#David tennant video diary full
#David tennant video diary series

Perhaps it’s telling that the first story here, “The Next Doctor,” is about a human man (played by the wonderful David Morrissey) who is under the delusion that he’s the Doctor. If you’ve never met the Doctor before, it would be like, I imagine, being introduced to someone who’s sick without ever having known him when he was well. He’s lost everything that kept him anchored - like his human companions here he’s traveling alone. Here, though, in the “specials,” the Doctor’s intentions aren’t always good - not even if you squint and accept some shades of gray. And Davies had been exploring, through his four years of new Doctor Who prior to this one, how sometimes the Doctor deluded himself about what was right and what was wrong: the Doctor’s intentions, as Davies saw the character, were always good, but his actions weren’t always the smartest things he could have done. Now, this is where the problem for newbies comes in: The Doctor has always been a force for good, for fighting for what’s right - he’s one of the most moral heroes pop culture has seen.

#David tennant video diary series

The stories tell the tale of a Doctor - the 900-year-old Gallifreyan Time Lord - finally going utterly bonkers after losing the Time War (that happened offscreen, just before this rebooted series began in 2005), losing his planet and his people (Gallifrey was destroyed), and finally realizing that he’s well and truly alone and can use his godlike powers however he wants. sporadically throughout 2009 and mostly in one big bunch in December on BBC America.

#David tennant video diary full

So, for various reasons having to do with budget and Tennant’s availability, instead of doing a regular full season of 13 45-minute episodes, Davies gave us five slightly longer (a little over an hour each) “specials,” which aired in the U.K. (Davies is leaving as producer and head writer at the same time, in fact, so he probably felt like he had to go out with a bang, too.) Davies while fully aware that he had to wrap things up for Tennant’s Doctor. So all these “complete specials” were created by showrunner (and lifelong Doctor Who dork) Russell T. We’ve known it forever - as if the great gods of science fiction were torturing us with the terrible knowledge of something we could not change. You need Doctor Who 101.) But now he’s leaving the show, and a new actor (Matt Smith and no, you don’t know who he is if you’re no in the U.K.) is taking over the role. This box set is Advanced Theoretical Doctor Who. It’s just how things are, okay? (Pul-eeze, don’t ask about how there can be different Doctors, like Tom Baker and Peter Davison and Christopher Eccleston.

I’ll punch you in the nose if you say otherwise. See, cuz David Tennant is the best Doctor ever. But it might be like coming into Star Trek, never having taken a single journey on the Starship Enterprise, with The Search for Spock: you’d end up wondering, “Wha’? Spock is dead? But he’s not dead? And Kirk has a kid? But… wha’?”

It sounds special, doesn’t it? “The Complete Specials.” What could be bad about that? Well, there isn’t anything bad, per se. (It’s been out since last month on Region 2 DVD.

Here is my recommendation for those wishing to jump into the phenomenon that is Doctor Who but who have never seen a lick of the “classic” series - the one that ran from 1963 through 1989 - nor a moment of the rebooted series, which debuted in 2005 and has since taken the world - or the U.K., at least, and slices of American sci-fi cultdom - by storm.ĭon’t start with “The Complete Specials,” just out on Region 1 DVD from BBC Video. (For my episode-by-episode commentary on the specials, start here, with “The Next Doctor.” This is a spoiler-free look at the DVD package.) (if you’ve never seen ‘Doctor Who’ before)