Season Four Speculation
Nov. 12th, 2007 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meddowI was typing out some thoughts about Doctor Who and it became this: a somewhat lengthy speculation post for season four, the specials and eventual regeneration.
So according from the information I’ve managed to glean from Wikipiedia, the Sontaran episode is the first two-parter, which contains Martha, who is wearing a wedding ring in the promo shots. I think the assumption before this is that Martha was actually going to travel with the Doctor and Donna, but it appears she’s going to be Earth based, making Martha the new Brig.And this episode will be written by Steven Moffat since he’s writing the first two parter.
Since the Sontarans are appearing the first two parter as opposed to the second, it could be a set up for the season finale like the Cybermen episodes in season two. I think it would be quite awesome if the season finale contains the Sontaran-Rutan War. Since this war is as old as Sarah Jane, and with current technology the Rutans could be a lot more visually threatening then they were in Horror at Fang Rock (though with very respectable 100% guest cast mortality rate, you can’t argue that the Rutan’s are not effective at what they do). And since the Rutan’s can impersonate people, there is the potential for evil doppelgangers of the current and former cast.
Either before the Sontaran episode or after is going to be the Pompeii episode (we had three episodes before the first two parter in seasons 1 & 3 and four episodes before the first the first two parter in season 2), which I had previously though was going to be a two parter. However, we’ve not had a monster outlined to us for the episode indicating it might a historical and if it is indeed such, the first episode of New Who without a monster and I’d imagine TPTB would want to keep it to a one episode thing in case audiences don’t respond.
And then at some point or another after all of this, Jack is going to be back. For how many episodes we don’t know and the BBC has yet to confirm this. Since Martha and Jack are both Earth-bound it would make sense that they would appear in an episode together. Unless it’s Future!preFaceofBoe!Jack. The idea of Jack and Donna being in the same place at the same time has a lot of potential. The question is for how long will Jack be rejoining the Doctor, and will he return to being a companion?
Assuming Martha is in fact Earth bound, she still has to appear in three more episodes, which means three more episodes set on present day Earth. No surprises there.
All indications are that Donna is leaving at the end of the season, though I don’t think anybody has explicitly stated that Catherine Tate has been asked to do more and turned them down, and nobody thought she would do a full season in the first place, so I don’t think Donna leaving at the end of season 4 is quite an absolutely sure thing. The question then is how? Chooses to leave, is forced to leave and left behind have been the three methods used in New Who and married off or killed off are methods both methods that have been used in the history of the show.
Now for Martha’s future, if she is getting married, she’s probably not going to get back in the TARDIS, because she’s got a sensible head on her shoulders and leaving your fiancé to go gallivanting around space and time with the guy with whom she was previously in love is not a brilliant idea. She could however bring the fiancé along, with would make for an Ian and Barbara dynamic in the TARDIS. Somehow I doubt it though, I’m not sure if three doctors is the quite the dynamic the new series is going for.
So without Donna or Martha and also presumably without Jack, the show’s moving into the specials and then onto supposedly the death of the Tenth Doctor with the Doctor companionless. There’s always the potential for a crossover with the Sarah Jane Adventures which could be done without a companion. Of course television sets across the world would most likely explode as a result of the sudden surge of adorkable cuteness should the Doctor and Luke Smith ever interact, but if TPTB are willing to take that risk, I would love for that to happen.
Personally, I think a Doctor, Sarah and Jack team would be a good one to get through the regeneration with. After all, Tennant’s incredibly popular and will have by the time he regenerated been the Doctor for four years or 80% of the new series’ years on air. The new guy (or girl) is going to have a hell of a task when it comes to winning over the audience, and Jack and Sarah both characters capable of drawing an audience themselves from their spin-offs and may help. Of course, you’d probably have to come up with some reason why Sarah would leave the kids behind. But if Jack and Sarah were unwilling passengers the new Doctor drops them back off, it would offer the opportunity to tie up Torchwood and SJA should the new show runner not want to continue with the spinoffs. Plus my flatmate thinks that Sarah and Jack flirting would be the most awesome thing ever, and we should not deny my flatmate, after all she puts up with me.
