The Next Doctor

Season 4, Episode 14, Aired
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Episode Summary

Location: Victorian England''Date: Christmas 1851''Enemies: Miss Hartigan, Cybermen''''Christmas, 1851, and the Doctor meets a strange man in Victorian England - a man called The Doctor.
But can either one of them protect the Earth from the approaching army of metal men?
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Fan Episode Reviews (22)

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  • Disappointed. If Russell is looking to end on a high, he is not going well about it.

    5.0
    "Mediocre"
    By Mr-Vamps, Jun 06, 2011 Report Abuse
    It started off exciting with the arrival of 'The New Doctor' but the character soon developed into nothing but a sobbing mess as the episode went on.

    It was predictable and disappointing with the climax simply being a very big Cyberman. Surely this is not the mind of Russel T Davies.

    The villain was promised to be having children holding on to the edge of thier seats. I, myself having the mind of a child found this out to be a lie with the villain having the same effect on me as the Abzorbaloff.

    Christmas specials are supposed to be the highlight of my Christmas Day, not to be in this case.moreless

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    6 5

  • At last a GOOD christmas specail

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By cale1234567, Jun 06, 2011 Report Abuse
    Thank the dark gods of doctor who for that.
    instead of kylie minogue and a really silly plot about a starship titanic??? or a story about a spider queen
    who overacts(when she make the effort) and cant speak properly over her false teeth we get a action adventure episode with a good central plot and suberb villan and a kick ass ending

    THE GOOD:
    david morrisey's doctor is fanatasicly funny ,intelligent
    and very doctor like .his proclaimation at the end that we should all thank the doctor was inspired brilliance.Even if his accent seems to go from southern posh to scouse every now and again??(is he from liverpool?)

    cyber Lady who evil and brilliant to the core scarey heartless and good.Hard to believe its asumpta fitzgerald.

    The giant steam punk robo mecha death god of rock,
    Awe inspiring as it stomps london and shoots fire from on high.The doctor as ever gives her one chance to step back before he stops her,as usuall they dont take his advice.

    The bad:the "assistant" another bad actress in the same vien as martha, lots of enthusiasm making up for no actual talent.
    The strange cyber creatures with furry bodies??
    where they ever explained why were they needed.
    they looked rediculous,even for who.

    Conclusion:
    It does my heart good to see what thier capable of
    and infuriates me that we had put up with silly dross the last two years.
    In the words of my old teacher
    "I'll expect this standard from you from now on"moreless

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    1 4

  • A bit of a flawed script, but otherwise it was good enough

    7.5
    "Good"
    By fgyjmyrjmetdgjh, May 05, 2010 Report Abuse
    Before I begin my review, I would just like to say to all the David Tennant fans out there who only bought tickets to see the royal shakespeare company's production of Hamlet just to see him in it, and then were faced with someone else because David Tennant hurt his back: Ha Ha!!! Screw you!!!
    Note: This is coming from somone who couldn't get tickets for it
    Anyway
    There have been episodes since doctor who's revival back in 2005 that have had me questioning whether or not I should still bother watching it or actually caring what happens. Maybe it depends on what mood I'm in, who knows, but stuff like love and monsters and a large portion of series 3 had me feeling this way. But then you have episodes like the stunning 65 minute finale of last series and blink and I end up loving the show more than ever. But my major problem is that I have ideas for how I would make the episode which many would probably protest as unsuitable for children. When I say that I would like to see an episode involving cybermen that has a sequence where we see what actually happens in full gory detail, people often question my sanity, I'm a horror film fanatic, its just how I feel okay? Its not screwed up, its just my imagination runs away with me sometimes. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, um, that's my problem, I often have far out expectations of what will encompass an episode of doctor who which are majorly different to how it turns out. 42 was one of these, I didn't anticipate it to be a family friendly version of the film "sunshine", it was still pretty good, but y'know, I just had my expectations. Its not good to have these, it means you get let down if its not how you pictured it, on the other hand it can sometimes be better, which happened in the cases of school reunion, blink, midnight etc.
    This episode I was anticipating, not because of the whole "its Christmas, let's all be happy about that :)" thing, but more because of the whole "look its the cybermen" thing. The cybermen are a great concept, Kit Pedler's original vision however being changed in this way, it kind of lacked their original impact. If you try watching the tenth planet (well, the first three episodes at least, thank you BBC archivists of the 1650's in your infinite wisdom) its just really well done for a 60's TV show, the cybermen are just ******* ruthless machines, and admittedly that's also true of the cybermen of today, but they lack the aura of these original cybermen. They lack the mysterious past and development of the original cybermen, they didn't reboot the dalek origin, why should this be any different? Oh right, because then that would go into sincere bouts of continuity explanation hell, as proved by attack of the cybermen (****, I know too much about this show). But as good as the whole alternate universe storyline was (well, it was fairly decent), this universe's cybermen still exist. Although the cybermen were a saving quality of this episode, not so certain about the gorilla-cyber-things, they seemed a tad unneccessary. But still, cybermen are cybermen, screwed up by recent developments and lacking in that certain something the originals though they may be, they're a decent monster, and are a decent enemy, if the plot had been expanded and the episode happened to be a bit longer, then maybe it would have been a better episode.
    The plot developments in this episode did make it seem rather rushed, its like they're trying to cram two hours worth of stuff into one, a more expansive and developed storyline would make it a better episode, rather like the four parters of old. I didn't like some directions this went in though, i mean child labour to pirate a massive cyberman thing? I mean come on, be logical, I mean admittedly at the end of last series we had daleks steal planets from all over the galaxy, but....okay this point is dying, I'm just gonna move off it. Onto David Morrissey, jesus, the bookies must be near to killing themselves now, the odds on him being the next doctor were huge. Surely they realised the possibility of him just being someone who's gone mental and thought he was the doctor, you can explain that away with ease, and it makes up a decent part of the plot. I respect David Morrissey as an actor, but the only thing that made me dislike his performance here was a bit of dodgy scripting. Now I know that in the past I've been known to criticise episodes set in the past for not being "old englishy" enough, but this just proves how wrong I was. I admit the plot flowed well enough, flawed though it was, he fitted in well and the script was decent enough, but some of the dialogue really did seem a bit too forced for my liking. This happened with many characters, bar the doctor of course, all however except Ms Hartigan, she gave a brilliant performance, especially so in the graveyard scene, some of the more abstract parts of the plot just made me think that she really is too good.
    But about the graveyard scene: that really was one of the most cinematic sequences in doctor who, I mean really, really well filmed, you can tell the director really knows what he's doing. I dunno if anyone else felt the same way, I don't really care, but just the cybermen walking out of the mist and killing everyone, great direction there. That was this episode's main strongpoint. The plot may have been rather ridiculous at times, but the direction was still as skilled as ever before, if not more so.
    My disappointment in this episode mainly fits in with my dislike of some aspects of the plot, other than that its as decent as any other, well maybe not blink or the empty child, but anyway I can't be bothered to moan about it anymore, Wallace and Gromit's on soon, hopefully I won't be as dissappointed by that.
    Happy Christmas everyonemoreless

