Doctor Who - Season 4

Head Writer and Executive Producer: Russell T. Davies
Cast: David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Bernard Cribbins, Jacqueline King

Season 4 of Doctor Who continues the adventures of the Tenth Doctor played by David Tennant. The Doctor gets a new companion for this season - the temp worker Donna Noble from Chiswick who is rather outspoken but has a rather limited view of the world and is radically transformed by her adventures with the Doctor. Donna is played by British comedian Catherine Tate, who manages to create a memorable character that evolves from a narrow-minded person into a brave and sensitive woman. Donna's character was first introduced in the finale of Season 3 and she is further developed in the Christmas special The Runaway Bride, which aired after Season 2 of Doctor Who. However, she becomes a companion of the Doctor only in the first episode of Season 4 and she brings a breath of fresh air to the show as, unlike Rose Tyler and Martha Jones, she does not harbour any romantic feelings for the Doctor and consider him just a mate. In fact, the relationship between the Doctor and Donna is one of the best features of this season and there are a number of episode which demonstrate how the two friends make each other better.

Season 4 begins with the rather unimpressive episode Partners in Crime in which the Doctor and Donna are conducting separate investigations of Adipose Industries, a company which promises people that it can easily help them get rid of their fat. However, the way in which this happens is shrouded in mystery and the Doctor and Donna both seek to uncover the secret of the company's success. The episode shows us that Donna has become dissatisfied with her life and wishes more adventures like the one she had with the Doctor. However, the episode's villain is rather disappointing although the excellent chemistry between Tennant and Tate, as well as the loveable character of Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins), that saves it from mediocrity. The Unicorn and the Wasp, which features the famous detective novelist Agatha Christie, is another offering that, in my opinion, does not really stand out against the rest of the episodes in this season. This episode includes a murder mystery in which the Doctor, Donna and Agatha Christie are forced to work together in order to discover the identity of the criminal. Although I found this episode entertaining enough, it's not one of my favourite and I would personally watch any other of the season's episodes than this one, with the exception of Partners in Crime.

However, Season 4 also features some of the best episode of the new Doctor Who series. It includes Steven Moffat's second two-parter written for Doctor Who, consisting of Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead, which introduces the mysterious Vashta Nerada as well as the character of Professor River Song (Alex Kingston), archaeologist, who will play a key role in the Doctor's future. The episode takes place in the greatest library in the universe and it reveals much about the Doctor and about his new companion whose emotional sensitivity is used to great effect in this story. This two-parter is followed by one of the best standalone episodes of Doctor Who, Midnight, in which the Doctor Who is trapped on a shuttle on the planet Midnight with a number of passengers and a mysterious and dangerous creature. This is one of the scariest Doctor Who stories and it features the famous lines from Christina Rosetti's poem Goblin Market:

"We must not look at goblin men,  
We must not buy their fruits:  
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry thirsty roots?"

Whereas Donna plays a very small role in Midnight, in the next episode Turn Left it is the Doctor himself who takes the backseat. In this story Donna encounters a fortune teller on a mysterious planet and is somehow sent back to the past at a moment in which makes a crucial decision which determines whether she will ever meet the Doctor. This is an excellent episode that also features Rose Tyler who warns Donna that the universe in danger by asking her to deliver the message "Bad Wolf" to the Doctor. In the two-parter finale, consisting of The Stolen Earth and Journey's End, the Doctor and Donna investigate the disappearance of a number of planets, including the Earth. These two episodes feature the return of many characters from the previous season, including Jack Harkness, Martha Jones and Mickie Smith. They offer a truly epic adventure in which the Doctor is once again forced to confront his greatest enemies but is now almost powerless before them.

Season 4 also features a number of very good episode. In The Fires of Pompeii Donna goes on her first adventure with the Doctor, which takes them to the city of Pompeii shortly before the eruption of the volcano that buried it in volcanic ash around 2000 years ago. This is an interesting episode as it shows how Donna changes the Doctor as she pleads with him to save at least some of the city's residents, despite the fact that he insists that Pompeii is a fixed point in time. The story also features an interesting enemy for the Doctor and this storyline effetively complements the Doctor's struggle with his decision not to save any of Pompeii's citizens. This episode is followed by Planet of the Ood in which the Doctor and Donna discover more about the slave race of the Ood. This is an episode in which the Doctor and Donna's don't exactly do much but it gives us some interesting background to the Ood who I personally find fascinating.

