The Next Doctor

The Next Doctor
by Russell T Davies
Originally Broadcasted: December 25th, 2008

The Doctor lands in Victorian London of 1851 on Christmas Eve, and follows a scream calling for him. Turns out it's for a different Doctor, with a different sonic screwdriver. Is this man really a future incarnation of The Doctor, or is something else afoot? And just what do the Cybermen have to do with it?

I remember being really perplexed when I first saw the title for this episode of Doctor Who. For a moment, I seriously thought whoever they introduced in this episode as the "next Doctor" would be the eleventh Doctor after David Tennant finished his run of stories. Now, of course I was wrong, as David Morrissey is not The Doctor. But it was a good fool for a 14 year old kid. This is a pretty good Christmas special. You really feel for Morrissey's character, who is really Jackson Lake. You see, the Cybermen killed his wife and took away his son, and he just wanted to forget everything. And The Doctor's infostamp made him think he was The Doctor. Both Doctors have some really nice moments together, and you see a genuine friendship blossoming. I love the pre-title scene, where they both attack the Cybershade creature with their sonic screwdrivers and shout out "Allons-y!" The Cybermen are put to good use here, with more of their creepy mind control used as seen in Rise of the Cybermen and Army of Ghosts in Series 2. Mrs. Hartigan, who later becomes Cyber Controller, is really creepy. In fact I always find it more terrifying when a woman is the baddy. Maybe it's just because you don't see it all that often. This story gave us a nice look back at all of the previous Doctors, as The Doctor examines the contents of his info stamp, it shows a clip of all of his previous incarnation. This was not the first, or last time the series has done a nice self-referential thing like that. The Next Doctor was sandwiched between two Christmas specials I really love (Voyage of the Damned and The End of Time), and while I don't like it quite as much as those two, it still stands up as a good episode. It's definitely better than The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe...

Luke's Rating: 8/10