Tennant – the best Doctor ever? (Picture: Rex)

Yup, you can check the year, the calendars, and your phone all you like but it’s true. It’s now TEN years since David Tennant became The Tenth Doctor.

In 2005 he took over from the fantastic Christopher Eccleston and took the show to new heights with companions like Billie Piper and Catherine Tate.

So, let’s get all nostalgic for the Noughties with ten of the best from David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor.

The Christmas Invasion


Though he’s only in half the episode, this festive outing from 2005 is definitely one of Tennant’s best. He quotes The Lion King, says the word ‘sexy’ (first time ever for Doctor Who, fact fans) and gets his hand lopped off in a fight with an alien above London on Jesus’ birthday.



Textbook Tenth Doctor.

The Girl in the Fireplace

Only a few stories into his reign in the TARDIS and the Doctor was falling in love. Aside from upsetting fans and poor Rose, this episode is as beautiful as it is touching and tear-inducing.

Tennant bounced from drunken joyful exuberance to hero on a horse to heartbroken lover in the space of forty -five minutes. An absolute gem.

The Impossible Planet

Doctor Who meets the Devil in a planet orbiting a black hole. That’s pretty much all you need to know. (Fact fans also note – the word ‘mortgage’ is used for the first time in Doctor Who ever!)

Doomsday

The episode that introduced the world to the FEELS!

The nation felt like a huge hole had been ripped in our collective hearts when Billie Piper, companion Rose, had to say goodbye to David Tennant at the end of their time together, never to be reunited (well….).

It’s a tribute to both actors that this moment is still celebrated and still so affecting all these years on.

Time Crash

The Fifth Doctor (and now David’s real life father-in-law) meets The Tenth Doctor. What more do you need?

The Fires of Pompeii

Though now remembered for introducing the world of Who to Karen Gillan (she plays a soothsayer) and Peter Capaldi, this terrific episode also features a heart-wrenching performance from Catherine Tate and David Tennant blasting baddies with a water pistol. We bloody love him.

Midnight

Perhaps Tennant’s greatest turn in Doctor Who. Written by the then show runner Russell T Davies, Midnight displayed a slightly arrogant and more alien Time Lord as he was divested of his companion (Catherine Tate’s Donna choosing to have a spa break that week).

As he confronts an unseen monster, there are sparks between the actor and guest star Lesley Sharp and she mimics him, and then vice versa as the monster gains control. Powerful and deeply disturbing.

The Waters of Mars

This brilliant but creepy-as-hell adventure was the penultimate outing for The Tenth Doctor, where he was a very naughty boy and managed to change time (you’re not meant to do that, apparently).



In the end he declared himself Time Lord Victorious and became just as scary as Dalek or Cyberman he ever faced-off against.

He should have probably named himself Time Lord Notorious, so he could have sang that Duran Duran hit.

The End of Time

Arg, more feels!

This epic, and we mean EPIC, two-parter brought a close to The Tenth Doctor era and included some of Tennant’s most powerful scenes.

Most notably a simple cafe scene with Bernard Cribbin’s lovable Wilf, where both men break down in tears, and Tennant’s stirring fight against regeneration and final walk to his death. We didn’t want him to go either.

The Day of the Doctor

How could we not mention this delicious slice of fun?! The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special, written by show runner Steven Moffat, returned our beloved Tenth Doctor one more time for some antics against Tennant’s favourite monsters, the Zygons.

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