Broadcast in 2006, Doctor Who Series 2 saw David Tennant’s first adventures in the good ship TARDIS, and a slew of familiar friends and foes…
Of course, Christopher Eccleston had regenerated a year earlier, and whilst David Tennant may have made his official debut in 2005’s Christmas special, Doctor Who Series 2 really marked the start of a whole new era when it began in the spring of ’06: his first full season at the controls of the famous police box.
And it really did feel like a whole new era. It was like Doctor Who was being re-launched all over again. Christopher Eccleston had left after just one season (albeit a very successful one) and, naturally, there were questions on many people’s minds as to what Doctor Who Series 2 would be like with a new leading actor. After all, Doctor Who had never seen such a brief tenure from its incumbent Time Lord, unless you count Paul McGann ‘leaving’ after just one story in 1996.
That said, if anybody was worried, they needn’t have been. Doctor Who Series 2 was every bit as exciting as the previous year, and some might argue it was better. Perhaps one of the most surprising announcements was the return of Elisabeth Sladen as the classic series companion Sarah Jane Smith, with her robot friend K9 to boot. Surely, there wasn’t a classic Doctor Who fan alive who wasn’t ecstatic to see the return of the beloved Sarah Jane, even though her appearance would have meant little to the younger, modern day viewers.
But as it turned out, this didn’t really matter. Sarah Jane’s appearance in Doctor Who Series 2 made a lot of sense from a story point of view. For a start, it was logical that a journalist like Sarah would be investigating the mysterious goings-on at the school in question, and the current companion Rose‘s reaction to the return of the Doctor’s old friend was fascinating to watch from a character point of view. For the first time in the series’ history, there was a real rivalry between the former and current companions; they had a possessiveness of the Doctor. It was even suggested that Sarah Jane might have had romantic feelings for the Time Lord, at one stage.
Of course, all of this gets resolved by the end of Sarah Jane’s episode ‘School Reunion,’ and fans were in for an even bigger treat when it was announced that Sarah Jane would be afforded her own spin-off series, debuting that Christmas. This was hot on the heels that another former companion, Captain Jack Harkness, was also getting his own show. Suddenly, Doctor Who Series 2 was becoming part of much bigger empire, long before Star Wars and Marvel were commissioning shows left, right and centre.
But it wasn’t just the Doctor’s old friends who were pulling in the viewers. Doctor Who Series 2 also saw the return of the Cybermen after an 18 year absence. Interestingly (or controversially, depending on your point of view) these weren’t the Cybermen that we’d grown up with. These were Cybermen from a parallel universe, and their Doctor Who Series 2 story ‘Rise of the Cybermen’ actually chronicled their origin at the hands of the deranged scientist John Lumic, bizarrely and creepily portrayed by the actor Roger Lloyd Pack.
Even more excitingly, this wasn’t to be the Cybermen’s only appearance in Doctor Who Series 2. The metal giants were also brought back for the series finale ‘Army of Ghosts’ and ‘Doomsday,’ and as if this wasn’t gut-wrenching enough, writer Russell T Davies also decided to throw the Daleks into the mix, for good measure. This marked a first in the Whoniverse, as these two iconic baddies had never actually met on screen before, and their first encounter was every bit as explosive, and comical, as you would expect. Naturally, the Daleks and the Cybermen do not get along, and the Daleks clean the floor with them.
However, what ‘Doomsday’ will probably be best remembered for is its devastating conclusion, in which the Tenth Doctor and Rose are separated forever. Rose is trapped in a parallel universe and the Doctor has no way of reaching her, save for a brief holographic conversation in which the Time Lord comes within seconds of uttering the words “I love you” to his grieving friend. Rose, however, does declare her love for the Doctor, just before he fades away – which was another first for the series. We had never had a Doctor Who companion who had fallen in love with the eponymous Time Lord before (not that we know of, anyway!)
And whilst it’s easy to recall Doctor Who Series 2’s big, bombastic moments, it’s important to remember that there were some ‘smaller,’ more understated episodes which were no less enjoyable. The most notable of these has to be Steven Moffat‘s ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ – an episode that fans didn’t really know much about prior to its transmission, but it made a seismic impact when it landed. It had everything – monsters, time travel and a tear-jerking conclusion. It really is a classic Doctor Who episode and perhaps one of the highlights of Doctor Who Series 2. If you’ve never seen it before, you should drop everything and go and watch it, now! Alons-y!
There was also ‘The Impossible Planet’ and ‘The Satan Pit,’ a story which wasn’t seen by a huge number of people on its original broadcast owing to a blast of balmy weather in the UK. And that may have been no bad thing for the younger viewers, as this was one of the darkest and scariest Doctor Who adventures of the modern era, if not of all time. Even today, there have been few stories which are quite as dark, scary and adult as ‘The Satan Pit’ and, as the title suggests, the story pits the Time Lord against the Devil himself. It channels the same energy as horror classics like Alien and Event Horizon, and it is not to be messed with.
In the end, Doctor Who Series 2 proved that the 2005 series had not been a ‘one hit wonder,’ and that lightning could indeed strike twice. The show was firmly back, and as popular as ever. David Tennant had been embraced as the new incumbent Time Lord and had quickly found his feet, and with the surprise appearance of Catherine Tate in the final scene of the season, it was clear that things were about to get even more interesting.
What is your fondest moment from Doctor Who Series 2? And which is your favourite story? Let me know in the comments below.
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