Doctor Who Series 4 Review - Blockbuster Who
It has been a while since I did one of these insanely time-consuming Doctor Who reviews but I thought since we are all trapped inside and in need of that beautiful escapism, now is a better time than ever to go through the series which was the most popular and blockbuster Doctor Who we have ever had. Series 4 is an interesting one, as I rewatched it I can't help but admire how genuinely pitch-perfect some of these episodes are. It is by far the most consistent in terms of quality, the second half is arguably the strongest run of episodes the show has ever seen in concession. Unfortunately, it is the most RTD of RTD series, he is at his full 'power' here and a lot of the fanservicey overblown ridiculous tropes of his tend to work a lot better here even if they are pushed to their extremes. This series should not work at all and everything that is brilliant about this series looks like a disaster on paper and top of that list is the casting and character of Donna Noble. Nobody was begging for a return of the irritating Catherine Tate celebrity caricature from the forgettable Christmas special but Donna is up there as one of my favourite companions of the whole show. She is hilarious, has incredible chemistry with Tennant and somehow delivers on a lot of the more emotional parts of the series. Without further ado, let's took in too the mammoth series 4 and those miserable specials.
Partners in Crime
This episode has its work cut out for it when it first premiered as Doctor Who was in the prime of its popularity, it was event television for millions of households every week and the anticipation for RTD's final series was high. Not only this but it had to convince the audience of one Donna Noble, it functions as a course correction for her character as there was this air of scepticism with her return. 'Partners of Crime' isn't a remarkable game-changing episode but it is fun, likeable and really charming, it knows exactly what it is doing and does it perfectly. It functions as this espionage comedy, like Doctor Who meets Austin Powers and revels in being a ridiculous and kind of dumb premise. Whilst writers like Moffat and Chibnall would never touch something as ridiculous as walking fat aliens, RTD clearly enjoys playing with how stupid this idea is and makes sure the focus is on re-introducing Donna. I like how both this and 'Smith and Jones' lean on The Doctor infiltrating and using his intelligence but this time he introduces Donna as someone who can match The Doctor's intelligence. Donna feels like a different character here, she is empathetic, intelligence and her talks with Wilf (who I can never get enough of) are really touching and do a lot for her character. Miss Foster is a bit forgettable and the Adipose are just ridiculous but I really love how the corporate espionage mixes with these characters wonderfully. And my god it blew my 7-year-old brain when that Rose cliffhanger hits.
Fires of Pompeii
As historicals go this is certainly one of the stronger examples even if it feels occasionally a bit confused in its execution. I have quite a few issues with 'Fires of Pompeii' purely because it feels like a paint by numbers episode of NuWho that we have done so many times since. The Doctor and Companion have to solve an alien problem whilst met with a moral decision in order to introduce the companion to the concept of the Time War. James Moran doesn't bring much new to this format and ti really lets this episode down because he does amazing work with stuff that we have seen so many times before. It's like if someone showed you the most beautiful looking apple you have ever seen, it could look incredible but fundamentally it is still an apple and you've had apples before. I do love the design and commitment to making this episode feel like you are in the midst of Ancient Rome and that is the episode's biggest strength, the aesthetic is just beautiful to look at. The second thing this episode does really well is adding a lot to Donna as a character, painting her as this everyman empathetic character was beyond a genius idea and it does her so much good. I love how her mutual wit with The Doctor is often used for comedy but here it is used for emotion and for her own character. The first two acts are forgettable and mindless but the third act is fantastic and both Tennant and Tate do an excellent job with the emotional conclusion. An episode that has some nice moments but feels forgettable by nature, so forgettable the BBC forgot both Karen Gillian and Peter Capaldi had already been in Doctor Who in this episode.
