Tenth Doctor

The Doctor

The Tenth Doctor
Doctor Who character
David Tennant as the Doctor
First regular appearance	"The Parting of the Ways"
Portrayed by	David Tennant
Information
Tenure	2005 – 2010
No of series	3
Appearances	32 stories (42 episodes)
Companions	on television: Rose Tyler Mickey Smith Donna Noble Martha Jones Jack Harkness Sarah Jane Smith Astrid Peth K9 MIII K9 MIV Sally Sparrow Jenny Jackson Lane Rosita (Jack Frostby)
Chronology	Series 2 (2006) Series 3 (2007) Series 4 (2008) 4 specials (2009/2010)

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in spin-offs:
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The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the fictional character known as the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by actor David Tennant, who replaced Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor in the 2005 series finale, "The Parting of the Ways", having reintroduced Doctor Who that same year. The incumbent Doctor, Tennant has appeared in three series to date, as well as three Christmas specials. As with previous incarnations of the Doctor, the character has also appeared in other Doctor Who multimedia.

Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who travels in time in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body but in doing so gains a new physical appearance and with it, a distinct new personality. Tennant portrays the tenth such incarnation, an excitable and manic character, all too aware of his own genius and his vengeful nature. His first companion was Rose (Billie Piper), who was already travelling with his predecessor. Rose fell in love with the new Doctor, but the two were separated seemingly indefinitely. Subsequently, the Doctor travelled with a number of other companions, including Martha (Freema Agyeman) and Donna (Catherine Tate), but eventually parted ways with them all by the end of the 2008 series finale, "Journey's End".

David Tennant has announced during the acceptance of a National Television Award for his role as the Tenth Doctor that he will not return in this role for the fifth series, currently scheduled to be broadcast in 2010. He will make his final appearance in the role in the last of the television specials that are scheduled to be aired in 2009 and early 2010.

Overview

After the successful premiere of "Rose" and the announcement of a second series being commissioned by the BBC, the story broke that Christopher Eccleston, who played the Ninth Doctor, would not be returning for the second series. On 16 April 2005, the BBC announced that David Tennant had been selected for the role of the Tenth Doctor. His first appearance in the series was for 20 seconds following the Ninth Doctor's regeneration at the end of The Parting of the Ways. His first full episode as the Doctor, barring an appearance in a "mini-episode" during the 2005 Children in Need show, was the 2005 Christmas Special, The Christmas Invasion. He then appeared in the 2006 series, the second seasonal episode, the 2007 series, the third Christmas special and the 2008 series. It has also been confirmed that Tennant will appear in four specials to be aired throughout 2009..

In 2006, readers of Doctor Who Magazine voted Tennant's Doctor "Best Doctor" over perennial favourites Sylvester McCoy and Tom Baker.

A thirteen-part animated adventure, The Infinite Quest, featuring the Tenth Doctor and companion Martha Jones (voiced by David Tennant and Freema Agyeman) premiered on Totally Doctor Who on 2 April 2007; the last segment of The Infinite Quest was shown with all previous episodes as an entire Doctor Who episode on 30 June 2007.

While the previous Doctor was never explicitly referred to as the Ninth on-screen, the exact number of incarnations thus far was confirmed in-series by sketches of the ten Doctors to date in the sketchbook A Journal of Impossible Things that appeared in 2007's "Human Nature" (although only five incarnations are visible on-screen, the other five also appear on a two-page scan seen on the BBC's tie-in website). In "School Reunion", the Tenth Doctor commented to Sarah Jane Smith that he had regenerated half a dozen times since they had last met; Sarah last saw the Doctor at the end of the Fourth Doctor serial The Hand of Fear (in the anniversary special "The Five Doctors" (1983), she is paired up with the Third Doctor, and also meets the Fifth Doctor, Second Doctor, and First Doctor). Off-screen, on the DVD commentary for "The Parting of the Ways", Julie Gardner states after the regeneration sequence, 'Tennant is Ten!'. For the soundtrack of "The Christmas Invasion", a specially commissioned piece played during the sequence in which the Doctor chooses his new outfit, was titled "Song for Ten". BBC's official website refers to Eccleston's Doctor as "The Ninth Doctor" as do all promotional materials for the show such as trading cards, action figures, etc.

Biography

The Ninth Doctor regenerates into the Tenth due to cellular damage caused by absorbing the energies of the time vortex at the climax of "The Parting of the Ways". In the Children in Need mini-episode, the Doctor initially exhibits stable behaviour as he introduces his new form to Rose Tyler, showing particular interest in his appearance, but soon begins acting erratically and says that his regeneration has "gone wrong". He remains in a delirious or comatose state through most of the events of "The Christmas Invasion" until his regeneration is settled through absorbing the free radicals and tannin from some hot tea that had dripped onto a power source inside the TARDIS. He then saves the Earth from invasion by defeating the leader of the alien Sycorax using a satsuma. The Doctor's right hand is severed in the fight, although he regenerates a new one since his regeneration cycle was not fully completed.

