Board 8 > Inviso Ranks The Doctor Who Reboot

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1. Series 4 (The Doctor: David Tennant, Companion/s: Donna Noble)

*SPOILERS BELOW FOR SERIES FOUR OF DOCTOR WHO*

Best Episode: Midnight/Turn Left (The Waters of Mars, if I include the David Tennant Specials)
Worst Episode: The Poison Sky

I don't know where to start on this season, because there are two routes I could take to explain why it is the best season of the reboot. I suppose I'll start with the simpler explanation. Though David Tennant is not my favorite Doctor (in fact, he's probably not even my second favorite Doctor when I consider his entire body of work), I think if he had more seasons like this (and like the departure specials, which are not counted towards the season's rank...but I'm including them with the seasom because they'd otherwise be ingored), he would easily be in the running.

When you don't boil him down to a romantic lead to pretty companions like Billie Piper and Freema Agyeman, David Tennant is actually a fantastic actor. He's able to toe that line, perhaps even better than Eccleston, between the kind of light-hearted goofiness that the Doctor should embody as a detached alien genius, and the deadly seriousness of someone who realizes the immense and power and responsibility he could potentially wield if he put his mind to it. And we get to see a bit more of the Doctor's dark side with Tennant in the regard. He's not the immediate PTSD Doctor that Eccleston was, so he's able to have that lingering anger in his heart and awareness of the type of power he could command.

We see this dynamic at work in Fires of Pompeii with his ultimate decision to maintain history at the cost of a small piece of his soul. We see it in Planet of the Ood where he's forced to endure sorrow that most people can't. We see it in the library two-parter where he refuses to accept a defeat and saves River's consciousness. And of course we get multiple instances of this over the course of Tennant's final few specials, culminating in him making the ultimate sacrifice to save a single life. We hadn't gotten THAT kind of showing from Tennant up until this season, and it really makes for some great, dramatic television.

More so than Tennant though, series four is spectacular because of Catherine Tate as Donna Fucking Noble. We first met her in Runaway Bride, and apparently the fans hated her for being too brash and obnoxious. I don't mind her personality in that episode, but I get it. But then the writers decided to bring her back (on the heels of Martha outright leaving, and Astrid getting killed off in the Christmas special), and it's the best decision they ever made.

For starters, by bringing back an old character, we didn't need to be reintroduced to Donna. Yes, she's grown and changed as a person, but for better or worse, the audience is already accustomed to her, so you're able to hit the ground running to an extent. Up until this point, every other season premiere (I'm including Christmas Invasion over New Earth) had to spend so much time developing a new character that the episode themselves are just average at best. Partners in Crime is hilarious by comparison.

That's the other thing with Catherine Tate: she's genuinely funny. David Tennant has that manic energy that can serve a character like the Doctor well, but up until this point, Billie Piper, Noel Clarke and ESPECIALLY Freema Agyeman haven't exactly been the most dynamic personality in their own rights. Yeah, Eccleston and Tennant had decent interplay with Jackie Tyler, but she's also meant to be a boorish, annoying side character more than anything. Donna though, is hilarious, and she's able to play off Tennant and rile him up, and they just have amazing chemistry with one another. Partners in Crime is spectacular in large part because of their relationship. From the first moment of them miming to one another, to Donna's brash behavior when Tennant mentions wanting "a mate", it's gold.

I think the Doctor/Companion relationship works best in two situations. One, you need a Doctor who is just abrasive and obnoxious and ANYONE acting opposite him is going to shine by responding to that kind of attitude. Or two, you need a companion who is not afraid to give the Doctor a piece of their mind. My favorite companions are the ones that aren't content to just sit back and let the Doctor hold their hand and tell them what a good little human they are. Barbara stands out as the closest person to an "equal" Hartnell's era gets. The same goes for Leela with Baker 1. And Clara with Capaldi, as I just said. But Donna plays this part better than any of those.

Donna's just so fresh and refreshing. She still has that blue collar attitude to made Rose a perfect audience surrogate in series one (able to be awestruck by the wonders that the Doctor can show her), but she's also not about to treat the Doctor like some God who can do no wrong. Yes, companions are needed to bring the audience into the show, but a great companion is one that provides contrast to the Doctor. At a point in his tenure when Tennant's Doctor has experienced loss after loss after loss (Rose's loss, Martha quitting, Astrid's death), he's definitely starting to show signs of becoming more cold and clinical in his attitude. Donna is the heart that Tennant's Doctor desperately needed at this juncture. Through sheer force of will, she's able to maintain that goodness inside the Doctor throughout this series of the show.

But Donna is more than just a plot device for Tennant's character; she's her own woman, too. She was obnoxious in Runaway Bride, but in the interrim period, the actor playing her father died, and as such, his character was killed off. Suddenly, Donna is that same obnoxious loafer, but she realizes that its no way to live her life. She turned the Doctor down once before, and then she seeks him out because she wants to take that chance and see the wonders he can show her. Over the course of the series, we see Donna grow and change, and she becomes more confident and she becomes a character the Doctor can rely upon to get things done, despite not being "special".