Planet of the Ood
I feel a lot of people gloss over 'Planet of the Ood' and forget it is one of the darkest and weirdest episodes the show has ever done. It is essentially an episode about a slave revolution and so much of it is so bizarre and uncomfortable that I think we have collectively chosen to forget it ever happened. I do quite like this as a proper cult sci-fi idea and delving into the mythos of the Ood last seen 'The Satan Pit' was an excellent idea but I think it is quite a challenging and ambitious story in what it is thematically saying. This functions as a weird morally confused episode because it tries to pull the misunderstood monster trope for the Ood as they attack and mutilate hundreds of people but yet from the beginning I feel like I should be rooting for the Ood anyway. I'm ultimately just confused by this episode as The Doctor and Donna don't really do much in this episode and it feels like a story not dedicated to anything in the long run. It tries so hard to broadcast this message of imprisonment of the Ood is immoral and that isn't something an audience really needs to be taught so the story feels inconsequential in the long run. I get what Keith Temple is doing and I see the appeal, it has this political beat running through it that at times feels one-dimensional and I would appreciate it so much more if this episode didn't dedicate so much time to it. It has emotional moments especially with Murray Gold's beautiful score in the third act, the villain is wonderfully over the top and I wish I enjoyed it more but it doesn't do anything for me at all. It isn't bad but it is far from perfect, it is more of a disappoint.
The Sontaran Stragagem/ The Poison Sky
I realise I opened up this review saying this series is one of the strongest series but I have got to admit that there are a few duds here and there and this two-parter is just ultimately kind of unlikable. I have no idea how an episode that brings back Martha Jones isn't one of my favourites of the series but it just feels dull and kind of weirdly misguided. This might be a controversial opinion but the Sontaran are inherently uninteresting as villains, they are one-dimensional by design so this two-parter never really captivates the audience. It seems weird that nothing that interesting is done with these one-note villains, they don't get any depth to them and they just come off as irritating and pointless. The real treat of this episode is Martha and U.N.I.T's return which is how this episode remains interesting and it is really due to RTD's attention to detail in the continuity. The actual alien plot is by far the weakest part of the episode, seeing Donna return to Wilf (Bernard Cribbins is a national treasure and I think he might be my favourite performance in Doctor Who history) is heartwarming and special and the sense of scale to a planetary event is relatable and what this era does best. I also quite like Rattigan as a character, he is meant to be very unlikeable and I like how he works as a good counterpart to the Doctor and opens up an admittedly thin thematic discussion about the ethics of war. It is predictable and a 'nothing' that touches on some interesting factors but doesn't offer anything that new or interesting and feels inconsequential in the long run, it is brilliant for The Doctor, Donna and Martha's characters but that is about it.
The Doctor's Daughter
I really love this episode and I can't believe it is as universally hated as it is, I think people get annoyed at the fact the episode isn't as high concept as something like 'The Doctor's Daughter' sounds, instead of being the best attempt at the ethics of war theme. It is so weird that the previous two-parter shares very similar thematic and political ideas but this one pulls it off so much better and is about as politically brave as you can get with Doctor Who, which isn't saying much. Jenny is interesting, she is the part of this episode that I don't love, I feel there is so much more to be done with a clone of The Doctor designed for war and I think they gloss over her and The Doctor's relationship way too quickly. There are about three sequences where Jenny does something impressive and then immediately The Doctor loves her with nothing that interesting done between the two of them. However, I think the war plot itself benefits form her character a lot, I like the ideas they chuck around with genetic splicing and the ethics behind engineering soldiers is some on-point pulp sci-fi commentary. The Hath stands as a really interesting design let down by the fact they are designed to be generic foot soldiers, I think Martha benefits a lot from being with them and seeing how much her character has grown is wonderful she is still one of my favourite NuWho companions. I think the third act cements it as a wonderful episode, I think Stephen Greenhorn has a lot of confident ideas here and I love the world he paints and how perfectly Tennant fits into it. A admittedly messy in places script but conceptually fascinating and full of interesting moments that really make this one of Tennant's most underrated stories.
