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| Previous: The Ninth Doctor | Next: The Eleventh Doctor |
| The Tenth Doctor (2005-2010) | ||||
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2005
Specials: A New And Glorious Morn A Doctor Who Christmas special is broadcast for the first time. |
2007 Specials: And Days Of Auld Lang Syne First appearances of Astrid and Wilf. |
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Season
Twenty-Eight: Lonely Gods First appearances of the Torchwood Institute, the parallel-universe Cybermen and the Ood. |
Season Thirty: Lost Horizons First appearances of River Song and Jenny, the Doctor's daughter. |
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2006
Special: A Spaceman Came Travelling First appearance of Donna. |
2008-2010 Specials: Rage, Rage Against The Dying
Of The Light First appearances of Jackson, Christina and Adelaide. |
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Season
Twenty-Nine: The Measure Of A Man First appearances of Martha, the resurrected Master, the Judoon and the Weeping Angels. |
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| 2005 Specials: A New And Glorious Morn |
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David Tennant played the Doctor from The Parting Of The Ways in June 2005 to The End Of Time in January 2010. He also appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures for The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith. |
| The Production Team |
| With his departure from the BBC, Mal Young also stepped down from his post as one of Doctor Who's executive producers; he was not replaced. |
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Children In Need Special (2005) by
Russell T Davies, directed by Euros Lyn
Rose confronts the stranger who claims to be the Doctor. But even as the
man tries to convince her of his true identity, something appears to have
gone badly wrong with the change he's just experienced.
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The Christmas Invasion by Russell T
Davies, directed by James Hawes
The TARDIS brings Rose and a comatose Doctor back to London on Christmas
Eve. As Jackie and Mickey help Rose care for the ailing Time Lord, a
recently-launched British space probe attracts the attention of the
warlike Sycorax. Prime Minister Harriet Jones and UNIT staunchly defy the
aliens -- until the Sycorax use blood technology to take control of fully
one-third of the planet's population, threatening the lives of two billion
people unless they are declared masters of the Earth.
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| Making History |
| With the return of Doctor Who proving to be a massive success, the BBC elected to commission not just a second season, but also -- for the first time in the programme's history -- a Christmas special, which would serve to introduce the Tenth Doctor to his audience. Subsequently, it was decided to presage The Christmas Invasion with a mini-episode to air during the 2005 Child In Need telethon. (This was the second time that new Doctor Who material had aired during the charity appeal, the first being Dimensions In Time in 1993.) |
| Season Twenty-Eight: Lonely Gods |
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New Earth by Russell T Davies,
directed by James Hawes
The Doctor is summoned to a hospital on New Earth in the far future. The
facility is run by the cat-like Sisters of Plenitude, and the Doctor is
astonished to find that the Sisters' medical technology is centuries ahead
of its time. Meanwhile, Rose is lured into a trap by Cassandra, the last
human, who aims to restore her long-lost beauty while uncovering the
secrets of the Sisters of Plenitude.
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Tooth And Claw by Russell T Davies,
directed by Euros Lyn
In 1879 Scotland, the Doctor and Rose encounter Queen Victoria journeying
to Balmoral, and join her coterie. They stop for the night at Torchwood
House, estate of Sir Robert MacLeish, but are unaware that the premises
have been taken over by an order of corrupted monks. The monks are somehow
tied to the legends of werewolves in the region -- and to an alien force
with sinister plans for the monarch herself.
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School Reunion by Toby Whithouse,
directed by James Hawes
Mickey summons the Doctor and Rose to Deffry Vale High School, which he
beliueves has been infiltrated by aliens. Posing as a teacher, the
Doctor encounters abnormally intelligent students, a peculiar lunch
programme, and the sinister headmaster, Lucas Finch. But the Doctor
isn't the only person suspicious of Deffry Vale: also investigating the
school is a journalist by the name of Sarah Jane Smith...
