Doctor Who Series Review: Series 2-4+Specials (10th Doctor)

So after the departure of the 9th Doctor, we now get our 10th Doctor who is played by David Tennant. Unlike Chris, David has been the Doctor for 3 series, several specials, 2 animated episodes and even an interactive episode. What I'll be covering today is all the TV adventures that he has had, but I will not be doing the animated and interactive episodes as they aren't part of the main story (but i may touch on them next week). We've got a lot to get through, so let's kick things off with what could be, my longest post to date:

Series 2:

The Christmas Invasion

In the first of many Christmas specials to follow and following on from the series 1 finale, The Doctor takes Rose home in time for Christmas, but crash lands the Tardis in the process. As he continues to suffer with post- regeneration effects, Rose, Mickey and Jackie take him into Jackie's flat and dress him in some pyjamas  and put in on a bed. With not much to do, Rose and Mickey go Christmas shopping, only to be attacked by some robotic Santas and when they return home, a spinning tree, which the Doctor destroys before going back to sleep. Meanwhile, Harriet Jones, now Prime Minister for the UK is working alongside a science team who are monitoring a space probe which was sent to Mars, but little do they know, that the probe was swallowed up by an alien spaceship whom of which, is going to invade Earth and without The Doctor, can Rose and Co save Earth? Overall, I felt this episode was great, but didn't really have any action from the new Doctor until later on. Despite that, it is one of many episodes where the companions have to fend for themselves rather than relay on The Doctor and it's also odd to see Harriet's darker side which is good. 9/10

New Earth

The Doctor, now feeling a lot better, takes Rose to the year 5 billion and 23, 23 years after the destruction of Earth. They land on New Earth which is a Earth like planet that the humans chose to live on after the destruction of the original Earth. There, they go to a hospital for aliens and humans alike and to their surprise, see the return of Boe (who was among the survivors on the space station) who is slowly dying and Cassandra who once again, is up to no good. However The Doctor and Rose have other problems, when they see that the hospital is housing pods containing humans that have many illnesses and diseases and stay there, until a cure can be made. Seeing as this is the first proper outing of the new Doctor, I actually like this episode. It provides closure to Cassandra's story, the idea of having to deal with more than one problem, can seem complicated but is executed well and it shows how a hospital can be so evil and sinister at times. 9/10

Tooth and Claw

The Doctor as always, attempts to take Rose to a specific point in time, but instead, miscalculates and ends up somewhere else. In this case, they arrive in the Scottish Moors in 1879 and meet Queen Victoria who has to travel by carriage to Balmoral Castle as the road to Aberdeen is blocked. She allows Rose and The Doctor to travel with her and the 3 of them go to Torchwood Estate which is a favourite place of the Queen's late husband, Prince Albert. They arrive but sooner or later, realise that the place is being overruned by a group of monks who were responsible for the road block as they wanted the Queen to come here as they have a man who is infected with a form of lycanthropy and hope to pass this infection onto the Queen to being a new empire of wolf. The Doctor is the first to realise the trap that the 3 of them are in, and he tries to once again save the day. Overall, this is another episode that brings the scare factor that the show is known for, back again and for the most part, it works. The Queen is played well, The wolf looks great, and it's good to finally see The new Doctor in action unlike before. 9/10

School Reunion

Mickey Smith has noticed some strange things happening at a comprehensive school and has The Doctor and Rose, go to investigate. The Doctor and Rose go undercover to do their investigation which sees the Doctor as a teacher under the name John Smith and Rose in the cafeteria. According to Mickey, the chips that are being served to the students at lunch time (which is free for them) are making the students more intelligent and have an effect on the kitchen staff. Sooner or later, this attracts the media attention of a former companion of the Doctor's, Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen) as well as her robotic dog, K9. With her help, The Doctor and Co continue their investigation which later on, has them prevent another alien species from you guessed it, taking over the world (yeah, yeah you know the drill). Overall, I see this as a much deserved return of both K9 and SJ, but I find the story to be quite weak and not a lot is really happening for the most part, however the performance of the aliens' leader is great. 8/10

The Girl in the Fireplace

With Mickey, who in the last episode wanted to travel with The Doctor and Rose, the Tardis lands in a spaceship which despite being fully functional, is motionless without a crew. The trio then seem to find an 18th century fireplace which seems to be a portal to the 18th century and is centred on certain events in time through an individuals life, this case being a woman called Reinette who we later find out, is historic figure, Madame De Pompadour which The Doctor admires greatly. As the story goes on, we find out that a group of droids that are operated by clockwork, were responsible for killing the crew on the ship so that they can be rebuilt as they used to be maintenance droids, before a ion storm hit the ship. The require one more part for the ship, so that it can be fully operational, MDP's brain. Once again, it's up to The Doctor to prevent this from happening, but does he succeed. Watch the episode to find out. Overall, it's got some of the best acting in the show so far and has a few funny moments here and there as well. I like it. 9/10

