Tenth Doctor Era
2009 Specials: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4/5
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The Next Doctor
The One With… the one that's not the one.
The one with (literally) Not-Matt Smith.
Visiting 1851 London on Christmas Eve for the sheer hell of it, the Tenth Doctor hears someone screaming his name. Grinning madly, the Doctor speeds to the scene of trouble and finds a young woman in distress — only to be scoffed aside by her. Instead, a guy played by David Morrissey shows up, claiming to be the Doctor. Ten looks at what he assumes is a future incarnation... but both are immediately interrupted by the trouble that united the two Doctors in the first place: a Cyberman... cat... hybrid called a "Cybershade". One awesomely silly chase sequence later, the pair of Doctors are fast friends and the young woman is introduced as Rosita, this Doctor's companion. But Ten is worried: the Next Doctor hasn't recognised him one bit. Not wanting to accidentally mess with the 1851 Doctor's fragile memory, Ten introduces himself as "John Smith".
Chasing after the Cybershade, "John" and Next Doctor end up in a house filled with futuristic technology. Ten describes some tube-looking devices as "infostamps", and realises that the Cybus Industries-produced Cybermen must be here in force after falling through the Void, together with some stolen Dalek technology. He also notices that Next is wearing a fob watch, and quickly puts two and two together, realizing this could be him in human form... but no, it turns out to actually be a perfectly ordinary, broken, fob watch. Next explains that he lost his memory while "regenerating".
The infostamps seem to mean that the Cybermen are a little lost and need help — absorbing information of the era and their enemies to replenish their collective memory banks. Of course, the pair of Doctors end up running into the Cybermen, and "John" blows his cover, announcing himself to the Cybermen as the real Doctor, while Next suddenly remembers how he dealt with Cybermen last time and kills them with an overloaded infostamp. Ten comments that Next had a great idea, but claims he was just lying a bit about being the Doctor to protect Next. He also decides to simply check Next's chest for his number of hearts, but we don't find out just yet what the answer is.
With that out of the way, it's off to the Next Doctor's TARDIS, a Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style (essentially, a hot air balloon made out of household ingredients). Ten loves it. Nearby, the Next Doctor and Rosita are staying in a large stable, alongside the luggage and belongings of Jackson Lake, a victim of the Cybermen. As it turns out, the Cybermen have been kidnapping people in the night, with Miss Mercy Hartigan, the matron of the St. Joseph's Workhouse, making damned sure that the Cybermen get their guy. And, coincidentally, Jackson Lake was their first victim.
The Tenth Doctor begins to put things together rather quickly, especially when he notices Jackson Lake's initials engraved into the Next Doctor's fob watch. As it turns out, the Next Doctor isn't a Time Lord at all, but Jackson Lake himself. The original Doctor tells him and Rosita about the Battle of Canary Wharf and how the Cybermen were cast into the Void. However, they managed to escape from the Void when the walls of the universe were weakened by the Daleks' abduction of the planets, and found themselves in London in 1851. They soon came upon Jackson Lake, at the time an ordinary mathematics teacher. The Cybermen attacked his home and killed his wife. In desperation, Lake grabbed an infostamp to defend himself, one containing information on the Doctor gleaned from the Daleks; though the infostamp destroyed the Cybermen, it backfired and overwhelmed Lake's mind. In his fear and despair after losing his wife, he came to believe he was the Doctor.
Understandably, Jackson doesn't take this well — believing he was completely a fake. The Doctor says otherwise, pointing out what Jackson's done isn't the result of the Doctor being imprinted on him, but the result of Jackson himself being awesome.
The conversation is interrupted by a commotion from outside. The Doctor and Rosita race out to see what's going on, while Jackson decides to stay behind. He figures that he's not worthy of helping the Doctor. The Doctor and Rosita find processions of children from the workhouses of London being led away by men controlled by steampunk Cyber earpods. Finally, the Doctor and Miss Hartigan come face to face, and the Cybermen update their records as to who the Doctor is with a fixed infostamp and slowly march in. Looking somewhat worried, the Doctor tries bargaining with the Cybers... until blasts of electricity rip into the Cybermen from offscreen, utterly destroying them. A quick turn to the source of those blasts reveals...
...Jackson Lake standing in a high position, wearing a bandolier of infostamps around his chest and grinning at the Doctor.
