It all started out as a mild curiosity in a junkyard. Time to review the highlights and low-points of The First Doctor.
Having watched and discussed all of the Tenth Doctor episodes, we hereby contemplate the highs and lows of not only the David Tennant era, but of an epoch defined by Russell T Davies
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For 47 episodes we’ve travelled through space and time with David Tennant as The Tenth Doctor, and so the time has come for the traditional Who Back When Doctor Retrospective. Join us in this bonus episode as we discuss the highs and lows of the Tennant era, and attempt to answer such important questions as:
- Which were Tennant’s best episodes, and why?
- Which were his absolute worst episodes?
- How would we rank his companions?
- Who were the best and worst aliens of the Tennant run?
- How do we rate his outfit?
- What do we think of the Coral TARDIS?
- Which were the best and worst sci-fi gizmos of The Tenth Doctor era?
- The Master vs. Davros — who was better?
- And more…
The best/worst Tennant episodes:
Best = Rise of the Cybermen / Blink / Midnight
Worst = The Lazarus Experiment.
Best/worst aliens in them:
Best = Daleks
Worst = Human Daleks, Dalek Humans, whatever Dalek Sec is.
Comparing Tennant to Eccleston is too hard, sorry. They’re just so different. Do they have anything in common apart from the Tardis and Rose? Well, maybe that they never phoned it in: they pushed themselves to the (intensity/emo) limit, they both acted their socks off from the first episode to the last, both were Doctors worthy of fond remembrance.
But we also say goodbye to RTD. If Moffat has a brain the size of a planet, RTD has a heart the size of a planet. He dedicated years of his life to resurrecting this show for all of us, pouring his devotion and considerable talent into every part of it. The hits were euphoric Event Television. The misses were at least often energetic and silly, and iconic in their own way. Even Love and Monsters is enjoyable if you switch your inner critic off. We follow in his footsteps still today. Doc said ‘Fun’ was his intent in Waters of Mars, and that was RTD’s signature. And largely he succeeded, especially with Tennant.
Ecclestone brought the ‘Run!’, Tennant the ‘Fun!’ I give the RTD era as a whole a 3.8 out of sheer sentimentality.
Geronimo!