Doctor Whojust terminate a strange experimentation , and now you may regard all of the results together . The British serial ran a class of one - off “ event ” stories featuring the time - traveller on his own . So how does it all retain up ?
Oh and check out the newfangled official TV , the “ Best of Tennant , ” above .
The DVD box exercise set , Doctor Who : The Specials , comes out today , and let in five extra - foresightful episodes shown over a year and change . There ’s “ The Next Doctor , ” “ satellite Of The Dead , ” “ The piddle Of Mars , ” and then the two - part finale , “ The End Of Time . ” And this is a good prison term to mention there will be pocket-sized plunderer for these episodes .
Watching all of the specials together , you get the sense that manufacturer / main writerRussell T. Daviesfelt like he ’d done everything there was to do with the usual Doctor - companion kinship . ( He ’d already varied it somewhat , by using the older , bossier Donna as a companion in season four . ) Plunging the Doctor into a series of oddball pairings feels like a bit of a desperation move , to showcase different sides to the Time Lord than you ’d see in his interactions with an impressible woman who ’s having her first dangerous undertaking with him .
The just news is , it mostly run enceinte . The Doctor ’s rapport with the “ other ” Doctor in “ The Next Dr. ” is a joy to watch , and really does light up the Doctor ’s much - discussed loneliness from a Modern angle , as the “ other ” Doctor realizes just how hard it must be to be 900 years erstwhile and have all your traveling comrade fall by the wayside . The direct contrast between the two Doctors , only one of whom gets to have a family , lends a certain free weight to the Doctor ’s pronouncement that he ’s only travel on his own from now on .
Somewhat less successful is the Doctor ’s team - up in the second episode with Lady Christine , a ego - revolve about jewel thief who is the closest we get to a “ traditional ” comrade — except that she ’s smug and full of herself . And has a catsuit . So it ’s just as well that the loge limit lets you move speedily from “ Planet Of The Dead ” to “ The water Of Mars , ” where the Doctor assemble a cleaning lady who really is impressive : Adelaide Brooke , the captain of the Mars expedition , who proceed monastic order with an iron grip and is prepared to take the tough choices , even when the Doctor tries to take those choices away from her .
And finally , the Doctor spends his final adventure with Wilf , the grandfather of his former fellow traveler Donna . Wilf ’s just as awe - struck with the Doctor as many of his younger companions , but they wreathe up have a different moral force : They ’re a duad of “ older soldier ” ( as the cryptical Time Lady call Wilf ) face their final battle together , and they have a great on-going dialogue about their impend death rate , in some of Russell T. Davies ’ most nicely craft scene ever .
It ’s clear that Davies sees the companion - Doctor human relationship as the engine that keeps reincarnate Doctor Who ’s vitality , as we fall in love with the Doctor over and over again through a young pair of eyes . ( Even Donna , the major exception to this pattern , come down into a kind of “ friend love ” with the Doctor , I ’d argue . ) And when you take that moral force away — when you put back it with a series of abbreviated infatuation with one - off fellow traveller — the Doctor naturally seems a lot sad and more jaded . He ’s already had his majuscule loves , and now all he ’s good for is one - night stands .
He very nearly choke off the runway and becomes another Master , in “ Waters Of Mars , ” and by the time he make his final story , he ’s the most foreign he ’s ever been .
It all leads up to the sorry re-formation picture ever :
It really is something to rewatch the somewhat melancholy last Tennant adventures , the experience of a man who ’s “ hold out too long ” and lost mite with a precious bit of human beings or humility or something , and then immediately afterwards watch the first trailer for Matt Smith ’s Doctor Who take a chance , full of joy and whooping and Adrenalin .
In any causa , the specials are well worth getting on videodisk — and even more worth get on Blu - Ray . This was the first batch of Doctor Who ( except for “ The Next Doctor of the Church ” ) to be take in HD , so the Blu - Ray versions of the Dubai desert scenes , Mars alkali blowup and Gallifreyan grandeur should be something to see .
The special features are pretty decent — there ’s one wad of blue-pencil scenes , which Russell T. Davies insists on introducing one by one , so that you get a 30 - second scene trim , together with a moment of Davy explicate why he thought it was brilliant and why he wishes it could have been included in the program interlingual rendition . ( In particular , there are some romanticism angles that were snipped from “ Waters Of Mars , ” probably for the best . ) There are no deleted scenes from Tennant ’s final episode , so either they used everything they shot or the stuff they did n’t purpose was jolly marginal .
There ’s a clutch of Doctor Who Confidentials , including a never - before - ascertain one for " The Next Doctor . " There ’s also " Doctor Who At The promenade , " the fancy orchestral event where the Doctor takes over and explains euphony to the exotic Graske . ( Although some citizenry on Amazon are claiming this supererogatory is leave off the Blu - Ray set , despite being number as included . )
There are those lovely BBC Christmas " idents , " whereDavid Tennantturns the TARDIS into a sled and flies it through the sky , among other thing . There ’s a fleck of a mini - documentary on the show visiting Comic - Con 2009 , admit footage of David Tennant and John Barrowman petting . There are comment caterpillar tread on a duo of instalment , admit " The closing Of Time part 2 . " And there ’s another batch of David Tennant ’s TV diaries , include a flake where he says farewell to you , the viewer :
So if you ’re a Doctor Who buff , chance are you ’re already buy this box exercise set , unless you already bought these stories on DVD singly . ( You really should have waited — the box set is better , I remember . ) If you ’re not a fan , and are count to become acquainted with Britain ’s greatest cult show aside from Monty Python , this probably is n’t a good starting place — the “ Series One ” box exercise set , including Christopher Eccleston ’s only year as the time traveller , is a much , much skilful jump - on point . Also reasonably good for young viewers is “ Series Two , ” David Tennant ’s first year , although I ’d follow Eccleston first .
In any sheath , this preceding year or so has been a very eldritch experimentation for a show that ’s had some very odd data format changes in the past times — and that fact is even more apparent when you look out it in one go . It ’s fitting that the military man who reinvented Doctor Who for the 21st hundred get to reinvent the show one more clock time and show us yet another side of the Doctor . Allons - atomic number 39 !
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