Doctor Who: 2009 Specials Ranked and Reviewed

This should be a nice and quick one, as there are only 4 stories to rank and review. In 2009 we didn’t get a season of the show per say, but instead we got a few high-budget stories spread out over the year. These are a bit hit or miss, but how would I rank Tennant’s final run of episodes?

You can check out some other Doctor Who goodness below:

4 – Planet of the Dead

Rating: C-

It’s nice to see the show actually film on location, it’s just a shame the episode itself was so unbelievably boring. It sets up the remaining specials quite nicely though with the “knock four times” foreshadowing.

3 – The Next Doctor

Rating: C+

Doctor Who Christmas specials are never that high in quality, and to be fair this is probably one of the better ones.

The whole dynamic of a man who is genuinely believes he is the Doctor is an interesting one, but the cybermen designs in this episode are just plain stupid (I know, let’s build a massive cyberman! People will love that!)

2 – The End of Time

Rating: B

The first part of this regeneration two-parter is a bit of a mess, but the second part is soooooo gooooooood.

The showdown between the Doctor and the Master is fantastic television, and the minutes leading up to Tennant’s inevitable regeneration is some of the most heartbreaking television I’ve ever seen. That line “I don’t want to go” kills me on the inside ever time.

1 – The Waters of Mars

Rating: A+

For me, this is the single greatest episode of Doctor Who we’ve ever had.

The Flood is the scariest monster we’ve had hands down, they’re proper horror movie nightmare fuel. What sets this episode apart from the rest is “The Timelord Victorious”, a dark version of Tennant’s Doctor that provides the best Doctor scenes I’ve ever witnessed – “The laws of time are mine, and THEY WILL OBEY ME!”. I don’t think I’ll ever see a better episode of sci-fi television.

Season Rating: B-

Not bad really, the inclusion of “Waters of Mars” put this season in the B tier rather than C. Let’s see the stats:

• 1 A (25%)
• 1 B (25%)
• 2 Cs (50%)

Not bad, a little disappointing considering the budget and time they had but still a pretty good selection of episodes. Now for David Tennant’s tenure:

• 11 As (33%)
• 12 Bs (36%)
• 5 Cs (15%)
• 2 Ds (6%)
• 2 Es (6%)
• 1 F (3%)
• 33 Stories

Very good, only 15% of stories were sub-par, with 69% being at least good and a whopping 1 in 3 stories were amazing.

Russell T Davies as show-runner:

• 14 As (33%)
• 15 Bs (35%)
• 9 Cs (21%)
• 2 Ds (5%)
• 2 Es (5%)
• 1 F (2%)
• 43 Stories

Russell had a fantastic tenure as show-runner, with only 12% of his stories being sub-par, and 2/3 of them were at least good. That’s why I think he’s the best show-runner we’ve had.

Aaaaaand that’s it for Tennant. Next we’ll look at one of the best seasons the show has ever put out, but until then you should check out some of my other posts: