By Heather Stromski
I will here and now claim David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor, as my Doctor. They say you never forget your first, well technically, Eccleston was my first. Yes, I’m a NuWho acolyte. I know I’m missing a lot from Classic but I simply haven’t gotten to them yet. I digress… so Tennant was not my first but he was the one who made me fall in love. It’s not just that I fell in love with the Tenth Doctor, but I fell in love with all of it.
I will here and now claim David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor, as my Doctor. They say you never forget your first, well technically, Eccleston was my first. Yes, I’m a NuWho acolyte. I know I’m missing a lot from Classic but I simply haven’t gotten to them yet. I digress… so Tennant was not my first but he was the one who made me fall in love. It’s not just that I fell in love with the Tenth Doctor, but I fell in love with all of it.
These were the times that I laughed, cried and hurt right alongside him and his companions. I was not prepared for just how much his time would affect me… and here I sit, still unable to keep from crying when Rose is banging on that wall, screaming to go back or when he is forced to take Donna’s memories, or when he utters that one line. You know the line. If you know the Tenth Doctor’s run, you know that line. Yes, I am a fan-girl of the first order and not just from the standpoint of a geek but also from that of a woman. The Tenth Doctor’s run resonated so much with me because it was so very, very emotional, from start to finish and it opened this entire world to me in a way that no other might have been capable of. So here are my top three episodes. It’s almost impossible to really whittle them down to this point but when it comes down to it, these are the episodes that make me relate the most.
Doomsday
Doomsday
“My name is Rose Tyler and this…is the last story I’ll ever tell.”
This episode is the second of a two-parter, preceded by Army of Ghosts. I like that episode. It’s a good setup for Doomsday, but it didn’t resonate with me in the way that this episode alone did. From the beginning you knew that this was an ending. Even without knowing whatever you might know behind the scenes, when you are watching this you forget about the outside world. What you knew doesn’t matter anymore. You know now, without a doubt that something devastating is coming and all you can do is wait. In this episode, we see the Doctor’s immortal archenemies, the Daleks and the Cybermen, facing off against one another in a quest to conquer Earth, with the Doctor left in the middle to find a solution for getting rid of all of them. Pete, Mickey, and Jake from the parallel universe arrive to help and we see Jackie being pulled in two different directions: by an alternate version of her long-dead husband and the daughter that she can’t quite keep a hold of anymore. Rose makes her decision to stay with the Doctor but in the end, that decision is taken away from her and Rose is separated, possibly forever, from the Time Lord she has grown to love.
I sobbed. Yes. I literally sobbed, watching her cry, her makeup running and to this day, it takes little more than just hearing the song Doomsday to make me tear up.
I sobbed. Yes. I literally sobbed, watching her cry, her makeup running and to this day, it takes little more than just hearing the song Doomsday to make me tear up.
Blink
Ah, the episode that spawned t-shirts and thousands of internet memes. But there was good reason. This episode, as much as any could be was iconic, with its introduction of the terrifying Weeping Angels and the inclusion of a relatively unknown (at least then) Carey Mulligan, who was wonderfully brilliant as Sally Sparrow. To this day, I’m never entirely certain of just what led her to that house (if it’s there, I tend to forget little things like that), but from the moment that she uncovers those words written beneath the wallpaper we could be certain that this woman’s life was never going to be the same. Just to what extent, we couldn’t possibly know, but we knew it.
Once she got onboard with the whole ‘sent back in time’ thing, Sally battles the Angels with a fierceness worthy of any of the Doctor’s companions, with no help from the Doctor other than a mildly vague video clue hidden in Easter Eggs on seventeen mostly unrelated DVDs. Seriously, why could we not have gotten Sally Sparrow as a companion in there somewhere? She would have been fantastic! Suffice it to say I, for one, would not mind if we got a return to Ms. Sparrow and the Angels sometime.
