Geek Syndicate Issue 7 | Page 10

Geek Syndicate
“It’s a ll o said. N ver’. That’s wh o, being a but it isn’t. I at you t’s ll the TAR over. I must g far from et back D go now IS immediat t ely! I m o …I mus ust t go at once.”
Sylvester McCoy, The Manipulative Clown Image © BBC

The Second Doctor bowed out in style with the ten-part story The War Games. Even in today’s stories, few people would be able to keep you captivated through a four hour ten minute epic but Troughton doesn’t just manage this feat, he does it with ease. Each cliff-hanger makes you worry for the Doctor and his companions. At the end of the adventure, we finally meet The Time Lords. We discover that The Doctor is a renegade Time Lord on the run from his own people. Facing a task beyond him, the Doctor must call his own people despite knowing the fate that awaits him. As a result, his companions Jamie and Zoe are sent back to their own times and made to forget about their adventures with The Doctor (if The Doctor losing Jamie isn’t enough to make your heart weep I don’t know what is) and then finally he is put on trial leading to a forced regeneration and exile on Earth, something that feels more like a death sentence.

1. The Tenth Doctor – David Tennant (2005-2010)
He might not have been the first Doctor that I watched, but he definitely is my Doctor. The man who caused me to become addicted to this little show. Tennant, like Troughton, had the challenge of making sure that the show would continue and get a whole new audience to accept regeneration. The Tenth Doctor bounded around the galaxy with a quick wit and a sharp suit, donning a pair of converse trainers. Tennant managed to portray more emotions with his Doctor than many other of his incarnations. To many, Blink is seen as the stand out episode of New Who but for me it is The Waters of Mars and that is all down to Tennant. I love a good base under siege story anyway and this was the perfect tale. But it is Tennant in the final ten minutes or so that makes it the pinnacle of New Who. Like any good horror, the tension builds till the final crescendo. The Waters of Mars has one of our basic needs as the threat - water. But that is not what is so frightening: it is the Doctor. This episode slowly builds to the question of whether the Doctor will break one of his rules and alter a fixed point in time. It builds and builds until finally he goes over the edge. Tennant plays this masterfully showing that the Tenth Doctor makes this choice for all very human reasons, but the damage it does to him is irreparable. All of this is down to Tennant and his superb acting. The Tenth Doctor also warranted from some brilliant episodes: this was a special time. Further to Tennant’s credit is the fact that he made the show bigger than it arguably ever had been and Matt Smith has continued on from this success. With the knowledge that there is a human Doctor version of Ten on a parallel earth as well as the fact that the Doctor has crossed his own time stream before to bring his selves together I look forward to seeing the return of the long brown coat and trainers this November.

Luke Halsall

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