The Tenth Doctor and Rose go on to rescue Queen Victoria from a werewolf. The Doctor is knighted as "Sir Doctor of TARDIS" as a reward — a title he later uses during his first journey with Martha Jones — although Victoria banishes them from the British Empire and sets up the Torchwood Institute to defend Britain from paranormal threats and wait for the Doctor's return. He finally encounters the Institute in "Army of Ghosts".

In "The Girl in the Fireplace", he develops romantic feelings for Madame de Pompadour while attempting to discover why clockwork androids on a 51st Century spaceship are stalking her throughout her life. Ultimately, he is unable to take her with him as the last, asynchronous time window returns him to her after her death.

In "The Doctor's Daughter", the TARDIS takes the Doctor, Martha, and Donna Noble to the planet Messaline in an unspecified time period. Armed human colonists forcefully extrapolate the Doctor's DNA and create a young female soldier for their army. She later chooses the name "Jenny", as suggested by Donna, alluding to her status as a "generated anomaly". Despite being reminded of the loss of his family and his former status as a parent, the Doctor eventually accepts her as his 'daughter', only to be separated from her by the end of the episode after he believes her to have died, not knowing that she later returned to life.

The Tenth Doctor has used his psychic abilities more often on screen than his previous incarnations. He continues to use the Ninth Doctor's psychic paper, but has also been seen using telepathic techniques several times (for instance, in "The Girl in the Fireplace" and "The Shakespeare Code"). In "Last of the Time Lords", he uses his telepathic skills over a year to tap into the Archangel satellite network to rejuvenate himself with humanity's belief in him. He is then able to manipulate the combined energy apparently created by that belief, using it alternately as a shield and as a weapon, in the form of telekinesis.

In "Voyage of the Damned" the Tenth Doctor states that he is 903 years old, suggesting he gets one year older every series. The Tenth Doctor may technically be, however, 913 years old due to taking ten years off of his life.

In "The Stolen Earth" the Tenth Doctor is shot by a Dalek while running toward Rose. Captain Jack and Rose bring the Doctor into the TARDIS where he begins the regeneration process. During the process, he directs the regeneration energy towards his previously severed hand that is connected to the TARDIS, keeping the Doctor in the same form. Later Donna Noble inadvertently causes a "human biological metacrisis" by touching the severed hand, which causes a part human, part Time Lord version of the Doctor to be created. Whether he has used up one of his regenerations is not explored; in Doctor Who Confidential for this episode, Tennant says he thinks this is up to future writers. At the end of the series' events he is alone in the TARDIS; in the following special episode, "Music of the Spheres", his musical talent is revealed, when he has taken his mind off his loneliness by composing an "Ode to the Universe".

Companions

The Tenth Doctor "inherited" Rose Tyler (played by Billie Piper) as his companion, who left in "Doomsday", the final episode of the 2006 series, seemingly stranded forever on a parallel world. At the end of the same episode, a bride named Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate, appeared in the TARDIS as a result of her Huon particle intake, and appeared in the 2006 Christmas special, "The Runaway Bride". In the episode's dénouement, she refused his offer of full-time companionship, instead suggesting he find someone else. She did, however, return as the full time companion for Series 4. Rose also returns for the three final episodes in Series 4, after making three foreshadowing appearances throughout the series, none of which were witnessed by the Doctor. After a hectic reunion in the series finale "Journey's End", Rose's story appears to end when she is left to live on her parallel world with a partially-human tenth Doctor, a man with all his memories and his personality who will age and live and die as a normal human without ever regenerating. Donna's tenure with the Doctor ends tragically at the same time - in creating the second regenerated Doctor from his severed hand, she is imbued with Time Lord knowledge which proves too much for her human brain to survive with. Ultimately, the Doctor is forced to wipe her memory of him and leave her be as she was before she ever met him.

Rose's boyfriend, Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke), a recurring character from the previous season, joined the TARDIS crew as a regular companion in "School Reunion". Mickey departed the TARDIS in "The Age of Steel", replacing his deceased counterpart on a parallel Earth. He returned and departed for good in the 2006 two-part series finale, "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday", and again for the 2008 finale "Journey's End", where having broken up with Rose and seen his parallel grandmother die on a parallel Earth, is content to return to his homeworld and parts ways with the Doctor, this time alongside Martha and Jack.