Rise of the Cybermen + The Age of Steel

The Doctor and Co start talking about past adventures, but are later interrupted when the Tardis is ricked by an explosion and goes dark. The Doctor (once again, miscalculating) thinks that the Tardis has fallen out of the time vortex and stuck into the void, but instead, the trio arrive in a present day parallel universe to theirs. The Doctor begins preparations to repair the Tardis and as it will take time, the 3 of them explore this parallel Earth which both Rose and Mickey, believe to have their deceased family members still alive. But it isn't long before Mickey sees his parallel self known as Ricky who is part of a team of rebels who are rebelling against the inventor, John Lumic who has plans to take the human evolution to the next level with everyone with these funny earpieces submitting themselves fro an upgrade to turn into another one of The Doctor's greatest enemies, the Cybermen. Using the combined forces of the rebels and Pete Tyler (who in this universe, is alive and is successful in his businesses) as well as his own companions, The Doctor forms a plan to stop Lumic and his Cybermen from taking over London, which he may or may not succeed in, but it will end with some consequences. Overall, I though this 2 part story was a great comeback for the Cybermen and the idea of having a parallel world, was a brilliant idea. 9/10

The Idiot's Lantern

The Doctor and Rose arrive in London in time for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, although yet again, he miscalculates. The Doctor grows curious as to why there are some people with the faces covered by sheets are being taken away by the police and goes to investigate. He later finds out that the faces of these individuals have been removed by television sets being sold by Mr. Magpie to give his master, The Wire, more power and he finds out that the Wire intends to suck the faces of every single person watching the coronation for even more power so that her alien self can be freed from the law. Without Rose by his side (as she was among the many to lose her face to the Wire), The Doctor must stop this from happening before the world goes faceless. Overall, it's a very good story that throws in a little bit of nostalgia here and their and for some of us young folk, we can now see some archived footage of the coronation in this episode so 2 great things about this episode so far. As for everything else, it's also great. 9/10

The Impossible Planet + The Satan Pit

The Tardis lands inside a "Sanctuary Base" which is used for deep space expeditions and as they are there, The Doctor and Rose come across writing that the Tardis cannot translate and it isn't long before they encounter some more aliens. The crew of this expedition arrive to tell the 2 of them that the aliens are Ood and are servants to the crew, making them not a threat. The crew explain to The Doctor and Rose that they are on an anomalous planet named Krop Tor which is in orbit around a black hole. A member of the crew explains that there is a gravity funnel that exists on this planet which can help them get home safely through the black hole. As Rose and The Doctor start to get acquainted with the crew, a planet quake begins and causes the unit that the Tardis is in to fall into the planet, which has The Doctor and Rose become part of the crew until they can get the Tardis back. Little do they know, that a large god like beast is living inside the planet and is preparing to kill the crew and sending the planet into the hole. With some of the most heart breaking scenes in any episode to date, this is a very strong story that works on all levels and I for one, enjoyed it. 9/10

Love & Monsters

In a very creative and cheap episode, The Doctor and Rose continue their adventures in time and space while back on present day Earth, we focus on the character, Elton Pope, a young ELO fan who for the majority of the episode, is him describing his encounters with The Doctor and some alien friends and foes. He is part of a group of people who have also had encounters with the Doctor who are called LINDA. The group over time becomes more of a social group and on one day, a man called Victor Kennedy comes in and notices that the group have lost their purpose and decides to take over and has them undergo a few missions on locating the Doctor which has Elton coming across Jackie Tyler and eventually, leads to the fact that Victor is in fact an alien from the Slitheen's twin planet, Clom and has absorbed members of LINDA into him. Overall, it's funny, shows the stuff that The Doctor does from a different perspective very well and whoever created the alien here, obviously had some great imagination which is always good in the Whoverse. 9/10

Fear Her

The Doctor (who actually gets it right for once) takes Rose to London in 2012 where the Olympics is only a few hours away from starting, but the mood of the village that they are in, is not that great as children have gone missing and it's believed that a certain child in the neighbourhood is the culprit, due to her weird nature of staying in her room the whole time. The Doctor and Rose go in investigate and find out that the girl has been possessed by a Isolus, a small alien creature that has had a similar life to the girl in that they are both lonely as the Isolus was part of a group before a solar flare hit it and landed onto Earth. The Doctor and Rose go to find the Isolus's pod but it isn't long before the girl draws the Doctor and the Tardis and takes them both away, forcing Rose to find the pod herself, before more people go missing, even the people who are at the opening ceremony of the Olympics are in danger. Overall, its another one of those episodes that gives us the scare factor that the show is known for and I loved it. Only problem is that, it did feel very cheap and it can be quite scary at times.

