empathy and being a human, and he learns a lot of it from Donna. While the crazy companion fueled conclusion doesn’t hit all the marks, it cannot take away from one of the show’s very best duos.
8.575/10 With this classic duo leading the way, no one can fail
Story 198, Episodes 750 & 751, Series 4 Episodes 12 & 13
Doctor: The Tenth Doctor
Companions: Sarah Jane Smith, K9, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler, Captain Jack Harkness, Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Wilfred Mott
In Avengers: Infinity War a decade earlier, RTD writes the most insane, bonkers story ever that somehow gets better with every rewatch.
The Review
Elisabeth Sladen was the best of us
This story is insane. First you’ve got the Daleks, oh yeah, turns out they’re behind the stars going out. There’s the return of the Supreme Dalek. Even bigger, Davros is back for the first time in 19 years. Next up, there are NINE companions in this story, not counting Torchwood and Luke Smith. Oh, and there are two Tenth Doctors. This story is the climax of the RTD era, an era of Doctor Who that focused on characters and relationships like none other and built the most inter-connected earth since the UNIT era of the 70s. There’s so much going on it boggles the mind. As an overview, I have watched this story twice recently for the Doctor Who Lockdown event and this review, and I am struck by how RTD made sure that there was no plot point, no character relationship left untouched. The best examples are the spin-off characters, Gwen calls Rhys to tell him to stay safe, Ianto inquires about when Jack met a soldier in a bar recently, Luke says that Maria and her dad are safe as well as Clyde, every character has their moments. My favorite though is Sarah Jane’s horrified reaction when the Dalek voices come over the screen in The Stolen Earth, and her similar reaction to seeing Davros again. I miss Elisabeth Sladen terribly, and you can feel the emotion and history in her relationship with Davros. RTD doesn’t miss a thing does he? On the Capitan Jack front, he’s here, he’s funny and charming, really actually not too much to say though him kissing Gwen and Ianto after hearing the Daleks over the loudspeaker is emotionally powerful too.
Martha is a soldier now, and it feels like a unfortunate direction for her character
Let’s move on to UNIT’s Martha Jones, who has gotten a very recent promotion to Manhattan, presumably so we can show the Daleks invading New York for real this time. Martha comes very close to using the Osterhagen Key, which will destroy the Earth with a chain of nuclear warheads. In what is meant to be one of the narrative backbones of the story, the Doctor turning people into soldiers, Martha is most explicitly a soldier. Now I know Martha was originally supposed to factor into the third season of Torchwood, but Martha’s character development does end with her as a soldier, and I think I am supposed to feel bad about that. She is the only companion who briefly gets into an argument with the Doctor, and her plan to hold Earth ransom to stop the REALITY BOMB because it needs all 27 planets to function makes some sense but still feels out of character for Doctor Who. Oh, I haven’t even mentioned the plot, the Earth gets stolen by the Daleks and is hidden in the Medusa Cascade one second out of sync with the rest of the universe to power Davros’ Reality Bomb which will leave the Daleks the only race in existence. The earth literally gets pulled out from under the Doctor and Donna in the TARDIS, who visit the Shadow Proclamation and get to the Medusa Cascade because ‘the bees are disappearing’ is actually a vital plot point because some bees are aliens and leave a trail and ok that’s enough.
Series 4 Rose: we can all agree it was a miss
Now onto the big character problem with the story: Rose. Whether it’s because Billie Piper lost the energy from two years ago, or it is part of an intentional change to make her also this badass dimension hopping soldier, Rose has little of the charm we remember. At least Martha’s soldier-ification happened on screen, all this character development for Rose we never get to see. It’s hard to feel invested in the Doctor seeing Rose again, when this does not track as the Rose we remember. Rose’s pouting ‘I was there first’ when she can see but not join the subwave network Zoom call with the companions rings especially sour with Sarah Jane on call. As much fun as it is to see Jackie Tyler again, her becoming a badass doesn’t make too much sense. Jackie does get the heart wrenching scene where she apologizes to a woman before she teleports away from the Daleks disintegrating people and we see that woman die. The one soldier who makes the most sense: Mickey Smith. Thanks to excellent groundwork laid by Noel Clarke in Series 2, and that he’s done it before, Mickey as a dimension-jumping hero makes a ton of sense. Also, his decision to return to his home universe is made entirely on his own terms and shows how he has finally moved on beyond Rose and is ready to forge his own path. Good for you Mickey! So, on the Rose-centric cast, Rose actually comes off as pretty uninteresting in what should have been her reunion with the Doctor. There’s also SO MUCH going on that you stop caring about the Doctor/Rose relationship.
