What Are David Tennant’s Best Doctor Who Episodes?

In 2005, at the end of Russell T Davies’ first season of Doctor Who, Christopher Eccleston bowed out as the Ninth Doctor and David Tennant made his first appearance as the Tenth Doctor. While Eccleston was a tough act to follow, having enjoyed riotous success in introducing the Time Lord to a whole new generation of fans, Tennant quickly proved himself a firm fan favorite in the role. He shared his first season as the Doctor with Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler, who had stayed on after Eccleston’s departure. He went on to travel in the TARDIS with Freema Agyeman’s Martha Jones and Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble, as well as an array of other friends and part-time companions.

David Tennant’s initial tenure as the Time Lord came to an end with a series of specials following his final season. In “The End of Time,” he faced his final fight against John Simm’s iteration of the Master, with the late Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott at his side as a final companion. “The End of Time, Part Two” saw Tennant’s Tenth Doctor regenerate into Matt Smith’s Eleventh. However, that wasn’t the end of David Tennant’s relationship with Doctor Who. The series’ 50th anniversary special, “The Day of the Doctor,” saw the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors team up with the previously unseen War Doctor. Then, 2023’s 60th anniversary specials welcomed Tennant back yet again as the Fourteenth Doctor, reuniting the Time Lord with Donna Noble for three new adventures. With over 50 stories to his name, these are among David Tennant’s best episodes as the Time Lord.

10 ‘School Reunion’ Paired Sarah Jane Smith with the Tenth Doctor

Early into his tenure as the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant got to share the screen with a legend from Doctor Who history. Season 2, Episode 3, “School Reunion,” saw Elisabeth Sladen reprise her classic Doctor Who role as companion Sarah Jane Smith. The episode saw Rose Tyler confronted with the fact she wasn’t the Doctor’s first companion, while the Doctor had to face the impact he has on those he leaves behind.

As well as bringing Sarah Jane back to Doctor Who for an emotional reunion with the Doctor, “School Reunion” saw the return of K9, the Doctor’s old robot dog. K9’s inclusion nodded to the one-off spinoff K-9 and Company, which saw the robot dog paired up with Sarah Jane Smith for the first time. “School Reunion” excelled in giving David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor genuinely moving moments with both old friends, even if one was a dog-shaped computer.

9 ‘The Day of the Doctor’ Brought the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors Together

Almost four years after bowing out as the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant brought this incarnation of the Time Lord back to Doctor Who to help celebrate the sci-fi series’ 50th anniversary in “The Day of the Doctor.” The episode was the first to depict the Doctor fighting in the Time War, building upon the preceding season’s reveal that a secret incarnation of the Doctor existed between his eighth and ninth incarnations: John Hurt’s War Doctor, a life the Doctor had long kept hidden.

The episode saw Tennant’s Tenth Doctor play off his successor — Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor — as they confronted Zygons, Daleks and the darkest parts of their own history. Tennant’s Doctor Who return came with all the fun and emotional intensity he had brought to the character during his original run as the Tenth Doctor. The episode also allowed the Tenth Doctor to help right the wrongs of the Time War that had shaped much of his character.

8 ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ Depicted the Doctor Falling in Love

Doctor Who Season 2’s “The Girl in the Fireplace” was a rare love story for the Doctor. While the show has since developed the love story between the Doctor and Rose, and later his marriage to River Song, “The Girl in the Fireplace” threw the Doctor into a whirlwind romance over the course of a single episode. The time-twisting caper penned by Steven Moffat saw the Doctor falling for French aristocrat Madame de Pompadour.

“The Girl in the Fireplace” saw the Doctor, Rose and Mickey aboard a spaceship that had opened windows onto different moments throughout the life of Reinette Poisson. This meant that while the Doctor knew Reinette for a matter of hours, she knew him her entire life. The episode’s finale sees the Doctor return for Reinette one final time, only to discover he arrived after her death. The final scene features one of David Tennant’s most powerful performances as the Doctor in a moment of quiet grief.

7 ‘Army of Ghosts’ and ‘Doomsday’ Saw the Doctor Experience Heartbreak

Following countless adventures and a blossoming but unspoken love, the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler were finally forced to part ways in Doctor Who‘s Season 2 finale, “Army of Ghosts” and “Doomsday.” The episode saw the return of the Cybus Industries Cybermen from a parallel Earth. While the Doctor was able to trap the Cybermen and Daleks in the Void between universes, doing so left Rose trapped on the other Earth.

The Tenth Doctor’s final meeting with Rose, via a projected image between universes, marked one of David Tennant’s most heartbreaking moments on Doctor Who. The scene famously saw the Doctor’s transmission being cut off before he could tell Rose he loved her, leaving them both in tears worlds apart. Aside from the emotional impact of this story’s ending, “Army of Ghosts” featured Doctor Who‘s greatest cliffhanger, with a last-minute reveal that, amid the Cybermen’s full-scale invasion of Earth, the Daleks were also entering the fray.

6 ‘Human Nature’ and ‘The Family of Blood’ Saw the Doctor Become Human

Doctor Who Season 3’s two-part story, “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood,” demanded a very different performance from David Tennant. In order to escape the vampiric Family of Blood, who longed to feast on the life force of a Time Lord, the Doctor used the TARDIS’ Chameleon Arch to turn himself into a human. This saw the Doctor’s identity removed and stored inside a fob watch, while the Doctor himself adopted the false persona of John Smith.