Jackson comments that he still feels like something else is missing, but he just can't sit on the sidelines while the Doctor's in danger. Finally, the Doctor, Rosita and Jackson break into the main base of the Cybermen and find out what's going on. But not before Miss Hartigan is turned into the Cyber Leader of the Week. The children are being used to put the finishing touches upon what is only known as a "CyberKing", and it's just been finished. Since the Cybermen are done with the children, the facility begins to self destruct. Wasting no time, our trio begins to rush everyone out... and then Jackson Lake recovers another memory, and realises what was still missing: when the Cybermen attacked his house, they kidnapped his son Frederic, right after they killed his wife. Luckily, the Doctor saves the poor young Lake, and everyone escapes and has a Merry Christma–
...wait, why is there a giant Steampunk robot rising up from the Thames River? That's a CyberKing?
While Jackson and Rosita help everyone slowly evacuate London by running with them, the Doctor leaps into Jackson's TARDIS and flies up into the skies. He takes along a piece of Dalek technology salvaged from the Cybermen base, and the rest of those infostamps. To his surprise (and a bit of delight), Miss Hartigan is driving the CyberKing with her mind. She's one of the cleverest humans that ever lived, and she's completely taken over the Cybermen with the sheer force of her own will. And now she wants to take over the world. As is the tradition for the Tenth Doctor, Ten offers Hartigan a chance to live in peace (albeit on another planet with no life to take over) and marvels at what an extraordinary human she is. Of course like clockwork, Hartigan refuses, so the Doctor blasts her with the collective group of infostamps, boosted by a handy sonic screwdriver. Rather than directly killing Miss Hartigan, though, it simply frees her mind from the Cyber-conditioning she's undergone. Needless to say, she freaks out, the Cybermen turn against her, and the CyberKing begins to topple as she and the Cybermen slowly explode... and fall on top of London.
Luckily the chunk of Dalek tech is a handy key to send it into the Time Vortex, where it seemingly blows up harmlessly. Jackson Lake gets up on a lamppost and begins to preach to the crowd about how the Doctor has just saved them all, and how he deserves applause just this once. Of course, the crowd obliges.
Finally, the Doctor tries to sidle off to his own TARDIS and leave, but Jackson follows. The Doctor offers to take Jackson along with him, but he only limits himself to a quick look inside the real TARDIS, which his mind can barely handle. He absolutely insists that the Doctor join the Lakes and Rosita for Christmas dinner. The Doctor tries to weasel out of it, like he does every Christmas. But Jackson is persistent enough to change the Doctor's mind, a rare feat. Wishing one another a Merry Christmas, the camera slowly moves off into the snowfall... which is, for once, actual freaking snow.
This episode is significant to the show's history as it is the first revival-era episode to actually show moving images of the first eight Doctors, confirming a direct line of continuity to the original series (which up to this point had still been a matter of debate), and most significantly including footage of the Eighth Doctor from the 1996 TV movie; although an image of Eight, as well as several classic Doctors, had been seen previously, this was the first on-screen to confirm that the movie actually occurred within canon (which was, at times, a matter of debate).
In addition, it was around this time that both David Tennant and Russell T Davies announced their departure from the series. With them out and Steven Moffat in, it was decided to air five episodes filmed as part of the Series 4 production block on four holidays throughout 2009, as part of a transition from one production team to another. While technically a miniseries in their own right, these episodes are considered part of Series 4 on this wiki for completist purposes.
Tropes:
- Accidental Innuendo: Invoked.
- Artistic Licence - Space: There was not actually a Full Moon on December 24, 1851 (it was barely past New).
- Assimilation Backfire: The Cybermen's attempt to upgrade Miss Hartigan fails to remove her emotions, and allows her to rewrite their programming.
- Badass Bandolier: Jackson Lake wears one made of the Cybermen infostamps while destroying them left and right.
- Badass Bookworm: The Next Doctor built his own TARDIS — a hot air balloon or Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style — out of household items.
- Badass Normal: Common in Doctor Who, but Jackson Lake takes it to a new level by trying to become the Doctor himself, and frankly doing a good job of it despite lacking a proper TARDIS, sonic screwdriver and Time Lord biology.
- Big Bad: The Cyber-Leader, who is responsible for the creation of the CyberKing and installing Miss Hartigan as its pilot.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Hartigan's eyes become completely pitch black when she becomes the CyberKing.
- Blatant Lies: While searching Reverend Fairchild's house, the Doctor pulls out the sonic and starts scanning with it behind Jackson's back. When Jackson asks the Doctor what the noise was, the Doctor claims he was whistling, and then actually does a very good impression of the screwdriver as "proof".
- Blunt "Yes": One of the Cybermen gives this to this to Hartigan:Miss Hartigan: Have you no pity?
Cyberman: Correct. - Breather Episode: Both this episode and the next serve as a pair of final, fun, light-hearted adventures for the 10th Doctor following a string of terrifying and heartbreaking episodes and before the double whammy of The Waters of Mars and The End of Time.
- …But He Sounds Handsome: The Doctor has heard all about the Doctor. "Bit of a legend, if I say so myself."
- Christmas Episode: The first Christmas Special not set in (relatively) contemporary times (if one discounts the scenes from "The Feast of Steven" set in an early 20th century film set).
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: When Jackson begs the Doctor to "Help me..." the latter replies, "Two words I never refuse."
- Composite Character: Of a sort; Rosita shows devotion to her Doctor reminiscent of Rose, (and a similar name to trigger things for the Doctor), displays the ingenuity and resourcefulness of Martha, and even the Only Sane Man attitude and best friend role of Donna. The Tenth Doctor's three primary companions of the new series, all rolled into one.
- Continuity Nod:
- When the Next Doctor uses the words "Don't blink", Ten tries to see if he has any memories of Sally Sparrow.
- The infostamp containing information on the Doctor shows clips of all (at the time) ten Doctors; the first time that footage from the classic series is used in the new series.
- Jackson's fob watch.
- Miss Hartigan's black eyes as the CyberKing.
- Alien technology underneath a Thames floodgate? That would explain what Torchwood One was doing there.
- This isn't the first time a strong-willed woman has overridden her Cyberman programming.
- Covering for the Noise: The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver, but tries to hide this fact from Jackson Lake. When Jackson asks about the strange sound, the Doctor covers by saying it was his whistling and proceeds to imitate the sound.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Averted strongly in the conversion of Miss Hartigan into the CyberKing, as the Cyber-Leader found out the hard way.
- Death by Falling Over: Parodied. The Doctor starts to ask the "Next Doctor" how he died, then decides he doesn't want to know because it would be embarrassing if he "tripped over a brick".
- Deliberate Values Dissonance:
- The men at the funeral are shocked to see Miss Hartigan show up at the gravesite. The priest interrupts his speech to tell her how inappropriate it is. And she showed up in a red dress, with a red umbrella, on purpose.
- In a line cut from the broadcast episode, Jackson notes that the late Reverend was famously good to children — "he'd discipline them, birch them, send them to the workhouse."The Doctor: Oh, lovely. Nice man.
- Dissimile: The original BBC introduction to the episode asked you to think of the perfect Victorian Christmas, but with Cybermen.
- Does Not Like Men: Miss Hartigan constantly refers to doing men some form of violence. It's heavily implied she was raped, leading to this hatred.
- Russell T Davies confirmed in interviews that Miss Hartigan was a victim of sexual abuse and that is why she sexualises every conversation and scenario she is in. It's worked in very subtly, since a lot of children watch the show.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: The Doctor, as is his wont, tries to give Miss Hartigan a chance to abandon her plan in return for being taken to another planet, making it clear she'll pay the ultimate price if she refuses. As usual, it doesn't work.
- Exact Words:
- Jackson Lake's "sonic screwdriver".Jackson: Well, uh, it makes a noise. [tap tap tap] That's sonic, isn't it?
- The TARDIS is also his transport through time and space. Although he's referring to all the time to himself and space away from others it grants.
- Jackson Lake's "sonic screwdriver".
- Exposition Beam: The infostamp that Jackson used to defend himself backfired and dumped the information that it contained — information on the Doctor — into his head. This combined with the mental trauma he had just suffered due to his wife's death and his son's abduction to make him think that he was the Doctor.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Miss Hartigan, as the CyberKing, cannot understand why the people of London flee from being converted.
- Evi Orphanage Lady: Miss Mercy Hartigan was matron of the St Joseph's Workhouse, a job for which she showed great dislike. She supplied numerous children, pulled from workhouses around the city, to the Cybermen who put them to work at an underground facility under Cybermen guard
- Fire-Forged Friends:
- Lampshaded in the Confidential; the quickest way to get the Doctor and "the Next Doctor" cooperating in-story was to have them both recklessly tackle a monster and almost die, together, then laugh about it afterwards.