Visually though, Davros is a home run. Seen here remembering he left the stove on back on Skaro
Alright, let’s talk about the Daleks of it all. RTD was right, for this story (and the landmark 750th episode), something big had to happen, and it does: we actually see the Daleks invading Earth, which we didn’t in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The shots showing the different planets in the sky and the Dalek saucers flying overhead are awesome. The menace of the Daleks is largely in the first episode, by the second there isn’t much time for them (though we do get German Daleks which is amazing and very Wolfenstein). It’s not really a surprise the bad guys are just Daleks again, but we get some of the show’s best visuals to date. Now, returning is Davros, and he has some snarky monologues with the Doctor and is behind the silly Reality Bomb. Davros’ biggest problem is that he gets lost in the absolute chaos of this story, and is hardly what people remember from it. In a story returning so many characters, Davros is new (to the new series), and there’s only so much energy the audience can spend on processing who Davros is and what he means. Honestly more notable than driving the point home of the Doctor turning his companions into soldiers is Davros’ refusal to be rescued by the Doctor as the Dalek Crucible burns, then declaring the Doctor ‘the destroyer of worlds’ with zero self-awareness. For such an epic crossover, the villains couldn’t be anyone but the Daleks, but they and Davros become victims of plot soup. There’s only so much a story can do.
Meeting of the Doctors
We’re not even close to done. It’s finally time to talk about the ostensible current companion, Donna. Throughout the story, Donna keeps being told she is special, but refuses to believe it even as she helps the Doctor to the Medusa Cascade. Catherine Tate is funny throughout, but gets lost a bit in episode two when she…ok so this is a regeneration story. A Dalek shoots the Doctor when he’s running at Rose, Jack, Rose, and Donna pull him in the TARDIS, he goes to regenerate, and…heals himself but pours energy into his hand in a jar. Donna touches the hand, and out grows the Meta-Crisis Doctor, who dons the blue suit and we learn has only one heart and has picked up some of Donna’s catchphrases and attitudes. The idea of the two Doctors is crazy, but it does allow David Tennant to be in two places at once which I appreciate. At the end of the day, the famous cliffhanger of the Doctor regenerating is exciting but of course it has to end in a cop-out. The second Doctor really is around for more Tennant/Tate banter, and as a gift to Rose to make Ten/Rose shippers happy for eternity. The Meta-Crisis Doctor decides to commit genocide on the Daleks, and as that goes against the Fourth Doctor’s established modus operandi in Genesis of the Daleks, he has to be punished. The Meta-Crisis Doctor gets to love and grow old with Rose, and the Doctor leaves her behind. While the Doctor getting over Rose should be a big emotional moment, it happens mostly silently. Anyway, this crazy new Doctor is a better fit for Series 4 Rose anyway.
