Doctor Who (2005) 2-03: School Reunion

Episode:

713

|

Serial:

170

|

Writer:

Toby Whithouse

|

Director:

James Hawes

|

Air Date:

29-Apr-2006

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the 20th anniversary of the Tenth Doctor story School Reunion!

It was written by illustrator-turned-actor-turned writer Toby Whithouse, who'd go on to write another seven episodes for the series. He also turned back into an actor and played a German soldier, though that's in a later story. When he's not writing Doctor Who the guy creates TV series, including the UK version of supernatural comedy-drama Being Human.

The director this time was James Hawes, who'd already proven his skill with episodes like The Empty Child and The Christmas Invasion. This was his last episode however, he was busy on other shows. I don't actually know why directors tend to work on a bunch of episodes for a series and then never come back, maybe he just got too expensive.

Anyway, I'll be going through every scene of the episode, so beware of SPOILERS. I may even spoil elements of classic Doctor Who episodes from ancient times, but nothing from later stories.

Doctor Who (2005) 2-01: New Earth

Episode:

711

|

Serial:

168

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

James Hawes

|

Air Date:

15-Apr-2006

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm still writing about Doctor Who, even though I probably shouldn't.

I was supposed to be focusing on my poor neglected Super Adventures site this year! I was going to give it some proper attention and play lots of long, complicated Dungeons & Dragons RPGs.

But when I covered the Doctor Who revival's first series for its 20th anniversary I knew I'd be tempted to come back to it a year later for series 2. That's exactly the kind of thing I'd do. So here I am on the 15th April 2026, writing about a story that aired exactly two decades earlier: it's the first proper episode of the David Tennant era, New Earth!

(If you want to go back even further, you can find a list of my reviews for series 1 and The Christmas Invasion by clicking THIS LINK).

New Earth was written by showrunner Russell T Davies himself, in fact it was his fifth episode in a row and he's got one more coming after this before he takes a break. Director James Hawes is back as well, after directing the actual first story in the Tennant era, The Christmas Invasion. He also did the Empty Child / Doctor Dances two-parter last year, so he seems like safe hands.

This isn't my first time watching the episode, but it may be yours so be aware that this review is going to have all of the SPOILERS. Seriously, I'll be going through it scene by scene, with pictures. I won't be spoiling anything that comes after it though, so this will be safe for first time viewers.

Doctor Who (2005) 1-10: The Doctor Dances

Episode:

706

|

Serial:

164

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Director:

James Hawes

|

Air Date:

28-May-2005

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm back in 2005 writing about the second part of Doctor Who series 1's The Empty Child two-parter.

It's called The Doctor Dances, which has always seemed like a bit of a strange title to me. It's weirdly playful for a Doctor Who story, which are usually called things like The Mysterious Planet or Planet of the Daleks or Dalek Invasion of Earth. Or Earthshock.

Even if you know what happens in it, which I do, it's still weird that the title references dancing. The episode takes place in London during an air raid, but it's not exactly a ballroom blitz. And if you know what 'dancing' refers to in the story... well I bet Steven Moffat and RTD thought it was hilarious that they got away with it.

Alright, everything past this point will be safe for new viewers as long as you've seen everything up to this point. Otherwise, beware of SPOILERS.

Doctor Who (2005) 1-09: The Empty Child

Episode:

705

|

Serial:

164

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Director:

James Hawes

|

Air Date:

21-May-2005

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching The Empty Child, the first part of Steven Moffat's very first story for Doctor Who. Unless you count the Comic Relief skit The Curse of Fatal Death, which I don't. Though I have to admit that it has an amazing cast, with most of them playing the Doctor.

It's probably fair to say that no writer has had more of an influence on modern Doctor Who than its first showrunner, Russell T Davies. He's the Gene Roddenberry of the revival. But Steven Moffat is a close second place and the guy still dominates 'Best Doctor Who Stories Ever' lists. People sometimes include episodes by other writers just for the sake of variety, but up at the top you'll find stories like Blink, Day of the Doctor, Heaven Sent, World Enough and Time, and occasionally The Empty Child.

But I've seen 40 of his stories now, enough to be extremely aware of his idiosyncrasies and tired of his gimmicks, so am I even going to enjoy it this time around? Did I really enjoy it that much to begin with? Keep reading and I'll let you know.

There will be SPOILERS below for The Empty Child and earlier stories, though if you're watching through the series for the first time you'll be fine as I won't mention anything that comes later. Except for all those episode titles I just mentioned.

Doctor Who (2005) - Christmas 2005: The Christmas Invasion

Episode:

710

|

Serial:

167

|

Writer:

Russell T. Davies

|

Air Date:

25-Dec-2005

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about another episode of Russell T Davies era Doctor Who!

This one's called The Christmas Invasion because it's the first of Doctor Who's annual Christmas specials. I don't watch enough TV to know what kinds of series usually get Christmas specials and how rare they are, but I do know that the classic series never had any. Well okay, it had a Christmas episode one time in 1965, but that's only because serials would continue throughout December back then and Christmas Day just happened to coincide with one of the episodes. But since Christmas Invasion they haven't missed a year, even on occasions where they pretty much took the rest of the year off (I'm looking at you 2009 and 2016).

There will be SPOILERS beyond this point, for this story and perhaps earlier ones as well. For instance, I'm going to spoil that this is David Tennant's first episode as the Tenth Doctor.