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The Girl In The Fireplace by Steven
Moffat, directed by Euros Lyn
In the eighteenth century, Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV, is
stalked throughout her life by sinister clockwork robots waiting for...
something. Three thousand years later, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey find
themselves on a derelict spaceship generating a vast amount of energy for
reasons unknown. Somehow, the two mysteries are related, and only the
Doctor can save Madame de Pompadour -- but at what cost to himself?
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Rise Of The Cybermen / The Age Of
Steel by Tom MacRae, directed by Graeme Harper
The TARDIS is hurtled into a parallel universe where Rose discovers that
her father, Pete, is still alive. A rich man in this reality, Peter Tyler
is in business with the wealthy and powerful John Lumic, who is seeking to
stave off his approaching demise by any means necessary. At the same time,
Mickey learns that his counterpart, Ricky, is the leader of a resistance
movement trying to prevent Lumic from giving humanity the ultimate
upgrade. Much to the Doctor's horror, Lumic's plan is one he has seen
executed before: the creation of the Cybermen.
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The Idiot's Lantern by Mark Gatiss,
directed by Euros Lyn
Strange things are happening in 1953 London, in the days leading up to
the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Mr Magpie is practically giving
away television sets, despite the fact that they're the cutting edge of
new technology. Black-suited policemen are taking away people in the
middle of the night. And something is turning normal men and women into
faceless monsters. It's up to the Doctor to stop the Wire from killing
millions, even as Rose becomes its latest victim...
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The Impossible Planet / The Satan
Pit by Matt Jones, directed by James Strong
The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Rose to an Earth research base on a
planet which, against all the laws of physics, is orbiting a black hole.
The crew are drilling into the surface, trying to unearth the power source
counteracting the black hole's massive gravitational pull. But Toby Zed,
the archaeologist trying to decipher ancient runes found on the planet, is
being haunted by a malevolent voice. And the Ood, the servitor race
staffing the base, seem to be falling under the sway of an evil from the
dawn of time...
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Love & Monsters by Russell T
Davies, directed by Dan Zeff
Elton Pope encountered the Doctor as a small boy, and has been looking for
him ever since. As an adult, Elton befriends other like-minded
individuals, and the result is the formation of a group called LINDA --
ostensibly an investigatory organisation, but really just a small social
club. All that changes, though, when LINDA gains a new member in the form
of the enigmatic Victor Kennedy, a man who has his own motives for
tracking down the Doctor.
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Fear Her by Matthew Graham,
directed by Euros Lyn
In 2012, London is gearing up to host the Olympic Summer Games. But in a
neighbourhood along the route of the Olympic torch, children are vanishing
in broad daylight. Investigating, the Doctor and Rose come to believe that
the person responsible is a young girl named Chloe. But how can a
seemingly ordinary child possess power of such magnitude? And who will be
her next victim?
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Army Of Ghosts / Doomsday
by Russell T Davies, directed by Graeme Harper
Returning to Earth in the modern day, the Doctor and Rose discover that
humanity has embraced what are believed to be ghosts come back from the
dead. Suspicious, the Doctor follows the trail of the ghosts to the
headquarters of the sinister Torchwood Institute, which has been
established to deal with alien incursions on British soil. But Torchwood
itself has been compromised, and may be the first casualty in a
transdimensional war which will engulf the Earth -- a war between the
Cybermen and the Daleks.
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| Making History |
| Despite the abrupt change in lead actor, the new Doctor Who series' second season continued in much the same vein as the first. A milestone was reached in its final story, Army Of Ghosts / Doomsday, which brought the Daleks and the Cybermen into conflict with one another for the first time in the programme's history. |
| 2006 Special: A Spaceman Came Travelling |
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Donna Noble was an office temp who was rescued by the Doctor from the Empress of the Racnoss. She later sought him out and joined him aboard the TARDIS. Catherine Tate played Donna from Doomsday in July 2006 to The Runaway Bride in December 2006, from Partners In Crime in April 2008 to Journey's End in July 2008, and in The End Of Time in December 2009/January 2010. |
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The Runaway Bride by Russell T
Davies, directed by Euros Lyn
While walking down the aisle on her wedding day, Donna Noble somehow
vanishes, to reappear in the TARDIS console room. The Doctor is faced
with solving the riddle of how this virtually impossible feat was
achieved, while simultaneously trying to return Donna to the church. It
soon becomes clear that Donna is the key to revivification of an ancient
evil, the culmination of a plan older than the Earth itself.