The entire back half of the season is especially poignant because of Donna more than anything else. The library two-parter is just as juch her story as it is the Doctor and River's, with the sorrow of finding happiness and having to lose it, because it's not real. Midnight and Turn Left highlight just how important Donna is to the Doctor, and then the finale gives her a crowning moment before the cruelest and one of the saddest endings to a character we've seen. I know Donna ends up happy...but that's not the Donna we know. That's not the Donna who made herself better, traveling with the Doctor. She saved the world, and the person who grew to love actually dies, replaced by the boorish woman who the fanbase hated back in Runaway Bride. It's tragic, but beautiful all the same.

Now, I just discussed the episodes a little, but I want to touch on the nitty gritty a bit more. The first three episodes of series four are perfect if you want to get someone hooked on the show. I would argue that you sit someone and show them Partners in Crime, Fires of Pompeii, and Planet of the Ood, they will find at least ONE episode that gets them hooked. Partners in Crime is cute and fun, with some meme-worthy moments and great comedy. Fires of Pompeii takes that comedy and puts it in a historical setting, before adding some emotion as you realize there's no way Pompeii is going to end well. And then Planet of the Ood is pure emotion and seriousness. And these three flow perfectly into one another in terms of the tone they provide.

After that, like I said in previous write-ups, no season is perfect. The Sontarans have had exactly ONE good episode as far as I'm concerned, and it's a FLUX episode. Needless to say, the Sontaran two-parter is extremely weak, and Poison Sky is ESPECIALLY bad since Donna is all but invisible. There are NO laughs to be had in that half of the two-parter. And then The Doctor's Daughter is kinda gimmicky, but it's a bit too self-serious. I have to wonder if this is just a side-effect of Martha's return, since her three episodes are the weakest of the season.

From there though, we get a GREAT comedy episode with Agatha Christie, and probably Donna's best comedic performance overall. Murder mysteries are always fun in that regard. Silence in the Library introduces the Vashta Nerada, who are one of my favorite monsters that were thankfully never brought back, and the two-parter has legitimate scares and a creepy atmosphere, plus the introduction of River Song in a fascinating, time-bending storyline that pays off in the Smith Era...yet the emotion feels stronger without even having met her before.

At the top of this write-up, I listed Midnight/Turn Left as dual favorite episodes, and that's because both of them are in my top five overall. They're amazing for different reasons: Midnight is the Doctor alone, and it's a bottle episode with a bunch of unique personalities slowly getting more and more paranoid as a monster toys with them. In the end, it's NOT the Doctor who saves the day, and in fact, he's at the monster's mercy until a nameless stewardess realizes that he's a victim, rather than a perpetrator. It's just great to see him in a position of weakness, and see how easily people can be manipulated by fear.

Turn Left is equally amazing. Midnight is Tennant's showcase, but Turn Left is Donna's. Alternate timeline stories are always a little bit fascinating, but having that moment of Donna not being there, to stop the Doctor from dying at the hands of the Racnoss, ripple out and ruin countless lives...it's just insane to picture how important a single person can be without having a direct impact on the world. Watching things break down, and Donna's life gets worse and worse as the world gets worse and worse is heartbreaking. She's not perfect, but Donna is a good person at heart, and it's painful to watch the burden of all the world's problems land on her shoulders.

Turn Left is just the first of her sacrifices for the greater good, before the ultimate gut punch of the finale. For one moment, Donna surpasses the Doctor. She has the best of him and the best of herself, and becomes the Doctor Donna...and it's too much for her body to handle. The mind erasure is horrifying, and it's worse when you realize that Donna was that last grounding force the Doctor had keeping him in check. From that point on, he's untethered and on a path to his ultimate fate.

The specials are all solid enough. Next Doctor is a fun little Christmas story. Planet of the Dead is a fun little adventure story. Waters of Mars might be my favorite episode ever, and Adelaide Brooke manages to really stick the knife in Tennant's gut when she tells him he can't save her because he's not allowed to do so. The whole episode culminating in triumph, only for Adelaide to bring the Doctor back from the brink of omnipotence is spectacular. And then the End of Time pair gave us Wilf as a companion, and the heartbreaking end to Tennant's run, as it's not an enemy that kills him, but Wilf, just trying to help out. The string of goodbyes might be a bit self-indulgent, but it's well-deserved.

And that's it. Series four is the best season os the show. Tennant and Tate are amaizng together, and I cannot recommend this series enough. If you've never watched the show, I'd say to start with series one because it's great and you won't really miss anything...but if you want to start with series four, it's not a bad jumping off point by any means. Allons-y!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80016497/964945453

*APPLAUSE* Loved this

God damn I still get choked up thinking about Donna's exit and when the Doctor realizes Donna believes she's not special..."shouting at the world cause no one's listening" I don't think any companion will come close to topping Donna for me. I actually don't know if they're capable of it anymore but we'll see.

I've disagreed with plenty here but glad we can agree that season 4 is the best season for all the reasons you've said. 2nd half of season 3 was where things clicked for me and didn't let up in season 4. Good stuff, good topic!