The Tenth Doctor: He Didn't Want To Go

[Lisin]

Oh Ten... I have only watched his regeneration once, I loved David Tennant and his regeneration was so sad, that last line was just pure evil. His first episode is one of my favourites, I loved the silliness he brought to the show.

[gonzosgirrl]

This seems like a good place for my first post. I'm new to the Doctor's world - discovered it via a Christmas marathon airing here in Canada. The 50th Anniversary is the first episode I ever saw and immediately recognized David from Broadchurch. After a couple of Matt Smith episodes during that marathon I decided I had to know more and made it my mission to watch from E1 of the Russell T. Davies era. I enjoyed 'Nine' very much, but now that I've caught up to the end of S7 I know that Ten will always be 'my doctor'. Lisin, you'll know that since I saw the 50th Anniversary show first, I heard David utter that 'evil line' before I even really knew what its significance was. By the time I got to the end of The End Of Time, I was a blubbering mess. "I don't want to go," indeed.

[Expat]

I love Ten so much. I don't usually cry at tv shows or movies, but I was a mess when he regenerated.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Gumdrops

[wolvfbfn]

I was too. After the episode finished, I was just sitting on the couch crying and trying to absorb it all, and my roommate comes in all chipper and wanting to chat. I had to leave and go to my room. I was actually traumatized. The writing, the acting, music, everything, just came together for me to be an incredible experience.

It's that reaction that has ensured Ten is my Doctor. (Though Nine is an incredibly close second)

[HauntedBathroom]

Ten was unspeakable. Only my love for the show kept me toiling through his era.

[daisycat]

I'm with you, HauntedBathroom. I haaaaaaaaated that last line, and not because it made me sad - if I could have rolled my eyes further they would have popped out of the back of my head.

I apologize to Ten fans - I understand his appeal, I really do. He just got so angst-filled, made his later seasons unwatchable for me, and I really enjoyed his first series.

[HauntedBathroom]

It wasn't his last line, although that did sum everything I despised about the character. I started going off him from the 'GREAT BIG BUTTON' line, but all of the bollocks in season 2 left me cheering when he was knocked out in The Idiots Lantern, and desperate to see him go by the satan pit 2 parter.

[Enigma X]

I am a big defender of Ten (and most characters on most shows where most Internet folks consider them to be brooding. ). I saw him as passionate rather than "emo." I also saw him as funny, smart, and perfect for a doctor that was dealing with his part in destroying his planet. 

[Meredith Quill]

I LOVED Ten, each to their own, but for me he was perfect!
'My' Doctor was Tom Baker as a kid but I love Ten more, sorry Tom.
Looking forward to Capaldi.

[Kathira]

SilverStormm, that's me exactly. I started with Tom Baker, loved Peter Davison, and fell away in the 80's. By the time Sylvester McCoy came along, I was done. I was dubious about NuWho and the first few episodes (farting Slitheen etc.) didn't impress me. I gave up for a long time and only came back in the Matt Smith era. I enjoyed it again it and figured I'd give the earlier seasons a try. I caught a few Ten episodes in repeats on BBCA and I was hooked. More than hooked, I was in love, both with Ten and David Tennant. Maybe obsessed is a better term. LOL. I love Ten's energy and his humanity, his rage and intelligence, humor and sadness, all wrapped up in a perfect body (that face! that hair! those eyes! the glasses! that bum!). Tennant's career has really been interesting since Who, and he has definitely proved what a fantastic actor he is.

That said, I enjoyed Matt Smith's Doctor, and Smith himself is very charming, although I think he was poorly served by the writing, particularly in Season 6. I'm looking forward to seeing what Peter Capaldi will be like.

[tv-talk]

Tennant had a couple excellent episodes but man he was so overdramatic! 

[alias1]

I loved Ten, and all his companions.  No other Doctor connected with me on an emotional level like he did.  Several of the episodes made me cry, that's how invested I became in the stories.  I was so sad when he regenerated.  There was a warmth to the episodes for Ten that was totally missing for me in the Matt Smith era.  I like the actor but Eleven was too chaotic and everything was constantly glossed over.  Nothing mattered like it did with Ten.

[HauntedBathroom]

Tennant had a couple excellent episodes but man he was so overdramatic! 

QFT. Plus, the best episode of his time, he was barely in.