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| Making History |
| So successful was the first season of the new Doctor Who series that one June 15th, 2005, it was announced that the programme would continue to a second Christmas special and a third season on the air -- despite the fact that even the first of these would not see transmission for more than a year and a half. |
| Season Twenty-Nine: The Measure Of A Man |
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Martha Jones was a medical student who encountered the Doctor when her hospital was teleported to the Moon by the Judoon. Freema Agyeman played Martha from Smith And Jones in March 2007 to Last Of The Time Lords in June 2007, from The Sontaran Stratagem in April 2008 to The Doctor's Daughter in May 2008, in The Stolen Earth / Journey's End in June/July 2008, and in The End Of Time in January 2010. |
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| The Production Team |
| The first two seasons of Doctor Who had proven to be a demanding workload on producer Phil Collinson, particularly during those periods when multiple recording blocks overlapped. To ease this burden, Susie Liggat was brought on board to produce Human Nature / The Family Of Blood, which was made at the same time as Blink. Collinson retained an executive producer credit on these two episodes. |
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Smith And Jones by Russell T
Davies, directed by Charles Palmer
Intergalactic policemen called the Judoon hijack an entire Earth
hospital to the Moon. They are tracking a blood-sucking alien fugitive
called a Plasmavore... and the Plasmavore will stop at nothing to avoid
capture. Fortunately, amongst those kidnapped by the Judoon is medical
student Martha Jones, who finds herself forging an unlikely alliance
with a strange patient who calls himself “the Doctor”.
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The Shakespeare Code by Gareth
Roberts, directed by Charles Palmer
England, 1599. In the shadow of the Globe Theatre, a man has drowned in
the street, while a woman dies of fright. William Shakespeare is about
to premiere Love's Labour's Won, which the Doctor knows only as
the Bard's fabled “lost” play. And Martha Jones swears she's
seen a witch. Fires burn and cauldrons bubble as the Doctor races to
prevent Shakespeare from unwittingly unleashing an ancient evil upon the
world.
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Gridlock by Russell T Davies,
directed by Richard Clarke
The Doctor takes Martha to New Earth, thirty years after his last visit.
Within minutes, Martha is kidnapped and finds herself a captive on the
Motorway, a seemingly endlessly congested traffic conduit on which
thousands of people have become trapped -- in some cases for decades.
And rumours abound that there are creatures in the depths of the
Motorway, living... and feeding.
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Daleks In Manhattan / Evolution Of The
Daleks by Helen Raynor, directed by James Strong
No sooner has the TARDIS brought the Doctor and Martha to New York City
in the early days of the Great Depression than the travellers learn of a
rash of disappearances amongst a burgeoning “Hooverville”
transient community. With the help of Solomon, the Hooverville's
unofficial mayor, the Doctor discovers a race of genetically-engineered
Pig Men living in the sewers. Their masters are none other than the
dreaded Daleks, who have perverted the construction of the Empire State
Building in order to spearhead the next stage in their race's evolution.
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The Lazarus Experiment by Stephen
Greenhorn, directed by Richard Clarke
The Doctor brings Martha home, on the day after she joined him in the
TARDIS. Almost immediately, she learns that her sister, Tish, has been
working for the venerable Professor Lazarus, who has invented a machine
which allows him to restore his own youth. But the Doctor knows that
this kind of technology must have consequences -- consequences he may
not be able to prevent, as agents of the enigmatic Mr Saxon begin to
take an unhealthy interest in him.