Ah, the episode that spawned t-shirts and thousands of internet memes. But there was good reason. This episode, as much as any could be was iconic, with its introduction of the terrifying Weeping Angels and the inclusion of a relatively unknown (at least then) Carey Mulligan, who was wonderfully brilliant as Sally Sparrow. To this day, I’m never entirely certain of just what led her to that house (if it’s there, I tend to forget little things like that), but from the moment that she uncovers those words written beneath the wallpaper we could be certain that this woman’s life was never going to be the same. Just to what extent, we couldn’t possibly know, but we knew it.
Once she got onboard with the whole ‘sent back in time’ thing, Sally battles the Angels with a fierceness worthy of any of the Doctor’s companions, with no help from the Doctor other than a mildly vague video clue hidden in Easter Eggs on seventeen mostly unrelated DVDs. Seriously, why could we not have gotten Sally Sparrow as a companion in there somewhere? She would have been fantastic! Suffice it to say I, for one, would not mind if we got a return to Ms. Sparrow and the Angels sometime.
The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End
These two episodes are so wide in their scope that they’re nearly impossible to sum up properly. Essentially, the Daleks have stolen the Earth, as well as twenty-six other planets and moons to power a giant, universe ending super weapon. Over the space of The Stolen Earth, we see Torchwood, led by Captain Jack Harkness, with Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, Martha Jones working with UNIT, Sarah Jane Smith along with Mr. Smith, K-9, and her son Luke, and the return of Rose Tyler from the parallel universe she’d been trapped in. We see former Prime Minister Harriet Jones, one who had once been admired before sorely disappointing the Doctor, sacrifice herself to give Earth one last chance. I could go into so much more, but I’d be here for ages. These two episodes signaled the beginning of the end for the Tenth Doctor, and there was a moment of fear when the Dalek hits the Doctor with his ray and it looks like we’re going to suffer through a regeneration. Instead, we are treated to a second Doctor, one who is part human and part Time Lord, and a biological metacrisis that gives Donna Time Lord abilities.
In the end, ‘Ten Two’ does what the Time Lord he was cloned from would never do, and the planets are returned home. We are given two heartpounding, tear-jerking endings…Rose finally getting her Doctor, one she can grow old with; and the Doctor once more having to make the impossible choice to save his best friend’s life, but lose her in the process. I didn’t like Donna at all when she first popped up… but by the time she’d reached the end of her run, I couldn’t stand to see her go. What it comes down to is that these episodes are just so huge, and so well done, that you simply can’t think of the Tenth Doctor’s era and NOT remember this moment when everyone was drawn together, for that short, important time.
These two episodes are so wide in their scope that they’re nearly impossible to sum up properly. Essentially, the Daleks have stolen the Earth, as well as twenty-six other planets and moons to power a giant, universe ending super weapon. Over the space of The Stolen Earth, we see Torchwood, led by Captain Jack Harkness, with Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, Martha Jones working with UNIT, Sarah Jane Smith along with Mr. Smith, K-9, and her son Luke, and the return of Rose Tyler from the parallel universe she’d been trapped in. We see former Prime Minister Harriet Jones, one who had once been admired before sorely disappointing the Doctor, sacrifice herself to give Earth one last chance. I could go into so much more, but I’d be here for ages. These two episodes signaled the beginning of the end for the Tenth Doctor, and there was a moment of fear when the Dalek hits the Doctor with his ray and it looks like we’re going to suffer through a regeneration. Instead, we are treated to a second Doctor, one who is part human and part Time Lord, and a biological metacrisis that gives Donna Time Lord abilities.
In the end, ‘Ten Two’ does what the Time Lord he was cloned from would never do, and the planets are returned home. We are given two heartpounding, tear-jerking endings…Rose finally getting her Doctor, one she can grow old with; and the Doctor once more having to make the impossible choice to save his best friend’s life, but lose her in the process. I didn’t like Donna at all when she first popped up… but by the time she’d reached the end of her run, I couldn’t stand to see her go. What it comes down to is that these episodes are just so huge, and so well done, that you simply can’t think of the Tenth Doctor’s era and NOT remember this moment when everyone was drawn together, for that short, important time.
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