RTD had Doctor Who on top of the world here (well at least the UK), and for good reason, this series is so fucking good!
The right Doctor, with the right companion at the right time!! Doctor Who was big, very big!!
I would be intrigued how everybody would have reacted to it in this day and age? Would social media have put a big, fat dampener on it like it did with Ncuti's first series? Would there be people slating it because Captain Jack was in it? How would The Doctor's Daughter have gone down?
Would RTD's name be mud like it appears to be now? If you had no idea about Doctor Who and stumbled upon post about Russell you would think that he was a serial puppy killer or something. He's not, he just writes for a silly blue box show - and writes it well for that matter. Obviously things he writes aren't always to my tastes, but of course they aren't. That would be boring!!
Anyway, I am here for series 4. This was David Tennant's best series in my humble opinion. I can count one dud episode - The Doctor's Daughter - and everything else was good or superb, and it was mainly all superb. This was, in no small part, down to Catherine Tate, Bernard Cribbins and Jacqueline King. They all added something to Doctor Who and I love their family dynamic, I love how Donna grows throughout the series and Bernard Cribbins is just Bernard Cribbins.
I am a massive fan of Martha, but I think having a mate for Tennant's Doctor improved him, he was so fun in this series. Don't get me wrong, he can still lay the smack down when needed, but I enjoyed all the banter between Ten and Donna.
Voyage of the Damned was massive, having cast Kylie helped of course, but it was still a fun Christmas romp where Russell threw the kitchen sink, and it paid off. Thirteen million plus viewers is unreal. I doubt any show (other than a Royal thing or a big England game) would ever get near that. The BBC have a chance this Christmas to get some big figures, and hopefully Doctor Who can ride along with that wave - I am in no way a Gavin and Stacey fan, it is middling stuff to me, but it will be big. So too will Wallace and Gromit (more deserving!), so hopefully can grab some viewers along the way.
That said, even Strictly isn't getting the big numbers it usually does, but perhaps that is a little tired now. None of these shows will survive as long as Doctor Who has, none of them.
I have been side tracked again. Partners in Crime had some amazing moments, and perhaps one of the greatest scenes in modern Doctor Who - Wilfred spotting the Donna in the TARDIS. That moment will forever be etched into my brain, a moment that just encapsulates why I love Doctor Who, wonderful.
When you rewatch the show in order you can really appreciate each series. In some series we get a few dodgy episodes, always experimenting here and there, some hitting, some not. Honestly though, if you ignore The Doctor's Daughter it hits every time. This is just my opinion, I am sure there are people out there who love The Doctor's Daughter. The Fires of Pompeii and Planet of the Ood expand on the Doctor and Donna's relationship whilst giving us thought provoking and entertaining stories.
The Sontaran two parter was actually better than I remembered. We got more Martha, we got to see more of the Noble family, we got a returning classic monster, we got to see UNIT again, it did quite a lot of things.
As previously mentioned, a few times actually, The Doctor's Daughter wasn't for me, I didn't think the characters flowed into it, they seemed slightly different than they were the rest of the series, it just didn't feel quite right.
There was no need to worry though, as the series stepped it up a few notches after this. The Unicorn and the Wasp is an underrated gem, hilarious at times, but still a great watch. Moffat drops a double Moffat treat, meeting River for the first time, scaring us, making us think as always. Then after that Russell takes over and ramps it up even further.
Midnight is often listed as one of the best episodes of the modern era and Turn Left is Catherine Tate at her very best in one of the darkest, most brilliant stories.
The Stolen Earth is probably the best, or close to the best, first part of a story out there. Maybe World Enough and Time would have something to say about that? Journey's End was a satisfying conclusion with a heart breaking ending. I didn't like parts of it, Rose and Martha didn't get all that much to do, but Donna's ending was the best ending a companion has had. It was devastating, it was worst than death, it was topped off by the brilliant final scene between the Doctor and Wilf.
So, to sum it all up, a banger of a series. If and when I rank each series, this will be very near the top.
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