Outside of the In-Crowd – And he’s wonderful
Courtney Enlow |
He’s like fire and ice and rage. He’s like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He’s ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and can see the turn of the universe. And he’s wonderful.
This past weekend, nerds throughout the country and normal people throughout Western Europe said a very difficult goodbye, and that goodbye was to the Doctor. The Tenth Doctor specifically, as in the star of Doctor Who, David Tennant.
I took this particularly hard, as I, along with most females/gay males who watch DW, am deeply awkwardly in I-don’t-actually-know-you love with David Tennant. He wears Chucks with a suit, he’s tall and lanky, his hair is all “sticky uppy” and he’s Scottish, which is pretty much my most important criteria. And he actually likes Doctor Who, which any American lass will tell you is somewhat difficult to find in a man (she says to her boyfriend who refuses to watch it with her). He’s all this, and a brilliant actor. He, in his four year tenure, has bested Tom Baker as the most beloved Doctor of all time. He’s awesome. And now he’s gone.
Things are about to get spoilery, so bounce, if you’re against that kind of thing. Seriously. BOUNCE.
Okay, so I don’t know about you, but for the last twenty minutes of his final episode, I was in completely hysterical inconsolable sobs. From the instant you find out just who is delivering the four knocks that will bring about his death to his seeing his BFFs for the last time (Martha + Mickey = true love forevs), I was a wreck. I’ve never cried so hard at something fictitious, and I saw Titanic four times in the theater as a weepy Leo-obsessed fourteen-year-old.
David Tennant was incredibly important to the lives of his fans for four years, and will continue to be so until our DVDs are worn to nothing. With that, I offer him all I can in return: a rudimentary countdown list.
The Ten Best Tenth Doctor Moments
10. “Look at me! I’m wearing a vegetable!”
This is only so far back because it’s not technically from an episode, rather a Children In Need special bit. But it’s awesome. It’s fan squee-y, hilarious and the bringing together of my two favorite doctors. And brainy specs!
9. The Doctor describes Gallifrey.
The Doctor was rendered homeless shortly before the start of the new series. For the first time in NuWho, he tells us about Gallifrey and the Time Lords. He makes it all sound beautiful and lovely. Too bad I remember the Time Lords as being kind of dicks from the old episodes, but that’s beside the point.
I only wish there was more Donna Noble on this list, but the problem with that is that all Donna’s awesomeness overshadowed the Doctor, so he doesn’t get a lot of “best” moments with her. This, however, is glorious.
7. “Thick thick thickity thickface from Thicktown, Thickania. And so’s your dad.”
Not only do I love a faux-drunken Doctor (and this entire episode), but I love that this line is a rehash from a Coupling episode, also written by Steven Moffat (“You’re so slim. Slim slim slimmity slim from Slimtown, Slimania.”)
I would have been repelled by him if he was.
5. The Doctor takes on Satan and effing wins.
Please note that YouTube is a twat and cuts it off before my favorite line. See the whole thing, because it’s my favorite episode. ANYWAY, if you watch DW, you know that the general rule of thumb is that there is no God, there is only Zuul the Doctor. When put up against giant beefy Beelzebub himself, who do you think wins? My money’s on the skinny guy.
4. “Wibbley wobbly timey wimey stuff.”
This is the only time that time travel has ever made sense to me, and I grew up on this and Back to the Future.
3. Psych! Suck it, family of blood!
This whole episode had spectacular David acting, but this scene where he just drops it and slips seamlessly back into Doctor pimpawesomeness mode is genius. Gives me a giant smile every time.
The second hardest I’ve ever cried at Doctor Who. As for the first …
As if there were any question.
Goodbye, David. We miss you already. Bring on Matt Smith. Eleven, you have big shoes to fill.
Courtney Enlow is a writer living in Chicago and working as a corporate shill to pay the bills. You can contact her at courtney@hobotrashcan.com.
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I was really, really, really happy to see him go. Now, I quite like a lot of his run (the Rose stuff, pre-oh-the-drama separation, is fun to watch), but he’s managed to run himself into the ground more than any doctor since Sylvester McCoy. Davies takes most of the blame for this, but the demi-god, wish-fulfillment, have-it-all-ways run (oh hi, extra Doctor who Rose can snog!) got on my nerves.
And then! Oh, did the finale piss me off in all ways. First he berates Wilf for saving another human life when any of his predecessors (except McCoy, probably) would have commended him for it. If he had collapsed in that chamber, woken up, been Matt Smith, then maybe some dignity could have been saved. But no, Tennant had to go running about for another twenty damn minutes! How long has any regeneration taken? At most three hours, and that’s when the Doctor was at deep freeze and had been shot a hundred times. Ten had enough time to visit everyone and give all the recent regulars a cameo and generally do fan-service, which is a crock. Why didn’t he go back in time and save Adric while he was at it? Find out what happened to both his daughters? He certainly seemed to have enough time.
The worst, though, was that last line. “I don’t want to go?” What kind of exit is that for a hero? “You were fantastic, and so was I!” “The end has been prepared for!” Even “carrot juice, carrot juice!” Those are decent send-off lines for The Doctor. This felt phony, and simpering, and frankly drew Ten as a wuss, and Tennant/Davies as totally selfish. What I would have given to have Eccleston show up and pop him one at that exact moment.
Maybe I’m being too harsh, because on the whole I enjoyed his time as The Doctor. It contains the all-time greatest story in “Blink,” it brought us back Sarah Jane and K-9 and The Sontarans and Cybermen and Rassilon and The Master, and most of all it brought a huge new fan contingent to the series I’ve loved my whole life. But enough already. He can say “I’m sorry” as many times as he pleases on screen (and he says it a lot), but it doesn’t make up for the fact that he went out looking like the Emo Doctor who Refused to Let Anyone Else Play with His Toys.
Let’s see what Matt Smith has for us! I’ve got the same level of giddy excitement as I did when the first trailer for New Who was released and I bolted around my college apartment screaming. No matter what happens, I will always love this series and every actor who plays the lead…except Sylvester McCoy.
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I’m sad to see DT go. Please note that I in no way am sad to see RTD go. That man did more disservice to the Doctor AND actually forced me to have to use the words “atheistic agenda” multiple times like a goddamn Fox News anchor. And while we’re on the subject, fucking “Love and Monsters.”
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Oh, goddamnit! “Love and Monsters!” I had forgotten all about that stupid, Scooby-influenced, written-by-a-child nonsense until now.
And sometimes I had the feeling that RTD never watched an episode of the old Dr. Who. His “rawr everything is what it is and you’re stupid and there is no God” writing is not only antithetical to all of Who lore, but probably also would have gotten him slugged by several Doctors. I’m thinking here of Tom Baker, who was ill-tempered enough to take a swing at poor writers. A Tennant run with Merchant, or even any of the Original Who writers, at the helm probably would have been perfect.
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