Top Five Doctor Who Concepts: David Tennant Style

BY: ORANGECHAIR
When I came up with the concept for this post a week ago, it was much broader. I thought it would be a brilliant idea to write a post ranking my five favorite concepts from Doctor Who. I thought this idea was brilliant until I sat down and actually considered what I was trying to do. First off, I am in the middle of watching my seventh season of Doctor Who, which means I have seen 81 episodes not to mention 4 specials. Beyond that there are twenty-six seasons of Doctor Who that ran from 1963 to 1989 that I haven’t even seen. With those two thoughts in mind I decided it was time to narrow down my search to a single Doctor. Luckily, when it comes down to picking a single Doctor to focus on there is no doubt in my mind which one to pick: the best one. So here it goes, my favorite five concepts from episodes featuring Doctor Who’s Tenth Doctor, David Tennant.

5. “The Girl in the Fireplace” (Series 2, Episode 4)

Concept: Time Windows- Not only did I find the concept behind this episode to be quite brilliant but it also lent itself nicely to yet another devastatingly amazing Doctor Who episode endings. The episode in question places the Doctor on a disabled ship with no sign of any crew. What the Doctor does find are time doors that take him back to the 18th century bedroom of Madame de Pompadour, known as Reinette (Sophia Myles). The episode focuses on the Doctor attempting to save Reinette from the clockwork men but the concept I want to highlight here are the time windows. The Doctor finds a number of different time windows, each one that leads to a different time in Reinette’s life. The Doctor is without control of when he can see Reinette or how much time has passed for Reinette when moving from window to window. SPOILER ALERT. This brings us to a devastating end of the episode in which the Doctor promises to take Reinette with him only to return through a time window to find that she has died in the six years since his last visit but it only seemed like moments for the Doctor.

4. “The Doctor’s Daughter.” (Series 4 Episode 6)
Concept: The Clone Wars- This entire paragraph is going to be one big spoiler because what I find to be fascinating about this episode is what the audience finds out at the very end of the episode. This episode brings the Doctor, Donna Noble and Martha Jones to the center of a battle between humans and a group of fish creatures called the Hoth on another planet. According to both sides the war has been going on for centuries, involving generation after generation of Hoth and humans. They are able to continue the lengthy battle because they have the ability to clones themselves. Towards the end of the episode, the Doctor figures out that the war had only been going on for seven days. The two sides have killed each other and cloned their ranks so many times that the war’s past had gotten confused and muddled, turning into war of mythical length and proportion.

3. “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead.” (Series 4 Episodes 8 and 9)

Concept: The Vashta Nerada The concept in these episodes that I really liked was the villain in the episodes, the villain that inspires the two-part episode’s line “count the shadows.” The villains are the Vashta Nerada, things that go bump in the night. The Vashta Nerada are generally found in forests, living in the shadows. They are carnivorous, minuscule creatures that group together and disguise themselves as shadows. This allows them to latch onto and hunt their prey. If you have two shadows, the Vashta Nerada have already marked you for death. These inventive creatures made for a great villain.

2. “Blink.” (Series 3 Episode 10)

Concept: The Weeping Angels- Believe it or not, it is only occurring to me now that the top three concepts on this list are actually villains (there’s a little hint about number one). The second best concept in all of David Tennant’s time as the Doctor is the Weeping Angels. One of the first episodes that does not focus on the Doctor, the Doctor and Martha must coach Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan) through her encounter with the Weeping Angels. Beings that the Doctor believes to be almost as old as the universe, the Angels are stuck in a quantum lock. Basically, the Weeping Angels can never be seen. Whenever somebody or something looks at an Angel, they must disguise themselves as stone statues. When not stone, so when nobody is looking at them, the angels are impossibly fast, incredibly strong and have the ability to transport a person through time with just a touch. The only way to combat them is to make sure that somebody is looking at them at all times. Don’t blink.

