It was at the end of Eccleston’s tenure as the Doctor that we were given Tennant as our Tenth incarnation of the Time Lord, and it was no longer fantastic, it was brilliant. Rose Tyler had tamed the rage inside the 9th Doctor, so much so that we had the puppy eyed Doctor for the 10th, all bounding and exciting, and if he’d have had a tail, he’d have surely thumped it hard against the ground. He’d run everywhere and only stop to take in the view, before hurtling off again in any direction, with a companion struggling to keep up. He had boundless enthusiasm for every new destination, and he was fiercely committed to fighting battles without the use of weapons. Except…towards the end, it was a gun in his hand as he pointed it at Lord Rassilon, as he stood before him, in a bid to claim Earth for a new Gallifrey.
We grew with the Doctor. We laughed. We enjoyed, and we cried real tears when Rose was trapped in the parallel universe. We broke our hearts on Bad Wolf Bay. We never quite got over that feeling of grief for that episode, because even after 16 years and replaying that final episode with Rose, our hearts broke all over again, and we’d sob into a cushion. All of us. Even those, who never cry at such programmes. Even the Weevil.
David Tennant, along with Chris Eccleston, reignited my passion for Doctor Who, and I would collect everything I could with David’s face on. I mean, I did. Including Frubes. I had those empty tubes of yogurt in a drawer for years. Cleaned of course. I had action figures. I still have some of them. And I’ve a ton of trading cards. (Swaps anyone?)
There were so many quotes from the 10th Doctor era, that there was never a moment where I was stuck for something to say, wherever I went, with or without the family. And libraries? Don’t even get me started on books!!!
I think I’m what’s known as an embarrassment when it comes to geeking out over certain things Doctor Who, including graveyards and statues, but that’s what comes of being a fan of Doctor Who and all that goes with it – but it’s Tennant’s era where this passion blossomed. Sure, I grew up watching Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, but I vaguely only remember certain episodes. I couldn’t quote anything from that – but Tennant…oh there are so many!
When Tennant announced he was leaving the TARDIS and stepping away from Who, a whole nation of fans cried, or became extremely upset and vowed not to give the new guy a chance, but it’s Who, and you do, and you compare, but each Doctor brings something different to the table. Tennant wasn’t anything like Eccleston. Smith wasn’t anything like Tennant, apart from being skinny and tall.
Before Tennant joined Who though, we saw him in Harry Potter as the mad, bad Barty Crouch junior, a very formidable character indeed. What Tennant gave us, was an insight to the character roles he could play, and we all love a bad boy, don’t we?
Since that bad boy role, Tennant has gone on to play a host of others and they’ve been the lowest of the low, and deeper and darker and more threatening. His portrayal of Denis Nilsen was perhaps the most chilling of them all. Uncannily alike in portrait only, but his portrayal of that beast, who decapitated his victims and boiled them in pans in his kitchen, and buried the rest of the bodies under floorboards or in his back garden, and had no fear when the police came calling and arrested him. Tennant’s portrayal sent shivers down my spine. There was no emotion in his character, unlike that of Cale Erendrich in Bad Samaritan. A sick individual who had money and power and could manipulate to achieve his end goals, and became unpredictable towards the end when he saw his world turning against him by the one person he was setting up for a fall. An ingenious story and one I thoroughly enjoyed watching.
Tennant plays bad extremely well, perhaps too well.
It’s almost to the point that his good boy image of the Doctor, or his dangerous image of the Time Lord Victorious (towards the end) has disappeared. Now all I want to see of Tennant is the dangerous character roles that he’s so brilliant at portraying.
Kilgrave in Jessica Jones was one such character. The Purple Man. I loved that series and you were often on the edge of your seat wondering whether he would appear, or if Jessica herself was going crazy by how much he was in her head. How much she couldn’t remember and how much she was trying to forget.
I’ve not as yet watched Good Omens but as far as I’m aware, he plays a demon who although is cast as someone bad, is working alongside a good angel in trying to locate the anti-Christ before the end of the world.
In the 2011 remake of Fright Night, Tennant played Peter Vincent, a vampire hunter, but not a very good one. His parents had been killed by the very vampire that was stalking the lead character in the story – Charley. It had plenty of jump scares but really didn’t do much on the ‘who to root for’ in the story, and I found it a disappointing film. Yes, there was gore and vampires and some bits were a touch eww, but it wasn’t Tennant’s best role – in my honest opinion.
Bad Samaritan, now that was worth watching, and one I could watch over and over, after a few months apart. Most of his evil characters ooze the charm and draw you in when you least suspect them of being evil, but Cale isn’t a character you could warm to. You were always going to root for those who were trying to rescue the girl, and hoped the Police would put two and two together before the end of the film. Cale was very technically minded. He was good with the gadgets which no other characters Tennant has played appeared to be. They got through their scenes mostly on dialogue and charm alone.
One of the other things about Tennant that I love however are the eyebrow quirks, and his facial expressions. How many of us have tried to mimic them for any of our Who moments? The drop in the voice and the clearing of the throat, and oh that bobbing Adam’s Apple. Alas, I don’t possess one so prominent as that.
David Tennant celebrates his 50th birthday this April 18th. We wanted to take this opportunity of expressing our love of the man who brought us a Doctor who we have loved and missed and would really love to see take up the sonic screwdriver again, even if it was just for another special.
I had the wonderful opportunity, many years ago, of meeting David behind the scenes of Decoy Bride when they filmed at Caerlaverock Castle, Dumfriesshire, and I only wish I’d found my voice after he replied to my ‘HI David’ because I would have loved to have talked to him a bit about Who and had a photo opportunity with him. He’s a lot skinnier in real life!
I’d love to meet him again, if he ever films up this way again, once this pandemic is over and we can all breathe freely and walk without fear of catching something deadly.
Happy Birthday David. Have a super wonderful day.
Love from everyone at Project: Torchwood
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