The Unicorn and the Wasp
From just about here up until the finale this is one of the best runs of episodes the show has ever seen, there isn't an utter dud up until the specials and it starts with the camp and ridiculous Agatha Christie murder mystery. Gareth Roberts is one of the only writers on Doctor Who that seems to lack any personality, but you seem to get him to gets a script done. As if he is asked to write a 1920s Agatha Christie episode and he went full in and didn't hold back on creating an incredibly fun ride with no reservations at all. It benefits from being as ridiculously over the top, and The Doctor and Donna are having as much fun as the audience throughout which makes it feel entertaining. It is the best 'The Doctor meets the famous writer and does one of their genre stories' because it never takes itself seriously, it is Doctor Who meets 'Knives Out' and I just love it so much. The over the top supporting cast they meet every simple archetype wonderfully, Fenella Woogar is just marvellous as Agatha Christie as she plays her as this melancholy broken character who you can tell indulges in the mystery. Tennant and Tate are the funniest they have ever been in this script (is Noddy real? is still hilarious) and I think Roberts does comedy much better than he does actual sci-fi. The only real gripe I have is that the Wasp isn't needed in the script, it could just be a murder mystery but instead, the wasp feels out o place and tonally inconsistent. I would be happy if this was just a straight forward murder mystery but Doctor Who has to be Doctor Who and I appreciate that it has to have some sort of alien in some capacity. It is in every way a wonderful Agatha Christie story and her ending is a wonderful touch, in the end, a lot of heart and soul goes into this story and I really love it.
The Silence in the Library/ Forest of the Dead
Episodes like these remind me why Steven Moffat is still an incredible writer and I think for the number of mistakes her makes later on in his career, this two-parter remains the best script he has ever written. Moffat has always been a big idea writer and I feel like he tends to chuck a stone at the highest concept he can to show us just how clever he is and this is right on the cusp before he started sacrificing plots in need for his conceptual ideas. It is a surreal, intriguing horror mystery sci-fi that truly grabs you and I wish I could watch it for the first time again because of how many new and intriguing ideas that develop throughout the plot. It knows how to keep the audience in its hands, constantly adding and revealing mysteries yet I think it manages to keep a consistent through-line and doesn't disappoint or let down on any of the elements. In retrospect, River Song is hard to enjoy in this episode purely due to how over-played she was in Smith's era and she functions as an Abrams' mystery box but when you know who she is it feels frustrating to watch. In the episode she functions wonderfully, she matches the actual tone of the episode really well as she adds to the dream-like reality-bending atmosphere and when you separate her from what she becomes, her introduction is incredible. This is one of the richest and most ambitious scripts of the RTD era by far and I think it's easy to forget that this is such a wonderful and innovative story. the design of the library is eerie and uncomfortable, Gold's score is creepy and fairytale-like, Donna's alternative reality is edited wonderfully and is such an existentially surreal horror I love it. One of the best stories of the whole show when separated from the Moffat fatigue the later series give, a true marvel of atmosphere and story-telling full of emotion, character and horror.
Midnight
Last episode Moffat proves himself as a promising showrunner and this episode RTD reminds us why he is one of my favourite writers of all time. 'Midnight' is downright incredible in every single way, one of the scariest episodes and a conceptual masterpiece that leans on what RTD does best by combining a sci-fi concept to tell a brilliant human story. It might just be my favourite Tennant-era episode, it is by far the most human script of the show and I love how it feels like a homage to everything RTD does well. Horror has been something the show has been always known for having that 'hide behind your sofa' factor but here is the scariest episode of Doctor Who that utilises this unique brand of psychological horror. I genuinely struggle to rewatch this episode because of how gut-wrenching and uncomfortable it is, the cabin fever eerie atmosphere is unbearable at times and it is ridiculously well done. The first act creates this brilliant set of supporting characters that match really well with Tennant and then when everything falls apart in the second act you can barely breathe till The Doctor reunites with Donna. I love how open to interpretation but not frustratingly ambiguous this script is, I don't finish 'Midnight' annoyed because I don't know what the creature is, I finish it completely understanding what RTD is going for and he makes his ideas clear and digestible in a unique way. It is a story about cabin fever, a 'Lord of the Flies' horror that exposes the best and worst in humanity in just 45 minutes, seeing these characters go against it over is almost as horrifying as Lesley Sharp's performance. I consider this to be a genuine masterpiece in every way, it is seriously tense, completely upsetting in places and just about the scariest 45 minutes of Doctor Who out there, utterly perfect.