Donna about to get the mind wipe
Oh, back to Donna. In the first episode, much of the driving plot is Harriet Jones (former Prime Minister) creating a big Zoom call and sacrificing herself (nobly!) for Torchwood and Mr. Smith to have every phone in existence call the Doctor to drag the TARDIS to Earth’s hiding spot. Donna gets a lot of screen time, but not as much in the second episode. After the Osterhagen Key thing, Captain Jack holding a ‘warp star’ to blow up the Crucible, and the Meta-Crisis Doctor having some backfire gun all fail in a funny twist on Davies-ex-Machina, it is Donna who has the new Doctor brain of hers awakened by Davros who stops the Reality Bomb. To see Donna, the most basic companion filled with self-doubt in full complete control, toying with the Daleks and Davros is a complete and utter joy. It represents the full potential of what Donna could be…and then it’s taken away. After the long denouement as all the companions leave, the Doctor knows he has to wipe Donna’s mind of her time with him or her brain will burn with the Time Lord consciousness in it. I think this is the most devastating companion departure, as Donna pleads to be allowed to die as the Doctor wipes her memory. I know the wipe is controversial, but I do think the Doctor makes the right decision in preserving her life. Just as hard as seeing Donna back to The Runaway Bride is Wilf’s reaction. Wilf is mainly adorable throughout the story and not an official companion yet, notably not on the giant TARDIS flight. Wilf does two important things, he tells Sylvia that Donna was better in the TARDIS (leading to the Doctor finally rebuking Sylvia), and asking the Doctor if he’ll be alright. In the end, this resolution for Donna seems cruel and it just isn’t a satisfying resolution to her arc. Ah well.
The gang flies Earth home
So where does this leave us? First off, this story is a ton of insane fun. It’s like doing a line of pure RTD. It’s hard for me to be too upset at a story that is this wild and fun, and so much of it is pretty great. K9 even shows up! The biggest problems with the story are as follows: the return of Rose brings us a character unrecognizable from when she left us in Doomsday, the motif of the Doctor turning his companions into soldiers does not have a true resolution, is this a good thing or bad thing? The story won’t say. Lastly, Donna’s arc instead of concluding with her in triumph, ends with her reduced back to what she was. Instead of the story being about the Doctor having the largest family in the universe as Sarah Jane tells him, he ends the story dejected and rain-soaked in the TARDIS: alone. It’s a daring thing to end a story jammed with characters and a celebration of the success of the return of Doctor Who with the Doctor being all alone by himself. It’s seriously sad. I’m ok with these potential downer endings, but it just wrings wrong for a story that had so much verve and life and energy. Still though, it is a very good time, and every character gets their own little moments making nobody completely forgotten in the shuffle. RTD even ties up the thread of Gwen being a descendent of Gwyneth from The Unquiet Dead. This is an essential Doctor Who story for the sugar rush it provides, but there is just too much going on for this story to have a truly impactful plot.
There is no story more insane than this one, but the insanity denies characters the time they needed to truly wrap up their arcs.
8.25/10 RTD goes ALL IN.
The most insane story ends on such a depressing note. Such a gamble!
Companions: Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler, Donna Noble (cameo)
Series 2, perhaps the most well-known Doctor Who season of all time features the pairing of the Tenth Doctor and Rose which has reached incredibly famous heights.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories:
The Christmas Invasion: 10/10
The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit: 10/10
Girl in the Fireplace: 9.25/10
Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel: 9/10
Tooth and Claw: 8.75/10
New Earth: 8.5/10
Army of Ghosts/Doomsday: 8.5/10
School Reunion: 8/10
The Idiot’s Lantern: 8/10
Love & Monsters: 6.5/10
Fear Her: 6/10
I might’ve been caught up in the excitement of The Christmas Invasion giving it the score that I did, but I definitely have no regrets about perfect marks to The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, a story I rank among the very best in Doctor Who history. The rest of the season was full of straight up solid stories, with the infamous pair of Love & Monsters and Fear Her sitting as the clear weakest stories in the season. This season had a lot on its plate: having to sell David Tennant as the Doctor right after we all fell in love with Christopher Eccelston, introduce the Cybermen to a modern audience, and bid farewell to essentially the main character so far in Rose. The fact that is largely accomplishes this is a testament to RTD’s writing, places characters front and center.
Story 177, Episodes 722-723, Series 2 Episodes 12-13
Doctor: The Tenth Doctor
Companions: Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, Donna Noble
The dramatic finale of Series 2 brings back the Cybermen and features the new series’ first true goodbye to a companion as the Doctor has to say goodbye to Rose.
