Series 4 (Doctor Who 2005)

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Series 4 redirects here. For the 1966-1967 season of the original series, see Season 4.
File:2007 S3 title Logo.jpg

The term "Doctor Who series 4" was one that had several different meanings, making a precise and universally-agreed definition difficult. It was nevertheless generally considered the "2008 series".

From a production standpoint, the series began with Voyage of the Damned, continued to Time Crash, and concluded with The End of Time. This view was amply supported by Russell T Davies in his memoir, The Writer's Tale, and by production code and production block numbering.

However, subsequent home video releases suggested — by their very contents — that series could be considered as having begun with Time Crash and having ended with Journey's End. Additionally, the BBC's official Doctor Who website blurred the marketing message by treating Christmas specials as independent of any series. Whatever one's perspective, though, there was universal agreement that the regular, weekly portion of series 4 began on 5th April 2008 with the broadcast of Partners in Crime and continued through to the 5th July 2008 broadcast of Journey's End.

Major cast and characters

David Tennant stayed on as the Tenth Doctor, and Catherine Tate reprised her role as Donna Noble, following her one off in the The Runaway Bride.

This series featured several (former) companions returning; Freema Agyeman, returned as Martha Jones for five episodes of the series, which began with The Sontaran Stratagem following her three episode spell with Torchwood. Jack Harkness crossed over from Torchwood for a second time later in the series. Billie Piper returned as Rose Tyler for a three episode stint starting with Turn Left, all three returned in The Stolen Earth along with Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. These were further joined by Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith and Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler in Journey's End.  

Broadcast milestones

Series 4 featured several milestones. It is the 30th ever broadcast season of Doctor Who, and features the 750th broadcast episode, which was The Stolen Earth, the 50th new series episode, The Unicorn and the Wasp, and the 200th broadcast story of Doctor Who, Midnight. The finale episodes The Stolen Earth and Journey's End also took the revived series to new heights of popularity, scoring the highest viewership ratings since the Tom Baker era and according to the media both episodes scored Appreciation Index ratings unprecedented for an ongoing scripted drama series.

In terms of production, the season marked the first production of a "Companion-lite" episode, Midnight (as opposed to the usual "Doctor-lite" episodes, ie. Love and Monsters and Blink), although a Doctor-lite episode, Turn Left was also produced. This was necessitated by the need to film several episodes at the same time, including an unprecedented 15th episode, The Next Doctor, which would air as the 2008 Christmas special.

Series 4 marked the last full season to be produced by Russell T Davies, Phil Collinson and Julie Gardner. Collinson left following Journey's End, and Davies and Gardner have announced they will depart following production of a series of specials planned for 2009 in lieu of a regular season. When the show resumes weekly broadcast in 2010, Steven Moffat will be its head writer and show-runner. It also marks the last full season featuring David Tennant as The Doctor as in October 2008 he announced his intention to leave the role following the production of the 2009 specials; in January 2009 Matt Smith was announced as his successor, with Karen Gilian appearing as his companion Amy Pond.

Promotional postcard for the series

Story arcs

As with the preceding three seasons, Series 4 incorporated several ongoing story arcs which were resolved in the finale episodes. In Series 4 these threads included: Donna Noble's evolution, Rose Tyler's attempts to return to her original world and the Doctor, the disappearance of bees from planet Earth, recurring references to planets and moons disappearing, and the coming of "The Darkness", mainly represented by the attempts of the Daleks and Davros to wipe out all reality. Additionally, most episodes include a running gag: namely, that people keep mistaking the Doctor and Donna for a couple.  

Theme music

"Voyage of the Damned" featured a brand new arrangement of the theme. It was 41 seconds long, and slightly longer than Murray Gold's previous arrangement. The main series also featured a new theme arrangement, different to the "Voyage of the Damned" arrangement but very similar. At 37 seconds, this was Gold's shortest arrangement. It appeared from episode 1 of Series 4, "Partners In Crime" to "The End of Time", the last episode featuring David Tennant as The Doctor.

Television stories

Mini-episode

# Title Writer Notes
N/A Time Crash Steven Moffat Reintroduction of the Fifth Doctor

Christmas Special

# Title Writer Notes
N/A Voyage of the Damned Russell T Davies First appearance of Wilfred Mott

Regular series

# Title Writer Notes
1 Partners in Crime Russell T Davies Reintroduction of Donna Noble
2 The Fires of Pompeii James Moran
3 Planet of the Ood Keith Temple Reintroduction of the Ood
4 Pt. 1: The Sontaran Stratagem
Pt. 2: The Poison Sky		 Helen Raynor Reintroduction of the Sontarans, Martha Jones and formal reintroduction of UNIT. Martha joins TARDIS crew at the end
5 The Doctor's Daughter Stephen Greenhorn Martha Jones leaves TARDIS at end
6 The Unicorn and the Wasp Gareth Roberts
7 Pt. 1: Silence in the Library
Pt. 2: Forest of the Dead		 Steven Moffat First appearance of River Song
8 Midnight Russell T Davies
9 Turn Left Russell T Davies Formal Reintroduction of Rose Tyler
10 Pt. 1: The Stolen Earth
Pt. 2: Journey's End		 Russell T Davies Reintroduction of Davros, Jack Harkness, Sarah Jane Smith, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler. First direct crossover with Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures characters. Last regular appearances of Donna Noble, Wilfred Mott

Mini-episode

# Title Writer Notes
NA Music of the Spheres Russell T Davies shown during the BBC Proms season

Christmas Episode #2

# Title Writer Notes
NA The Next Doctor Russell T Davies Reintroducion of the Cybermen
From a production standpoint, the 2009 stories, Planet of the Dead, The Waters of Mars, and The End of Time were also a part of series 4, however this wikia's community has chosen to separate them out into their own article.

Cast

Primary

Secondary

Guest

From spin-offs

Novels

Two of the Series 4 Books

Audiobooks

Aliens and enemies

Promotional trailers

As with previous seasons, trailers were created to promote the season, though this year they were shown in theatres as well as on television in the UK. Of particular note is the second trailer that was released, which utilized unique, specially shot footage of Donna sitting by a camp- or bonfire talking to either an unseen individual or the audience about the Doctor "coming back to save us" and "I'll be ready" interspersed with images of Sontarans, Ood and Daleks. There is no scene like this in any of the episodes; the meaning of "he'll come back to save us" is unknown as there is no circumstance within Series 4 in which Donna would be in such a position to make such a remark.

The other major trailers included another Donna-centric trailer utilizing a scene between Donna and Wilfred Mott from Partners in Crime, and a mid-season trailer focusing in part on the return of Rose Tyler in Turn Left.

Awards

External links

BBC website page for series 4

Previous season:
Series 3
 Next season:
Series 5

Template:Seasons Template:Series 4

v • e
Aliens and Enemies of Series 4
Voyage of the Damned
Partners in Crime
The Fires of Pompeii
Planet of the Ood
The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky
The Doctor's Daughter
Hath (Hath Gable  • Hath Peck)  • Cobb
The Unicorn and the Wasp
Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead
Midnight
Turn Left
The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
Music of the Spheres
The Next Doctor
Planet of the Dead
The Waters of Mars
The End of Time
Dreamland
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