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42 by Chris Chibnall, directed by
Graeme Harper
The Doctor and Martha find themselves trapped on board a spaceship
spiralling into a sun. To complicate matters further, one of the crew
has seemingly become possessed and has started murdering his
compatriots, having somehow gained the ability to incinerate at a
glance. The time travellers have just 42 minutes to avert disaster or
they, and everyone on board the vessel, will burn alive.
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Human Nature / The Family Of Blood
by Paul Cornell, directed by Charles Palmer
In 1913, Farringham School for Boys is a normal place bothered only by
rather common complications. Oft-bullied Tim Latimer shows flashes
of preternatural insight. New maid Martha Jones is distractingly feisty.
And John Smith -- the latest addition to the faculty -- is becoming
close with the school nurse, Joan Redfern. But Smith also dreams of
being an adventurer in time and space known as “the Doctor”,
and the appearance of ominous lights in the sky above Farringham may
force him to confront the truth about himself.
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Blink by Steven Moffat, directed by
Hettie MacDonald
While exploring an abandoned house, Sally Sparrow discovers a message
left for her, concealed behind wallpaper, in 1969 -- a message left by a
mysterious figure called “the Doctor”. What starts off as an
intriguing puzzle suddenly becomes deadly serious when one of Sally's
friends disappears in the house, cast backward in time to 1920. Key to
these events are four statues which seem to move of their own accord...
but what are the Weeping Angels?
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Utopia by Russell T Davies,
directed by Graeme Harper
When the TARDIS lands in modern-day Wales, Captain Jack Harkness hitches
a ride, inadvertently sending the time machine to the very end of the
universe. In that time, the vestiges of humanity are marooned on the
planet Malcassairo, where they are preyed upon by the savage Futurekind.
The elderly Professor Yana is trying to perfect a rocketship which will
take his people to a fabled utopia beyond the dying stars -- but the
Doctor may discover too late that there is more to Yana than even the
professor realises.
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The Sound Of Drums / Last Of The Time
Lords by Russell T Davies, directed by Colin Teague
The Doctor, Martha and Jack escape back to modern-day Earth, where they
discover that the Master -- masquerading as Harold Saxon -- has just
been elected Prime Minister of Great Britain. Before they can intervene,
the Master announces to the world that Britain has made first contact
with an alien species: the Toclafane. But the Toclafane are not the
benevolent creatures the Master is pretending... and with the Doctor
declared public enemy number one, it looks like there may be nothing to
come between his Time Lord nemesis and the end of the world.
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| Making History |
| Having resurrected the Daleks and the Cybermen in previous years, for Doctor Who's third season back on the air, Davies decided to bring back the Master -- the last of the programme's three most prominent villains. He had long concealed his intentions by avowing in interviews that he disliked the character, in order to make his reappearance in Utopia all the more surprising. The production team found themselves willing to experiment all the more in this season: although Utopia and The Sound Of Drums / Last Of The Time Lords comprised two different productions, they nonetheless formed the series' first three-part narrative since its return. |
| 2007 Specials: And Days Of Auld Lang Syne |
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Astrid Peth was a waitress aboard the spaceship Titanic who helped the Doctor stop the stricken vessel from crashing into the Earth. Kylie Minogue played Astrid in Voyage Of The Damned in December 2007. |
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Wilfred Mott was Donna Noble's grandfather, who first met the Doctor after the Time Lord had briefly teleported to Earth at Christmastime from the spaceship Titanic. Bernard Cribbins played Wilf regularly from Voyage Of The Damned in December 2007 to Journey's End in July 2008, and in The End Of Time in December 2009/January 2010. |
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Time Crash by Steven Moffat,
directed by Graeme Harper
Something goes wrong with the TARDIS, bringing the Doctor into a
confrontation with his fifth incarnation. The two Doctors must find a
way to work together before their time machine is utterly
annihilated.
