Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series

I love this series in all it's campy splendor.. It's really an aquired taste, but there is no other show outhere to compare. This season in particular is really great. I was initially upset to loose Rose, then Martha, and didn't particularly like Donna to begin with, but she has developed into (in my opinion) the best companion. Part mother, part sister, she has really been halarious to watch! she has been like a spring board for all the episodes, the corner stone. Her life and family make the doctors' adventure shine.
I hope the next doctor does as well as David Tennant, he is the heart of this show. I almost didn't continue watching it when they switched actors for the doctor, but is has just grown better and better. I have all four seasons on dvd, and rarely ever watch the first season with the other doctor. He is leaving huge shoes to fill!

At first, I was bit shocked seeing Donna as the Doctor's new companion.
Seemed to me like a bit overweight middle age woman, lacking the beauty and witt of Martha or Rose
But this character grew to incredible heights.
As the Doctor would say, Catherine Tate (Donna) was "brilliant". At the end, I loved so much the Donna character, that I have to agree with other posters in saying that this has been one of the best companions of the new Doctor (but let's not forget Sarah Jane).

It's also great to see better special effects being used on these episodes. But hey, I've been a Doctor Who fan since I was a kid, so I'm used to the crappy robots and sets, since we "real fans" understand that Doctor Who is way more than CGI. Anyway, it's nice to see the Doctor being put up to date and competing well with todays other sci-fi shows.

Why the four stars ??
Well, the "Partners in crime" episode is about, walking fat ? I cannot believe this episode made it to the Doctor Who show. Really childish !

And here is my take on the others:
First, the "Voyage of the Dammed", a flying Titanic? Oh come on !!

The "Unicorn and the Wasp", reminded me of an old Doctor Who episode, about 30 years ago ? something about a rose ? well anyway, this who-done-it episode was a bit boring, excessively british, and the wasp totally out of sync or should I say, out of wak ?.

"Midnight" reminded me of the Twilight Zone era, not really bad but the Doctor threatened by two "blokes" (an old college professor and a young lad) and a couple of girls ? Come on, we are talking about the Doctor, who wipes out armies of aliens and saves the universe, and is going to be thrown out by these pathetic humans ? Davies is definitely loosing it !!

And the rest, well, terrific ! The "Silence in the Library" and the "Forest of the Dead" were really up to the Doctor.
"The Fires of Pompeii" was not that great great, but good enough, same as the "Planet of OOD".
"The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky" were good. You've got to love those Sontarians !!
"The Doctor's Daughter", well what can I say about this one, really strange episode, way to fast for my liking, and the hint of a possible new spinoff series, probably for teen audiences, is way too obvious.

The grand finale was really grand. Must have been really tough to complete it in just three episodes, being the last one a bit too hurried, but it was grand, and sad to see the end Donna Noble as a companion. I have to admit, Davies is going out with a bang !

And the Doctor ? well, "brilliant" as always, and probably going through a mid life crisis ! (LOL) But it just goes to show you that Tennant can do much more than just run around and crack some funny lines.

At the end, I must say I enjoyed this series 4, and highly recommend it to fans and newcomers as well.

Where are the bloopers????

In spite of a lot of negativity towards Catherine Tate (I didn't like her, or more the characters she played), I loved Donna. She is truly an equal to the Doctor, unlike Rose and Martha. I think it would have been kinder to have her live with the Doctor's memories and die than to have her memories wiped, but that's just me (ethical dilemma, anyone?). Either way, I cry every time I watch the final episode because of it. I suppose leaving the second Doctor with Rose made sense, but it still feels like taking the easy way out. Well, what do you do with a replica of yourself, eh?

I've been following Doctor Who for a long time. I wasn't able to do so actually FROM the beginning (I was only about 2 when it started!), but public TV in my area aired a lot of it. My favorite Doctor has always been a tie between Tom Baker's crazy-like-a-fox and the elegant gentleman of Jon Pertwee's reign.

But David Tennant has moved right up there with them. His portrayal -- quite consciously incorporating aspects of several of his predecessors -- is filled with a manic energy while still radiating an essential humanity-within. Even in his first season (the second season of the "modern" Doctor Who) he grabbed the role and made it his own; by now he has fully grown into the role, and it has become his.

This season has many wonderful aspects to it -- so many that I don't think I could do them all justice. However, one that stands out is the creation of Donna Noble as one of his greatest Companions. Donna, originally seen in the "Runaway Bride" Christmas Special, has been completely transformed from the narrow-minded, self-centered, usually clueless character she was when the Doctor first met her. Now -- though still brash, sometimes tactless, and just as loud -- she searches through London for the strange, the bizarre, the alien, because after meeting the Doctor, she simply can't go back to her humdrum world.

Instead she joins the Doctor in his travels, and becomes -- not a lover (or would-be lover, as was poor Martha) -- but the Best Friend that the Doctor really needs, someone who loves the adventures, who even after being put through hell and dragged back won't give up on the life she has found with the last of the Timelords, who has an indomitable spirit and unbreakable will and a courage you simply would not have BELIEVED in the Donna Noble we first met.

While there are a few weak episodes in this season, the strong points more than make up for it -- none stronger than the grand finale, featuring one of the Doctor's greatest adversaries in his most glorious appearance yet, grandeur and apocalypse and tragedy and victory all at once.

I am very saddened by the news that (apparently) David Tennant will be leaving Doctor Who after the next season; but he will have left his mark indelibly on the franchise, and whoever takes up the mantle will have one hell of a pair of boots to step into.

Time is the Doctor's enemy in the Children in Need special "Time Crash" where the 10th Doctor (David Tennat) meets himself in his Fifth incarnation (Peter Davison)as the TARDIS from their respective eras collide. That's just the tip of the iceberg so to speak as we also get to voyage on the Titanic a spacecraft named after Earth's luxury liner (although the designers of the spacecraft clearly had no clue as to what really happened to the REAL Titanic)and the Doctor has to stop the ship from being destroyed in the 2007 Christmas Special featuring Kylie Minogue. The Doctor also gets a new companion is an old one--Donna (Catherine Tate) returns after her brief tenure with the Doctor from the previous year.

The 4th series of "Doctor Who" continued to introduce challenging stories such as the two part episode "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead" where the Doctor meets someone from HIS future that he hasn't met yet and while there were a few weak ones in the mix, the best episodes from the fourth series more than held up when compared to previous ones. While I like Russell T. Davies' scripts, I still find the best ones are usually penned by his successor as producer Stephen Moffat.

As with previous sets we get edited versions of "Doctor Who: Confidential", deleted scenes, commentary tracks with a variety of cast/crew on each episode. We also get two installments of "David Tennant's Video Diary" and a nice tribute to the late actor William Attfield who originally appeared as Donna's grandfather but passed away after the shooting of "Partners in Crime". His scenes were reshot with Bernard Crippins but we get Attfield's deleted scenes as a tribute to the actor. "The Journey So Far" allows cast and crew to comment on the fourth season and some of their favorite moments and we also get the episode teasers, teasers for "Torchwood: Series 2", "Priveal" and "The Sarah Jane Adventures". As with the previous seasons we get a booklet that gives us credits/extras for each episode. The show looks extremely good in its DVD presentation.

I personally thought this was a better seaosn than the third and thought Catherine Tate was a nice contrast to the previous performers on the show. I also applaud Davies for casting a full figured woman vs. a skinny model for the part of the companion during the fourth season. Highly recommended.