Turn Left
And the perfect run of episodes continues with the insanely good 'Turn Left'. What I love about series 4 is how diverse and unique each story feels for Doctor Who, we get classic Doctor Who historicals, 'under siege' stories, invasion stories and several unique conceptual episodes that are wonderful. 'Turn Left' appears to be a gimmicky 'what-if' episode originally but it is solely a character piece that is a confident and brilliant story that holds nothing back. Donna Noble was packaged as an everyman relatable comedic character and RTD melded her into this genuinely complex empathetic character in this brave emotional story. It is a really depressing story and tonally unlike anything the show has really done, showing this utterly bleak alternative reality without The Doctor and holding nothing back. Seeing Slyvia slip into depression, Wilf's heartbreaking "it's happening again" line (Bernard Goddamn Cribbins!) and Donna coming to terms that she has to die makes this one of the most emotional stories the show has ever done and I can't commend RTD enough for taking such confident strides for this episode. There is this dreadfully depressing feel to 'Turn Left' and I realise that makes it a bit unappealing and really tough to watch in places especially with what is happening right now but I find it surprisingly profound and a testament to human resilience. RTD has always been a quite political storyteller but I always appreciate his attention to detail for how much he understands humans and writes about them wonderfully. I haven't even touched on Rose returning and the terrifying Trickster Beetle which is so creepy purely through implication but the way this conceptually tough emotional story is used to propel the series into the finale wonderfully. Thank you, Catherine Tate, Billie Piper, Bernard Cribbins, Jacqueline King, Murray Gold and of course Russel T. Davies for making a masterpiece of emotional storytelling.
The Stolen Earth/ Journey's End
Is it complete and utter fan service? Yes. Is it an over the top and ridiculous invasion story? Yes. Does it fall apart slightly in the conclusion? Most definitely. Does it make me ridiculously happy and fill me with that unique type of nostalgia? Oh yes, it does. I'm going to be incredibly biased and slightly ignorant to many of the episode's faults but I can't help but love this epic apocalyptic story. It has such a sense of scale and stakes to it and it all is down to RTD combining all his characters and proving he is the master at making Doctor Who feel like event television. 'The Stolen Earth' is this incredible story of having The Doctor and everyone he has touched come together against all odds to defeat this immense Dalek threat. It cultivates the missing planet set-up, the return of Rose and the importance of Donna Noble seamlessly and pays them all off in this beautiful international war thriller. The scene where The Doctor's previous companions realise it is the Daleks always sends chills down my spine and seeing all these characters come together is something that never gets old. I simply can't separate that feeling of watching this spectacle from the many gripes people have and I often think they are really insignificant in the long run of what this episode is trying to be. The regeneration fake-out is admittedly a bit cheap but it is an essential plot development in the long run as it all ties into Donna's character arc. This has always been about proving that Donna Noble is important, she risks sacrificing everything to save the universe and becomes this genius figure who proves that human beings are just as important as anything else.
Davros is a nice inclusion, he doesn't have the same impact as The Master, but he proves an interesting threat and seeing him intellectually battle Ten is wonderful. I understand that it is convenient in places and somewhat overblown but I think it's worth it from a character standpoint, I could watch these characters all team up to clean a toilet and it would still be captivating and interesting. 'Journey's End' is a bit muddled and all over the place but I think it benefits from being quite self-indulgent in places. I think I just have a soft spot for this era and enjoy the overblown ridiculousness of everything, I love seeing meta-crisis Doctor purely due to thematic pay off with him being basically Eccleston, the Doctor-Donna is ridiculous and stupid and I even cheered when Jackie Tyler showed up for crying out loud. An utter amazing spectacle, I have goosebumps throughout and it gets my heart racing and my firsts pumping at so many amazing moments. I love this two-parter and everything it does makes me so happy no matter how messy the plot is on occasion. It is everything I love about this era.