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Voyage Of The Damned by Russell T
Davies, directed by James Strong
The TARDIS encounters a luxury spaceship suspiciously called the
Titanic, which is in orbit around the Earth as part of a
sightseeing cruise to visit England at Christmastime. But no sooner has
the Doctor arrived than things start to go very wrong, when the vessel's
captain intentionally steers the Titanic into a meteor storm. As
the crippled Titanic tumbles on a collision course towards the
Earth, the Doctor -- aided only by a plucky waitress named Astrid and a
motley group of survivors -- must get to the bottom of the sabotage.
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| Making History |
| At the launch party for Doctor Who's third season on March 21st, 2007, BBC Fiction Controller Jane Tranter confirmed that the programme would return for a fourth season in 2008. Executive producer Russell T Davies subsequently acknowledged that there would also be a Christmas special preceding it in 2007. Meanwhile, for the second time in three years, the Doctor Who team contributed a short episode to support the Children In Need telethon. Entitled Time Crash, this saw the return of Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor alongside David Tennant, marking the first time since the new series began that two incarnations of the Doctor had met each other. |
| Season Thirty: Lost Horizons |
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Adventurer and archaeologist River Song was born Melody Pond to two of the Doctor's companions. She was kidnapped by the Silence and trained to assassinate the Doctor, but the two would go on to have a much more complex relationship as their timelines intertwined in dizzying patterns. Alex Kingston has played River regularly since Silence In The Library in May 2008. |
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Partners In Crime by Russell T
Davies, directed by James Strong
Donna Noble has come to realise that she made a mistake when she
declined the Doctor's offer to travel with him in the TARDIS. Now she
finds herself seeking out every hint of the unusual and the unexplained,
in the hope of running into him again. Her plan succeeds when both she
and the Doctor begin to investigate a company run by the sinister Miss
Foster which offers a suspiciously effective diet pill. They discover
that Miss Foster is actually using the human race as the breeding ground
for the alien Adipose -- and millions of lives are at risk.
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The Fires Of Pompeii by James
Moran, directed by Colin Teague
A planned trip to Ancient Rome sees the time travellers land instead in
Pompeii, AD 79. The Doctor knows that they have arrived on the eve of
the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but before he and Donna can retreat to
the TARDIS, they discover that there is an alien presence at work in the
city. Seers are exhibiting extraordinary flashes of precognition and
telepathy, even as they slowly turn to stone. Soon it appears that the
destruction of Pompeii may not be a natural occurrence at all, but the
work of the volcanic Pyroviles.
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Planet Of The Ood by Keith Temple,
directed by Graeme Harper
The Doctor takes Donna to the Ood-Sphere in the year 4126. This is the
planet where Ood are bred by the Ood Operations company, to be
distributed as willing servants to humanity throughout the cosmos. But
something is going wrong with the Ood: their eyes are turning red,
leading to acts of murder and ultimately a feral state. The search for
answers leads the time travellers to uncover the terrible truth behind
the origins of the Ood race.
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The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison
Sky by Helen Raynor, directed by Douglas Mackinnon
UNIT is investigating ATMOS, a new device which somehow cleanses the
exhaust from automobiles. The Taskforce believes that ATMOS is alien
technology, and so their newest recruit -- Martha Jones, now a
fully-credentialled physician -- calls the Doctor back to Earth for
assistance. ATMOS is purported to be the invention of child genius Luke
Rattigan, but the Doctor soon discovers that Rattigan is working with
the Sontarans, who have used ATMOS to turn four hundred million cars
into deadly weapons.
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The Doctor's Daughter by Stephen
Greenhorn, directed by Alice Troughton
The TARDIS is drawn to the planet Messaline, depositing the Doctor,
Donna and Martha in the midst of a war between human colonists and the
piscene Hath which has been waging for generations. Martha is kidnapped
by the Hath, while the Doctor and Donna discover that the humans breed
by accelerated progenation: recombining a single individual's DNA to
produce a new, adult person, ready for battle. Subjected to this
process, the Doctor abruptly comes face to face with his daughter,
Jenny, even as Donna begins to discover that there is more to the war on
Messaline than meets the eye.