Rose's mother, Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri), was also a recurring character in the first two series, and played a major role in several episodes, notably "The Parting of the Ways", "The Christmas Invasion" and "Love & Monsters", finally travelling in the TARDIS by accident in "Army of Ghosts". Though she travelled in the TARDIS with the Doctor she is not necessarily considered a companion. She does however appear alongside Mickey in "Journey's End", and is brought before Davros as one of the Doctor's "children of time", although is not treated as a companion by the Doctor in the episode. She returns to the parallel world with Rose and the Doctor clone in the dénouement.

In series three the Doctor was joined by a new companion called Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman. Agyeman previously played Adeola in "Army of Ghosts", a character who died during the course of the episode, later revealed to be Martha's cousin. Martha joins the Doctor after they save each other's lives during a Plasmavore attack, and the Doctor offers her a single trip in the TARDIS by way of thanks. She continues as his companion following a trip to the Globe Theatre, and was made an "official" companion — by receiving a key to the TARDIS — in "42". Martha returns to Earth to finish her medical training in "Last of the Time Lords", but leaves her superphone with the Doctor so she can call him if she wants to come back, which she did in two episodes of the fourth series; requiring the Doctor's help on Earth. Martha, The Doctor and Donna proceeded to battle classic series monsters, the Sontarans. She was accidentally brought to Messaline along with the Doctor and Donna in the episode, "The Doctor's Daughter", when the TARDIS piloted itself. Martha returned for the two-part series finale ("The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End"), where, after the story's events, she stayed on Earth with Jack and Mickey Smith. An "in-between" guest stint in the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood revealed that Martha had qualified as a doctor and now works for the Doctor's one-time employers, UNIT.

Previous companion "Captain" Jack Harkness was originally to have rejoined the TARDIS crew in the 2006 series. However, this plan was abandoned, in part because of Harkness' role in Torchwood. It was initially announced that there would be no crossovers between the two series, but Harkness returned to Doctor Who in "Utopia" for the final three episodes of the 2007 series. In "Last of the Time Lords", the Doctor re-offers Jack full-time companionship but the events of the episode cause Jack to realise that his friends in Cardiff need him, declining the offer he had pined for.

The Doctor was also reunited with previous companions Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 (Mark III) in "School Reunion", with Sarah Jane returning with full companion status in the final two episodes of series four. The K-9 model given to Sarah Jane at the conclusion of "School Reunion" becomes a close ally of Sarah Jane's, and assists her and the Doctor in "Journey's End" from a distance.

Although she is not considered an official companion, the character of Sally Sparrow in the 2007 episode "Blink" fulfils many of the functions of a companion in this episode, in which she is "recruited" by the Doctor to rescue him from 1969; the episode focuses on her as she follows clues left for her by the Doctor and several allies throughout time, before she actually meets the Doctor at the story's conclusion. The episode "The Girl in the Fireplace" has the Doctor offering Madame de Pompadour the chance to become a companion (if briefly), but circumstances render this impossible and she dies before being able to take him up on the offer. After Martha's departure, pop star Kylie Minogue appeared in the 2007 Christmas special, "Voyage of the Damned", playing a character named Astrid Peth, 'a one-off companion' for the episode. Both she, and later, Jenny, the Doctor's 'daughter' by cloning, accept offers of companionship from him only for circumstances to prevent them from doing so.

In the 2008 series episodes "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead", the Doctor encounters Professor River Song, a 51st Century archaeologist he will apparently meet in the future and become very dear to him, presumably while he is still in his tenth incarnation. Whether viewers will ultimately learn what relationship the Doctor has with Song is yet to be seen. It was never explicitly stated that she was a companion, but she states that they travelled together often and she gained his complete trust, to the point that she would eventually know the Doctor's true name, something even the Doctor's longest-travelling companion - the audience - has never known.

The Tenth Doctor is the first since the Second Doctor to actually say "goodbye" to a companion (specifically, Sarah Jane) rather than simply leaving, or giving some platitude when a companion leaves of their own accord. He has made many mentions of Rose Tyler since her departure to Martha Jones and Donna Noble (and has had references of her made to him), although in past incarnations, he has also made the occasional repeated reference to the likes of his granddaughter Susan and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. At one point he used "Doctor James McCrimmon" as an alias, another reference to a previous companion. The finale episode "Journey's End" sees the Doctor bidding farewell to all six companions who assisted him in that episode - Jack, Martha, Mickey, Sarah Jane, Rose and Donna, as well as Jackie and his part-human clone.