The Review
Cybermen reaching this reality
At the beginning of Parts 1 and 2 of this story, Rose keeps telling the audience that she is going to die. She doesn’t, but suffers a fate almost as heartbreaking. For two months now, ghosts have been appearing at regular shifts across the globe, and as he researches it the Doctor flies straight to Torchwood, who we have been hearing about all season. We get the thrill of Jackie finally get upgraded to companion status as she and the Doctor get a tour of Torchwood from their charismatic and kind of nationalist leader Yvonne. The first half is all drama and suspense building, especially around a mysterious sphere. The Cybermen were advertised before this episode, and connecting them to the ghosts was not a stretch. It is still fun to see the Cybermen phasing in across the world, but the real shock is that the void ship sphere they followed to get this reality is filled with…Daleks. Bam. Daleks. Cybermen. Cliffhanger.
The Dalek Cult of Skaro takes on the Cybermen
It is fun to see the Dalek and Cybermen finally meeting after forty years of separately fighting the Doctor, and it is does definitively prove that in a 1v1 fight the Daleks would wipe the floor with the Cybermen. The Daleks have a mysterious Time Lord device called the Genesis Ark, and Mickey (who has returned from Pete’s World) accidentally activates. Turns out it’s a Time Lord prison ships filled with millions of Daleks that begun spreading out over the globe. The Doctor is putting 3D glasses on all episode, and we finally find out that they allow him to see ‘void stuff’. But Torchwood’s technology in reverse, and boom, there go the Daleks and the Cybermen to hell. I’ve heard this called a deus ex machina, but it’s not entirely out of nowhere: the Doctor keeps wearing the glasses for a mysterious reason and the similar time travel background radiation concept is used to open the Genesis Ark. It’s a fun Doctor Who solution, but it is really powerful not for the plot stakes but for the emotional stakes.
Rose wishing she can get back to the Doctor
Rose starts the episode saying that she is going to travel with the Doctor forever, but we all know that nothing will last forever. Early on, Jackie accuses her of changing unrecognizably during her time with the Doctor, something that we’ll see again with Clara later. Pete and Jackie have an emotional reunion together, with their respective Jackies and Petes already having died. Jackie is sent off to live with Pete in his world, but Rose determines that she would choose eternity with the Doctor over seeing Jackie and Mickey again. The Doctor doesn’t want to talk about that he is going to have to leave Rose behind, but he agrees to let her stay with him. When Rose is almost forced into the void, the Doctor screams in horror like we have never seen…but dear old Pete saves her. They’re separated, and the Doctor says one last goodbye to her at Bad Wolf Beach. It’s a crushing return to a reality for Rose. She chooses the Doctor, but is sent back to her family.
It’s got Cybermen, Daleks, Torchwood, Rose, and has everything you want and more. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty great.
Story 172, Episodes 715-716, Series 2 Episodes 5-6
Doctor: The Tenth Doctor
Companions: Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler
Doctor Who returns to a parallel world for the first time since Inferno to re-introduce the Cybermen to a modern audience in a story I liked better than I remembered.
The Review
Hard to argue with the Cyber-Controller
David Tennant’s first two-parter, and it’s a big one: the re-introduction of the Cybermen. RTD decides to have it take place on a parallel world, for many reasons, but one is to show the Cybermen inflicting horrors on a different Earth and not have repercussions in the primary universe. They are here created by John Lumic, a dying insane businessman who owns basically the entire planet. Lumic is a rip-off of Davros, and not a particularly good one either. His conversion into the Cyber-Controller looks cool, but it is not shown how he is superior beyond his intellect. The design of the Cybermen is actually good, the chunky ear-pods everybody wears look awful but the design is very 2006 so it makes sense. The thought of people getting sliced up screaming and placed into Cybermen, shown just off-camera, is very scary and unnerving. The two rebels we meet are punk Jake, and the standout middle-aged tech guru ‘Mrs. Moore’ who is brutally killed off near the story’s conclusion.
“Trust me on this!”