- Also appears to be the case for Jackson's Doctor and Rosita; they were strangers who met when "the Doctor" saved Rosita's life, and even after he's regained his memories, Jackson makes it clear that he will keep Rosita in his life by hiring her as his son's nursemaid, proclaiming that he can think of nobody else he would trust with his son's care.
- Foreshadowing:
- Jackson Lake's wardrobe and, at times, haircut, resembles the Eleventh Doctor's.
- The mere fact that Ten and Jackson don't start bickering from the moment they set eyes on each other is an early clue, for viewers familiar with multiple-Doctor stories, that the latter isn't really the Doctor.
- Forgot the Call: Inverted — Jackson Lake believes he's the Doctor, but is actually human.
- Fun with Acronyms: Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style.
- Heroic BSoD: The Next Doctor is prone to them. In fact, it's the reason the Doctor's memories took over so well — he was mid-BSOD due to the death of his wife and kidnapping of his son at the hands of the Cybermen.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Hartigan assumes Rosita is a prostitute when she tells her, "I doubt he paid you to talk." Word of God confirms it, although the outfit gives an indication. As does her statement that she was out alone, late at the night, at the docks when Jackson Lake rescued her from a Cyberman attack.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Raising the CyberKing on Christmas Day was Miss Hartigan's idea.
- Humongous Mecha: The CyberKing is far taller than any building.
- Hypocrite: Hartigan, in one breath, explains that she joined with the Cybermen because they offered her liberation (from men, it's implied), and tells Rosita to be quiet because she's probably not paid to talk. Given the setting, there is probably some degree of racism and classism at work here as well.
- I Lied: That was designated: a 'lie'.
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: David Tennant and David Morrissey had previously co-starred in Blackpool.
- Implied Rape: There are subtle hints that Miss Mercy Hartigan was raped in the past which would explain her misandry. This would later be confirmed via Word of God.
- Improvised Weapon: Zigzagged Trope — the Doctor grabs and rejects a cane and an umbrella before seizing a cutlass. It's only of limited use, however, but then Jackson weaponizes an infostamp.
- Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!: The CyberKing. It's supposed to be a ship to launch an invasion, but it's in the form of a mecha because of this trope.
- Internal Homage: The Doctor, staring seriously in a TARDIS that has just taken off for the first time the viewer sees, with the current opening theme graphics over his face? Where have we seen that before?
- Ironic Name:Miss Hartigan: You know, all these years, and not one of you has asked me my first name. It's Mercy.
- Lady in Red: When a cleric expresses dislike of Miss Hartigan's red dress, she responds, "Is it too exciting?"
- Large Ham: David Morrissey is clearly having a lot of fun as the "Next Doctor". David Tennant looks positively tranquil next to him.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: The reason Ten doesn't press the "next" Doctor too hard on his past is that messing with a Time Lord after regeneration amnesia is generally a bad idea. When he turns out to be Jackson Lake, the amnesia is revealed to be partly induced by a reaction to trauma as well as the infostamp.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Anyone who has even heard of Doctor Who since 2010 knows who the next Doctor is, and it ain't David Morrissey.
- Meaningful Name: "Rosita" is quite close to "Rose" and "Martha", and this is subtly pointed out. It means "little rose".
- Morton's Fork: Miss Hartigan criticizes the men at the graveside for not recognizing her, for walking past her and never asking her name. Then one of the men speaks up that he does recognize her and knows her name. Her response? "I saw you looking, you cheeky boy.", accusing him of treating her as a sexual object instead.
- Mr. Smith: The Doctor, upon discovering that the "Next Doctor" is having memory issues, decides it would be better to use his favourite alias of John Smith. The fact the "Next Doctor" doesn't react is a further indication that something is amiss.
- Mythology Gag: The Doctor hopes he doesn't regenerate after tripping over a brick. "That would be embarrassing." The Sixth Doctor suffered a Death by Falling Over (visually) after Colin Baker refused to reappear due to disputes with the producers.
- Never Trust a Title: Jackson Lake isn't actually the next Doctor.
- Nightmare Fetishist: "It started with a murder."The Doctor: Oh, good! [gets a weird look] I mean, bad.
- "No More Holding Back" Speech: A subtle variety.Miss Hartigan: What do you make of me, Sir? An idiot?
The Doctor: No. The question is, what do you make of me?