Personality

The Tenth Doctor generally displays a light-hearted, talkative, easy-going, witty and somewhat cheeky manner, but combines this with a somewhat egocentric sense of unstoppability when facing his enemies. He is perhaps as ruthless and dangerous as his seventh incarnation ever was, although much less inclined to complex schemes and set goals. This emerged early on when he sent the Sycorax leader (who was attacking him from behind) falling to his death while commenting that, with him, there were "no second chances." In "School Reunion", he acknowledges that he is less merciful than he used to be and has stuck to his "one warning" code, punishing his enemies if they persist in their hostilities. This was most explicitly demonstrated in "The Runaway Bride" when he drowned the Empress of Racnoss' children, and in "The Family of Blood" where he gave each Family member an individual and eternal punishment. In "Forest of the Dead", the Doctor supports his immense self-belief in his abilities and authority in a different way by causing the Vashta Nerada to acquiesce to his ultimatum simply by ordering them to research his personal history. However, in "Partners in Crime", after giving his adversary, Miss Foster, an explicit warning, he tried to save her life at the end of the episode and did not punish her Adipose foster children "because they're children." Donna notes that Martha had been a positive influence on him, citing his infanticide of the Racnoss in their previous encounter. Like his past selves, he is critical of weapons, going as far as to describe people with guns as "the enemy" in "The Sontaran Stratagem". His strong personal sense of justice makes him quick to anger when he feels it is violated, as in "New Earth" when he learned of the plague farm run by the Sisters of Plenitude, and after Prime Minister Harriet Jones had given the order to destroy the retreating Sycorax ship, the Doctor warned her that he could "bring down" her government with six words ("Don't you think she looks tired?", whispered to Jones' aide, Alex).

Like the Seventh and Ninth Doctor, the Tenth sometimes uses a cheerful, energetic façade to mask inner emotions. He has a tendency to babble, mixing apparent nonsense with vital information, sometimes acting erratically to put his enemies off guard like some of his earlier incarnations. He can also be rude on occasion, and is not always aware of it, being prone to making comments that to outsiders seem obtuse or rude, sometimes to his own embarrassment. In "The Christmas Invasion" and "Tooth and Claw", he is surprised at his own unintentional rudeness when making disparaging remarks, and Jack Harkness, after reuniting with the Doctor, notes that his "new regeneration (is) kinda cheeky." He has a tendency to use technobabble to describe scientific concepts before substituting it with a simpler, analogous explanation. Further to this, he tends to infantilise names and concepts — his description of non-linear temporal physics as "a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff" is perhaps the most well known example. He is also able to rapidly switch between moods, from mania to anger to nonchalance and uses this as a form of reverse psychology on several occasions ("Fear Her", "Love & Monsters" and "Army of Ghosts"). In the latter, by switching gears suddenly after failing to dissuade Yvonne Hartman from her current activities, he is able to make her uncertain enough to get his way. Unlike the Ninth Doctor, who showed off his vengeful, rage-filled dark side when up against the Daleks, the Tenth Doctor displayed a more confident, self-assured side when around them, but did not hesitate to taunt them.

It has been made clear that the Doctor is, despite constant interaction with others, a lonely person deep down. In "School Reunion", he describes the ability of Time Lords to live so long as a curse, because while his human companions all someday leave him and eventually die, he continues to live. Other characters have also commented on the Tenth Doctor's loneliness. During a conversation with his nemesis, the Master, he admits that since the end of the Time War and the loss of the other Time Lords, he has been "alone ever since", viewing the Master's return as the end of this loneliness. Indeed, when the Master subsequently dies, the Doctor openly weeps over his body. While the Ninth Doctor was somewhat standoffish in certain situations, particularly "domestics", the Tenth is more extroverted and gregarious, having quickly established a firmer rapport with Rose Tyler's friends and family than he ever did in his previous incarnation, though his talkativeness sometimes irritates others not used to him. The Tenth Doctor is openly fond of mankind and is apparently in awe of their tenacity and curiosity, a trait previously exhibited by his fourth incarnation. In "The Impossible Planet", he hugs the leader of an Earth expedition for daring to explore a planet orbiting a black hole. In "The Age of Steel", he describes human beings as both brilliant and stupid in the same sentence while arguing the necessity of emotions with the Cyber-Controller. The Doctor even goes so far as to exclaim he's willing to battle the Master across the cosmos as long as he leaves Earth alone in "The Sound of Drums". However, he is also quick to criticise mankind when he feels it is necessary. Indeed, his confidence in the human race becomes far less pronounced in later series, and at the end of "Midnight" he is left speechless after witnessing the steps humans can become willing to take when placed in a threatening situation; almost being killed by a panicky group of people who turn on him.

The Doctor also feels regret of the deaths of both his friends and enemies. In "Journey's End", he has a flashback of those who have died instead of/for him, including Astrid Peth, Jenny, Luke Rattigan, Lynda Moss, and the air stewardess from Midnight. He also offers Davros the chance to escape the destruction of the Dalek mothership, but Davros spits the chance back at him, calling him the Destroyer of Worlds in his seemingly final moments.

