Let’s look back at Series Two of the modern era of Doctor Who, Russell T. Davies’ second season, and David Tennant’s first season as The Tenth Doctor. It was here that the series’ shift into a global phenomenon began, and Tennant became the face of the modern era of Doctor Who in the same way Tom Baker is still associated with the classic era of the series. Yes, hardcore fans would prefer to say William Hartnell was the true face of the show or Jon Pertwee was their Doctor, but casual punters still think of Baker, partly because he was on the show longer than anyone else.

Just as Davies cast Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor after working with him on the miniseries The Second Coming the year before, Tennant had starred in Davies’ cheeky, comedic, postmodern version of Casanova in 2005, the year Ecclestone premiered in Davies’ revival of Doctor Who. There Tennant carried a whole series for the first time, playing a sexy, roguish rake, and seemed a natural to take over when Ecclestone left after only one season.

Tennant already had Science Fiction credentials: he had spent years playing bit parts and supporting roles in Big Finish audio dramas, though it would be decades before he played the Tenth Doctor on the audios. He played the dimension-hopping secret agent lead in Big Finish’s audio adaptation of Bryan Talbot’s The Adventures of Luther Arkwright (and will return in the decades-later sequel). He played a doctor in BBC Three’s 2005 live broadcast remake of Nigel Kneale’s The Quatermass Experiment, and he was on set in between scenes when he got the call that he had been cast in as the Tenth Doctor.

Davies and Tennant leaned into portraying The Doctor as a sexy geek, which went down a treat with a new generation of teenage female fans discovering the show for the first time. It was his Doctor that truly made the series popular with female viewers, on top of how many of them identified with Billie Piper’s Rose. To have Tennant and Piper together was a double whammy of Secret Sauce. For male fans, Tennant made being a geek cool – he was cocky, cheeky, a chick magnet, and the smartest smart aleck in the room. What’s not to like about this Doctor? Davies could use Tennant’s popularity to start making really big swings with the show and establish many of the modern show’s tropes that are still being used, possibly overused in some instances. It was here that the new Doctor Who really began to become the show it was meant to be. No wonder Davies brought him back to relaunch the show on its 60th Anniversary this year before he passes the torch to another new era.

  • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Tennant is also just a phenomenal actor all around. He has enough talent to make even mediocre writing be entertaining.

    • root_beer
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      1 year ago

      I’ve never seen Doctor Who, never really had any interest in it. That is, until I watched Good Omens, then I decided I wanted to check it out.

    • MissJinx@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The guy is trully entertaining. He can act the fuck out of any character. At this point I think.doctor who.is not even his best work.

  • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I relate more to Matt Smiths Doctor but Tennant is undeniably the iconic iteration of the character at this point. I don’t even think it’s controversial to say he’s surpassed Tom Baker

        • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I’m so torn between desperately hoping for him to do more voice work like in Rebels, and praying he dies before unfortunate scandals from the 70s come out.

          He was so precious to my childhood, but, when the Princess showed up, he replaced Romana 1 like it was nothing.

    • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Want smith’s run when the show broke big in the US? If so, wouldn’t many casual Who fans think of smith as iconic of the series?

      For me, seasons 5-6 are what I recommend as the peak or most easily palatable of the show.

  • Four_lights77@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    A lot of the reason I liked Jodie Whitaker’s Doctor so much was because she channeled tennant so well in her own way. She was let down by poor writing and over used tropes though. I’m really excited to see the series in a fresh light.

    • HipPriest@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      See I got the impression when watching it was kind of like she was told to ‘just play it like you’re a female 10th doctor, yeah, that’ll do’. Which was really a shame because she could have owned her own character you know?

      I actually thought her best episode was the one with the Daleks and the time loop in the warehouse (Eve of the Daleks I think). Her run got overshadowed by the whole timeless child thing which was more fanwank than anyone needed or asked for. Not that Moffat or Davies had individual episodes which were just as bad for continuity stuff but it felt like a lot of the 13th Doctor stories were arc obsessed. Maybe Flux didn’t help.

    • Lurker@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      This is exactly why I love JW’S doctor. She perfectly encapsulated the personality of 10 and 11, while still being fun and fresh all on her own. I agree the writing was a bit… off? But she was brilliant.

      • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        The writing was insulting. JW did a damn good job making the show as watchable as it could possibly be, and it sucks that she was stuck with the worst written series so far

    • HeartyBeast@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      That’s interesting. I really love JW as an actress and was very excited to see her as the Doctor, but I found her performance absolutely teeth grinding for some reason. There was this kind of ‘over-excited’ puppy thing that just seemed formulaic and turned me off.

      I’m happy to blame it on the direction, though.

      • cyberic@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        Honestly, I think it would’ve been less noticeable with fewer companions at the beginning. The script didn’t really leave room for anything other than that while following all the character plotlines.

  • HollandJim@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    So looking forward to the new series… I feel as if Doctor Who had gotten too dark, too self-serious and in some ways, too self-serving. We need a bit of lightness back, and hopefully Davies can rekindle that.

    • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Actually one of my main issues with the last series was that it wasn’t dark and serious enough. Jodie was a good doctor and holds no blame but i feel like the script was softened “to fit a women”

      • HollandJim@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I agree Jodie wasn’t given good material, but I didn’t like the darkening and extra-helping of gravitas that came with Capaldi’s Doctor. Don’t get me wrong, I like Capaldi, but it felt really off and out of context at times, and it was as if they were writing for his eyebrows and not the character.

  • 'M' as in 'MANCY'@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Ten will always be MY Doctor. David Tennant is honestly just so frigging talented, he made even the silliest storylines entertaining but grounded. I’m very much looking forward to the special. Him and Catherine Tate together were magic.