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New Who - 2009 Specials
Topic Started: Sep 17 2012, 02:01 PM (39 Views)
TheDoctor
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With David Tennant joining RTD in leaving the show, 2009 was to be their final run. I want to now establish that this is likely to be my longest review to date as we’ll conclude with a review on the Arc’s of the RTD era and how they worked and quick look towards Series 5. Please bear with me throughout this review; I’ll try making it worth your while.

Our first special is The Next Doctor (Christmas 2008) sees The Doctor coming across another Doctor in Victorian England (yet again…) our Doctor believes this new Doctor played by David Morrissey is a future incarnation of himself but actually that’s not the case and he’s not really The Doctor but Jackson Lake… we do get a Cyber-King towering of London which was one of the most irritating and awful things I’ve seen in Doctor Who and really brought down the episode.

The first 2009 special we have is Planet of the Dead. A rather lacklustre episode which has nothing but The Doctor walk through the sands and that’s really it… though a cameo by Lee Evans was interesting. The ending has a further indication to the upcoming regeneration with a prophecy given “They are returning and it is returning through the darkness… and he will knock four times” something that will have us curious for the next few months. Though these prophecies so far don’t exactly have a good track record!

The November special Water of Mars is one of them episodes that has some very good moments and the character of Captain Adeilade Brooke is a typical strong willed woman. The final twenty minutes are in words of the last doctor “fantastic” we have The Doctor becoming the “time lord victorious” and bending the laws of time to obey him, he saves three members of the station on Mars including Adeilade but she realises this is wrong and takes her own life, which causes The Doctor to realise he has done wrong and after seeing an Ood he races off in the TARDIS.

End of Time Part One and Two sees Donna’s granddad Wilf joining the Doctor with The Master returning to life. Part One deals with The Masters return and his confrontation with The Doctor is a great nod for classic fans but it’s a shame The Master’s new found sith lightning powers ruins a lot of the episode as doesn’t make much sense. Part One ends with The Master victorious and turning everyone into copies of him, while the narrator of the episode is revealed to be a time lord who promises Gallifrey will rise. (The sheer excitement at seeing the time lords returns I can’t describe in words… oh well)

Part Two starts on the final day of the time war with the Lord President promising he won’t die and sets up a plan of escaping the war. Back on earth The Master is able to pull the time lord high council out of the war, with the rest of Gallifrey following them. We get a big face-off between the Lord President and The Doctor, after the president returned the master copies back into humans. The Doctor eventually shoots the device sending the time lords back into the time war, The Master is sent back too. Leaving The Doctor momentarily relieved to be alive. Until Wilf knocks four times and The Doctor has a small break down when he realises he has to sacrifice himself to save Wilf. The Doctor does so and absorbs all the radiation as the regeneration process begins… we then have to sit tight for twenty minutes as The Doctor goes on a farewell tour to his recent companions (though i can't understand why he'd do this, though i think it was RTD wanting to give David a big emotional send off, which really didn't need to happen) and then finally he decides he doesn’t want to go (where too?) he regenerates into the eleventh doctor.


2009 Story Arc:
The arc for the 2009 specials was first hinted at in the planet of Ood episode where it’s told the doctor’s song must soon end. With the false regeneration in Journey’s End we get the first indication that the tenth doctor is about to leave. Throughout 2009 we have the in story hints of his regeneration which is strangely hinted as his actual death though there is no real evidence he was going to die. The Doctor also tells Wilf that he’ll be effectively dead and a new man goes off, which is against the idea of regeneration and something he desperately wanted to get across to Rose at the start of his run that he was still the same man… I guess this one of them times where RTD let the occasion get the better of him with his story telling.

Episode Score:
- The Next Doctor 5/10
- Planet of the Dead 3/10
- Waters of Mars 7/10
- End of Time Part One 5/10
- End of Time Part Two 3/10

Average: 4.6

RTD Era

The Lonely God/Last of the time lords:
This is an over lapping theme/arc of the RTD era starting in 2005 and even continuing into the Moffatt era. RTD brought the show back in 2005 and came up with the concept of the Time War to remove Gallifrey and the time lords from the show but also as I’ve mentioned in the series 1 arc to deal with continuity errors between classic who and new who. The idea that The Doctor not only survived the war but ended it is shown in episodes (though not literally shown) and this makes The Doctor the last of the time lords. (well until The Master returns).

RTD through the concept of the time war establishes The Doctor as a lonely god. His planet, family and people are gone and throughout the series the 9th and 10th Doctor’s whilst have many companions none of them stay long term and he seems to have a general negative impact on their life (as it seems at times to himself). The 9th and 10th doctor’s spend a lot of time wounded by the effects of the war and take losses to heart(s) and the loss of Rose as a major low point he’s also really down over what happens with Donna and the fact he turns his companions into soldiers to fight for him.

It seems that RTD whatever his flaws did successfully follow his concept of the lonely God (whether it’s good or bad is irrelevant) as close as The Doctor gets to people he always seemed to end up alone and that’s the path he follows up to his regeneration in the E.O.T where even The Master and time lords return they are soon taken away from leaving him alone and the last of his kind.

RTD Era: 7/10

Final verdict:

RTD successfully brought the show back in 2005 and made the show into a popular mainstream programme his ability to draw in tens of millions of fans is undeniable and the decision of casting David Tennant was one of his best decisions. I think it’s fair to say the RTD era has many fans who loved the era for what is was, and whilst I began with it I grew tired of it towards its end. The general stories and particularly the series finales seemed to gradually get worse as time went on. I’m sure every whovian is grateful for the show to be back on our screens afterall RTD achieved what he set out to do making Doctor Who popular and marketable to millions of people, target achieved. And now we can move on into the Steven Moffatt era where we’ll start to move towards a more Sci-Fi driven era.
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