The following two-parter, consisting of The Sontaran Staratagem and The Poison Sky, introduces us to another enemy of the Doctor, the warrior Sontarans, who seek to conquer the Earth with the help of a human genius. The episode also features the return of Martha Jones who is now working for UNIT (Unified Intelligence Taskforce), an international organisation under the UN that seeks to counter enemy threats. This is another fun episode that is made very exciting by the presence of Martha Jones. It is followed by the story of The Doctor's Daughter in which Donna, the Doctor and Martha finds themselves transported to an alien planet on which another person is created from the Doctor's DNA - the eponymous Doctor's daughter. This episode features a long-lasting conflict between two species which uses progenation machines to create more soldiers for their battles. However, all is not as it seems and the Doctor, Donna and Martha eventually make a startling discovery about the origins of this vicious conflict.

Season 4 of Doctor Who builds up on the success of the previos season and it offers some of the best episodes of the new Doctor Who series.The replacement of Martha Jones with Donna as a companion is particularly welcome as it makes the show even more lively and fun and Donna's character serves as a balance to Tennant's rather serious Doctor. The return of many characters from the previous 3 series to the finale is particularly welcome as it provides a spectacular end to a spectacular season that once again demonstrates David Tennant's incredible success as the Tenth Doctor.
 
Image taken from Amazon.co.uk

Doctor Who - Season 3 (2007)

Head Writer and Executive Producer: Russel T. Davies

Cast: David Tennant, Freema Agyeman, John Barrowman, John Simm

Season 3 of Doctor Who continues the adventures of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. In the final episode of the previous season, a tragic turn of events separates the Doctor and Rose before he can admit his love for her. The new season finds the Doctor alone but he quickly takes on a new companion, the medical student Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman). Martha is a  strong and confident character and she decides to travel with the Doctor because she wants to have great adventures, which is what what she gets.

This season features even more excellent stories than Season 2. The first of these is the season's first two-parter, consisting of Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks, in which the Doctor once again confronts his old enemies, the Daleks. This episode is very atmospheric as it takes place in New York at the time of the Great Depression. It presents the Doctor with a dilemma as his confrontation with the Daleks presents him with an opportunity that has never arisen before. The episode also features one of the first performances of the now well-known British actor Andrew Garfield (Never Let Me Go, The Amazing Spiderman) as a young man named Frank. The next 2-part story, which consists of Human Nature and The Family of Blood, is even better. The Doctor and Martha are being chased by a family of alien beings that wishes to consume the Doctor's life force in order to prevent its own death. In order to prevent this the Doctor turns himself human, which forces him to forget who he was, and transforms into a teacher at an independent school in England in 1913. He asks Martha to protect him but she is faced with a problem that she is not prepared for - what should she do if the Doctor falls in love? This story is followed by the standalone episode Blink, which is unanimously considered one of the greatest Doctor Who episodes of all time. It follows the adventures of the intrepid Sally Sparrow (Carrey Mulligan) who seeks to solve the mystery of the Weeping Angels, one of the most dangerous alien species introduced in the series. The Doctor and Martha play a minor but important role in this episode, which focuses on Sally who is an exciting character. The episode also includes one of the greatest dialogue exchanges in Doctor Who:

Kathy Nighingale: What did you come here for anyway?
Sally Sparrow: I love old things. They make me feel sad.
Kathy Nightingale: What's good about sad?
Sally Sparrow: It's happy for deep people.