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The Unicorn And The Wasp by Gareth
Roberts, directed by Graeme Harper
The Doctor and Donna arrive at an English country manor in 1926 amidst
rumours that a jewel thief nicknamed “the Unicorn” is at
large. But these stories are overshadowed by a murder in the library,
and the timely arrival of famed suspense novelist Agatha Christie --
during a period in history when the Doctor knows that she is supposed to
have vanished without explanation for several days. As the body count
starts to climb, Donna is menaced by what appears to be a giant wasp,
and only the Queen of Crime can help the Doctor to unravel the
mystery.
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Silence In The Library / Forest Of The
Dead by Steven Moffat, directed by Euros Lyn
An enigmatic message sends the Doctor and Donna to a planet-sized
library. They arrive to find the world deserted, except for an
archaeological expedition led by Professor River Song, who claims to
know the Doctor of old. Joining forces, the Doctor and River investigate
the mystery of why the library was sealed off a century earlier. But
the shadows are alive with a flesh-consuming intelligence... and
somewhere, a little girl believes that all of these events are playing
out in her mind.
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Midnight by Russell T Davies,
directed by Alice Troughton
The sun of the planet Midnight is hostile to all life, but a leisure
complex has been constructed there which filters out its deadly
radiation. While Donna enjoys some rest and relaxation, the Doctor takes
a shuttle to a famed Midnight attraction. But en route, the shuttle
mysteriously comes to a stop and, impossibly, something begins banging
on the exterior. As a strange intelligence infests one of the
passengers, the Doctor finds himself fighting a losing battle against a
rising tide of panic and paranoia.
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Turn Left by Russell T Davies,
directed by Graeme Harper
On the planet Shan Shen, Donna meets a mysterious fortune teller. The
woman persuades Donna to reveal the events which culminated in her
original meeting with the Doctor -- and then Donna's world suddenly
changes, as those very events are undone. Now Donna Noble lives in a
world without the Doctor: a world in which London is destroyed by the
spaceship Titanic, America is devastated by the Adipose, and the
entire planet is nearly annihilated by the Sontarans. Only an enigmatic
blonde traveller from a parallel universe can help Donna restore the
original course of history, and prepare her to face the oncoming
darkness.
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The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
by Russell T Davies, directed by Graeme Harper
Davros, creator of the Daleks, is saved from the Time War by an insane
Dalek Caan. At Davros' instruction, his resurrected race of Daleks
transports the Earth and twenty-six other planets to the Medusa
Cascade. Former Prime Minister Harriet Jones sacrifices her life to
reunite the Doctor's past companions -- Martha, Jack and Sarah Jane --
while Rose searches desperately for the Doctor and Donna. Separately or
together, they must find a way to stop the Daleks' plot to obliterate
all of time and space.
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| Making History |
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The announcement of the new Doctor Who series' fourth season came at the launch party for its third slate of episodes, on March 21st, 2007. During the filming and broadcast of the season, it was revealed that all three key production team members -- Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson -- were planning to leave Doctor Who. The fourth season thus became an embodiment of the end of an era, reuniting many of the characters who had made their mark since Doctor Who's return in 2005. Davies also continued to gradually resurrect classic characters from the original series, introducing both the Sontarans and Davros to a new viewing audience. But the enduring success of the Doctor Who revival was made emphatically clear when the final episode, Journey's End, rose to the top of Britain's weekly viewing charts -- the first time Doctor Who had ever earned a Number One berth. Coupled with an astronomically high Audience Appreciation index, this meant that Journey's End was not only the most successful Doctor Who episode ever made, but one of the UK's all-time most popular dramas. |
| 2008-2010 Specials: Rage, Rage Against The Dying Of The Light |
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Jackson Lake was a schoolteacher in Victorian London who came to believe that he was the Doctor as the result of a traumatic encounter with the Cybermen. David Morrissey played Jackson in The Next Doctor in December 2008. |
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Lady Christina de Souza was a cat burglar who found herself fighting for her life alongside the Doctor on the devastated planet San Helios. Michelle Ryan played Christina in Planet Of The Dead in April 2009. |