[Kalliste]

QFT. Plus, the best episode of his time, he was barely in.

That's assuming you consider it his best episode, while Blink is awesome and the Angels were super creepy I think Army of Ghosts/Doomsday are better and, even though I didn't like Rose all that much I cry nearly every time I see them. Tennant did an amazing job and it was so heartbreaking. Further to that, I think Human Nature/Family of Blood and Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead are also better. I really wish there had been more 10/River and feel that River was wasted on 11.

 

Yes Tennant was dramatic but he was brilliant at it.

[tv-talk]

Matt Smith got one of best story arcs in series history, no wonder Tennant didn't want to go. 

[April Bloodgate]

Matt Smith got one of best story arcs in series history, no wonder Tennant didn't want to go. 

Yeah, I find that Smith's stories are better, although I like Tennant better as an actor.

[tv-talk]

Smith got the shaft as far writing and Clara Oswald in his last season or whenever it was. Really think he could have been a great Doctor for many more years, was probably slightly too young for the role but did really well I thought.

[tarotx]

My favorite ten episodes are The girl in the fireplace, Gridlock, Blink and Silence in the Library/The Forrest of the Dead. And I had fun watching most of the Doctor&Donna stories.

 

I feel there is a lot of Drama and an over all sadness to a lot of Ten's episodes.

[Kalliste]

@tarotx I totally forgot about The Girl in the Fireplace, one of my favourites as well. I loved having Mickey around too.

[Meredith Quill]

Matt Smith got one of best story arcs in series history, no wonder Tennant didn't want to go. 

 

Tennant did want to go (ironic), it was his choice, although he dithered briefly when he heard Moffats plans...in the end it was he that still decided to go.

[buttersister]

I remember thinking "go already" after the longest peri-regeneration ever. I was lukewarm to Ten until the Donna season--she enjoyed him so much I started to. But then, I forgot why.

[Kalliste]

I had the 'go already' feeling for Eleven. I never was as interested in Amy and Rory as everyone else seems to be. It started with Amy throwing herself at the doctor the day before her wedding night..

 

That being said, I did enjoy the relationship between Eleven and Rory but not enough for me to want to keep either of them around.

 

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it in this thread or not but when I first saw Tennant I thought there was no way he could be better than Eccleston, it lasted about 40 mins until he'd regenerated and got into the action. Then I was won over my Tennant, yup I'm pretty fickle :P

[Meredith Quill]

I had seen Tennant in Casanova previously and couldn't imagine him as the Doctor, so I felt the same way as you @Kalliste until then end of his first episode!

 

Never noticed before but on this cover of the Radio Times from 2005, features Tennant starring in Casanova with a Doctor Who headline beside his head - foreshadowing at work for real....ooooh!!!

 

[Kalliste]

I saw him in Casanova and Blackpool after seeing him in Doctor Who @SilverStormm so I basically had no idea who he was, just that he wasn't Eccleston and no one was going to be that awesome! And like you, within his first episode I changed my mind.

[LadyArcadia]

QFT. Plus, the best episode of his time, he was barely in.

 

Although Blink is one of my all time favorites, I feel one of the best episodes featured Ten, without a companion.

 

Midnight was a masterpiece.

[theredhead77]

Despite my first venture in to Doctor Who was with Eccleson / nine, Ten is and always will be *my* Doctor. I started watching so far in to the reboot that I was able to marathon and that may have something to do with my feelings. I also love dark, angsty characters.

I do get the ten hate, I really do. I am a ten and Rose forever!fangirl and hated Martha. I hated her so much that a friend I was re-watching with (his first time) watched the Martha arc alone because he got sick of me yelling at her. Loved Donna and DoctorDonna. I think the end of her arc was the first time I cried in the series. 

[StillNotGinger]

I hated her so much that a friend I was re-watching with (his first time) watched the Martha arc alone because he got sick of me yelling at her. 

I don't share your hatred of Martha, but that's hilarious!

 

I do share your love of Donna. I recently watched all the New Who episodes again. The only episodes/scenes I couldn't bring myself to rewatch were:

Love and Monsters - I wish I could kill that episode with fire and wipe it from existence. And then kill it again, just to make sure it doesn't pull a Rory.

Parts of Waters of Mars - it scares the shit out of me.