The Next Doctor
It feels unfair to criticise the specials at all because they are well specials and one-off time fillers. The show was at the peak of its popularity and these were pumped out every few months to keep Doctor Who in the public mind leading up to the transition of showrunners. I do enjoy them for what they are; fun and nonsensical episodes that do their job well enough. I have a soft spot especially with 'The Next Doctor' because it is a wonderfully silly Christmas special and honestly is worth it for an incredible performance by David Morrisey. It is a gimmicky and cheap episode playing on the audience's excitement to who the 11th Doctor would be, I remember it being much more insufferable with this fake-out then it actually is. Morrisey's Doctor is a really good mystery box because of how quickly RTD reveals that he isn't in fact 'The Next Doctor' so instead we stay with Tennant as he works out the mystery which is fun and intriguing. However, this fun concept is let down by a boring Cyberman plot with no substance, stakes or unique ideas presented at all. This is the start of the Cybermen being boring foot soldiers with no real individuality and here they are demoted to uninteresting and tired villains that are nothing more than a boring obstacle for The Doctor(s) to get over. I do really like Miss Hartigan as a menacing presence, I always appreciate an over the top Doctor Who villian performance because that is the show's bread and butter. It is a mindless Christmas special, forgettable and pointless but made a little more special thanks to the incredible performance of David Morrisey, The bets Doctor we never got.
Planet of the Dead
I can't stand this episode. It is genuinely insufferable and if it is always the episode that I skip when rewatching the series. I usually enjoy camp Who, in fact I am usually a stark defender of when the show gets to be full-on ridiculous but I have to draw the line at 'Planet of the Dead' which takes it too far. To be honest, I get what it's purpose is and that is to be a fun mindless Easter special (who asked for an easter special?) before the bleakness of the rest of the specials but it is just a waste of time. I don't get the appeal and I never have because this episode frustrates me so much. I'm really sorry Michelle Ryan but you are one of the worst one-off companions the show has ever seen, she doesn't bring anything interesting or new and I find her incredibly irritating yet somehow she isn't the most annoying cameo in this episode. I've never understood the appeal of Luke Evans and in this episode, he is loud, noisy and incredibly irritating, he adds to this episodes vicious unlikability. It feels like an episode made for people with no attention span, chucking mindless dialogue, irritating 'jokes' and distracting plot points with no way to let these breathe at all. 'Doctor Who' is a lot of things but it should never be television to turn your brain off but this episode seems to think it doesn't need to offer anything of substance as long as it tries its hardest to keep the audience distracted for an hour. Genuinely one of my least favourite episodes of the show and one that still blows my mind as to how it was ever made.
Waters of Mars
After a slur of boring and nothing specials, we get a genuinely incredible emotional marvel of a base-under-siege story which feels like an apology for the last special. I just really like how incredibly dark, morbid and occasionally horrifying this episode gets to be, it feels genuinely like a mature and more developed interpretation of classic Doctor Who stories we have seen before. We touched on this very similar theme of The Doctor interfering in disasters in this exact season but this episode takes a much more dignified and complex look st this idea. I really appreciate having an episode that attempts to interrogate Tennant's Doctors he is getting to the end of his run and this is a brave depressing way to do it. Having the Doctor in the middle of a crisis that he knows inevitably everyone is going to die is a tough ingenious narrative device and really tests Ten as a character which I appreciate, this is one of Tennant's best performances and a stellar episode for him. The Flood are genuinely incredibly designed and beyond terrifying, they work in a classic scary monster design but the existential unknown of utilising water is a stroke of genius. It is, of course, let down with the fact that it doesn't always maintain that consistent dark tone that makes it memorable, there are some ridiculous RTDisms and they can get frustrating at times because you want to go back to the other elements. The ending is what the episode is known for, I like how the 'Time Lord Victorious' element is meant to be taken as The Doctor reaching his breaking point, I have always seen Ten as The Doctor's mid-life crisis as he tries to compensate by being the charming toyboy and trying too hard to save everyone often failing. And in those closing moments, we realise he has gone too far and it is time to move on and mature. A brave, if slightly inconsistent episode that does a brilliant job at confronting Ten's superiority complex with an excellent guest star from Lindsay Duncan.
