Doctor Who (series 4)

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Doctor Who series 4
Country of origin Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Network BBC
Original run Christmas special: 25 December 2007
Regular series: 5 April 2008 – Summer 2008
No. of episodes 14
Previous series Series 3

The fourth series of British science fiction series Doctor Who began on 25 December 2007 with the Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned". Following the special, a regular series of thirteen episodes is currently in progress, starting with "Partners in Crime" on 5 April 2008.

Contents

Production

Information regarding the production of several episodes was announced in issue 385 of Doctor Who Magazine,[1] and subsequent issues announced more details. The episode titles of episodes 1 and 4 were revealed in issue 390 of DWM, as well as a hidden one, which was revealed in the subsequent issue to be "Midnight".[2] Susie Liggat will be producing five episodes (Blocks 2, 5 and 7), as she did in Series 3 with "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood". Phil Collinson will receive an executive producer credit for these episodes.[1][3]

Writers for the regular series were gradually announced alongside episode announcements. Gareth Roberts, Stephen Greenhorn, James Moran and Keith Temple each wrote one episode. Moran co-wrote the 2006 horror film Severance, while Temple has written episodes of Byker Grove and Casualty. Helen Raynor and Steven Moffat wrote two episodes each, and head writer Russell T. Davies wrote five episodes.[4] Doctor Who Magazine paired the episodes with their writers and directors. The episode written by Temple, "Planet of the Ood", features the Ood - who previously appeared in Series 2 two-parter, "The Impossible Planet" / "The Satan Pit" - on their home planet.[5] The name of Roberts' episode had initially been revealed via an acronym as "TUATW",[6] and was later revealed as "The Unicorn and the Wasp".[2] Tom MacRae had written an episode for this series, but this was replaced after Russell T. Davies decided that it was too close in tone to "The Unicorn and the Wasp".[7] All of the episode titles were revealed in the 5 April 2008 issue of the Radio Times, except the title of the twelfth, which is "being kept secret as it gives away too much."[8] The article also identified the title of episode 9 as "River's Run", as did the press release for the subsequent issue of Doctor Who Magazine, but this was changed a few days afterwards to "Forest of the Dead".

The episodes were produced in 9 production blocks in the following order:

Block Episodes Director Writers Producer Code
1 "Voyage of the Damned" James Strong Russell T. Davies Phil Collinson 4.X
2 "Planet of the Ood"[9]
"The Unicorn and the Wasp"[2]		 Graeme Harper Keith Temple
Gareth Roberts		 Susie Liggat 4.3
4.7[4]
3 "The Fires of Pompeii"[10][11][12] Colin Teague James Moran[13] Phil Collinson 4.2[14][11]
4 "Partners in Crime"[15] James Strong[13] Russell T. Davies[16] Phil Collinson 4.1
5 "The Sontaran Stratagem"[17]
"The Poison Sky"[8]		 Douglas Mackinnon[18] Helen Raynor[19] Susie Liggat[18] 4.4
4.5[19]
6 "The Doctor's Daughter"[8]
"Midnight"[2]		 Alice Troughton[19] Stephen Greenhorn
Russell T. Davies[11]		 Phil Collinson 4.6
4.10[17][15]
7 "Turn Left"[8][19] Graeme Harper[19] Russell T. Davies[19] Susie Liggat[3] 4.11 [4]
8 "Silence in the Library"[20]
"Forest of the Dead"[21]		 Euros Lyn[2] Steven Moffat[2] Phil Collinson 4.8
4.9
9 TBA
"Journey's End"[8]		 Graeme Harper Russell T. Davies Phil Collinson 4.12
4.13

On February 1, 2008, the BBC announced that in a partnership with Carlton Screen Advertising a 90-second film trailer of the fourth series would be shown in cinemas across Britain "before the most anticipated new releases".[22] The trailer was aired on TV on 22 March 2008,[23] and three trailers featuring the Ood, Sontarans, and Daleks premiered on the BBC's YouTube channel immediately after.[24][25][26]