When The Doctor wipes Donna's memory - if I watch that again, I'll die of dehydration from all the tears.

[BizBuzz]

Parts of Waters of Mars - it scares the shit out of me.

 

No one ever talks about this episode, but I am so with you on this.  It was one freaking scary episode!

[theredhead77]

I don't share your hatred of Martha, but that's hilarious!

 

I loved Martha later and she's just fantastic with Jack. To be fair, I wasn't over Rose and had no patience for Martha's unrequited love and jealousy. She was behaving like a whiny freshman / teenage girl not a grown ass woman / medical student and she just needed to get!the!frell!over!it! I wanted to throw copies of He's Just Not That Into You at her. If they hadn't written the that angle in to her arc I would have been a lot more receptive to her.

[Rhetorica]

David Tennant's tongue. Oh my...

[April Bloodgate]

You mean this? ;)

 

[xaxat]

Fox is running promos for their new drama Gracepoint. One of the stars is Tennant and the promo closes with a shot of him and a woman standing on the beach surrounded by cliffs.

 

I have to admit, my first reaction was "Bad Wolf Bay!"

[pootlus]

I was upset over 9 going too soon, so ditched early on in Tennant's run.

 

Then I watched Blink, and The Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, which convinced me to at least watch Donna's run, which I did, then Martha's.  Then - ye gods - I had to struggle through the bloody awful turgid mess than was the Rose/Ten romance. I could not stand Rose by the end - I remember saying "If I have to hear those mangled vowels one more bloody time I will throw something at the screen".

 

So I learned to enjoy Ten - when he wasn't with Rose.  But I was saying "Oh just bloody well get on with it!" during the regeneration - it was interminable.  Talk about drawing out your goodbyes.

[alias1]

I didn't want Ten to go so I loved his long goodbye (and his farewell to all the characters I had come to know and love). 

 

Eleven's goodbye was to a fake little Amy and a weirdly, unnatural adult Amy (I guess she was meant to be a hologram, but it just looked fake to me).  Eleven's goodbye lasted centuries but we really didn't get to see it since most of it was a voice over.   I think Moffat did a great disservice to Matt.  I was never invested in anything that happened to him.    

 

I loved all of Ten's companions and their various journeys.

[Pollock]

Although Blink is one of my all time favorites, I feel one of the best episodes featured Ten, without a companion.

 

Midnight was a masterpiece.

At home, we are on a rewatch of Donna's season* and yesterday we watched Midnight. I totally forgot about this episode and IT WAS AWESOME ! Masterpiece indeed. I think I forgot about that one because it was between Silence/Forest and the always abundantly awesome Turn Left. But in Midnight, Tennant was masterful.

 

Between this one and Turn Left just after (with the labour camps), it was the "is Humanity really worth saving?" episodes. The moments in the dark, the creature repeating were frightening but nothing like the horror to see the humans so prompt to turn on each other just to save their bacon. Aweful and horribly realistic. And the heart wrenching ending when nobody knows the name of the hostess... 

No wonder Twelve has his hesitation to like us and would save us more like a conditioned reflex, not really because he wants to. We mostly suck as a group !

 

 

*If Ten is not my Doctor, Donna was my companion. I like all companions really much but I love her. To this day, I think I still hate RTD for what he did to her and I'd still punch him for it ! 

[Llywela]

Eleven's goodbye was to a fake little Amy and a weirdly, unnatural adult Amy (I guess she was meant to be a hologram, but it just looked fake to me).

I think she was a hallucination rather than a hologram - Clara couldn't see her, she just heard the Doctor talking to thin air. It called back to some of the classic regenerations where the Doctor similarly hallucinated about the people he'd been close to before regenerating.

[alias1]

I think she was a hallucination rather than a hologram - Clara couldn't see her, she just heard the Doctor talking to thin air. It called back to some of the classic regenerations where the Doctor similarly hallucinated about the people he'd been close to before regenerating.

I don't know much about Classic Who, so thanks for explaining that.  If Eleven hallucinated her I wonder why she didn't look more like she did in the series (as he would have remembered her).  She was so wooden and her hair was so different.  She looked so obviously like she was doing another project and only agreed to appear as a huge favor to Moffat (or because she liked Matt).  I can't really explain it (and it's quite obvious I was never a fan of Amy) but I did like Matt and I thought his send off was pathetic.