The Tenth Doctor and Rose often faced their adventures with a cheerful, almost blasé attitude, even when terror and death happened around them, contrasting his previous selves, who displayed more serious attitudes when in trouble. Queen Victoria commented on this in "Tooth and Claw" when she banished them (as did Agatha Christie to the Doctor alone in "The Unicorn and the Wasp"), and producer Russell T Davies hinted that there would be consequences to this carefree attitude later in the 2006 series. In "Doomsday", the two were separated seemingly forever when Rose was left in a parallel universe as a consequence of foiling a Dalek and Cyberman invasion of Earth.

The 2006 series continued the exploration of the Doctor's romantic aspects, with the Tenth Doctor sharing kisses with Rose (albeit while she was possessed by Lady Cassandra) and Madame de Pompadour. In "School Reunion", Sarah all but confesses that she had been in love with him. In "Doomsday", during their farewell, Rose tells the Doctor she loves him; he begins to reply but only manages to say her name before the transmission is cut off, leaving him alone in the TARDIS with tears on his cheeks. After this, whenever he is reminded of Rose he sometimes becomes depressed or pensive. In the audio commentary for "Doomsday" the executive producer Julie Gardner claimed that she will confirm to the nation the Doctor was going to "say it back." In 2007 episodes, the Doctor gradually learnt that Martha harboured feelings for him before she left his company — which he inadvertently inspired by kissing her as a distraction — and also exchanged kisses with Astrid in honour of "an old tradition" from her home planet. Following the complications with Martha (for which he blames himself), the Doctor seems reluctant to embark on any other potentially romantic companionship, and makes sure that before allowing her to join him, Donna understands that all he wants is a friend. In keeping with this, when he is poisoned in "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and asks Donna to give him a shock of some kind, kissing him proves to be so out of character for her that it is sufficient to trigger the detox process.

The Tenth Doctor sometimes dons a pair of spectacles, like the Fifth Doctor, whose youthful appearance he shares. In the 2007 Children In Need special, "Time Crash", the Tenth Doctor notes other inherited/inspired tendencies when meeting the Fifth Doctor aside from "the brainy specs" (which he observes were worn by the Fifth simply to look clever rather than out of necessity, therefore implying that his are used for the same reason) such as wearing plimsolls/trainers and both of their voices becoming high-pitched when shouting. He also exhibits a remarkable sense of taste, again similar to the Fifth Doctor, (Planet of Fire), able to identify the blood type of a blood sample ("The Christmas Invasion") or the presence of mistletoe oil ("Tooth and Claw") just by licking. He also shares the Fifth Doctor's skill with a cricket ball, as demonstrated in "Human Nature". The Tenth also admitted to the Fifth that he was his favourite past incarnation.

The Tenth Doctor speaks with an Estuary English accent, rather than the Mancunian accent (Christopher Eccleston's own accent) that the Ninth Doctor used, the Received Pronunciation of most earlier Doctors, or Tennant's natural Scottish burr. David Tennant told SFX magazine in 2006 that Russell Davies had asked him to drop his natural Scottish accent, because he felt "we'd like to not go for another obvious regional accent, because I suppose they'd done that". In a December 23 interview on BBC Radio 1, Tennant explained that a line had been scripted for the Christmas special explaining that the newly regenerated Doctor had imprinted on Rose Tyler's accent, "like a chick hatching from an egg," but the line was cut from the final programme. The Tenth Doctor also briefly affected a generic American Appalachian accent in the Children in Need special and "The Christmas Invasion", and a Scottish accent (David Tennant's own) in "Tooth and Claw".

Appearance

The Doctor seemed disappointed that his tenth incarnation was not "ginger", but has worn his own dark brown hair in various ways throughout the series: unstyled in "The Christmas Invasion", a fifties-style quiff in "The Idiot's Lantern", and flattened forwards in "The Runaway Bride." He is also perceived by most, including companions and other characters as "just a little bit foxy".

He wears a dark brown (with blue pinstripes) or a blue (with red pinstripes) suit, a shirt and a tie (otherwise, open-shirted with a light grey t-shirt/vest ("Tooth and Claw", "Planet of the Ood"), a red-hued t-shirt ( "42") or a black t-shirt ("Midnight"), a light brown overcoat (which he claims was given to him by Janis Joplin), and a pair of trainers, in colours ranging from white (brown suit), black (dinner jacket) or burgundy (blue suit), a costume which Tennant described as "geek chic". The blue suit debuted in Series 3 episode 1, "Smith and Jones", and both suits were worn from his adventures with Martha Jones onwards, until the fourth series finale "Journey's End" in which an identical Doctor donned the blue suit and was left in a parallel universe with Rose Tyler. According to an interview on Parkinson, David Tennant and Russell T Davies got the idea for the Tenth Doctor's costume from an outfit Jamie Oliver had worn on Parkinson just after David had taken the role. Another part of the Doctor's costume is a pair of dark tortoise-shell rectangular frame glasses; since The Christmas Invasion he has required them in numerous episodes. As noted above, the Tenth Doctor credited the Fifth Doctor with inspiring his footwear and glasses.