Army of Ghosts + Doomsday

In Rose's last adventure on board the Tardis and in a real Doctor Who first, The Doctor and Rose go to see Jackie, who has managed to come into contact with a ghost of Rose's late grandfather which they see in all it's glory. The Doctor then learns that the whole world is seeing ghosts and tracks the source to the Torchwood Institute, which was set up by Queen Victoria earlier in the series. The Doctor and Jackie (who is mistaken for Rose who disguises herself as a scientist and leaves the Tardis later on) are imprisoned by the boss, who shows them a ball like object which was responsible for these occurrences with ghosts. The Doctor however believes that the ball like object is a void ship which can travel outside of time and space and can inhabit the void. It isn't long before the Doctor and Co realise that these ghosts are in fact, Cybermen who have managed to come into the real Earth, but they are not the only ones as Mickey has found a way in and surprisingly, so have a group of Daleks called The Cult of Skaro. With everyone in the facility imprisoned by both the Cybermen and the Daleks, both of them come into contact with each other and when the cybermen offer an alliance with the Daleks, they refuse and an all out war between the 2 begins. A device known as the Genesis Ark is being protected by the Daleks as it contains millions of other Dalek units which the Daleks send out to destroy the cybermen, with some of the humans in the process. While all this is happening The Doctor along with all the Tyler family as well as the rebelian that Mickey, Jake and Pete have formed, form a plan to get rid of all the Daleks and the Cybermen before any more damage on both Earths occurs (which doesn't end well for Rose). Overall, I feel that the idea of 2 of the Doctor's greatest enemies at war with each other, is great. I also feel that this was a good end to Rose's time as being the Doctor's companion and I'm sure we'll see more of her in future episodes. 9/10

That's series 2 done and I say that it was a good series overall and was a good way to introduce us to the 10th Doctor and a great way to end Rose's time with him. Love it. 9/10

Series 3:

The Runaway Bride

In the second Christmas special of the reboot, A woman in a bride's dress called Donna Noble (Cathrine Tate), somehow ends up in the Tardis and both her and the Doctor are surprised by this matter. The Doctor takes her home, but it isn't long before the robotic santas return and take her hostage, but this is only briefly as the Doctor saves her later on. The Doctor gives her a ring which can allow her to not be detected by the robots and the two go to her reception party. There, the 2 of them meet the groom who may know a thing or two about the robots and why they are behaving this way and he takes The Doctor and Donna to his HQ, but a sinister plot is emerging and The Doctor must once again, save the day. Overall, I like that the special has humour in it and I love the villain as well. Only criticism I do have is that it does feel rushed and there are moments that make you go "WTF?!" but it's otherwise an enjoyable special. 8/10

Smith and Jones

Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) is a particular astude medical student who breifly meets the Doctor on her way to a London hospital. She meets the Doctor again who is pretending to be a paitent there with the name John Smith, but The Doctor shows no sign of ever meeting her. The hospital then starts to have an odd rain cloud over it and it's then teleported onto the moon and is then invaded by a group of aliens that call themselves, the Judoon whom the Doctor recognizes as the Space Police (yeah, yeah, I know they have another name, but that's what they are refered as for the most part). They have come to the hospital to catch a shape shifting alien criminal who is able to suck the blood out of any individual. For once, The Doctor allows the Judoon to do what they need to do and helps here and there when needed. In the end, he recruits Martha Jones as his new companion and the 2 of them travel through time and space. Overall, I thought this was a good episode to introduce the character Martha Jones who fits the role of being the next companion quite well. As for the story, it's a little bit odd and weird, but still good nevertheless. 9/10