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Adelaide Brooke was the commander of a doomed human expedition to Mars in 2058. Lindsay Duncan played Adelaide in The Waters Of Mars in November 2009. |
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| The Production Team |
| With Phil Collinson having left Doctor Who upon the completion of its fourth season, it was decided to bring several temporary producers aboard for the series of specials which followed. After Collinson's regular replacement, Susie Liggat, returned for The Next Doctor, former production manager Tracie Simpson seized the helm for Planet Of The Dead. Nikki Wilson (nee Smith), producer of The Sarah Jane Adventures, then took over for The Waters Of Mars before Simpson oversaw The End Of Time. |
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The Next Doctor by Russell T
Davies, directed by Andy Goddard
The Doctor arrives in 1851 London on Christmas Eve. To his surprise, he
finds another Doctor active in the city -- but one with no memory of
past incarnations, and sporting a suspiciously conventional sonic
screwdriver. Nonetheless, the other Doctor and his companion, Rosita,
have uncovered Cyberman activity in London. Men have been murdered and
children have disappeared. It is up to the two Doctors to find a way to
stop the Cybermen and their ally, the ruthless Miss Hartigan, from
setting in motion the rise of the CyberKing.
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Planet Of The Dead by Russell T
Davies and Gareth Roberts, directed by James Strong
Tracking a mysterious energy signal, the Doctor boards a London bus upon
which cat burglar Lady Christina de Souza is also a passenger. Suddenly,
the bus is catapulted through a wormhole to San Helios, on the other
side of the universe. The planet seems to be just one enormous desert,
but after encountering stranded Tritovore traders, the Doctor and
Christina learn that San Helios is meant to be a bustling world of
billions. Soon, it becomes clear that the wormhole and the devastation
of San Helios are linked... and the Earth may be destined for a similar
fate.
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The Waters Of Mars by Russell T
Davies and Phil Ford, directed by Graeme Harper
The Doctor lands on Mars on November 21st, 2059. There, Bowie Base One
-- the first human colony on the Red Planet -- is destined to be overrun
by an intelligent, contagious contaminant freed from the glacier which
provides the base with its water. The self-destruct mechanism will be
activated, destroying colonists and contaminant alike. The Doctor knows
that this event must happen: it is a pivotal moment in human history.
But can he force himself to walk away without trying to save the day?
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The End Of Time by Russell T
Davies, directed by Euros Lyn
Schemes set in motion long ago lead to the resurrection of the Master,
albeit in a form that hovers between life and death. He sets his sights
on the Immortality Gate, an alien device which has fallen into the hands
of the unscrupulous Joshua Naismith. Warned of the Master's return by
the Ood, the Doctor travels to modern-day Earth to confront his
archnemesis, only to find himself unexpectedly assisted by Wilfred Mott
as the threads of prophecy pull tighter. But neither the Doctor nor the
Master is aware that, beyond the Immortality Gate, an even greater
threat to all of time and space lies waiting...
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| Making History |
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With Doctor Who now an indisputable success, the production team and the BBC became concerned about the possibility of the programme becoming oversaturated, and the general public growing weary of it. To this end, it was agreed that the show would be rested for a year after its fourth season, with the gap filled by a series of specials. As a result, although September 3rd, 2007, saw the announcement of Doctor Who's renewal for a fifth season, it was confirmed that this would not air until the spring of 2010. The five “special” episodes designed to bridge the fourth and fifth seasons would come to be transitional in many respects. Not only would the second of these, Planet Of The Dead, involve High Definition filming for the first time; and not only would each one feature a unique, one-off “companion” for the Doctor; but it gradually became clear that, by the end of the specials, many key figures would have departed from Doctor Who. One by one, executive producer Julie Gardner, executive producer and head writer Russell T Davies, and finally David Tennant himself all announced that they would be moving on to new challenges. As a result, the specials would now serve as the culmination of the first era of the revived Doctor Who, paving the way for a new Doctor and a new production team in the new decade. |
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