Knowledge of popular culture

Like his predecessor, the Tenth Doctor shows a fondness for human popular culture — a characteristic not all of his previous incarnations seemed to share — but even more so, to the point where he finds himself unconsciously quoting the song "Circle of Life" from Disney's The Lion King during a confrontation with the Sycorax leader. In School Reunion he responded to a student with 'correctamundo', an exclamation often made by The Fonz on the TV show Happy Days, though he vowed that it would be the only time he uttered the word. In "The Girl in the Fireplace", he sings "I Could Have Danced All Night" from the musical My Fair Lady. He also appears to be a fan of pop music, quoting Kylie Minogue and Status Quo, and has made quips about Balamory (in "Tooth and Claw"), EastEnders (in "The Impossible Planet"), and Ghostbusters (in "Army of Ghosts"). He also has a fondness for pop/rock music, attempting to take Rose to an Ian Dury and the Blockheads concert in 1979, and Elvis Presley's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in NYC in the 1950s (he fails to reach his destination both times). Also, in "42" he refers to the Beatles song "Here Comes the Sun". In "The Shakespeare Code", he mentions having read the seventh Harry Potter novel (which made him cry), and, at Martha's suggestion, shouts out "Expelliarmus" as a magic word for Shakespeare to use, as well as referencing Back to the Future when explaining the mechanics of "the infinite temporal flux" to Martha. In "The Christmas Invasion" he compares himself to Arthur Dent, a character from Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, referring to Dent as a "nice man". Whether the Doctor actually met Dent or if he was just teasing Rose is unclear, given that the Fourth Doctor was shown reading and discussing a book written by a character from the Hitchhiker's series in Destiny of the Daleks (a reference inserted by Adams himself, at the time a script editor and writer for the show), while the Seventh Doctor once referred to one of Adams's lines in Ghost Light. In "The Fires of Pompeii", the Doctor excuses Donna Noble's behaviour by claiming "she's from...Barcelona", a statement that was used often in comedy series Fawlty Towers by Basil Fawlty to apologize for the mistakes of Spanish waiter Manuel; in the same episode, both Donna and the Doctor make reference to the film Spartacus. In "Planet of the Ood", the Doctor references the Beatles again, specifically their Magical Mystery Tour (though he only uses the last two words).

His knowledge of contemporary pop culture is not comprehensive however. In "The Lazarus Experiment" he fails to recognise the term "science geek" when Tish Jones applies the label to him. Once he is provided with a definition he does choose to take it as a compliment, though.

His references are not all restricted to modern pop-culture. In "Tooth and Claw", his description of Rose as a "tim'rous beastie" is an allusion to the poem "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns, an 18th century Scottish poet. In "The Shakespeare Code" he quotes from the poem "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas and displays an expansive knowledge of the works of William Shakespeare, both directly and indirectly suggesting famous lines to the man himself, unsurprising considering the Fourth Doctor claimed he transcribed the first folio of Hamlet on (an older) Shakespeare's behalf. He has also quoted from the T. S. Eliot poem "The Hollow Men", referencing both the "Falls the Shadow" and "This is the way the world ends" passages. In "The Shakespeare Code", he makes a reference to the plot of Ray Bradbury's time-travel story "A Sound of Thunder".

Personality quirks

A scene filmed for the episode "Human Nature" but cut from the final broadcast (and included in the Deleted Scenes feature in the Season 3 DVD set) reveals that the Tenth Doctor has a strong dislike for pears, to the point of ordering Martha to prevent the Doctor, during his period disguised as John Smith, from eating any. The scene was adapted from the original "Human Nature" novel by the same writer, Paul Cornell, where the Seventh Doctor orders Bernice Summerfield to do the same for him when he becomes John Smith. The canonicity of the scene, as it was cut from the final broadcast and originated in spin-off fiction, is unclear. The deleted scene, along with a scene in "Voyage of the Damned", also illustrates that the Doctor sometimes has trouble with ordinal lists, starting with one numbering system (1, 2, 3, etc.) and unintentionally switching to a different one (a, b, c, etc.) and back again. He corrects himself when he notices that he has done this, but also appears quite annoyed at himself for doing it in the first place.

This Doctor, more than any other it seems, can be incredibly absent minded at times, having forgotten to tell Mickey to cease calibrating the TARDIS in "Rise of the Cybermen", leading to the group's unceremonious arrival on an alternate Earth. This absentmindedness is also witnessed in "The Idiot's Lantern" and "Tooth and Claw", in which the Doctor easily confuses years and locations (i.e. 1879 for 1979, London for New York), and in the mini-episode "Time Crash". While making repairs to the TARDIS, the Tenth Doctor forgets to put the shields back up, resulting in the TARDIS colliding and merging with the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS. He then forgets to raise the shields a second time, causing the TARDIS to crash into the Starship Titanic in the episode "Voyage of the Damned". In "The Sound of Drums", he forgets to mention to Martha and Captain Jack Harkness that he has a plan to stop The Master.