Casting

Main characters

The fourth series marks David Tennant's third series in the lead role, "the Doctor". The fourth series also features four companions. In the Christmas special, Australian actress and singer Kylie Minogue starred as Astrid Peth, who perished before the end of the episode. The companions in the regular series have all been in the lead companion role previously: the primary role, Donna Noble, who was introduced in "The Runaway Bride", will be played by Catherine Tate for all thirteen episodes.[27] Freema Agyeman, who portrayed the Doctor's companion Martha Jones in series three, will return for "The Sontaran Strategem", "The Poison Sky", "The Doctor's Daughter", and two episodes in the finale.[28][29] Billie Piper, who portrayed Rose Tyler from the first episode of the new series to the finale of the second series will appear in the three final episodes of this year. She made brief appearances in the episodes "Partners in Crime" and "The Poison Sky."[30][31] John Barrowman and Elisabeth Sladen, who portrayed previous companions Jack Harkness and Sarah Jane Smith respectively, have also confirmed their appearances in the fourth series.[32][33]

Guest stars

The fourth series features a large number of guest stars. Executive producer Russell T Davies made the casting bigger, with more high-profile stars such as Kylie Minogue (Astrid Peth in "Voyage of the Damned"), Alex Kingston (River Song in "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead"), Sarah Lancashire (Miss Foster in "Partners in Crime"), and Phil Davis and Peter Capaldi (Lucius and Caecillus in "The Fires of Pompeii").[34]

Additional prolific guest stars include Bernard Cribbins and Jacqueline King as Donna's relatives Wilfred Mott and Sylvia Noble, playing recurring roles throughout the series and appearing in six episodes each[35], Sasha Behar in "The Fires of Pompeii",[36] Tim McInnerny in "Planet of the Ood", [36]Christopher Ryan as a Sontaran general, General Staal,[36] in "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky", Georgia Moffett, daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison, as the eponymous character Jenny and Nigel Terry in "The Doctor's Daughter",[36] Felicity Kendal as Lady Eddison and Fenella Woolgar as Agatha Christie in "The Unicorn and the Wasp",[36][37] Colin Salmon in "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead",[36] Lesley Sharp, Lindsey Coulson, and David Troughton (Second Doctor Patrick Troughton's son) in "Midnight",[36] and Chipo Chung, who previously appeared as Chantho in "Utopia", in a different role in "Turn Left".[36] Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins will appear in one episode.[38] For the remaining two episodes, Doctor Who Magazine commented that the episode's cast is being kept secret,[37] while Radio Times commented there were "too many to name".[36] A press-only trailer for the series showed Penelope Wilton reprising her role as Harriet Jones.[39]

Plot and episodes

You've got to watch and listen closely. It's been seeded for a long time, with small but vital references going all the way back to Series One.
Russell T Davies[40]

Doctor Who's format of stand-alone episodes allows a greater flexibility in story telling. Like the previous three series, all of the episodes are bound together in a loose story arc. Unlike the previous three series, where the arc was in the form of an "arc word" such as "Bad Wolf", "Torchwood", or "Mr Saxon", the arc for the fourth series is cumulative: Doctor Who Magazine' 394's preview of "Partners in Crime" described the arc as "an element from every episode–whether it's a person, a phrase, a question, a planet, or a mystery –builds up to the grand finale". Executive producer Russell T Davies stated in the same feature that the series finale had been planned for four years previous to its airdate.[40] The regular series focuses heavily on Donna: David Tennant stated that the "whole thirteen weeks is Donna's story ... why she's with the Doctor again is the subtext",[41] and producer Phil Collinson cited Donna as a "fresh dynamic" for the fourth series.[40]