1. “Midnight.” (Series 4 Episode 10)

Concept: The Repeater- In this episode The Doctor and Donna are on the planet Midnight doing a little bit of sight seeing. Midnight is a planet with conditions such that no living creature can survive on the surface. Turned into a tourist attraction, Donna choses to spend a day at the Spa rather than accompanying the Doctor on a three hour train ride to a waterfall. On the way to the waterfall, the train is attacked by an unknown creature I have come to refer to as The Repeater. Somehow breaching the train, the Repeater takes over the body of a passenger named Sky Silvestry. Trapped on a train until helps arrives in an hour, unable to leave the car, the creature begins its attack. Beginning by having Sky’s body mimic the passengers movements, the Repeater went on to repeat what everybody was saying, locking onto the Doctor after a while. The time it takes for the Repeater to repeat the Doctor’s words shortens until suddenly, the Repeater is speaking before the Doctor. Somehow throwing words into the Doctor’s mouth, the Repeater remains in Sky and forces the Doctor to repeat whatever she says. Not only is this villain extremely terrifying, it is perfect for this episode, easily turing the train’s passengers against one another.

Companions Devastating Farewell: The Angels Take Manhattan

BY: ORANGECHAIR
The fateful day has finally arrive, the day that some have dreaded and some have waited for. The departure of Amy and Rory Williams (though they will always be Ponds to me) has been hinted at all season and it is no secret that in the fifth episode of Season 7, titled The Angels Take Manhattan, marks the end of Rory and Amy’s time with the Doctor (Matt Smith). Not only does this episode contain Amy and Rory’s departure, it also features the return of River Song (Alex Kingston) and one of the Doctor’s most infamous villainous races, the Weeping Angels.

The entire episode is set in Manhattan, though not all of it is set during the same time period. The episode begins with what seems to be yet another random vacation for the Doctor and the Ponds as they lounge around the park reading, drinking coffee and enjoying each other’s company. The episode begins when Rory goes to get more coffee and he ends up in 1938 rather than 2012 where he started. With the help of River Song, the Doctor and Amy make their way back in time to find that New York City has been taken over by the Weeping Angels.

Quick side note on the Weeping Angels in case any readers aren’t familiar. The Weeping Angels are stuck in time, incapable of movement if anybody is looking at them. Super fast and deadly hunters, the Angels are free to move as long as nobody is looking at them. They have two main forms of attacks. The first is a physical attack and the second is the ability to send a person back in time with just a touch. In this episode, the Angels are slightly different than when we are first introduced to them, back in the days when David Tennant was the Doctor. In this episode, the Angels’ movement is not quite as free as normal. In previous episodes simply blinking puts you in danger from the Angels attacks but now it seems that only darkness and actually looking away from them allows them to move. Though this change made the Angels a little less intense, the episode made up for it with the plot.

When a person is displaced in time, specifically when the Angels displace somebody in time, a tremendous amount of energy is released and the Angels feed off of that energy. After taking over every statue in Manhattan, the Angels have created their own energy farm. The Angels have found a way to displace people to a certain location, a location where they will be trapped forever until they die of old age with the Angels feeding off of them as they age. Now the Angels have their sights set on Rory. If the Angels touch Rory again, he will be sent back to the Farm they created to age alone forever and never see his wife again. After seeing his aged body expire, the only way to escape his seemingly inevitable fate is to create a time paradox, erasing everything that the Angels did to him. Even if he does manage to create the paradox, Rory will have to spend his entire life running, running away from the Weeping Angels dead set to capture him forever.

Now comes the part of this post where those that haven’t seen the episode may want to stop reading because I am going to talk about Amy and Rory’s tragic exit from the show. As is tradition with companion departures, and I’m thinking of Rose Tyler and Donna Noble in particular, Amy and Rory leaving left me absolutely devastated. Rather than simply running for the rest of his life, Rory decides that if he ended his life, making it so that he died twice on the same day, the paradox would be created and the building, therefore his death, would have never happened. Not able to let Rory risk his life alone, Amy decides to end her life with him, reasoning that the paradox will save both of them. They create the paradox and everything works as they planned with the Doctor, River, Amy and Rory all showing up alive and together. Just when everything seemed to be safe, a rogue angel that wasn’t destroyed the paradox touches Rory, sending him away where the Doctor can never see him again. Unable to live with out him, Amy gets touched by the same Angel, creating a fixed point in time where the Doctor can never see his two Companions again.