The Shakespeare Code

Seeing as The Doctor has given Martha one time travelling trip, he takes her to Elizabethan, London in the year 1599. He takes her to see a perfromance of Love, Labours Lost at the globe theatre and then go to meet the legendary play writer, William Shakesphere at The Elephant (which is an inn that he is staying at) to see a sneak peak of his next play, which apparently will have it's premere the following night. A trio of witches then kill one of WS's men which The Doctor deduces that he died from an imbalance of the humours, secretly telling Martha that it is indeed witchcraft. They later find out that the trio of witches are finding a way to bring some sort of a group of demons that call themselves, the Carrionites back into the universe, so yet again, The Doctor must stop this from happening. Overall, I felt this episode was just ok. There are some funny moments, there's also moments which make you cringe and there are also some moments that were just weird. I like the Harry Potter references as well, but overall, it's just an ok episode, not great, just ok. 8/10

Gridlock

The Doctor takes Martha to New New York which now, has all it's civilians inside futuristic versions of what seems to be a Volkswagen camper van in a tri-dimensional gridlock. Martha gets captured by a couple who say that they can use the fast lane if a veichle has 3 passengers, and a member of the couple is pregnant which is a good reason for it, however because the motorway has little to no movement, this would take 6 years, something that angers and confuses Martha. The Doctor decides to go into another car and learns more about the motorway, before pursuing Martha. Meanwhile, elsewhere in New New York, Boe is ready to give The Doctor his message and sends his personal nurse (who we met previously in New Earth) to go and find him before he dies. It has a happy(ish) ending which I'm happy about. Overall, it finishes up Boe's story in a satisfactory way and it's the most unusual episode that anyone will come across when watching the show, however there are many more episodes to go so I'll let it pass. 8/10

Daleks in Manhaten + Evolution of the Daleks

Martha asks The Doctor if he can do a detour back to the present day which The Doctor chooses to do. As they do just that, the Tardis lands in New York in the year 1930 where the Empire State Building is still under construction, but in it's finishing stages. They go to a place called Hoverville where some of the city's homeless people live and meet thier leader, Solomon. The Doctor and Martha find out that there have been a number of dissaperances happening in the city and as such, they go to investigate when a richman comes and overs work to them. When they are sent to explore the tunnels, they come across some Pig Slaves which begin to attack them and while Martha, The Doctor and Solomon manage to escape, the 4th member of thier group, Frank, gets captured by the beasts. They arrive in a theatre and meet a showgirl called Tallulah who recently lost her boyfriend Laszlo to the creatures (although she thinks that he is missing rather than capture which is what I ment anyway). As the Doctor finds out what these creatures are, he studys some organic matter from the beast and finds that they are of Skaro origin. A pig slave is in the background when Tallulah is performing, but it isn't long before Martha gives chase to it, only to be captured by more pig slaves. The Doctor and Tallulah follow the pig slaves and come across the one pig slave that was seen at the theatre, which Tallulah identifies as Laszlo. They learn from Laszlo that the humans captured by the pig slaves will be turned into pig slaves or will be put aside for a "final experiment", depending on thier intelligence level and this is determined by you guessed it, The Daleks. The Doctor finds out that the Cult of Skaro are working on a way to keep thier race going by merging themselves with the human race and to prove that evolution works, Dalek Sec (the cult leader) has the richman from before, get merged with him and together, they form the first human Dalek. Sec discovers that with human flesh, he has emotions and can make the humans that the cult have, into just humans with some Dalek intellegence inside them. The other Daleks rebel over this matter and beliving that Sec is no longer a Dalek, Caan takes over as the commanding officer and the 3 Daleks prepare to make all thier humans pure Daleks and once again, The Doctor must stop them from doing so. Overall, this 2 part story was great, and a little bit of nostalgia here and there and it's a great story overall. 9/10

The Lazarus Experiment

The Doctor takes Martha home which according to him, it was 12 hours since she left with him (and this time, he's actually correct). Martha recieves a voicemail from her mother telling her, that her sister is on TV. When she turns it on, they see Professor Lazarus who states that in the evening of that same day, he will change what it means to be human. The Doctor and Martha go to where his "experiement" takes place and meet Martha's family (excluding her father who is divorced). All is well and the experiment proves to be successful as Lazarus becomes young again, however The Doctor is worried about the side effects and with some DNA that Martha acquired from a kiss on her hand from Lazarus, they go to a nearby lab and discover that his DNA is unstable and it shows when he turns into a scorpian like thing and begins draining the energy off a few people. The Doctor must stop his experiement before any trouble emerges. Overall, I find the monster to be quite scary in that it has a human head on it which makes it a bit creepy. I also find the mother slapping gag to be quite old now, but for the rest of it, it's ok, not great, just ok. 8/10