Story number # Title Director Writer Viewers (in millions) AI Original air date PC
192 Special "Voyage of the Damned"  James Strong Russell T Davies 13.31[42] 86[43] 25 December 2007 4.X
The Doctor (David Tennant) finds himself on an interstellar replica of the famous ocean liner Titanic orbiting present-day Earth, shortly before the ship collides with meteors and begins to fall to Earth. The Doctor teams up with one-off companion Astrid Peth (Kylie Minogue) and several passengers to rescue the ship while fending off the Heavenly Host. 
193 1 "Partners in Crime"  James Strong Russell T Davies 9.14[44] 88[45] 5 April 2008 4.1
The Doctor and previous companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) meet while separately investigating Adipose Industries. Together, they attempt to stop businesswoman Miss Foster (Sarah Lancashire) from killing thousands of people in London during the birth of the Adipose, short white aliens made from body fat. 
194 2 "The Fires of Pompeii"  Colin Teague James Moran 9.04[46] 87[47] 12 April 2008 4.2
The Doctor and Donna land in Pompeii during the 79AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The Doctor is faced with a moral dilemma: whether to recuse himself from the situation or to save the population of Pompeii. The Doctor's activities in Pompeii are impeded by the rock-like Pyrovile, and their allies, the Sybilline Sisterhood, who are using the volcano to convert the humans to Pyroviles. 
195 3 "Planet of the Ood"  Graeme Harper Keith Temple 7.50[48] 87[49] 19 April 2008 4.3
The Doctor and Donna arrive on the Ood-Sphere in the year 4126. They investigate Ood Operations, a company who are selling the Ood as a servant race, to discover the reason the Ood are happy to serve. When they find a group of unprocessed Ood, they become horrified at the alterations performed and resolve to free the Ood. The episode was well-received for its central theme of slavery. 
196a 4 "The Sontaran Stratagem"  Douglas Mackinnon Helen Raynor 7.06[50] 87[51] 26 April 2008 4.4
Martha, Donna and the Doctor discover the Sontarans spreading "ATMOS" devices across modern Earth. 
196b 5 "The Poison Sky"  Douglas Mackinnon Helen Raynor 6.53[52] 88[53] 3 May 2008 4.5
The Sontarans have control of Earth and The Doctor and Donna must stop them with the help of UNIT. 
197 6 "The Doctor's Daughter"  Alice Troughton Stephen Greenhorn 7.33[54] 88[55] 10 May 2008 4.6
The Doctor, Donna and Martha are mysteriously diverted to a colony planet on which humans are fighting the fish-like Hath, and the Doctor's DNA is used to create a daughter - a soldier. 
198 7 "The Unicorn and the Wasp"  Graeme Harper Gareth Roberts 8.41[56] 86[57] 17 May 2008 4.7
The Doctor meets Agatha Christie and must solve a murder mystery. 
199a 8 "Silence in the Library"  Euros Lyn Steven Moffat 6.27[58] 89[59] 31 May 2008 4.8
The Doctor and Donna land in a library the size of a planet, where they meet a team of explorers and find something sinister lurking in the shadows. 
199b 9 "Forest of the Dead"  Euros Lyn Steven Moffat 89[60] 7 June 2008 4.9
While the Doctor tries to find a way to battle the Vashta Narada, Donna finds herself in a virtual world created by the library's main computer. 
200 10 "Midnight[8]"  Alice Troughton Russell T Davies 14 June 2008[61] 4.10
201 11 "Turn Left[8]"  Graeme Harper Russell T Davies 21 June 2008[62] 4.11
202a 12 To be announced  Graeme Harper Russell T Davies 4.12
202b 13 "Journey's End[8]"  Graeme Harper Russell T Davies 4.13

References

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  2. ^ a b c d e f “David Troughton Cast for new episode!”, Doctor Who Magazine (no. 391): p. 6, 2008-01-10 (cover date) 
  3. ^ a b “David Troughton cast for new episode”, Doctor Who Magazine (no. 391): 6, 2008-01-10 (cover date) 
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  10. ^ “Into the Future!”, Doctor Who Magazine (no. 386): p. 4, 2007-09-19 (cover date) 
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Doctor Who series 4 episodes