Heartbreaking and tragic, I once again had the displeasure of feeling defeated after an episode of Doctor Who, though it was the best episode of the season so far. With some outstanding performances and a plot that once again proved the brilliance of Doctor Who writers, this episode may be my favorite Matt Smith episode to date. Though it was sad to see Amy and Rory go, the episode gave Amy a real chance to definitively prove her devotion to Rory rather than the Doctor. She chose to spend her life with Rory forever, never being able to see the Doctor again. I was getting tired of Amy Pond but it was still terrible to see her go. The Doctor has lost more Companions and didn’t even get a chance to really say goodbye to them. Though he will be devastated, the Doctor will continue to do what the Doctor does best, saving the universe. He will find another companion, of that I am sure. We have to wait until Christmas for the Doctor’s return but when he does, the Doctor will be as amazing as ever.

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 13 Journey’s End: Television’s Finest Hour

BY: ORANGECHAIR
Four seasons, four full seasons of television have been building to this series 4 finale. Like cockroaches, the Daleks somehow managed to survive, return to power and threaten the entire universe This time however, the Daleks returned with their creator, Davros, and have found a way to wipe out all of reality. By stealing planets and aligning them in the correct order, the Daleks have created a power source capable of enhancing their reality bomb (a weapon with the ability to destroy reality) to reach the entire universe. To save the day, the Doctor and his companions must band together and destroy the Dalek’s new empire.

The Doctor’s companions seem to crawl out of the woodwork when the Earth is stolen and humanity itself is threatened. Official companions Donna Noble, who is the Doctor’s companion for all of Series 4, Sarah Jane and Martha Jones, the Series 3 companion, ban together to help save the Earth. Unofficial companions also join the battle. Captain Jack, head of Torchwood, returns and puts his inability to be killed to good use. Mickey Smith returns from the parallel universe and even brings Jackie Tyler. Though it was nice to see all the mentioned characters again, nothing made me happier than seeing the triumphant return of Rose Tyler.

This hour long episode of Doctor Who was the most enjoyable hour of television I have had the pleasure of watching. Each character that returned was a wave of happiness and nothing was more satisfying than seeing the Doctor and his companions fly the TARDIS, and with it the earth, home. No episode better showcases the wit, skill and absolute brilliance of the Doctor Who team of writers. Everything that Doctor Who fans crave happens in this episode. Rose Tyler returns across a universe to see her Doctor one more time. Donna Noble finally realizes how important her role in the universe is. The Doctor’s secret army, his companions whose lives he has changed forever, ban together to save the Earth in the Doctor’s absence and they all survive (except for Captain Jack but death doesn’t really faze him). Despite all of this however, the show cannot leave us with simple happiness. Once again, the show left me devastated.

Last time it was Rose Tyler leaving the universe but this time it was Donna Noble. After a full season of self doubt and some fairly horrible events (getting a “fake” family in the library, having her history rewritten, destroying Pompei ect.) Donna is finally given her moment to shine. Inadvertently sparking some of the Doctor’s energy, Donna becomes the first half human half Time Lord. Using the knowledge she gained from the Doctor, Donna single handedly saves all of reality. Releasing the Doctor and his army, Donna helps to right the wrongs the Daleks caused and returned everybody to their rightful places. Once the day is saved and Donna’s rightful place in the universe is revealed, it becomes clear what sacrifice she must make. Reality could have only been saved by a human Tim Lord but there is a reason a human Time Lord has never existed. Donna’s mind cannot handle the knowledge and power that comes with being a Time Lord. To continue living, she must forget that she is a Time Lord which means she must forget anything that could remind her of the Time Lords. To save her life, the Doctor must erase every memory of himself and their time together from Donna Noble’s head.

Where Rose Tyler was originally stuck in another world without the Doctor, she at least had her memories with him. Donna is afforded no such luxury. Instead, to keep her alive, the Doctor himself must wipe every happy memory they had together from her mind. Doctor Who proves itself to be an outstanding television show. Easily taking me through a vast range of emotions in a single hour, this finale makes me wonder what is going to happen to this amazing show when David Tennant lets go of the reigns and the Doctor regenerates.