42

In a take on the popular american show, 24, The Doctor and Martha land inside an human spacecraft after recieveing a distress signal from that craft. But it isn't long before they are put to work by the crew and only have 42 minutes before the ship gets destroyed by the sun below. But as they do so, a strange force possess members of the crew and begins killing them in the process. So we've seen The Doctor save people over the course of a few hours or so, but what about in real time? Overall, this is a great episode that has your heart pumping the entire time and I for one, like it a lot. 9/10

Human Nature + The  Family of Blood

If there is any story that see's the Doctor playing human instead of time lord, it would be this one. The Doctor and Martha narrowly escape The Family of Blood, who are seeking the life force of The Doctor to prevent themselves from dying out. As the Tardis approaches Earth, he tells Martha that he must transform into a human for 3 months to allow him to escape thier dectection while they die and gives her a list of instructions to follow and gives her a fob watch containing his Time Lord configuration for her to guard. The Doctor takes the John Smith persona and becomes a teacher at the Farringham School for boys and Martha acts as his maid in the year 1913 (a year before the great war). Everything seems to go according to plan, but the family have found his location and possess 4 humans and start thier attack on him. For once, it's now up to Martha to stop this, rather than The Doctor, but will she succed? Overall, this was a great story with some of the best acting in the series so far. The villians are great, the story is great, and it's great to see a different side to the Doctor this time. 9/10

Blink

In another cheap episode with little input from The Doctor and Martha, we follow a woman called Sally Sparrow who goes to what seems to be an abandoned house to find subjects to photgraph, but instead finds statues of angels and messages from the Doctor, warning her to stay away. She returns the next day with her friend, Kathy and Kathy somehow gets caught by one of the angels and lands in the 1920s in Hull. Her now grandaughter gives Sally a letter about her and a few other things. Sally comes across a key which she takes before leaving. She later discovers that there is a easter egg hidden on a few DVDs sold by a guy called Larry Nightingale which have the Doctor speaking to the viewer as if he was actually there, via a transcript that she apparently gave the Doctor at one point, should he be captured by the angels as well. Then for the rest of the episode, she and Larry investigate these angels and find out that they can move within a blink, but cannot move when being stared upon. This is a great episode that has the scariest monsters in any Doctor Who episode to date. I love it a lot. 9/10

Utopia + The Sound of Drums + Last of the Time Lords

The Tardis lands in present day Cardiff for a refuel from the Rift. Jack Harkness races to the Tardis as it materilizes and forces it to land at the end of the universe. Because of the imortalty that Rose gave him in series 1, he surives. He joins The Doctor and Martha and the 3 of them go to investigate the area, only to encounter the futurekind, but fortuantly find a nearby base and go into it. There he helps the remainder of the human race t get thier ship to Utopia moving, but discover that an old foe of his has returned. The Master, to be more presise. As the Master regenerates inside the Doctor's Tardis, The Doctor has the Tardis go to the last time period that it was at (which was the present day) using his sonic screwdriver to do just that, but remotly. As he along with Jack and Martha return to the present day, they soon realize that Mr. Saxon is The Master's human persona and gradually takes over the world and captures Jack, The Doctor, Martha and her family (excluding her brother) and plans to enslave them. Using the technology that Lazarus used, The Master has the Doctor aged older to a more senial age as a way to humiliate him, but just as things go awery, Martha (using Jack's teleportation device) escapes and begins doing what the Doctor has asked her and get the human race to rebel against the Master. Will she succed, will her family be freed and will The Doctor be back to his normal selve? watch this 3 part story to find out. Overall, I find that a 3 part finale is better than a 2 part one as it's bigger, better and made on a epic scale, which any Who fan is sure to love. John Simm and Derek Jacobi's potral of the master is great, the whole idea of the human race are doomed is great and it's obvious that the makers of the show have really given it that much effort and it works brilliantly. 9/10

So that concludes series 3 which I find to be better and more epic than the previous one with some of the best acting around. 9/10

Series 4:

Voyage of the Damned

As the third Chirstmas special, as well as being the first episode of the revived show to be 72 minutes long, The Doctor crashes into a spaceship called Titanic and after doing repairs on the Tardis, he goes on board it, only to discover that it's not the original Titantic but rather an intersteller space crusier from the planet Sto. All is well and The Doctor befriends waitress Astrid (Kylie Minogue) and some other people on the cruiser and joins them for a brief excursion of Earth and land in London which the population have left, which according to a newspaper man (who is later revealed to be Wilfred Mott, grandfather of Donna Noble and is played by Bernard Cribbins) is down to all the alien invasions that happened at Christmas previously. Only him, The Queen and a handful of others have chosen to stay in London. When the gang is bought back to Titanic. Under the captain's orders, he dismisses the bridge staff but due to regulations, has one of them stay with him. As the ship's sheilding turns off, the ship is then attacked by some meteors. The Doctor and his party, then head for the bridge in an attempt to reactivate the engines, before the damaged ship hits Earth. In the end, a lot of sacrifices had to be made and only a handful of people on the ship, survive. Overall, I think this is the best Christmas speical so far and it's obvious that it was going to be epic with a few funny moments thrown in. A great start to series 4, in my opinion. 9/10

