The 2008-2010 specials!

We have:

The Next Doctor

Where the Doctor meets… the Doctor?!

 Jackson Lake: There she is. My transport through time and space. The TARDIS!
 The Doctor: You’ve got a balloon.
 Jackson Lake: TARDIS. T - A - R - D - I - S. It stands for Tethered Aerial Release Developed in Style! Do you see?
 The Doctor: Well, I do now. I like it. Good TARDIS.

And you know? Dervla Kirwan as Miss Hartigan gets a bit of flack, but if you ignore for a moment the history of the Cybermen , she’s quite the fun row. Plus, an absolutely giant robot in old fashioned london down. What’s not to love?

Planet of the Dead

The Doctor, sent through a portal to a desert planet, where he has to depend on a temporary companion in jewel thief Lady Christina to get back home.

Christina: It’s Christina Da Souza. To be precise it’s Lady Christina Da Souza.
The Doctor: Oh, that’s handy because I’m a lord.
Christina: Seriously, lord of where?
The Doctor: It’s quite a big estate.

It’s yet another case (Voyage of the Damned was another one) where a companion for a special would have been fascinating to keep around. So it goes though.

The Waters of Mars

Fixed points in time don’t really make sense for the Doctor. Especially given how it turns out in the end. But still, a giant marsbase and soggy zombies? What’s not to love?

And it’s yet another one of those episodes that digs just into how broken and–at some level–insane the Doctor is, after all those years and triumphs. And failures.

Adelaide: But you said we die. For the future. For the human race!
The Doctor: Yes, because there are laws. There are laws of time. Once upon a time there were people in charge of those laws but they died. They all died. Do you know who that leaves? Me! It’s taken me all these years to realize that the laws of time are mine and they will obey me!

Quite the set up for…

The End of Time (Parts One and Two)

Tennats finale is coming…

The Doctor: Even if I change it still feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away… and I’m dead.

But on the way, we have Wilfred Mott as the Doctor’s companion? Yes please.

The Doctor: I’m going to die.
Wilfred Mott: Well, so am I one day.
The Doctor: Don’t you dare!
Wilfred Mott: Alright, I’ll try not to.

And add to that, the Master (back from he dead) and perhaps… something even worse.

Oh that’s an intense pair of episodes. Even if it’s more than a touch overdone at times (as all of ennats finales seem to be).

But this time around, we get a victory lap of sorts.

And so Ten ends.

The Doctor: I don’t want to go.

On to Eleven!