Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

DVD box set cover art
Starring
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of episodes 5 (+2 supplemental)
Release
Original network BBC One
Original release 25 December 2008 (2008-12-25) – 1 January 2010 (2010-01-01)

The 2008–2010 specials of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who are five specials that linked the programme's fourth and fifth series. They began on 25 December 2008 with "The Next Doctor" and concluded on 1 January 2010 with Part Two of The End of Time. They saw the departure of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor.

Episodes

The End of Time was the first "serial" with an overall title and episode numbers since Survival in Season 26, the final serial broadcast during the series' original run.

StoryEpisodeTitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air dateProd.
code		UK viewers
(millions) [1]		AI [1]
1991"The Next Doctor"Andy GoddardRussell T Davies25 December 2008 (2008-12-25)4.1413.1086
This special sees the return of the Cybermen (of the design of the parallel universe's Cybus Industries Cybermen), following their previous appearance in the two-part finale of series two in 2006, "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday". Having fallen back in time to Victorian London, the Cybermen create a huge "Cyber-King" with child labour and the help of Miss Hartigan (Dervla Kirwan). Meanwhile Jackson Lake (David Morrissey) has accidentally absorbed the Doctor's memories and thinks himself to be the Doctor.
2002"Planet of the Dead"James StrongRussell T Davies & Gareth Roberts11 April 2009 (2009-04-11)4.159.7588
While investigating a wormhole in London, the Doctor meets Lady Christina de Souza (Michelle Ryan) and they are both accidentally transported in a red London bus along with the other passengers to a desert planet which was destroyed by metallic sting ray-like aliens that travel between planets via wormholes. They rig the bus to travel back to London while UNIT works to close the wormhole to prevent Earth's destruction.
2013"The Waters of Mars"Graeme HarperRussell T Davies & Phil Ford15 November 2009 (2009-11-15)4.1610.3288
The Doctor visits Bowie Base One, Earth's first colony on Mars, led by Captain Adelaide Brooke (Lindsay Duncan). A waterborne virus from the glacier used for the water supply begins to possess the crew and Brooke plans to destroy the base in order to prevent the virus spreading to earth via an escape rocket. The Doctor saves the remaining crew, including Brooke in the TARDIS, but Brooke kills herself on Earth to ensure that the history is unchanged.
2024
5		The End of TimeEuros LynRussell T Davies25 December 2009 (2009-12-25)
1 January 2010 (2010-01-01)		4.17
4.18		12.04
12.27		87
89

The Doctor learns from the Ood that the Master (John Simm) will be returning soon. A cult of the Master has resurrected him using the ring dropped at the end of "Last of the Time Lords", but Lucy Saxon sabotages the process, causing the Master to experience intense hunger and energy expenditure, which also gives him powers beyond those of other Time Lords. In his investigations, the Doctor meets up with Wilfred Mott and they both travel to the Naismith Institute where they have enlisted to repair an alien "Immortality Gate". However, the Master uses the gate to re-write the DNA of all humans on the planet with his own, creating a planet of Masters. Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and Wilf (Bernard Cribbins) are shielded from this. Far across the universe, Rassilon (Timothy Dalton) heralds the return of Gallifrey and the end of time itself.

The Doctor and Wilf are rescued by two alien Vinvocci who were working undercover at the Institute to retrieve the "Immortality Gate" and take refuge in their spaceship above Earth. It is then revealed that Rassilon had placed the sound of drums in the Master's head as a signal that he could use to pull Gallifrey out of Time-Lock via a white-point star. Gallifrey materialises above Earth, with all the other horrors of the Time War likely to follow. Armed with Wilf's gun, the Doctor stands off against Rassilon to break the link between Gallifrey and Earth. To do this, he must either shoot the Master or Rassilon, but instead he shoots the white-point star, which causes Rassilon and Gallifrey to recede back into Time-Lock. Rassilon attempts to kill the Doctor, but the Master sacrifices himself to save him. Meanwhile, Wilf has trapped himself in the Gate's isolation chamber, which is about to flood with deadly radiation. The Doctor activates the chamber's other compartment, saving Wilf but irradiating himself. He holds off regeneration while he goes on a "farewell tour", visiting all of his companions. Alone in the TARDIS, the Doctor regenerates, giving off such violent energy that the console room is set ablaze. The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) inspects his new body as the stricken TARDIS plummets earthward.

Supplemental episodes

The animated serial Dreamland was produced for the BBC's Red Button service and "Music of the Spheres" was filmed for the 2008 Doctor Who Prom.

TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air date
"Music of the Spheres"Euros LynRussell T Davies27 July 2008 (2008-07-27)
The episode has fictional and non-fictional components: the fictional component takes place in the TARDIS; the non-fictional component is the Doctor Who Prom, which took place during the episode's first transmission. The Doctor converses with the viewer and conducts the orchestra to perform his symphony Ode to the Universe, while being antagonised by the Graske (Jimmy Vee), who intends to cause mischief at the Prom.
DreamlandGary RussellPhil Ford21–26 November 2009 (2009-11-26)
The Doctor investigates alien activity at Area 51 with the help of local Nevadans Cassie Rice and Jimmy Stalkingwolf.

Casting

Main characters

The 2008–2010 specials marked the end of David Tennant's reign as The Doctor after 5 years.

These specials marked David Tennant's final run of episodes as the Tenth Doctor and Matt Smith's first appearance as the newly regenerated Eleventh Doctor. They also featured a string of one-time Companions beginning in "The Next Doctor" with David Morrissey as Jackson Lake, a man who thinks himself to be the Doctor[2][3] and his "companion" Rosita Farisi played by Velile Tshabalala.[4] "Planet of the Dead" featured Michelle Ryan as young thrill-seeking burglar Lady Christina de Souza.[5][6] "The Waters of Mars" starred Lindsay Duncan as Adelaide Brooke, Captain of Bowie Base One on Mars.[7] Finally, the two-part The End of Time had Bernard Cribbins as recurring character Wilfred Mott as a full-fledged Companion for the first time. Other companions appear briefly during the Tenth Doctor's "farewell tour": Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, Billie Piper as Rose Tyler,[8] Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones,[9] Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith, John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness,[10] and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith,[11] and Verity Newman, whose grandmother, Joan Redfern, fell in love with the human John Smith in "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood".[12] John Simm reprises his role as the Master in The End of Time.[13]

Production

"I would have thought that when I handed in the last script I might have burst into tears or got drunk or partied with 20 naked men, but when these great moments happen you find that real life just carries on. The emotion goes into the scripts."

Russell T. Davies[14]

A bespectacled man in a black jacket, waistcoat, and tie, pink shirt, and jeans, sitting with his back to a marble-effect wall.
Following the specials Russell T Davies stood down as show runner for Doctor Who after resurrecting it after 16 years off the air.

In his book The Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies reveals that the plan to have only specials for 2009 was to allow the new production team headed by new lead writer Steven Moffat to have enough time to prepare for the full fifth series in 2010. David Tennant took this opportunity to appear in a stage production of Hamlet. For practical reasons, these specials continued to use series 4 production codes.

On 28 October 2008 at the National Television Awards during his speech after winning Outstanding Drama Performance for his work on series 4, David Tennant announced that he would be standing down as the Doctor for series 5 and that the 09/10 specials would be his last.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21] The specials not only marked an end to Tenant's reign as the Doctor, but also Russell T. Davies' as show runner, head writer and executive producer of the show, who announced his departure from the series on 20 May 2008 with his final episode airing in 2010.[22][23][24][25]

"The Next Doctor" and "Music of the Spheres" were produced at the end of the production run of series 4, but were not included in the Complete Series 4 DVD set, instead with the Complete Specials set.

"The Next Doctor" was filmed in April 2008 at Gloucester Cathedral,[26][27] St Woolos Cemetery in Newport[28] and the streets of Gloucester, where shooting was hampered by up to 1,000 onlookers. The main setting of Torchwood, their Torchwood Hub was also redesigned and used as the workshop for the children.[29] The two major filming locations of "Planet of the Dead" were the desert of Dubai was used for scenes on the "planet of the dead"; and the Queen's Gate Tunnel in Butetown, Cardiff was used for the majority of Earth-bound scenes. Filming for "The Waters of Mars" began on 23 February 2009. In late February, David Tennant, Duncan and other actors were seen filming in Victoria Place, Newport.[30] The filming took place on a city street, which the production team covered with artificial snow.[30][31] The glasshouse scenes were filmed in the National Botanic Garden of Wales, Carmarthenshire.[32] The first location filming for The End of Time took place on Saturday, 21 March 2009 at a bookstore in Cardiff.[33] Jessica Hynes was filmed signing a book titled A Journal of Impossible Things, by Verity Newman.

Release

DVD and Blu-ray releases

"The Next Doctor" was released on DVD on 19 January 2009 in the United Kingdom, 5 March 2009 in Australia and 15 September 2009 in the United States. "Planet of the Dead" was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 29 June 2009 in the United Kingdom, 2 July 2009 on DVD and 1 October 2009 on Blu-ray in Australia, and 28 July 2009 in the United States. "The Waters of Mars" and The End of Time were bundled together on DVD on 11 January 2010 in the United Kingdom. Both were released separately in Australia and the United States, "The Waters of Mars" being released on 2 February 2010 in the United States and 4 February in Australia and The End of Time being released on 2 February 2010 in the United States and 4 March in Australia. A complete collection of the specials on DVD and Blu-ray was released on 11 January 2010 in the United Kingdom, 2 February in the United States and 29 June on Blu-ray and 1 July on DVD in Australia.