A lot of the obvious narrative arc is about Rose, who immediately sees that in this world her father Pete’s ridiculous schemes paid off and he’s an insanely wealth businessman. Unfortunately this world’s Jackie is even more vain and spiteful with all of her acquired wealth, but it is still shocking to see her converted into a Cyberman. Pete seems like a dope but it turns out that he’s been the mole inside Lumic’s operation, helping to fund resistance groups. He even gets the final kill on Lumic, dropping him into his exploding factory. Rose desperately wishes to bring him along in the TARDIS, but Pete is understandably unnerved about Rose. Lesser writing would have had him ecstatic to have a daughter, but as Pete lived his whole life without one the idea of Rose freaks him out of his mind. In one of the funniest gags of the series, they do have a tiny yorkshire terrier named Rose, which the Doctor bursts into laughter at when he realizes.
Ricky antagonizes Mickey
In this two-parter we finally get the Mickey story that he deserves. Having considerably evolved from his pathetic characterization in Rose, we learn that Mickey’s parents abandoned him and he was raised by his grandmother until she died in an accident at home. The disrespect that the Doctor has consistently shown Mickey really starts to get more and more disgraceful, with him completely forgetting Mickey is even around for stretches of the episode. Mickey meets his counterpart, the supposedly tough man Ricky who turns out to be putting on a bit of an act. Even more crucially, he meets his blind grandmother, who is still alive. When Cybermen kill Ricky, Mickey decides that in this universe he can make a difference. His decision to let Rose go, knowing that she’s fallen in love with the Doctor over him, is incredibly mature. Mickey knows that she found her place with him, while he feels his is here, stopping the Cybermen. Bravo, Mickey.
The Cybermen are introduced, there’s action, humor, and emotional pathos as Mickey’s store seemingly reaches a satisfying conclusion.
9/10. I thought this story would be full of bluster from Lumic with Cybermen stomping around the place, but I genuinely enjoyed it. Noel Clarke, take a bow.
While School Reunion showed us a woman who was waiting for the Doctor to return all her life, The Girl in the Fireplace showed us what happens if the Doctor really does keep coming back.
The Review
The only explanation for clockwork droids in the 51st century is everybody just thinks they’re cool as hell
The Tenth Doctor is so sure of himself, so full of charisma and a little bit of ego that those sad moments mean so much more. At the end of the episode, the Doctor’s silence tells the whole story. The Girl in the Fireplace is a love story, between the Doctor and Renette, or the Madame de Pompadour, one of the smartest women in history. The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey land on a spaceship 3000 years in the future filled with windows into 18th century France. The Doctor doesn’t know why the clockwork droid crew of the ship is after her, but knows they are. When he sees her again, it’s 15 years later, and Renette makes out with him. Next time they meet, he reads into her mind, and is surprised to find that she reads into his too. I’m not sure Renette learns his name, but she realizes why the Doctor keeps it such a secret. The Doctor isn’t trying to get her to fall in love with him, but if a dashing man regularly showed up and saved you from fantastical monsters you’d be in love too.
I mean come on, this is pretty awesome
Rose and Mickey don’t get much to do, there just isn’t enough time. Mickey gets to needle Rose a bit for the Doctor’s new love interest, but Rose takes it on the chin. There’s a world where I think this could have been a fantastic two-parter Human Nature style, but sometimes, just like the Doctor and Renette, we don’t have enough time. The Doctor bursts through a mirror on a horse, trash-talks King Louis XV and accepts waiting 3300 years to make his way back to Rose and Mickey to save her life. However, Renette’s devotion saved her old fireplace, and the Doctor is able to return, telling Renette he’ll be right back. Renette stares at the stars, excited to finally see what the Doctor sees, but she never does. She dies at only 42 years of age. As the Doctor sadly takes off, we see the TARDIS was blocking the key clue to the whole story: the ship was named after the Madame de Pompadour. Somehow, someway, she ended up among the stars.
For the Doctor, Renette only took up a few hours of his time. For her, he was her whole world and gateway to the stars.