The show's final story, which takes place in Utopia, The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords, is even more epic and it features an epic struggle between the Doctor and a rogue Time Lord, the Master. In the first episode Martha and the Doctor are recharging the TARDIS in Cardiff and as they leave Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) manages to latch on to the TARDIS and ends up with them billions of years into the future at the end of the universe. The three companions face a bleak future as humanity is struggling to escape to Utopia, where they believe that they will be safe. However, all is not as it seems and the greatest danger to humanity comes not from the carnivorous Futurekind but from someone closer to the Doctor. I don't want to reveal too much but I will mention that John Simms, who was absolutely brilliant as the detective Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, delivers a tremendous performance as the manic Master.

The rest of the Season 3 episodes are all rather good. In The Shakespeare Code the Doctor and Martha meet the famous Bard and they come to face to face with creatures from another world masquerading as witches. The episode plays with history as Martha becomes the inspiration for Shakespeare's Dark Lady. In Gridlock the Doctor is forced to engage in a frantic search for Martha in New New York after she is kidnapped and forced into a car that enters the neverending traffic on the city's highway. In this episode the Doctor also comes face to face with an important character from his past who reveals a great secret to him. In 42 the Doctor and Martha finds themselves on cargo ship hurtling towards the centre of a sun. A member of the crew is taken over by some strange creature that seems bent on destruction. However, there is more to this situation than meets the eye and the Doctor soon makes a startling discovery about the sun. The previous episode, The Lazarus Experiment, features Mark Gatiss as Professor Richard Lazarus who seems to have discovered a way to rejuvenate the human body. However, the Doctor is suspicious of his fellow scientists and soon that discovers that Lazarus has had to pay a terrible price for the return of his youth. Martha's family - her sister, brother and mother - also plays an important role in this episode and the interaction with them shows us that even early on Martha is committed to helping the Doctor. The first episode of the Season, Smith and Jones, is also rather good in introducing Martha and it features an interesting storyline in which the hospital that she works in is transported to the Moon. However, the antagonist in this story is not particularly threatening and the episode does not stand compared to the rest of the standalone stories of the season.

In short, Season 3 of Doctor Who is every bit as good as Season 2. In fact, it features even more exciting moments and build up to the best finale in the series. The Doctor's new companion, Martha Jones, is very likeable and easy to relate to, although it is annoying that she constantly pines after him and seems unwilling to accept the fact that he does not reciprocate her feelings. The return of Captain Jack Harkness is also very welcome but it is John Simm's playful performance as the Master that simply steals the spotlight. I find it difficult to criticise this season and can only recommend that you give it a go so that you can prepare yourselves for Season 4.

Image taken from Amazon.co.uk

Doctor Who - Season 2 (2006)

Head Writer and Executive Producer: Russel T. Davies
Main Cast: David Tennant, Billie Piper, Noel Clarke, Camille Codurri, Shaun Dingwall

Although the second season of Doctor Who contains more middling episodes than the first, it manages to successfully build up on the show's success and delivers many very exciting episodes. Season 2 differs significantly in tone as it features the new Tenth Doctor played by Scottish actor David Tennant. Although I did enjoy the Ninth Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston, I must admit that Tennant's Doctor is much more charistmatic and light-hearted, despite the fact that sometimes he gets very serious and apologetic. What do I mean by this? One of the new Doctor's favourite expressions is the French phrase "Allons-y", which means "let's go." This brings a lot of energy to the series but at the same time the Doctor compensates for this through one of his other favourite phrases - "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" - which he uses in different versions in tragic moments.

Nevertheless, Season 2 of Doctor Who is an absolute triumph. While it does not have an overarching storyline as Season 1 did with Bad Wolf, it has some excellent episodes that offer engaging storylines and lead to a very exciting conclusion.

Although it is difficult to choose a favourite episode, I would have to say that mine is The Girl in the Fireplace, in which the Doctor meets the famous Madame de Pompadour (Sophia Myles), official mistress of Louis XV. This is the first episode in which we see the Doctor connect with a person other than Rose and it also shows us how lonely he actually is. The emotional core of the story is the attraction between the Doctor and Madame de Pompadour and I can't imagine that anyone would be disappointed by this episode.