Miss Hartigan: Destroy him!
The Doctor: You make me into this. - The Nth Doctor: Jackson Lake seems to be number 11 — but just got blasted with the Doctor's personality and thought he'd regenerated.
- Oh, Crap!: When the (real) Doctor is casually searching through the house only to open a door upon a complete, living Cyberman.The Doctor: [opens the door to find a Cyberman standing there] Okay! [slams door] ...I think we should run.
- Only Sane Woman: Veers into it in the chase scene, when Rosita's the only one with the presence of mind to cut the rope loose before both Doctors can be dragged out the window.Rosita: You idiots!
- The Power of Hate: Powerful enough, in fact, to override Hartigan's personality-erasing cybernetics. See Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth.
- Rape as Backstory: This isn't spelled out (it's a Christmas Episode of a family show for goodness sake), but Hartigan seems to have this as her Freudian Excuse for why she's something of a misandrist. When the Doctor comes to stop her plot she asks him "And who are you, Sir? Another man come to assert himself against me in the night?"
- She Is the King: CyberKing Mercy Hartigan.
- Snow Means Death: The Cybermen gatecrash a funeral in the snow.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Jackson Lake's attitude towards Rosita, due to Deliberate Values Dissonance, is to tell her to stay with his TARDIS and let him deal with the monsters alone.
- Steampunk: The CyberKing is a giant mechanical monster in 1850s England.
- Stompy Mooks: Lampshaded when two Cybermen manage to appear right behind the Doctor, without notice. "That's cheating, sneaking up! Did you have your legs on silent?"
- Sympathy for the Devil: The Doctor, as per often, to Hartigan.The Doctor: I'm so sorry...
- Title Drop:
- The show's title, again.Rosita: Who are you, anyway?
The Doctor: I'm the Doctor.
Rosita: Doctor who?
The Doctor: Just the Doctor. - And the episode's title: "The next Doctor. Or the next but one..."
- The show's title, again.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Jackson Lake spends most of the special thinking he's the Doctor, and Ten seems to think he is a future Doctor. Then it turns out he's just a human whose mind has accidentally been tampered with.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Hartigan's conversion into the CyberKing was supposed to remove her emotions altogether, but her anger and hatred proved too strong for the soul-eating cybernetics, and she promptly rewired all Cybermen in the period to serve her.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: "An infostamp's just facts and figures, it's not enough to make a man lose his mind." After losing his wife, Jackson mentally replaced his own life story with the Doctor's.
- Victorian London: It's Christmas Eve, 1851.
- Villains Never Lie: Subverted. When facing conversion, Miss Hartigan protests that the Cybermen promised her that she'd be celebrated if she helped them. In response, the Cybermen hail her as the Cyber King. Miss Hartigan then says that she was also specifically promised that she wouldn't be converted. The Cybermen admit that that part, they just plain lied about.
- What Have I Become?: When Miss Hartigan's mind is freed from the Cyber-conditioning, she's horrified at what's happened.
- What Year Is This?: Combined with a Shout-Out to the end of A Christmas Carol, when the Doctor starts by asking what day it is. Then he asks the year, and the boy he's asking asks if he's thick, but he answers anyway.
- Who Are You?: With both Doctors asking this question of each other.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Cybermen, at Miss Hartigan's suggestion, have been kidnapping children to work on the CyberKing's starter engine. When the engine's power is at 100%, the Cybermen attempt to dispose of them before the Doctor, Jackson and Rosita intervene.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Once the Doctor puts all the pieces together and reveals to Jackson that he's not really the Doctor, Jackson (understandably) starts believing himself to be something of a fool playing at being a hero, and quite obviously comes to the immediate conclusion that a) he's been living a lie (which he has, to some extent), and b) that all this bravery and whatnot that he's accomplished while being "The Doctor" is just a farce. Ten is quite quick and eager to disprove the latter, and even to an extent the former: the memory capsules just contain facts and figures, like a biography. But it was Jackson who, when imprinted with those during his BSOD, decided to act upon them accordingly to the best and utmost of his ability within the capabilities of the technology of his time period. Or, in short, as the Doctor later tells him, "Jackson, if anyone had to be the Doctor, I'm glad it was you."
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Miss Hartigan says this to the workhouse masters after she has the children, and then to the children after they raise the CyberKing.
- You Monster!: When Hartigan sics the Cybermen on the funeral attendees.
