The Tenth Doctor

I'm a big fan of Doctor Who, so I thought I'd start a series of vector drawings of the eleven (!) different Doctors (so far).

David Tennant played the Tenth Doctor from 2005 to 2010. He starred in three seasons and eight specials, including three special longer Christmas episodes. The Christmas specials are some of my favorite Tennant episodes, and are more like movies than TV shows-- they could easily have been shown theatrically, in my opinion.

David Tennant was my absolute favorite Doctor, hands down, beating out even Tom Baker (sorry, Tom). Tennant reportedly decided he wanted to become an actor while watching Doctor Who as a child. In fact, while attending Paisley Grammar School, he wrote an essay on how his greatest desire was to play the Doctor on TV! Little did he know he'd get his wish 30 years later!

Tennant played the Doctor as sort of a cool yet geeky college professor, who could be funny, sentimental and terrifying all in the same episode. It was a sad day when he announced he was leaving the series; I was honestly depressed about it for a week. That's the nature of Doctor Who though. If you don't like change, then this isn't the show for you. Fortunately Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor, has done an incredible job and won me over after just one episode.

Unlike previous incarnations of the Doctor who had platonic relationships with his companions, #10 was most definitely in love with Rose Tyler and never quite got over her after she left the series. 

Rose was OK, but my favorite companion of the Tennant era was Martha Jones. Too bad she only stayed around for one season.

Many of the Doctor's former friends and companions returned during #10's era, including Sarah Jane Smith, and the robotic dog K-9. He even had a run-in with the Fifth Doctor in the special Time Crash mini-episode.

Speaking of the Fifth Doctor (played by Peter Davison), Tennant is dating actress Georgia Moffett, Davison's daughter. Moffett also starred in the episode The Doctor's Daughter as, what else, the cloned daughter of the Tenth Doctor! Confused yet?

Many of his old foes returned to plague him as well, including Davros, creator of the Dalek race, and his eternal nemesis (and fellow Time Lord) the Master. The Sontarans also returned to battle the Tenth Doctor.

The Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver continued to gain new abilities and functions in just about every episode. The versatility of the Sonic has become something of a running joke in the series.

One thing I've always liked about Doctor Who as a show is that it usually plays it fast and loose with science and doesn't get bogged down in technobabble the way Star Trek always does. No "We need to generate a reverse ion vertiron pulse to re-initialize the warp cascade" here. The first time the Doctor takes Martha Jones to the past, she worries that if she steps outside the Tardis she might accidentally kill her grandfather and alter history. The Doctor asks her if she plans on killing her grandfather? When she replies "of course not," he says, "Right then! Let's go!" No worrying about changing history, just having a fun romp through time.

Doctor #10 had two main outfits, a blue pin-striped suit and a brown pin-striped one. His main trademark were his Chuck Taylor tennis shoes (or "trainers," as they're known to the Brits). He almost always wore a brown overcoat as well. On a couple of occasions he traded in his pin-striped suit for a black tuxedo. He would also occasionally wear glasses. Seems like a gyp to get a brand new regenerated body that needs glasses, but what do I know?

The Tenth Doctor continued the new series' tradition of utilizing the city of Cardiff, Wales, as a sort of home base. Many episodes of the new series have taken place in or around there. Coincidentally, the series is filmed at one of the BBC's studios in Cardiff. Imagine that!

Please forgive the ugly watermark on the illustration. I swore I would never add one to my art, because I know that 99.99% of my readers would never even think of stealing it. But earlier this year I had a run-in with an art thief who was not only stealing my work, but selling it as her own! Hence the watermarks. This is why we can't have nice things.

Doctor #10 is a vector drawing, drawn all in InDesign.

Stay tuned for Doctor #11! I'm almost done!

 

Here's the original sketch of the Tenth Doctor.