There are also several other excellent stories in the season. The 2-part story about the Cybermen consists of Rise of the Cyberman and The Age of Steel in which the Doctor, Rose and Mickey travel to a parallel world in which they face the Doctor's old enemies and encounter someone important from Rose's past. Even better is the 2-part story about an impossible planet orbiting a black hole, which consists of The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit. This is an incredibly well-written episode in which the Doctor, who is usually very confident even in difficult situations, is forced to take a leap of faith. I'll leave you to figure out what this means. The first episode, The Impossible Planet, also features a great scene in which one of the characters quotes the following lines from Thomas Babington Macaulay's poem Horatius:

For how should man die better, 
Than facing fearful odds, 
For the ashes of his father 
And the temples of his gods.

The final 2-parter, consisting of Army of Ghosts and Doomsday, is suitably epic and it builds on events that have occured throughout the season. It features a grand battle in which the Doctor is forced to rely on the help of humans in order to defeat the latest threat to Earth.

Unfortunately, the standlone episodes in the season are not nearly as good as the ones in the previous season. Whereas Season 1 had the excellent The Unquiet Dead and Dalek, the only oustanding standalone episode of Season 2 is Tooth and Claw. However, it offers an exhilarating story taking place in Scotland in the Victorian era, which gives David Tennant a rare chance to use his Scottish accent, and it introduces us to the legendary Queen Victoria. New Earth is also a very good episode which features the return of a previous enemy of the Doctor and Rose and a mysterious character who will play an important role in the Doctor's future - the Face of Boe. The rest of the standalone episodes, The Idiot's Lantern, Love & Monsters and Fear Her are simply okay, although Love & Monsters is excellent in parts as it is the only episode in the season not centred on the Doctor and it features great interactions between a group of seemingly uninteresting characters.

In short, Season 2 takes Doctor Who to new heights and it features many exciting and interesting stories. It gives us the opportunity to learn more about Rose's boyfriend Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) and her mother (Camille Codurri). Although the season lacks the magnetic presence of Captain Jack Harkness(John Barrowman), who seemingly died in Season 1's last episode and was then resurrected by Rose, it compensates for this with the new Doctor's charisma. It also explores the deepening relationship between the Doctor and Rose, which had already started to develop in Season 1. However, it becomes much more important in Season 2 and it plays a central part in the season finale. If you would like to find out more, just go ahead and buy, rent or watch the season online. I promise that you won't regret it.

Image taken from Amazon.co.uk

Doctor Who - Season 1 (2005)

Head Writer and Executive Producer: Russel T. Davies

Cast: Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper, Noel Clarke, John Barrowman

In 2005 the BBC revived Doctor Who, one of the iconic science fiction shows of all time and a staple of British popular culture. Doctor Who originally ran between 1963 and 1989 and in 1996 a television film was released, which unfortunately failed to revive regular production of the shows. The first season of the new TV series attempts to adapt the show for a new season and it is fairly successful in this. I must admit, to my shame, that I've never watched any of the original Doctor Who episodes or the television film but I was very impressed with the first 4 seasons of the new series and I watched them religiously a few years ago.

Season 1 consists of 13 forty-five minute episodes, 6 of which form 3 two-part stories. The first episode, Rose, introduces us to the Ninth Doctor (Eccleston) and his new companion Rose Tyler (Piper), as well as her boyfriend Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) and her mother Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri), both of whom become recurring characters throughout the season. Although the opening episode lacks a memorable villain, it effectively introduces the show's characters and it's funny and clever. The second episode, The End of the World, has some great visuals but its plot is unremarkable and it misses the opportunity to delve deeper into the culture shock that Rose experiences during her first trip to the future. In fact, the episode fails completely at this as the aliens that we see, although they exist in the far future, are very similar to people today. However, the show's third episode The Unquiet Dead, is fortunately much better. The action in this episode takes place in Victorian Cardiff. Simon Callow gives a great performance as one of the Victorian era's most celebrated writers, Charles Dickens. The episode also includes a great performance by Eva Myles as Gwyneth, a clairvoyant servant who in a brilliant scene while looking into Rose's mind foresees The Big Bad Wolf. The Bad Wolf is an essential part of the main storyline of this season, which culminates in the two-part ending.

