He may not be my favourte Doctor but David Tennant was still usually wonderful in the part. He has some absolutely fantastic stories to work with - we looked at some of them yesterday - but he also has more than his fair share of garbage as well!
Join me as I take a look at the five worst stories of the 10th Doctor.
And we begin with number five…
5 – Planet of the Dead
Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts
Silly-looking monsters? Check. Dumb flying bus? Check. Unlikable one-off companion? Check. Incoherent plot? Check. Mediocre acting from the supporting cast? Check. Unnecessary stunt-casting of a comedian? Check. Makes UNIT look like a bunch of incompetents? Check. Planet of the Dead has it all!
The one thing going for it is that we didn’t have to fear that Christina was going to be the next companion.
But that’s literally the only positive I can think of for this one. That and that there are worse stories out there. Like this lot:
4 – New Earth
Russell T Davies
New Earth opens with Ten & Rose at their most insufferable. Then the story presses pause and gets itself stuck between a cliched “been there, done that” mind-swapping story and a tonally out of place zombie attack before ending with an attempt to redeem Cassandra… for some reason.
Also home to some of the hammiest acting by anyone ever playing the Doctor, in what is by a long way the worst performance David Tennant ever gave in the role – but he’s still not as bad as Billie Piper who, in this story, does some hilariously bad acting. We know how good they usually are which makes this a very uncomfortable and weird story to watch.
3 – The Doctor’s Daughter
Stephen Greenhorn
A story that makes no sense at all: The Doctor arrives on the planet because Jenny was there but she’s only there because the Doctor came there and she’s his clone or something but he calls her his daughter and disowns her and then he doesn’t… honestly no matter how many times I watch it I’m still not sure what that was about.
It doesn’t help that Georgia Moffet is not as good at acting as she’d like us to believe. And then there’s Martha’s subplot, which you get the impression was added later when the writer realised he needed to include her in his script. Add to this mess a few military stereotypes and an unbelievable twist that the war has only been going a week (Just NO!) and you’ve got an incoherent mess that fails at everything it sets out to do.
If you want a Doctor Who story that discusses the futility of war then try The Zygon Inversion instead, just don’t watch this one because it’s crap.
2 – The End of Time
Russell T Davies
The End of Time is a story that has a lot going for it with the Master, the Time Lords, the Vinvocci and the Immortality Gate all making for a rewatchable adventure that you can watch and enjoy time after time after time. Also it’s got Wilf in it.
Sadly there’s one big thing that makes a great story one of the worst of all time – and that’s the 10th Doctor’s attitude. He spends the entire story being a whining wimp about his impending regeneration, and then there’s his farewell tour, easily the low-point in Who History. Then there’s the regeneration itself and his last words that serve to preemptively turn fans against Matt Smith before he even started.
An unforgivable move on Russell T Davies’s part for which there is no excuse.
Honestly, I wish he’d regenerated in Journey’s End and gone out on a high. This was just wrong and not the celebration the Tenth Doctor deserved to go out with. He finished on a whimper, not a bang.
And that concludes my bottom five Tenth Doctor stories. Agree, disagree? What are yours?
Err…
What? I’m done.
Aren’t you forgetting the number one worst? Get back here and finish the job!
But… but… but it’s so horrible; please don’t make me talk about it!
Do it or I’ll make you write an entire review of it.
Sigh… fine I’ll do it. But this is on you!
1– Love & Monsters
Russell T Davies
Every television show has its one episode the fans have an unspoken agreement never to speak of. But for fans of Doctor Who there’s more than one. Time & the Rani, Kill the Moon, The Twin Dilemma, In the Forest of the Night and Timelash are usually brought up, but there’s one story that makes them all look like King Lear.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Love & Monsters.
So what’s wrong with it? Well, there’s the opening that was already dated when Scooby-Doo tried it. There’s a supporting cast that you just wish would die about twenty minutes before they actually do. There’s the fact that it’s all told through the form of someone’s video-blog. And I haven’t even mentioned that the villain is a comedian running around in a nappy. Apparently the Abzorbaloff was the winner of a Design A Monster competition which only makes me ask “What the hell came second?!” Maybe some things are best left unanswered.
And the paving slab is completely inappropriate! Seriously Russell, this isn’t Torchwood!
Love & Monsters is an insult to everything this show stands for; if you like this episode then you don’t like Doctor Who. And that’s not an opinion, that’s a fact. I genuinely cannot believe it’s from the same man who also wrote Midnight and I cannot comprehend what he was thinking when he came up with it.
And that really does conclude my bottom five Tenth Doctor stories. Agree, disagree? What are yours? Let us know in the comments below.
When he's not obsessing about Doctor Who whilst having I Am The Doctor play in his head, Dr. Moo can usually be found reading up on the latest in Quantum Physics. As you do when you're a physicist.
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