As the USA wraps up the first airing of season 5, Caleb looks back at the high spots...

[Spoilers]

I won’t lie to you, dear reader, I wept like a little girl with a skinned knee when I heard that David Tennant was leaving Doctor Who. I watched his final specials with that feeling of bittersweet joy, knowing that it was indeed leading to his last moments in the role (not that RTD would let us forget, what with people knocking and songs ending and the like). And so we were left with months of angst as we saw production photos of some fellow named Matt Smith in a bowtie, and wondering if he was really going to be “The Doctor”. Thankfully, he was! From his first few minutes in The Eleventh Hour, he proved himself. After finally seeing the finale for his first series, I’ve comprised a list of my favorite moments, which is difficult because there were so many. Spoilers for those of you that haven’t seen the new series (and if you haven’t, what’s wrong with you?).

10. Fish-Custard

The Doctor crash lands in the back yard of one Amelia Pond, age seven. Newly regenerated, he’s trying to get a feel for his new body, which comes with a whole new set of rules. He tells Amelia that he’s hungry, but doesn’t know for what. What ensues is one of the most comical moments ever, as he tries and rejects a number of dishes, finally settling on fish sticks and custard (I’ve not yet been brave enough to try it, myself). I am actually on the hunt for a t-shirt that says “Beans are evil! Bad, bad beans!”

9. “I’m the Doctor”

A shape-shifting creature known only as “Prisoner Zero” has escaped through the crack in Amy’s wall. The Doctor is given twenty minutes to defeat the threat, sans TARDIS and sonic screwdriver (one of the finest bits of writing ever). Once the creature is defeated, the Doctor calls back the Atraxi, who have been hunting Prisoner Zero, and threatened to destroy the Earth if not found. He finds himself a new set of clothes, and confronts them, giving them one of the best lines ever: “I’m the Doctor. Basically, run.”

8. “Bad day. Bad things happened.”

RTD used to revel in giving us tear-jerking speeches about the end of the Time Lords. When Amy asks the Doctor about what happened to his people, he morosely says “Bad day, bad things happened”. He doesn’t wax poetic about Gallifreyan nights, he gives a simple answer and lets the action continue.

7. The Doctor Beats Up A Dalek

The Doctor and Amy are called by Winston Churchill, who has something to brag about: His new weapon to win the war. His “Ironsides”, which were designed by Dr. Bracewell, seem to be a wonderful weapon, but not to the Doctor, who recognizes them as Daleks. He tries in vain to get them to admit their true identity, and in frustration, ends up taking a large wrench to one of them, beating it and screaming “I am the Doctor, and you are a Dalek!” This was a rather weak episode, feeling as though it should have been a two-parter, but had the story crammed into one episode. Still, that moment showed that Mr. Smith’s Doctor isn’t all calm, cool and collected. He has a fire burning inside of him, and when push comes to shove, he can show his angry side.

6. Vampires

The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to Venice for a romantic date. But nothing is ever a simple trip in the TARDIS, and soon the romantic setting seems horrific. Vampires are living (un-living?) in town. Young women are taken to a preparatory school, which is actually a cover for a group of aliens who are turning the women into their species so that the males will have mates. In the end, the Doctor has to make a terrible choice: Allow them to continue in their plans to sink Venice and go on living their lives, or save the town and those in it, but wind up committing genocide. In the end, he saves the city, but has to live with what he did.

5. Silurians

Steven Moffat is a long time Who fan, and has shown it many times in this series. One reference to the old series was his bringing back the Silurians, an ancient reptilian race who built massive cities underground and went into hibernation long before humans came to populate the Earth. They are awakened, however, when drilling threatens them. Assuming they are being attacked by the “apes”, they attack. It’s left to the Doctor to set up negotiations between the two species. But all doesn’t end well, as Rory ends up being taken out of existence by a crack in the universe, and the Doctor finds a piece of the destroyed TARDIS in the crack. There’s also a terrific exchange when a young boy asks the Doctor is he’s ever met monsters. When he answers in the affirmative, the boy asks if he’s scared of them. He coolly answers “No, they’re scared of me”.

4. Van Gogh Sees His Future

The Doctor is being very nice to Amy. So nice, in fact, she’s getting suspicious. She has no memory of Rory since he was taken out of the universe, and yet she seems sad, but can’t figure out why. The two end up visiting Vincent Van Gogh to solve a mystery, and wind up spending several days with the artist. The pair wind up taking Vincent to the future to see that he won’t always be shunned, and that one day he will actually be revered as one of the greatest painters of all time. There’s also a terrific cameo by Bill Nighy as a museum curator who sings Van Gogh’s praises (and also has a love of bow-ties).

3. “Hello, flat mate.”

The Doctor is stuck in Colchester, and has to try to blend in until he can get Amy and the TARDIS back. He winds up moving into an apartment with an ordinary everyman, trying his best to seem “human”. He and Craig get along at first, even being asked to take part in a football match. But soon Craig starts to get frustrated as everyone winds up liking the Doctor more than him, even his would-be girlfriend Sophie. But the Doctor is preoccupied with the mystery of the upstairs apartment, which turns out to be a makeshift TARDIS of sorts. In the end, he gets Craig and Sophie to admit their feelings for each other, gets Amy and the TARDIS back, and learns a little more about being human.

2. The End of the Universe

River Song has lured our time traveling pair to England during Roman occupation. She has gotten hold of a painting by Van Gogh of the TARDIS exploding, and has brought them to Stonehenge to investigate The Pandorica, a mysterious box that no one seems to know anything about. Before you can blink, the skies are filled with battle cruisers of some of the Doctor’s most formidable foes, all gathered together to stop him from destroying the universe. Also back is Rory, who has been brought back as a Roman centurion. And to make matters worse, he and the rest of the garrison turn out to be Autons, being controlled by this group of baddies. Rory unwittingly kills Amy, River is trapped in the TARDIS, and the Doctor is locked inside the Pandorica. A bit of a star-studded finale, but it’s not over…

1. Something old, something new…

The second half of the finale jumps quite a bit, and throws a lot at you. Blinking is not recommended. The Doctor from the future tells Rory how to get him out and save Amy. The present Doctor is released, Amy is put in the box to save her, and nearly 2000 years later, she is released in order to save the universe. The second part of the finale is great, because it relies on the main characters, no cameos from characters long since departed, no long, passionate speeches. Oh, and there’s a fez. Fezzes are cool. The Doctor ends up creating a second Big Bang (or the Big Bang 2), which basically reboots the universe, but leaves him in the void. Before he disappears completely, he goes through some moments of his new incarnation, finally leaving a story with young Amelia. His story is about the TARDIS, which he “borrowed”, is old, but still new, and the deepest blue. Suddenly, Amy wakes up on the morning of her wedding, but feels as though she’s forgotten something. It’s not until the reception that she remembers the story, and its connotation: Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. And that’s when it all comes back to her. She remembers the Doctor, and suddenly the TARDIS materializes, with the Doctor looking quite dapper in a tuxedo. The greatest moment of the episode, though, is watching him attempting to dance at the reception. In the end, out heroes are pulled into another adventure, and we eagerly await what else the old blue box has for us.

See also:

Doctor Who: series five trailer

Doctor Who Series 5 soundtrack review

The Top Ten Doctor Introduction Stories

Doctor Who S5 credits Buffy style

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