The following story is the show's first two-parter and it consists of the episodes Aliens of London and World War Three. This is the first story to take place in contemporary London since the season opener and it features as villains the rather silly Slitheen. The story is fun and light-hearted, which makes it a romp, but it lacks a genuine sense of menace. However, it shows the repercussions of Rose's decision to run away with the Doctor as she comes back to her home much later than expected. This leads to some interesting interactions between her and her mother and boyfriend, which definitely improve the story. This two-parter also features a great performance by Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The next episode, Dalek, is also excellent and it introduces us to one of the Doctor's greatest enemies. This episode shows a different, more ruthless side of the Doctor as we see that despite his good nature, there are beings that even he despises and is willing to do anything to stop.

The next episode, The Long Game, is rather unimpressive. The Long Game is supposed to take place in the distant future but it is set in a world that is very similar to ours and it makes a rather clumsy attempt to satirise journalism. However, it is followed by the excellent Father's Day, which focuses on Rose's dead father and makes up for the lack of a palpable sense of menace with its strong emotional impact and the excellent acting of Billie Piper and Shaun Dingwall as Pete Tyler.

The show really picks up with the following story - the two-parter made up of The Empy Child and The Doctor Dances. The setting is London during the Nazi bombing campaign/the Blitz in the Second World War. The Doctor and Rose find the British capital terrorised by a young boy wearing strange mask who is stubborngly looking for his mother. This two-part story includes two excellent guest star performances by Florence Hoath as Nancy, a young woman who seems to be somehow connected to the child, and John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, who ends up joining the Doctor and Rose. The charismatic Captain Harkness is a charismatic rogue Time Agent and his sleek spaceship and professional demeanour represent a stark contrast to the Doctor's TARDIS and his easy-going attitude.

The penultimate story of Season 1 is Boom Town, which takes place in Cardiff and focuses on one of Slitheen who survived the events portrayed in World War Three. The episode presents an interesting moral conundrum for the Doctor but in the end it fails to deliver due to the use of deus ex machina. The main storyline of the season about Bad Wolf culminates in the show's two final episodes - Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways. The Doctor, Rose and Captain Harkness find themselves separated on Gamestation/Satellite 5, which they had already visited in The Long Game. Bad Wolf is a parody of reality television programmes and it features an exciting cliffhanger. It is an excellent episode but I feel that once again it suffers from the fact that the world portrayed it too familiar - I find it difficult to believe that thousands of years from now people will watch programmes so similar to what is on television today. Personally I find that Doctor Who's episodes set in the future suffer from a lack of imagination on the part of the writers but Bad Wolf is nevertheless a very strong episode that features excellent acting by the show's main stars. In The Parting of the Ways the Doctor faces his greatest enemy and is once again faced with a moral dilemma. Although the episode is incredibly entertaining and very well-acted, it also resolves the main problem through a deus ex machina. I think that this is the main problem with this, which is otherwise very strong.

In conclusion, I would say that Season 1 of the new Doctor Who is very good and it features some classic episodes. I very much enjoyed Christopher Eccleston's performance as the Doctor and his use of the word 'fantastic.' I was initially ambivalent about Rose Tyler as I found her annoying but I gradually grew to like her. John Barrowman's Captain Jack Harkness is also terrific and his inclusion in the cast from The Doctor Dances definitely makes the rest of the episodes more engaging. I do have one minor gripe, however, and that is the fact that deus ex machina was used in at least 2 episodes. I believe that this was the case because the writers did not what to do otherwise. That is a persistent problem with Doctor Who as the Doctor, his companions or someone else comes up with all sorts of outlanding solutions that somehow manage to resolve the crisis at hand. If you are a fan of hardcore science fiction and enjoy logic, you are unlikely to enjoy Doctor Who unless you are able to disregard the outlandish plot developments throughout the series. Personally I think that it's worth forgiving the series writers for these minor failing as they've managed to create an incredibly entertaining and engaging series that can be viewed by both adults and children. As the Doctor would say, it is 'fantastic, absolutely fantastic.'