It’s time to wrap up the considerable adventures of the Tenth Doctor and push through the last two seasons in this extended coverage of Doctor Who!
The Next Doctor
Ten points for a misleading title. Perhaps it was a bit obvious in hindsight. The Doctor lands in 1851 and almost immediately encounters a ‘Cybershade’, a monkey type creature imbued with Cyberman technology. The Doctor isn’t the only one of the scene – he is joined by ‘The Doctor’ and his companion Rosita. Although the Doctor initially believes this is be his future incarnation there’s a few things that reveal this is not the case. His ‘sonic screwdriver’ is nothing more than an ordinary screwdriver and his ‘TARDIS’ is an early attempt at a hot-air balloon.
The truth about this Doctor ties in with the Cybermen. Their ‘infostamps’ contain all the knowledge their hive mind has collected and the one containing their information about the Doctor was found and activated by a man named Jackson. Scattered memories about the Doctor imprinted themselves on his mind, causing him to think of himself as the Doctor. While this mission is being unravelled there’s also the matter of the missing children around London. They’ve been abducted through Miss Mercy Hartigan, an ally of the Cybermen, and put to work building a giant steampunk ‘Cyberking’. Mercy has the emotional repression technology of the Cybermen implanted and linked up to the gargantuan Cyberking, which rampages through London.
Sadly the mystery surrounding the identity of the ‘Doctor’ is better than the reveal. Jackson Lake’s story is moving, but it isn’t nearly as interesting as the potential of the current Doctor meeting a version of himself we haven’t seen yet, especially when there’s such a good performer behind the role. Likewise the giant Cyberman feels better in theory than execution. The episode isn’t without its strong points though. The Doctor using a hot air balloon to combat a giant steampunk Cyberman can not being done poorly. It’s just a shame that the episode as a whole didn’t live up to expectation.
Planet of the Dead
The Doctor continues his solo adventures, this time appearing on Earth in the modern age. He’s sitting on a bus when Lady Christina de Souza finishes robbing a museum and makes her escape by hopping on said bus. This puts our two major players in the same place with the bus inexplicitly travels through a dimensional rift and winds up on a desert planet. The mismatched passengers of the bus work together to get the vehicle up and running so they can make their return. On the Earth side UNIT co-ordinates with the Doctor to save the day.
The clock starts ticking when they spot a coming storm. What appears to be a cloud of dust is a horde of flying stingray aliens. They travel through wormholes created by traveling at high speed around planets feasting on the populace. The planet where they currently reside was once a thriving metropolis and ecosystem and home to billions but have been reduced to dust. Along with another group of stranded insect-like aliens they race to get back home.
If the episode is sounding strangely like Midnight then you must be very observant, because it is. The problem it faces is that he emphasis isn’t on the wider group of characters (the strength of Midnight being on the sense of cabin fever and human nature) but on the somewhat forced romance between de Souza and the Doctor, one that isn’t explored past this episode. With such limited development of the characters things rely on the adventure, which surrounds a group of people repairing a bus.
Malcolm, the UNIT scientist who geeks out of talking with the Doctor, is a nice addition to the story and although de Souza has a lot of potential she isn’t given nearly enough space to grow. The basic sci-fi concept of the planet devouring swarm is also good but loses strength with the appearance of robo-stingrays. Not the strongest.
The Waters of Mars
After two lacklustre specials we get one that presents a whole pile of interesting. The Doctor turns up on Mars in the year 2059 where he comes across ‘Bowie Base 1’, the first human colony on the planet. It is only when the Doctor enters the base and encounters the crew that he discovers what he’s put himself into the middle of. On the day he has arrived the entire crew of the base perished in a nuclear explosion. The death of the base commander Capt. Adelaide Brooke would inspire her descendants to extend the reach of the human race further into the galaxy, bringing forth a new era.
Although the Doctor recognises the importance of allowing this tragedy to unfold he unwittingly finds himself drawn in their predicament. An infection brought on by drinking the water from deep in the planet begins to spread amongst the crew. The highly-intelligent virus works quickly and can be carried through any water it contacts. It is deduced that the only way Brooke can prevent the virus from reaching Earth, where it could rapidly spread through the vast oceans, is to destroy the entire base in a final nuclear blast.
It’s a well paced episode with some fantastic action and sci-fi elements to structure everything around. Lindsay Duncan is fantastic as Capt. Adelaide Brooke and she makes a very different companion to the Doctor. She lacks the quirks, sassiness or naivety carried by some of the past cast members, instead being straight forwards and strong willed. The potential sacrifice that the crew has to consider is a heavy concept that has been dealt with in sci-fi before, but rarely this effectively. The final scene of the episode is something of a twist that hammers home the notion that sometimes the good-will of the Doctor isn’t enough to save the day, and that doing the right thing isn’t always the best thing. A powerful story.
The End of Time
Having recently tackled the Daleks and the Cybermen in recent episodes there’s just one villain left to face again before regeneration: The Master. The Doctor himself isn’t doing so well by this point, having been traveling by himself since the events at Journey’s End. He’s gotten a bit depressed, leaving him in a poor state for what will lay ahead.
Although he died in his last appearance and refused to regenerate, the Master is resurrected by a cult loyal to him. The ceremony is interrupted by Saxon’s wife and as a result the Master comes back damaged. Along with an extra dose of insanity, an endless hunger and occasionally delves into transparency he’s extremely fast and strong, and can shoot lightning. While trying to seek out the rampaging Master the Doctor meets with Donna’s grandfather Wilfred Mott. Wilfred has been a regular fixture on the show since his first appearance in Voyage of the Damned and his love of space and relaxed nature has made him a welcome member of the cast.
Eventually tracking the Master to the outlying regions of London the Doctor is forced into confrontation. The Master forces the Doctor to listen to the drums in his head and the Doctor discovers that the sound comes from something external. At this point the Master is abducted by the wealthy Joshua Naismith to repair an ‘Infinity Gate’, which is intended to be used to grant Naismith’s daughter immortality. Instead the Master uses it to rewrite every human’s DNA to turn him or her into clones of himself. Only the Doctor, Wilfred and Donna are spared, leaving the three of them against a planet full of Masters.
Because nothing is ever that simple we also have the return of the Time Lords. Before the Time War Rassilon, one of the Time Lords who unlocked time travel, planted the drumbeat sound into the Master’s head. The purpose of the sound was to link Gallifrey to the Master, allowing it to be retrieved from its time locked state. The side effect was that the Master was driven insane by the sound, but after he clones himself across the planet the Time Lords summon Gallifrey and it appears above the Earth. It eventually falls to the Doctor to stop the Time Lords from wiping out the human race before his prophesied death occurs, with the Master taking a surprising sacrifice at the eleventh hour.
Much of the episode involves the Doctor going through an emotional journey as he struggles with his own moral code and the burden of what he has experienced. At many times the overarching story about the Time Lords takes a back seat to what the Doctor is going through. When Wilfred cracks while trying to convince the Doctor to defend himself is simply heartbreaking. This simple moment far outweighs the long played finale to the episodes. This conversation is enough to make the most hardened viewer shed a tear, as the vulnerability shown by Wilfred feels genuine.
Eventually we have the Doctor paying his farewells to his companions. Although it does feel overwrought David Tennant plays it perfectly. His final words are devastatingly hard hitting, but the appearance of the instantly goofy 11th Doctor evens it out. He has legs and arms and isn’t a girl.