Partners in Crime

Having been regreting her refusal to travel with The Doctor, Donna chooses to investigate conspiracy theories in the hopes of finding the Doctor once more. The Doctor and Donna choose to investigate Adipose Industries who are making a diet pill to help reduce the weight of the overweight and obese people in London and what a surprise, the 2 eventually find each other and investigate together and find that the adipose pill that people take, can make small white beings come out of them and if there are loads of them coming out of the individual, it can kill the host. The Doctor and Donna try and stop them before an army of the little devils are made. I find this episode to be funny, but it does have times that make you very frustrated by the fact that Donna and the Doctor keep missing each other. Despite that, it's still a good and funny episode. 8/10

The Fires of Pompeii

On Donna's first proper adventure in the Tardis, The Doctor takes her to what looks like Rome, but is in fact Pompeii which they both discover when an earthquake hits the area, nearly causing a nearby volcano to eurpt which according to history, will actually eurpt the following day. Double D return to the Tardis's loctaion and to thier surprise, the Tardis has been sold to one Lucius Caecilius Lucundus, a marble sculptor. As The Doctor and Donna go to retrieve it, a secret group of aliens that call themselves the Pyrovile are working with a group called the Sibylline Sisterhood to make prophecies and slowly are converting the sisterhood to stone (if I'm correct that is, but it could be the other way round). They are also allied with a local augur named Lucius Petrus Dextrus who is attempting to create a energy converter. Much to The Doctor's surprise, he finds out that the Pyrovile are using the volcano to convert humans into Pyrovile as a way to conquer Earth and its up to the Doctor to prevent that from happening, but he must also make a diffcult choice: to save the population, save some of the population, or save no one but himself and Donna. Overall, it's one of the most intense episodes in terms of the choices that must be made and the time that the characters have before the eurpption happens. I feel that it's rushed and there isn't a lot of action. I also find the character development to be only slightly dissapointing so not too bad. 8/10

Planet of the Ood

The Doctor and Donna arrive on a planet which seems to be the place where Ood are made (or rather, the voice chips are made) and I won't go into too much detail, only to say that this shows us more of what an Ood is, how one is able to talk, how the red eye thing works and what sacrifices must be made to have the Ood speak. I find this to be better than thier last encounter because they only had a supporting role in the last encounter, so this makes up for it. I like it because it shows us what the Ood are capable of and I like that they now have a much bigger role here. Great stuff. 9/10

The Sontaran Stratagem + The Poison Sky

The Doctor and Donna return to the present day when former companion Martha Jones calls them. Upon arrival, the Doctor and Donna are taken by Martha into UNIT, a military organization that battles against aliens and paranormal therats on Earth, whome of which The Doctor has previously done work with on many occasions. They are conducting an investigation on a satelite navigation system by ATMOS which was developed by child prodigy Luke Rattigan and can reduce carbon dioxide emissions to zero. This eventually has The Doctor (escorted by a UNIT operative) go to Luke's house and question him, before coming across the Sontaran which gives The Doctor plenty of reason to help UNIT and put an end to ATMOS. With Donna not being very usful, she returns home to Wilfred and her mum, only telling Wilfred what she has been up to. All is well until the ATMOS system begins to poison people, Martha is captured and some human thing poses as her under orders from the Sontaran and Donna sort of gets captured with the Tardis giving the Doctor, more pressure than ever before. Overall, I felt that the return of the Sontarans was a pretty good idea and the whole idea of having UNIT to assist was also good as well. Those 2 factors put together, plus the whole world getting poisioned and 2 of the Doctor's companions having problems, it all works well here and I loved it. 9/10