Much as the Ninth Doctor frequently declared things "Fantastic!", this Doctor has also favoured certain phrases on various occasions such as "What!?" (when referring to something unexpected happening, an exclamation also favoured by the Fourth Doctor), "Brilliant!", "That's impossible!", "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry", "That's just cheating!", the Italian expression 'Molto Bene' ('Very good'), "They have a little shop!" (referring to gift shops), and the French expression "Allons-y" ("Let's go"). The last was first used in "Army of Ghosts," where the Doctor stated that he should say it more often and that he would love to meet someone named Alonso so he could say "Allons-y, Alonso!" to them, eventually achieving this aim in "Voyage of the Damned" with midshipman Alonso Frame. In addition, he often clarifies his own mistakes by beginning with an elongated "Well..."(again favoured by the Fourth Doctor), for example when he illustrates how only one of Agatha Christie's novels managed to fool him in "The Unicorn and the Wasp". On occasions he would also use the phrase "Don't do that," after his companion has tried to imitate an accent (for example, he said it to Rose Tyler in "Tooth and Claw" when she attempts a stereotypical Scottish accent). He also enjoys making abstruse English puns (eg. lava/"lather" in "The Fires of Pompeii" and intruder/"in tru da" in "The Sontaran Stratagem", incidentally repeating another character's "in tru da window" pun from the 2005 episode "Dalek").

Appearances

Television

The Tenth Doctor is first seen at the end of the Ninth Doctor episode "The Parting of the Ways" in 2005, and has appeared in every subsequent episode to date. Template:Doctor Who (series 2) Template:Doctor Who (series 3) Template:Doctor Who (series 4)

Novels

New Series Adventures

• The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards
• The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner
• The Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole
• The Nightmare of Black Island by Mike Tucker
• The Art of Destruction by Stephen Cole
• The Price of Paradise by Colin Brake
• Sting of the Zygons by Stephen Cole
• The Last Dodo by Jacqueline Rayner
• Wooden Heart by Martin Day
• Wetworld by Mark Michalowski
• Forever Autumn by Mark Morris
• Sick Building by Paul Magrs
• Peacemaker by James Swallow
• The Pirate Loop by Simon Guerrier
• Wishing Well by Trevor Baxendale
• Martha in the Mirror by Justin Richards
• Snowglobe 7 by Mike Tucker
• The Many Hands by Dale Smith
• Ghosts of India by Mark Morris
• Shining Darkness by Mark Michalowski
• The Doctor Trap by Simon Messingham
• Beautiful Chaos by Gary Russell
• The Eyeless by Lance Parkin
• The Story of Martha by Dan Abnett, David Roden, Steve Lockley, Paul Lewis, Robert Shearman, Simon Jowett

A further three are to be released on April 16 2009:

• Judgement of the Judoon by Colin Brake
• The Slitheen Excursion by Simon Guerrier
• Prisoner of the Daleks by Trevor Baxendale

Decide Your Destiny

These adventure novels are a series of books in which the player controls the fate of the Doctor and Martha and were first released on 5 July 2007:

• The Spaceship Graveyard by Colin Brake
• Alien Arena by Richard Dungworth
• The Time Crocodile by Colin Brake
• The Corinthian Project by Davey Moore
• The Crystal Snare by Richard Dungworth
• War of the Robots by Trevor Baxendale
• Dark Planet by Davey Moore
• The Haunted Wagon Train by Colin Brake
• Frozen Earth by Kay Woodward

Quick Reads

Three short books have been published as part of the Quick Reads Initiative:

• I am a Dalek by Gareth Roberts
• Made of Steel by Terrance Dicks
• Revenge of the Judoon by Terrance Dicks

Another Novella is to be released on February 16 2009:

• The Sontaran Games by Jacqueline Rayner

Darksmith Legacy

BBC Children's Books will be releasing two books in January, followed by a new episode every month. The books will feature cliffhanger endings in order to encourage readers to read the entire series.