While working as a teacher at a boarding school, shortly before the First World War, John Smith fell in love with the nurse Joan Redfern. When he learned the truth of his identity and his dreams of adventures in time and space, he had to make a devastating decision to sacrifice himself so that the Doctor could save the world from the Family. The story also allowed Freema Agyeman’s Martha Jones to shine, while the Doctor entrusted her with his very existence.

5 ‘The Fires of Pompeii’ Saw the Doctor Risk History to Save a Family

After reuniting with Donna Noble — whom he had first met during the 2006 Christmas special, “The Runaway Bride” — the Doctor took his friend on a trip to Ancient Rome. However, things took a turn for the worse when the duo realized the TARDIS had in fact arrived in Pompeii, a day before Mount Vesuvius was due to erupt. Donna, on her first trip into the past, pleaded with the Doctor to change history and save the people of Pompeii, while the Doctor had to tell his friend he could not alter established history.

The story came to a poignant climax as the Doctor realized the volcano was being manipulated by the alien Pyroviles, who intended to use its power to convert all humans into Pyroviles and turn Earth into their new home world. In order to prevent this, the Doctor and Donna were forced to trigger Vesuvius’ eruption, saving the world while burning Pompeii. However, a final impassioned plea from Donna saw the Doctor relent and save the family of Caecilius from the eruption.The Doctor would remember Caecilius’ face and one day take it as his own.

4 ‘Silence in the Library’ and ‘Forest of the Dead’ Saw the Doctor Meet River Song

The Doctor and Donna later found themselves at the biggest library in the universe, having received a mysterious summons. Surprised to find the Library — which took up a whole planet — entirely abandoned, the Doctor and Donna became embroiled in a spine-chilling mystery that also saw the Doctor meeting River Song for the first time. Although River would become a bigger part of the Eleventh Doctor’s life, this story saw David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor grappling with the mystery of his friend from the future — a friend who impossibly knew his real name.

“Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead” delivered a thrilling blockbuster of a Doctor Who story. While the Doctor and River contended with the terrifying, flesh-eating, shadow-dwelling Vashta Nerada in the endless halls of the Library, Donna was trapped in an alternate reality within the Library’s computer banks, trying to unravel the mysteries unfolding around her. This epic story laid the foundations for many River Song stories to come.

3 ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ Saw the Fourteenth Doctor Face His Complex Trauma

Long after bowing out as the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant returned to Doctor Who for the series’ 60th anniversary as a brand-new incarnation. The Fourteenth Doctor wore a familiar face and found himself reunited with his old friend, Donna Noble, for three all-new adventures. “Wild Blue Yonder,” the second of three 60th anniversary specials, delivered a particularly strange Doctor Who story as the Doctor and Donna ventured into the great unknown.

The episode saw the Doctor and Donna almost completely alone on a vast spaceship at the very edge of the universe. Their only company besides a slow-moving robot were two strange beings from beyond existence. Known as the Not-Things, these entities took on the appearances and memories of the Doctor and Donna. The result was a deeply unsettling psychological thriller, in which nothing ever felt certain, and in which Tennant was able to tap into the Doctor’s pain like never before. As an added bonus for Doctor Who fans, the episode also featured the final appearance from Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott.

2 ‘Midnight’ Saw the Tenth Doctor Experience Lovecraftian Horror

“Midnight” was similar to “Wild Blue Yonder” in many respects, but smaller in scale and far more terrifying for the Doctor. This Doctor Who Season 4 episode saw the Tenth Doctor trapped on a bus touring the diamond planet of Midnight — a world bathed in deadly sunlight. When the bus breaks down, the Doctor and his stranded fellow passengers soon realize life does exist on Midnight when something gets inside the bus by possessing one of the people aboard.

The true form and name of the Midnight creature remains unknown, but it still learns to steal voices. At first, the possessed Skye simply starts copying the other passengers, before she then hones in on only the Doctor’s voice. As the creature steals the Doctor’s voice, the Doctor finds his usual ingenuity and optimism falling flat among the other passengers — all of whom are ready to kill the creature and the Doctor too, if necessary. Only the Stewardess’s last-minute intervention saves the Doctor’s life in the tense conclusion to this intensely claustrophobic story.

1 ‘Rise of the Cybermen’ and ‘The Age of Steel’ Unleashed It’s Most Terrifying Cybermen

After the Daleks made their triumphant return to television in Season 1 of Doctor Who‘s revival, the Cybermen swiftly followed in Season 2. “Rise of the Cybermen” and “The Age of Steel” saw David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, Rose and Mickey arriving on a parallel Earth for the first time. Here, they witnessed the emergence of an all-new iteration of one of the Doctor’s oldest enemies. Relentless and utterly inhuman, the new Cybermen, were a truly terrifying foe.

This two-part story threw the Tenth Doctor and his companions into a vast roller-coaster ride of an adventure, all of which built to an explosive finale in the burning Cybus factory. The terror of the Cybermen’s first full appearance, the insurmountable odds the Doctor faced, and the story’s smaller heartbreaking moments all made this two-parter story one of David Tennant’s best episodes on Doctor Who.