The Doctor's Daughter

The Tardis is under lockdown with The Doctor, Donna and Martha inside it and it takes them to the planet Messaline in the midst of a generation long war between humans and fish like humanoids called the Hath. One of the soliders forces the Doctor's hands into a progenation machine to use his DNA to make a female solider which in theory, makes the solider, his daughter who Donna chooses to name Jenny. Martha then gets seperated from the humans after an explosion caused by Jenny and goes with the Hath. Simultaniously The Doctor and Co discover more than what they've bargined for and prepare to bring the war to an end. Overall, it's good but I do feel that Jenny should have her own spin-off series, but it's unlikely to ever happen. Still its a good enough episode overall. 8/10

The Unicorn and the Wasp

The Doctor and Donna go to the year 1926 and attend a party which to thier surpise, has a guest that the Doctor has great admiration of, Agatha Christie the famous british crime writer and the two of them realise that today is the day where she inexplictly dissappears for 10 days. As the episode progresses, some of the guests are found dead in a pattern following AC's books and it's up to her and The Doctor to solve the mystery. Overall, 2 of the best detectives out there, working together was a very good and original idea and I enjoyed this episode a lot, mainly for it's creativity. 9/10

Silence in the Library + Forest of the Dead

The Doctor and Donna arrive into the 51st Century on a planet that the biggest library in the universe, occupies and is the only attraction on the planet. But it seems to be deserted and no one seems to be here. That is, until a small group of archeliogists led by a lady called River Song (who plays a much bigger role in series 5 and 6 and is played by Alex Kingston) arrive and with the Doctor and Donna, begin to investigate the library with a shadowy meance slowly but steadily moving towards them and it isn't long before some of the team go missing and are presumbed to be dead, however they still live in a fantasy world that is on a hard drive in the library's computer. Its up to the Doctor and Co to stop the shadowy enemy and save those who are stuck in the hard drive. I know it may be a little bit unaccurate, but that's how I remember this 2 part story. Overall, I do feel that it's kinda boring for the most part and the action doesn't really happen until the 2nd part of the story, but it does give us a good introduction to River Song who by the way, is funny and cheeky which I like. 7/10

Midnight

In another cheap episode, The Doctor and Donna are enjoying a much deserved rest on a planet that's made of diamonds. The Doctor decides to go onto a shuttle bus for a long journey to discover the sapphire waterfall without Donna who chooses to stay behind. As time progresses, The Doctor enjoys some pleasant chit chat with the other passengers but the bus then stops midway and it isn't long before the ship begins to break thanks to the forces of the diamonds and later on, possess a fellow passenger which leads to anger among the other passengers who all turn against her and even The Doctor. It's up to the Doctor to resolve the situation, before any other danger occours. Overall, it's another great episode that I find to be great in that nobody knows what the dangerous force is and it intesity throughout the episode. Another great episode and I enjoyed it a lot. 9/10

Turn Left + The Stolen Earth + Journey's End

I know it looks more like a 2 part instead of 3 part episode, but because "Turn Left" has a massive connection to the final 2 episodes, I thought to count it in anyway. So Donna and the Doctor are enjoying thier time on a planet that has oriental stuff on it. Donna is greeted by what seems to be a fortune teller who tells her that red haired people can have thier fortunes told for free. She asks her how she met the Doctor, and as she explains an occurance that could have triggered her meeting him, she tells her to turn right and we then see an alternative reality being explained to us. In this reality, The Doctor dies upon killing the racnoss as Donna was the one that saved him that day, the hospital that was teleported onto the moon, had only 1 survivor as everyone else, including Martha Jones and even Sarah Jane Smith and her own companions die at the hands of the Judoon, London gets destroyed when the space crusier Titanic, crashes there, casuing a nuclear explosion, killing the Queen in the process and leading to the Noble family being homeless, thousands of people in the US die as the adipose was created there, instead of in London and the remainer of Jack's Torchwood are killed when preventing the Sontarans from invading and poisoning Earth. And this is all thanks to Donna for not being there to save the Doctor's life. As the story progresses (after Donna's vision of life without the Doctor), we see that the Earth is among the many planets that are taken to the Medusa Cascade for a Dalek invasion to begin, which is being led by a red supreme Dalek and the creator of the Daleks, Davros, both of which are following the prophecy that the now mad and insane Dalek Caan reads out to them. Defenceless without the Doctor, his companions on Earth (including Rose, despite not being able to be part of the conversation) are all called together by none other than Harriet Jones who is using a secret sub wave network designed by Mr. Cooper who the Doctor met in a previous episode. Using all of thier resources, Sarah Jane and Co, Torchwood, Martha and Co and Rose and the Nobles, attempt to contact the Doctor, but even though, the Doctor can trace the call, he isn't alone as the Daleks have also traced it and as they begin to kill Harriet Jones, she sends all of her data to Torchwood. In the end, all of the Doctor's companions get captured by the Daleks in an attempt to finally kill him and even capture the Doctor's clone who was created by Donna using the regeneration energy that the Doctor had on his chopped hand (which was something that Jack was holding on to after the events of the Christmas Invasion) and also Jackie and Mickey who have travelled with Rose to the real Earth using some sort of teleportation device, but all ends well for everyone in the end, but not for all of them. Overall, this was a very lengthly story with a lot of action and its one of many rare occasions where all of the companions are together and it will be a Who story to remember for a long time. 9/10