• Book One - The Dust of Ages - (29th January)
• Book Two - The Graves of Mordane - (29th January)
• Book Three - The Colour of Darkness - (26th February)
• Book Four - The Depths of Despair - (26th March)
• Book Five - The Vampire of Paris - (TBA)
• Book Six - The Game of Death - (TBA)
• Book Seven - The Planet of Oblivion - (TBA)
• Book Eight - The Picture of Emptiness - (TBA)
• Book Nine - The Art of War - (TBA)
• Book Ten - The End of Time - (TBA)

Short stories

• Deep and Dreamless Sleep by Paul Cornell
• 42: Prologue (a prologue to the Series 3 episode "42") by Joseph Lidster
• The Frozen by Rupert Laight
• The Hopes and Fears of All the Years by Paul Cornell
• The Lonely Computer by Rupert Laight
• Number 1, Gallows Gate Road by Rupert Laight

Comics

Doctor Who Magazine

• The Bethrotal of Sontar
• The Lodger
• F.A.Q.
• The Futurists
• Interstellar Overdrive
• The Green Eyed Monster
• The Warkeeper's Crown
• The Woman Who Sold The World
• Bus Stop
• The First
• Death to the Doctor
• Universal Monsters
• Hotel Historia
• The Widow's Curse
• The Time of My Life
• Thinktwice
• The Stockbridge Child

Doctor Who Adventures

• Which Switch?
• Mirror Image
• Under the Volcano
• The Germ War
• Warfreekz!
• A Delicate Operation
• Blood and Tears
• Fried Death
• Bizarre Humans
• Save the Humans
• Bat Attack / The Battle of Reading Gaol
• Triskaidekaphobia
• Smarts Bomb
• Pinball Wizard
• Gangsters' Paradise / Heads You Lose
• A Date to Remember / Snow Fakes
• The Hunters / Cliffhanger!
• 13 O'clock (2 parts)
• Green Fingers (2 parts)
• The Snag Finders (2 parts)
• The Skrawn Inheritance (2 parts)
• The Green, the Bad and the Ugly (2 parts)
• Minus Seven Wonders (2 parts)
• The Last Soldier (2 parts)
• Signs of Life (2 parts)
• Shipwreck! (2 parts)
• Cold War (2 parts)
• The Klytode Christmas (2 parts)
• CitiZens Arrest (2 parts)

Battles in Time

• Growing Terror, Hyperstar Rising, Death Race Five Billion, The Macrobe Menace, The Hunt of Doom and Reunion of Fear
• The Glutonoid Menace
• The Power of the Cybermen, Drones of Doom, Enemy Mine and Time of the Cybermen
• Beneath the Skin, The Sky Below, Beyond the Sea and Lonely Planet
• Plague Panic
• Exhausting Evil
• Wrath of the Warrior, The Screaming Prison, Force and Fury and Warrior’s Revenge
• Head Start, Jewel of the Vile, Dock, Stocks and Barrel and End Game

Doctor Who Annuals

• Down the Rabbit Hole by Davey Moore

Doctor Who (IDW comics)

IDW Publishing (publisher of various Angel, Star Trek and Transformers comic titles) are publishing a series of Tenth Doctor and Martha comics for an American audience. When asked about canonicity, IDW executive editor Chris Ryall stated that all the comics are "blessed" by Russell T Davies but it is up to the individual how canonical each story is. Discussing the series, scriptwriter and comic writer Gary Russell stated

Old monsters are all very well, but using the big guns like Daleks, Cybermen, the Master - it's a bit gauche. If you're going to use recognizable elements from the show - and I think you should where the story allows it - [it should be] a story that enables you to go "ooh I could put MONSTER X in here, that'd be cool" over to "ooh I need to write a story about MONSTER X") now and again, because people like to spot elements they're familiar with, then they need to be fun. Our first issue does feature something from the current show, and a later issue or two features something from waaaaay back in the series history, but these things should be done sparingly or it's no longer an event, it's the norm. And normal is dull. This will all come back to bite me, won't it...

A second IDW series, titled Doctor Who: The Forgotten, by Tony Lee and artist Pia Guerra, will also feature the Tenth Doctor and Martha.

Audio Books

• Pest Control
• The Forever Trap

Other

• The Tenth Doctor is the main character in the video game Top Trumps: Doctor Who.
• The Doctor, along with Rose, makes a one-panel cameo in "No Future for You, Part 1", issue #6 of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight comic.
• The Tenth Doctor, played by Tennant, appears in the finale episode of Extras in a brief scene showing the Doctor and an unidentified Wren companion attacked by Schlong, a slug-like alien played by Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais).
• The Tenth Doctor appears in the American satirical political cartoon strip, This Modern World. Arriving in 2003, the Doctor hints to Sparky the Wonder Penguin (the strip's main character) that in 5 years time, the next President could be a black man, with the middle name Hussein, whose father was a Muslim, referring to the popularity of Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election.
• The Tenth Doctor appears in archive footage (from "School Reunion" and "Journey's End") in Secrets of the Stars, a second series serial of spin-off show The Sarah Jane Adventures.

External links

• Tenth Doctor on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• The Tenth Doctor on the BBC's Doctor Who website
• Tenth Doctor's theme music Quicktime file
• David Tennant's Site
• Doctor Who series two press launch report and audio interviews at BBC Wiltshire