Doctor Who: The Complete Specials
Set details Special features
  • 5 episodes
  • 5-disc set
  • 16:9 aspect ratio
  • Subtitles: English
DVD release dates
Region 1 Region 2 Region 4
2 February 2010 (2010-02-02) 11 January 2010 (2010-01-11) 1 July 2010 (2010-07-01)

Soundtrack

Selected pieces of score from these specials (from "The Next Doctor" to The End of Time), as composed by Murray Gold, were released on 4 October 2010 by Silva Screen Records.

References

  1. 1 2 "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  2. ↑ "BBC NEWS – Health – Dr New – is this the next Doctor?". News.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "Brief Encounter With David Morrissey". Club.whatsonstage.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  4. ↑ Robert Collins (16 December 2008). "Doctor Who: Velile Tshabalala". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  5. ↑ Oliver Luft. "Doctor Who: Michelle Ryan to guest star in Easter special". the Guardian. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  6. ↑ Andrew Pettie (11 April 2009). "Interview: Michelle Ryan on joining Doctor Who". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  7. ↑ "Lindsay Duncan to star in Doctor Who special following role as Margaret Thatcher". Telegraph.co.uk. 19 February 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  8. ↑ "Billie Piper returns to Doctor Who to see David Tennant bow out in all-star show". Mail Online. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  9. ↑ metrowebukmetro. "Freema set for Doctor Who return". Metro. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  10. ↑ NathalieC. "The Inside Trekker". Insidetrekker.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  11. ↑ Charlie Jane Anders. "Star Trek Comedy And Doctor Who Tragedy — Revealed!". io9. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  12. ↑ Charlie Jane Anders. "Discover Both Ends Of The "Spectrum Of Spock." Plus The Doctor's Worst Nightmare.". io9. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  13. ↑ "Simm Returns as The Master in Doctor Who". WIRED. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  14. ↑ "Last script for the doctor". Scotsman.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  15. ↑ "BBC NEWS – Entertainment – David Tennant quits as Doctor Who". News.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  16. ↑ "David Tennant: Why I'm quitting Doctor Who". Telegraph.co.uk. 29 October 2008. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  17. ↑ "David Tennant quits 'Doctor Who'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  18. ↑ "Regenerate! Tennant to end stint as the Doctor". the Guardian. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  19. ↑ metrowebukmetro. "Time I left Dr Who, says winning Tennant". Metro. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  20. ↑ Anita Singh (29 October 2008). "David Tennant to quit Doctor Who". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  21. ↑ "David Tennant Quits Doctor Who". Doctorwhotv.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  22. ↑ metrowebukmetro. "Doctor Who helmsman steps down from role". Metro. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  23. ↑ mirror Administrator (20 May 2008). "Dr Who writer and producer Russell T Davies to quit". mirror. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  24. ↑ "'Doctor Who's given me the time of my life' – Russell T Davies on leaving Doctor Who". Telegraph.co.uk. 18 December 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  25. ↑ Ben Dowell. "Steven Moffat to replace Russell T Davies as Doctor Who lead writer and executive producer". the Guardian. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  26. ↑ "David Morrissey to star in Doctor Who Christmas special featuring deadly Cybermen". Daily Mail. London. 22 April 2008. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  27. ↑ "David films 'Dr Who' Christmas special in 'snowy' Gloucester". Hello Magazine. 23 April 2008. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  28. ↑ David Deans (4 April 2008). "Cybermen invade Newport". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  29. ↑ Hosts Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner (2008-12-25). "The Next Doctor". Doctor Who: The Commentaries. Series 1. Episode 14. Cardiff. BBC. BBC Radio 7.
  30. 1 2 Lewis, Tim (2 March 2009). "Fans gather to see Doctor Who's new assistant". Western Mail. Retrieved 8 April 2009.
    Nicholls, Matt (1 March 2009). "Doctor Who teams up with award-winner Lindsay Duncan". Wales on Sunday. Retrieved 8 April 2009.
  31. ↑ "Walesarts, Victoria Place, Newport". BBC. Retrieved 2010-05-30.
  32. ↑ "National Botanic Garden of Wales : Doctor Who". Gardenofwales.org.uk. Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
  33. ↑ Anders, Charlie Jane (25 March 2009). "Your Spock/McCoy Snark Forecast". io9. Retrieved 18 April 2009.
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