[Llywela]

I don't know much about Classic Who, so thanks for explaining that.  If Eleven hallucinated her I wonder why she didn't look more like she did in the series (as he would have remembered her).  She was so wooden and her hair was so different.  She looked so obviously like she was doing another project and only agreed to appear as a huge favor to Moffat (or because she liked Matt).  I can't really explain it (and it's quite obvious I was never a fan of Amy) but I did like Matt and I thought his send off was pathetic.

I didn't like Matt's send-off either, and I agree about Amy's appearance. I know what they were trying to do, but it didn't work for me (well, that episode as a whole didn't work for me, but that's a different story) - I prefer the classic approach (well, they did it with the 4th and 5th Doctors, not all of them) of simply using a few old clips of all that Doctor's companions, past and present, and flashing through those clips to show him hallucinating the people who've been important to him during that lifetime. That way, no one companion was singled out as more important than the others, and there was no awkwardness over getting people back to record new scenes. Job done. Sometimes understated is best!

[mledawn]

Hadn't Karen Gillan shaved her head for Guardians of the Galaxy by then? Same with Matt - he'd shaved his head for Lost River - but they seemed to manage his wig better, somehow.

[tv-talk]

Hadn't Karen Gillan shaved her head for Guardians of the Galaxy by then?

 

 

Wow I had no idea that was her!

[BizBuzz]

So I have been on a regeneration kick as of late.  After watching Deep Breath, I wanted to go back to all the Doctors and see what happened when they regenerated.

 

I have seen Two into Three (Spearhead from Space), Four into Five (Castrovalva), and Five into Six (The Twin Dilemma).  Today my daughter wanted to watch The Christmas Invasion, so I agreed, knowing this was part of my watching theme.  I have only seen this episode once.  I remember watching it and being so damned disappointed that I no longer had Nine that I wasn't going to even give Ten a chance.

 

Knowing what I know now, had Ten stayed like he was in this episode, I think I might just have liked him ... a LOT.  Some of his lines were priceless:

 

I wanted to be ginger. I've never been ginger. And you, Rose Tyler, fat lot of good you were. You gave up on me. Oh, that's rude. That's the sort of man I am now, am I? Rude. Rude and not ginger.

 

No second chances. I'm that sort of a man.

 

A running theme with regenerations, Classic and New ... what sort of man am I?

 

See, there's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that, I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. It's all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy? Right old misery? Life and soul? Right handed? Left handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob.

 

I rather enjoyed this, and I am not a Ten fan (don't shoot me), but wow, if he stayed like he was in this episode, I would have been in love.

[Sakura12]

I was upset when Nine left and was not at all used to actors only doing one season of a show, but I fell in love with Ten the moment he started quoting the Lion King. Now he's my favorite Doctor. 

[Kalliste]

So I have been on a regeneration kick as of late.  After watching Deep Breath, I wanted to go back to all the Doctors and see what happened when they regenerated.

 

I have seen Two into Three (Spearhead from Space), Four into Five (Castrovalva), and Five into Six (The Twin Dilemma).  Today my daughter wanted to watch The Christmas Invasion, so I agreed, knowing this was part of my watching theme.  I have only seen this episode once.  I remember watching it and being so damned disappointed that I no longer had Nine that I wasn't going to even give Ten a chance.

 

Knowing what I know now, had Ten stayed like he was in this episode, I think I might just have liked him ... a LOT.  Some of his lines were priceless:

 

I wanted to be ginger. I've never been ginger. And you, Rose Tyler, fat lot of good you were. You gave up on me. Oh, that's rude. That's the sort of man I am now, am I? Rude. Rude and not ginger.

 

No second chances. I'm that sort of a man.

 

A running theme with regenerations, Classic and New ... what sort of man am I?

 

See, there's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that, I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. It's all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy? Right old misery? Life and soul? Right handed? Left handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob.

 

I rather enjoyed this, and I am not a Ten fan (don't shoot me), but wow, if he stayed like he was in this episode, I would have been in love.

This is the moment I loved Ten.. I was so disappointed in the regeneration.. I have to show my ignorance and say I didn't even know about regeneration at that point and wondered wtf was going on. And then we had this short guy in pajamas!