And that concludes series 4. It was great, it was funny, but above all, it has some of the best moments in Who history and will be a series to remember. 9/10

2008-2010 Specials:

The Next Doctor

Starting off this set of speical episodes, The Doctor goes to 1851 London in time for Christmas Eve. He responds to a cry for help, only to discover that he isn't the only Dcotor in town. But also discovers that the cybermen have returned and with the other Doctor suffering with amesia and later knowing that his take on a Tardis is very different to his take on it, he soon realises that this doctor is nothing more than just a regular human that lost his memories to the Cybermen who have his son working as one of their many child slaves in an attempt to create a gigantic cybermen which will be controlled by the cyber king. The trio of the Doctors and their human companion Rosita, must now stop the cybermen, before any damage is caused. Overall, the return of the Cybermen is great and thier return is not rushed at all and the idea of there being 2 doctors, is great as well. 8/10

Planet of the Dead

A cat burgular by the name Christina (Michelle Ryan) is stealing a gold chalice that was once belonged to King Ethelstan from a London museum and narrowly escapes from security on a 200 bus, shortly joined by The Doctor who is tracking a wormhole and it isn't long before the bus goes through the wormhole and lands in a dessert planet, known as San Helios. As he and the passengers try to get back home, UNIT are on the other side to investigate it and The Doctor contacts them for help. The gang soon discover that they aren't alone as an army of deadly flying aliens are on the move so it's now a race against time to get back home. Overall, this bought back the action that the show is known for and I feel that the whole scenario is great. 9/10

The Waters of Mars

The Doctor lands on Mars and comes across Bowie Base One and goes in to explore. As he is greeted by the crew inside, he finds out that he's arrived at a fixed point in time which is that on that particular day, the base was destroyed by a nuclear blast and had no survivors. Despite knowing this, The Doctor chooses to keep it to himself for now and reluctantly decides to help with the crew's problems. He soon discovers that there is a water borne virus that has affected two members of the crew and will continue to infect the other members as it has a desire to go to Earth and infect it's waters there, to which The Doctor must stop from happening, which could possibly change time forever. This episode is another one of those episodes that bring the scare factor that the show is known for, to an all time high and it's a great, heart pacing epsiode overall. 9/10

The End of Time Part 1 + Part 2

At last, we come to the final 2 part story of David Tennant's Doctor. The Doctor returns to the planet of the Ood where thier civilization has evolved. He becomes part of a circle of Ood who show him an image of The Master through his head, which tells the Doctor that he is returning as a sign for the end of time itself. A cult who are loyal to the Master attempt to ressurect him, but nly barely succed when his former wife intervines, which causes him to have constant hunger and superhuman speed and strength along with energy projection for his constant expending energy. The Doctor finds him and is forced to hear the sound of drums in his head which he hears and concludes that it was implanetd into his head from the outside. The Master is then taken into custody by a billionarie by the name Joshua Naismith. As the Doctor (and Wilfred who has joined him) learn more about what is going on, he finds out that The Master is using ways to bring back Galifrey which has been a plan of the Lord Presidents' for a long time. It isn't long before the planet orbits around Earth with likely signs of the Time War to follow and in his last adventure in this current form, The Doctor must now choose who to kill out of the master and the Lord President before his regeneration from saving Wilfred in a radiation chamber, begins. Not only was this David Tennant's final story, but also marks the end of the Russell T Davis era of Doctor Who and I felt that the story was great and gave Tennant a fitting and satisfactory end to his doctor while also letting his Doctor see all his companions one last time, before he changes again. It does feel a bit rushed at times, but I'm happy with the outcome regardless. 9/10

So for the specials, they are all great and give Tennant's doctor a satisfactory ending that I'm sure everyone will love and cry about for a long time. 9/10

And that concludes my very long review of the 10th Doctor, who I find to be one of the greatest, if not, passionate Doctors among the lot. The overall score I give him is 9/10. There is more to come, so stay tuned.