With the new episode of Doctor Who this week, and we are now headed for the finale of the entire Chibnall Era of Doctor Who, one riddled with 2007 nostalgia, plot holes the size of Jimmy Neutron's brain, and the retcon of everything that came before it, we must now begin to talk about what may come next. What we are headed for, the next era of Doctor Who, headed by one Russell T. Davies. While I do have some hope that we are headed for a new and innovative era, I think I should explain my own elephant in the room which I am afraid of happening.
I hate the Tenth Doctor. In fact, I have to say that the Tenth Doctor is probably the worst Doctor in the history of Doctor Who, in my personal opinion, given how he acts and reacts to things within his era and what he does within said era. Now before I am bombarded by the many, MANY Tennant fanboys, let me explain myself.
Tennant's run was indeed what gave the show new life. So many new people got into this science fiction show thanks to David Tennant and what he put into the role and what people saw as brilliant storytelling and looks. Why I believe the opposite is said storytelling, and what is affected by said storytelling within his 4 years on the show.
David's Doctor, the Tenth Doctor, is a reactionary Doctor. More to the fact, he never grows or evolved during his years on the show, the Tenth Doctor stays one note throughout the entire era. His Doctor reacts only to when things happen, he does not act beforehand or even does investigations that even his predecessor had done in the role, instead going off the fact that everything everywhere he has landed is perfectly fine, forget the strange aliens that have come to earth and oh god they are trying to control the world via mystical means and William Shakespeare, time to get involved. Or, here's another one, He goes to visit New New York, a wonderful city, and goes to show his companion everything beautiful in the city oh hey wait here's a hospital we have to go see the new age medicinal techniques oh they're cloning people time to get involved. The Tenth Doctor is a reactionary Doctor, he goes in thinking the best of people and while that is not a bad view of people, he should know by now that something is wrong here. Although, this may seem like nick picking, let me talk more about the other way I do not like the Tenth Doctor.
Emotional Growth in a character is important. It is what keeps us invested. It is what keeps us glued to our main characters, learning more about who this character is, what makes him tick, and how he will grow when facing new obstacles. What is hard to understand is that the Tennant Era of Doctor Who should be explained more like the Companion Show, featuring David Tennant as the Doctor. Basically, David Tennant, The Doctor, the title character of the show, is not the main character of the show. He is a bouncing board for the Companions and their emotional growth through the seasons. Rose, a companion who witnessed Regeneration, broke multiple rules of time travel while with the Doctor until she learned on her own the importance of family when she is ripped away from the man she loved and sent to a parallel universe. Martha's entire life is uprooted when she meets a man in a hospital by the name of John Smith, and watches as her entire world, family and all, are subjugated and controlled by the Doctor's mortal enemy, and she alone can make the changes in order to stop him. Donna's life changes forever when she is saved from marrying a man who only wanted her to revive an ancient alien race, and spends the next two years searching for the man who saved her. When she finally finds him, they go running off to explore the universe, where Donna learns more about herself and her place in the universe, which must be tragically taken away from her in order for her to survive.
All the while the Doctor looks on either Giddy as a schoolboy or Pissed off.
In my personal Opinion, The Doctor needs to be in a Duo to a 4 piece traveling team to bounce off of. They can be a character in that 4 piece because they have their "family" to be there for them, and we can have Doctor solo moments like Peter Capaldi against the Two Masters, or Matt Smith on the bench in New York, where you have them actually show themselves to be, lack of a better word, more human. Tennant's Doctor has the outward emotional appearance of a light switch. He's either super energetic and happy to be wherever he is, and wanting to show his companions anything and everything forgetting that his companions may have just recently saw death on a wide scale on a snow planet, or was recently taken over by a human wishing to live forever, or any amount of things that would kind of put them in a sour mood, or he's the opposite. How Dare You. How Dare you think you are better than me. How dare you mess with the humans, or how dare you act in a way that I see to be unfit. Tennant's Doctor is a light switch, and stays this light switch from his first story, to the last. Even when he has come back in the specials, he has not evolved from this light switch emotional problem.
Matt Smith had the Ponds, who were there as his family when he believed he truly had no one else in the universe left, and cried when they welcomed him in for Christmas Dinner. Tennant? He leaves a clearly unsure and confused woman on the night of her wedding in the middle of the snow after she's been through a emotional roller coaster with nothing more but a farewell and a silent closing of the doors. Peter Capaldi and Clara Oswald were almost a perfect duo, He did not need to care because Clara was there for him, even in her words, Clara would care so he wouldn't need to, but he did care. When he lost her on Trap Street, all that silent emotion poured from his face as he watched her fall to the cobblestone. Tennant? He leads a woman to watch as her entire family is arrested thanks to her affiliation to him, and when he clearly and rightfully, even though she knows it will get herself into danger, calls out for them, and they have to flee, he gets on HER case about it. Eccleston gave his TARDIS away, sending it away to die on Earth just so that Rose could return to her friends and family, to live her life, sacrificing everything just to give her a chance. Tennant? He nearly has a heart attack over hearing that his companion needs to go home during a international alien crisis, instead of putting two and two together and realizing that she just needs to check on her family.
I know my words aren't going to change people's mind. I know for many I am just talking to the wind, that Tennant was your first or your favorite and this won't change your minds. I just wrote this as a piece, to describe that there are so many other Doctors to see, so many other Doctors to experience, like the Cosmic Hobo, Dandy James Bond, Or the Master Manipulator.
Doctor Who Does not Begin and End, with the Man who Regrets.