The End of Time
Where on earth do I start with this episode? Out of any NuWho, I have probably seen this episode the most times purely because I find it to be one of the most fascinating and frustrating pieces of television ever made. If anything, 'End of Time' is fun when it doesn't mean to be and irritating when it's trying to be fun. It is overblown nonsense and one of the most self-indulgent pieces of the series (pre-Moffat) and I kind of really love it for how genuinely stupid it is. It basically functions as a 'Doctor Who' game of 'Fortunately, Unfortunately' due to how essentially muddled it is. Fortunately, The Master is back! Unfortunately, he spends half the run time acting like a crack addict brought alive by sorcery. Fortunately, the Time Lords are back, unfortunately, they spend half the episode in a darkened room and offer barely anything to the plot, fortunately Timothy Dalton is Rassilon, unfortunately he does literally nothing. It just brings in exciting elements and then laughs at you when you're excited and chucks them away for something dumb and ridiculous. The first act is dedicated to Ten realising The Master is returning and that he is going to die but what this amounts to is downright one of the stupidest things the show has ever done. The tone is so ridiculously all over the place, the tense first act is followed by the second act of Wilf and his neighbourhood watch tedium followed by The Master shenanigans. I can't put into words how much I love how committed John Simm is as The Master, he commits to doing some ridiculous stuff this episode and I have no idea how they persuaded him to do this.
It feels like a pantomime in places and honestly, it makes for an entertaining piece of television, to say the least. Everything The Master does in this two-parter, every scene he is in is hilariously stupid and just downright dumb which I do find just so entertaining when RTD is trying so hard to give this story gravitas. It blows my mind that in a story about The Doctor dying and facing the return of The Time Lords contains something as absolutely laughable as The Master Race, The Doctor's greatest villain resurrected and prophesied to kill the Doctor by turning everyone on Earth into The Master, that is inherently stupid. There's a lot to love in this episode as occasionally elements that genuinely really work and that basically boils down to every scene with Wilf and The Doctor as these two characters have the best chemistry. I like touching scenes when they discuss death and that beautiful quiet moment they add some actual substance to this pantomime. The Time Lords should have so much more presence than they do but honestly, they have just about nothing to do with anything in this story, I genuinely find it hilarious how they show up as a threat but are dismissed five minutes later. I will always love Tennant and I will always love RTD but it is such a shame that this is the story they go out on because it is such a weak pile of rubbish. Tennant gives a good performance and there is no denying that I cry every time at the last 20 minutes of this story, seeing these characters I grew up with saying goodbye is genuinely heartbreaking and RTD commits to making it really emotional. I am fascinated by End of Time because of how much of a mess it is and I think that sums up this era perfectly, a ridiculous overblown journey with so many highs and so many lows always remaining inherently 'Doctor Who'.
And with that, we say goodbye to RTD and goodbye to Tennant. This is my era of Doctor Who, genuinely mostly based on nostalgia but I appreciate it so much for being this important part of my life. There are so many incredible episodes here and there and so many stories that I love to hate and will happily indulge in the ridiculousness of it al. Thanks for reading through this one, I know it was a mammoth of a review but I had the time of my life and can't wait to move on to Stephen Moffat and the new era of 'Doctor Who'.