So according from the information I’ve managed to glean from Wikipiedia, the Sontaran episode is the first two-parter, which contains Martha, who is wearing a wedding ring in the promo shots. I think the assumption before this is that Martha was actually going to travel with the Doctor and Donna, but it appears she’s going to be Earth based, making Martha the new Brig.
Since the Sontarans are appearing the first two parter as opposed to the second, it could be a set up for the season finale like the Cybermen episodes in season two. I think it would be quite awesome if the season finale contains the Sontaran-Rutan War. Since this war is as old as Sarah Jane, and with current technology the Rutans could be a lot more visually threatening then they were in Horror at Fang Rock (though with very respectable 100% guest cast mortality rate, you can’t argue that the Rutan’s are not effective at what they do). And since the Rutan’s can impersonate people, there is the potential for evil doppelgangers of the current and former cast.
Either before the Sontaran episode or after is going to be the Pompeii episode (we had three episodes before the first two parter in seasons 1 & 3 and four episodes before the first the first two parter in season 2), which I had previously though was going to be a two parter. However, we’ve not had a monster outlined to us for the episode indicating it might a historical and if it is indeed such, the first episode of New Who without a monster and I’d imagine TPTB would want to keep it to a one episode thing in case audiences don’t respond.
And then at some point or another after all of this, Jack is going to be back. For how many episodes we don’t know and the BBC has yet to confirm this. Since Martha and Jack are both Earth-bound it would make sense that they would appear in an episode together. Unless it’s Future!preFaceofBoe!Jack. The idea of Jack and Donna being in the same place at the same time has a lot of potential. The question is for how long will Jack be rejoining the Doctor, and will he return to being a companion?
Assuming Martha is in fact Earth bound, she still has to appear in three more episodes, which means three more episodes set on present day Earth. No surprises there.
All indications are that Donna is leaving at the end of the season, though I don’t think anybody has explicitly stated that Catherine Tate has been asked to do more and turned them down, and nobody thought she would do a full season in the first place, so I don’t think Donna leaving at the end of season 4 is quite an absolutely sure thing. The question then is how? Chooses to leave, is forced to leave and left behind have been the three methods used in New Who and married off or killed off are methods both methods that have been used in the history of the show.
Now for Martha’s future, if she is getting married, she’s probably not going to get back in the TARDIS, because she’s got a sensible head on her shoulders and leaving your fiancé to go gallivanting around space and time with the guy with whom she was previously in love is not a brilliant idea. She could however bring the fiancé along, with would make for an Ian and Barbara dynamic in the TARDIS. Somehow I doubt it though, I’m not sure if three doctors is the quite the dynamic the new series is going for.
So without Donna or Martha and also presumably without Jack, the show’s moving into the specials and then onto supposedly the death of the Tenth Doctor with the Doctor companionless. There’s always the potential for a crossover with the Sarah Jane Adventures which could be done without a companion. Of course television sets across the world would most likely explode as a result of the sudden surge of adorkable cuteness should the Doctor and Luke Smith ever interact, but if TPTB are willing to take that risk, I would love for that to happen.
Personally, I think a Doctor, Sarah and Jack team would be a good one to get through the regeneration with. After all, Tennant’s incredibly popular and will have by the time he regenerated been the Doctor for four years or 80% of the new series’ years on air. The new guy (or girl) is going to have a hell of a task when it comes to winning over the audience, and Jack and Sarah both characters capable of drawing an audience themselves from their spin-offs and may help. Of course, you’d probably have to come up with some reason why Sarah would leave the kids behind. But if Jack and Sarah were unwilling passengers the new Doctor drops them back off, it would offer the opportunity to tie up Torchwood and SJA should the new show runner not want to continue with the spinoffs. Plus my flatmate thinks that Sarah and Jack flirting would be the most awesome thing ever, and we should not deny my flatmate, after all she puts up with me.