 

Then he had his speech and he was marvelous and I was his forever :P

[Eozostrodon]

Tennant's taller than Eccleston. :)

[ketose]

I think Tennant had the most on-point Doctor persona. Eccelston was rightly playing a Time War PTSD version of the Doctor and he didn't really have much time to develop. Smith seemed like a very old man trying to act like a very young man. You could see in The Day of the Doctor how Ten was obsessed with the Time War and Eleven acted like he didn't think about it anymore.

 

Donna was my favorite companion because she was most like the classic companions where sexual tension was not a factor. She had kind of an adversarial relationship, but not one where she was more special than he was, at least most of the time.

 

My original series Doctor is Jon Pertwee, who doesn't get nearly enough love in my opinion. Neither does Colin Baker, who I have become a big fan of retroactively.

[Kalliste]

Tennant's taller than Eccleston. :)

Lol really? When he regenerated into Nine's clothes he looked so teeny. I couldn't believe he could be the doctor :P

[Eozostrodon]

Lol really? When he regenerated into Nine's clothes he looked so teeny. I couldn't believe he could be the doctor :P

Taller, but thinner. :P

[MadMouse]

What I loved about Ten was his life is a tragedy that he caused. He's damned himself by end of Tooth and Claw. The existence of Torchwood leads to the loss of Rose which breaks him. I don't think we ever saw Tennant play the 10th as carefree in S2 ever again. Bringing down Harriet Jones's lets the Master claim power and again he loses another companion. Then you have him showing off for Rose in Christmas Invasion and he loses his hand. Hello Metacrisis, he loses Donna and Rose again. Honestly I surprised he just didn't fly the Tardis into a sun at that point. That's why I loved him in Water of Mars he went off the deep end and if you listen to the audio commentary Tennant talks about how he was playing it as way to get Rose and Donna back.

 

And I know lots of people hate that he played the Doctor more human but I liked it for this incarnation. It makes what he goes through worse, wanting all those human things and knowing he can never have them. I don't want every Doctor to act this way but Tennant was so good at playing the Lonely God angle it just clicked for me.

[ketose]

What I loved about Ten was his life is a tragedy that he caused. He's damned himself by end of Tooth and Claw. The existence of Torchwood leads to the loss of Rose which breaks him. I don't think we ever saw Tennant play the 10th as carefree in S2 ever again. Bringing down Harriet Jones's lets the Master claim power and again he loses another companion. Then you have him showing off for Rose in Christmas Invasion and he loses his hand. Hello Metacrisis, he loses Donna and Rose again. Honestly I surprised he just didn't fly the Tardis into a sun at that point. That's why I loved him in Water of Mars he went off the deep end and if you listen to the audio commentary Tennant talks about how he was playing it as way to get Rose and Donna back.

 

And I know lots of people hate that he played the Doctor more human but I liked it for this incarnation. It makes what he goes through worse, wanting all those human things and knowing he can never have them. I don't want every Doctor to act this way but Tennant was so good at playing the Lonely God angle it just clicked for me.

I would dispute the ouster of Harriet Jones leading to the Master. Since he was using mind controlling technology, I think he would have been elected no matter who his opponent was. That was the first time when a political leader on Earth threatened the Doctor and was willing and able to use technology that might stop him.

[Llywela]

I would dispute the ouster of Harriet Jones leading to the Master. Since he was using mind controlling technology, I think he would have been elected no matter who his opponent was. That was the first time when a political leader on Earth threatened the Doctor and was willing and able to use technology that might stop him.

But Harriet didn't threaten the Doctor. She just didn't agree with him. She pointed out, reasonably enough, that he can't and won't always be here to protect Earth when dangerous aliens come calling, and she wasn't prepared to trust that the aliens he'd just chased away wouldn't come back next year with a larger army, possibly at a time when the Doctor was on the other side of the universe and unable to help. She felt that Earth had to be able to protect itself against such threats, rather than relying on the whim of a transient alien who only ever passes through fleetingly, and took action accordingly. Now, whether she was right or wrong is a matter of debate, but she was doing her duty as she saw it and the Doctor had no right to change the course of history by punishing her for it, just because he didn't agree. He created a power vacuum that the Master was able to exploit and we'll never know how much of a difference that might have made.