9.25/10. In a way, this shows the emotional damage the Doctor can cause someone better than any other story. He did nothing wrong, but people still lost in the end.
Companions: Sarah Jane Smith, K9, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith
For the first time ever, we find out what it is like for companions after the Doctor leaves them in a seminal episode of Doctor Who.
The Review
Sarah Jane and Rose laugh at their shared experiences
Out of all the classic companions, none quite captured the imagination like Sarah Jane Smith. Independent, spunky, fierce, and committed to the Doctor, Sarah Jane was the ideal companion. Despite having gotten glimpses of Sarah Jane’s post-Doctor life, we’ve never really returned to old companions to see how they’re coping. (Can I say it’s a crime William Russell never returned to the show?) Finally we see it, and it isn’t pretty, especially in that Sarah Jane was pretty unceremoniously dumped. She is still a competent journalist, investigating alien activity in Britain, but without the Doctor. Sarah Jane got over the Doctor, and she and Rose are understandably threatened by each other. Sarah Jane comes to realize that all she really wanted to do was thank the Doctor, and wish him well on his adventures again. It’s a perfect performance by a great actress in Elisabeth Sladen who will soon get an entire show to herself. The Doctor is right, she still does look good.
Mr. Finch is an excellent foe
The actual story itself isn’t anything terribly special, if surprisingly dark. Several people, including young children, get devoured by large alien bats. Mr. Finch is a great smarmy villain as the leader of the Krillitaines, aliens that slaughter species and take their favorite aspects from each of them which in their case is giant bats. They are turning kids into one large supercomputer to crack the universal theory of everything. The heroes of the story are the tin dog K9 and the other tin dog Mickey who tipped the Doctor off to this school. Mickey evacuates the kids and K9 lays down his life in order to destroy the Krillitanes. Fear not K9-lovers, as Sarah Jane gets a replacement from the Doctor. It’s routine Doctor Who, but the plot takes a backseat to the incredible moment of seeing the Doctor and Sarah Jane re-united.
“It’s every man’s worst nightmare, the missus and the ex,” Mickey tells the Doctor. We see why saying goodbye is so hard for the Doctor, but when he does get to, it’s worth it.
Companions: Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler
Rose’s first day out with the Tenth Doctor and he takes her 5 billion years in the future just like the Ninth Doctor did.
The Review
“Now that is proper enigmatic”
Although The End of the World is a good story, I don’t think anybody was dying to see Cassandra again, but here she is again. In a hospital of New New Earth, formed out of nostalgia after the original Earth blew up, Cassandra is living with a back-up set of skin. The fun quickly starts when she sends her consciousness into Rose and is thrilled to be in a body again, a curvy chav no less. Cassandra also gets a chance to jump into the ‘foxy’ Doctor, which is always good fun. The Doctor is here based on a psychic message by the Face of Bo, a giant head in a tank from The End of the World. The Doctor ends up inspiring him to prolong his death, so he does not get told the Face of Bo’s secret much to his chagrin. Partly after jumping into the body of a diseased person, and then her dying half-clone servant, Cassandra finally agrees to die and the Doctor gives her the courtesy of seeing herself in her prime beforehand.
Never trust a cat!
The main villain of the plot are the sisterhood of cat nurses who have developed incredible scientific cures, so incredible that they don’t pass the Doctor’s smell test. Turns out they’ve been growing people and infecting them with “every single disease” in order to farm them for a cure. It’s as bad as it sounds. It turns out that these developed people are alive and horribly suffering, having never been touched or loved or anything. The cat nurses did not consider that they could potentially be creating living new humans. The Doctor cures them by spraying them with a cocktail of all the curses the nurses cooked up, generating a new human race. Overall, this story is good fun, it’s very enjoyable in the middle of it, but there’s not much of a lasting impression to be had. That said, it’s a bit silly, and a ton of fun. RTD Who at its best.
Tennant continues to prove that even with the genius Eccelston gone, there is nothing to fear.
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 