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    5 0

  • The best christmas special so far in my opinion.

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By alexjones555, May 05, 2010 Report Abuse
    This was a pretty good episode, it was action packed from start to finish. The only complaint was the next doctor we saw wasn't really the doctor but i guess that was to be expected. It was good to see the cybermen back again, they haven't been seen since season 2. It's a shame we'll only be getting a few specials this year but if they are all as good as this oe or better I guess I will be satisfied. It was also reported that there would be a shock ending to this episode but unfortunately there wasn't one, maybe the shock was that there was no shcok ending.moreless

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    2 2

  • This is just classic .It is why fans watch this show

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By coolcatkid, May 05, 2010 Report Abuse
    This Christmas special is good with a certain amount of suspense and a certain amount of continuity to prior Dr Who episodes.It could have been a bit better but I find R T D generally has problems with the big episodes .Still if you are a fan and I am this is very much worth a look or two . David Tennant will not be back in the series after his contract is up so you will only get to see him in a few more of these specials .Here he faces down his archenemies the cybermen .can the doctor solve what they are up to and unravel the mystery of the next doctor? well you will have to tune in and enjoy.moreless

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    1 3
 

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

    ADD TRIVIA
    • According to the Eleventh Doctor in a future episode this story must have been removed from history by the Cracks due to noone on earth having recorded knowledge of the Cyber King's march. Edit
    • Even though he;s regained his self and knows who he is now, would Jakson Lake try to change history with the little bit of advanced knowledge the Doctor knows that was imprinted in his mind? Edit
    • While trying to jog Jackson's memory, The Doctor brings up the events of "Blink", referencing the Lonely Angels and his own advice of not blinking. Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • A scene in this episode featured clips of all ten actors who have played the Doctor since 1963. Edit
    • This marks the first appearance of the Cybermen since Doomsday, though they did appear in a deleted scene in Journey's End, which is available to watch on the Series 4 DVD. Edit
    • The first two minutes of this episode aired on the 14th November 2008, as part of BBC Children in Need. Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • The Next Doctor: What have we got here, then? The Doctor: Hold on, who are you? The Next Doctor: I'm the Doctor. Simply the Doctor. The one, the only and the best. Edit
    • The Doctor: But I've heard all about you, Doctor. Bit of a legend if I say so myself. The Next Doctor: Modesty forbids me to agree with you, sir. But yes. Yes, I am. Edit
    • The Next Doctor: It's strange, though. I talk of Cybermen from the stars, and you don't blink, Mr. Smith. The Doctor: Ah, don't blink, remember that? Whatever you do, don't blink. The blinking and the statues with Sally and the angels. No? The Next Doctor: You're a very odd man. The Doctor: Mmm. I still am. Edit

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