Well done, David Tennant, well done. I enjoyed Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, after all, he was my introduction to the character and the series, but David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor was a step above. The Doctor is man of contradictions and Tennant's ability to effortlessly swing from the happy to the sad to the deadly serious and sell each of those completely is marvelous.
The best thing I can say about this new incarnation of the Doctor is that he's having so much fun. There's still an undercurrent of sadness of being the last of his race, but not nearly as forefront as it was in the Ninth Doctor's case. I don't know the full backstory of the eight Doctors before I came into the series, but from what's been presented to me, the Time War was not far in the past for the Ninth Doctor. The feelings of seeing his whole race die to defeat the Daleks and him being partially responsible for that must be weighing heavily on him. A new body and personality seems to have given him a new lease on life. The feelings are still there, but as you move farther away from the tragedy it becomes easier to cope.
As I watched this second series the fun the Doctor was having became infectious and it dawned on me that this reminded me of another one of my favorite shows, Chuck. Chuck may not be the funniest, the most dramatic, or anywhere near the best show on TV, but it's the show I have the most fun while watching (series finale this Friday, it will be missed). The reason for this is that you can really feel that these people are having the times of their lives making this show. The same goes for Doctor Who, and while Chuck is confined to it's spy comedy premise with helpful amounts of drama, the beauty of Doctor Who is that it can jump from genre to genre and have the same amount of fun with all.
So we start of this new series with what became a yearly tradition of a Doctor Who Christmas Special, "The Christmas Invasion." There are a number of good things in this episode, especially the return of Harriet Jones, now Prime Minister. However, it keeps the Doctor offstage for far too long. We want to see the new Doctor, not have him laid up in bed for the better part of the episode. When he finally comes out, though, it's marvelous. Rambling on and quoting The Lion King, yet still being badass enough to figure out the blood thing and take down the bad guy. The ending sets up this year's arc words of "Torchwood" and shows us one of the main tenants of the Doctor, not taking lives unless necessary.
The first proper episode, "New Earth," gives us a sequel to one of the first episodes. It's a good way of establishing that this Doctor has all the same memories of the previous version. The mystery was pretty easy to figure out, I find myself more intrigue by what the Face of Boe wanted to tell the Doctor. I wasn't crazy about the return of Cassandra, but Billie Piper got to really trot out the comic chops as a possessed Rose in this one. "Tooth and Claw" gave us a werewolf story and a nice bit of world building while showing us Torchwood's origins.
"School Reunion" was an immensely well constructed episode. I didn't know from Adam who Sarah Jane was, but the way the story was laid out quickly made it clear that she used to be one the Doctor's companions and one of the more important ones. Her bickering with Rose and then their quickly becoming friends was a nice quick character arc. This episode also brought up the concept of companions having to leave or being left. The Doctor has been alive for hundreds of years and has had numerous companions along the way, his long life means that eventually his human friends will have to be left behind. This concept lays out Rose's departure at the end of this series. I must admit, the final scene when Sarah Jane gets her goodbye really got to me.
"The Girl in the Fireplace" gave us a nice conceit of showing us a girls life in pieces. The bittersweet ending was a little heart wrenching. The two parter of "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel" introduced us to an alternate world that would come back later and a new Pete, which was nice to see because I liked him a lot in his first episode. I really liked the underground resistance vibe and it was sad to see Mickey go, but he got a proper send off as a companion.
We moved on to one of the lesser episodes of the series. "The Idiot's Lantern" and the latter episode "Fear Her" both had a similar structure of something strange happening in a corner of London that the Doctor and Rose need to sort out. Both failed to give a compelling strange thing, but at least "Lantern" ended better. I'd take the Doctor going full on badass to save Rose over him lighting the Olympic torch anyday. That whole ending had me groaning from the moment he picked it up. It would, however, be amazing if David Tennant actually did run a leg with the torch this summer, though I doubt they would let him be the lighter.
The next two parter of "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" deals exactly with what the second episode tells us, Satan. At least, as close to Satan as the Powers That Be (for the show) and the Doctor were willing to go. He could be the manifestation of evil that all cultures fear or he could just be some evil alien, the point is he's trying to kill them and must be stopped. The idea of a planet caught in a limbo around a black hole is a very cool concept, and there are two main things I take away from this pair of episodes. The first is the extremely creepy scene when Toby is outside the base, the music was amazing there. The second is the amazing monologue the Doctor gives to the Satan creature. The creature can't talk to him so the Doctor basically talks to himself for the last part of the episode and it's wonderful sold by David Tennant.
We move on to a lower deck episode, "Love & Monsters," where the Doctor and Rose are barely in it. After the drama of the last two episodes, it was nice to have a fun romp type episode. It was also cool to see the people seeking out the Doctor from his various drive-by's to London throughout time. It also featured the hammiest villain so far and maybe the most disgusting.
The series finished out, as they normally do, with the epic two parter "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday." What would the finale be without the Daleks? However, this time it's the Daleks vs. the Cybermen. Whoever came up with that idea is a genius. We get return visits from the alternate universe characters (and Mickey!), and we finally see what this Torchwood we've heard all about actually is. Rose begins with a narration of this is how she died (predicted by the Ood), but we know she's not actually going to die. That impacts some of the suspense, but it most certainly didn't impact the emotional goodbye at the end. I didn't know that Billie Piper's tenure on the show was up, and I will sorely miss the Doctor and Rose together. I hope we haven't seen the last of her, and we certainly haven't seen the last of the Daleks, one got away in the end. This final serial was working all the way up until the very end. I understand they want to leave with a cliffhanger, but after the sadness of the goodbye scene, it was like whiplash going directly to the woman in a wedding dress appearing in the TARDIS.
Next up (sometime or another): the first series of the spin-off show Torchwood, starring Captain Jack Harkness!
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