Tennant is an amazing actor.
Even with the questionable writing in his later series (especially series 4, that's a rough one), he's still able to act his butt off and make it bearable. And it's not just his ability to make the rougher series bearable (if Smith, throwing away how confusing it would make everything ever, had to act his way through series 4, I'm sure he would have done an acceptable job [I really didn't like series 4 if you didn't pick that up already, except for the music which is amazing]). What really made me stop and realize David Tennant is my favorite actor ever is the episode Doomsday (series 2, episode 13).
It made me cry.
I'm not one to cry at shows or movies. I think it's silly. I mean people who do it shouldn't be ashamed or anything; more power to you for being able to show that much emotion. But that's not me. The only times I find myself crying at little things like that is when I'm really depressed. But when I watched this episode for the first time, I was happy. I was at a point in my life when everything was going swimmingly so there was no reason for me to be emotional. And it wasn't (SPOILERS) that he had to leave Rose in the alternate universe. I lost it because of his face when he's saying goodbye to Rose at Bad Wolf Bay. Now I know others cried at the same part. But Tennant's face was so perfect. His acting is so believable. I just get pulled in by him unlike any other Doctor.
It's everything he acts in though, not just Doctor Who. There's a version of Hamlet I stumbled across not too long ago that he stars in. It's amazing. I highly suggest watching it, even if you're usually not a Shakespeare fan (how is that possible?).
Also check out New Earth, series 2 episode 2 (the part where Cassandra takes over his body. I'd like to see Eccleston or Smith pull that one off).
He evolves.
The one amazing thing Davies did while he was in charge of writing for the show was have the Doctor evolve. When we first meet Tennant, he has a young personality. He's crazy, he's like a kid. And by his last specials, he's serious and melancholy. He goes from never wanting to disrupt the timeline to (SPOILERS) saving Captain Burke and two crew members from the colony on Mars when it's overrun by...parasitic water. Whatever. I'm sure he explains exactly what it is in the show but I'm too lazy to look it up and if you've seen the special you know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you haven't seen it why are you wasting time reading this stupid thing when you could be watching David Tennant be awesome?!
These three people weren't supposed to be saved. They were all supposed to die on Mars. Captain Burke kills herself when she gets home because her death causes the future. The Doctor causes her death. When he's saving them he yells, “The laws of time are mine and they will obey me!” He has lost everything he loved. He had to let Rose go. He lost Donna. He is completely alone and he finally snaps.
I heard someone describe it as Tennant becoming too whiny and bitter and angry. But that's exactly what he would be. He's alone after losing everything and is only trying to be the Time Lord victorious but that is something he can never be. This is something the Doctor needed to go through. And Tennant was the best person for that job. There's no way the Eccleston or Smith Doctors could have pulled that off. That just wasn't their personalities. I assure everyone that if the Doctor had not gone through this evolution of personality and power, no one would love the Smith Doctor as much as they do. Even if you weren't particularly taken with Tennant, it was in these series that you really fell in love with the Doctor as a person and realized that he has more in common with humans than originally thought.
His relationship with Rose.
I'm going to get a lot of crap for this one. I've never met another person who likes Rose that much. I actually have a friend who actively hates her. But he does so for a stupid reason. Mickey's just as much to blame for the situation he found himself in. Anyway, that's a different discussion. She's my favorite companion. Yes, that means I like her more than Amy. Just accept it.
His relationship with Rose gives him a human element that the other companions didn't give Tennant's Doctor or the other two. Even when Rose was with Eccleston, she didn't affect him as much as she did Tennant. She kept him in check, grounded. He shows one of the most human emotions, love, for her and only her. The rest of his companions show care and love for him but he barely reciprocates. And most of that is after Rose, because he lost Rose.
When he's traveling with Martha, he just wants Rose back. In The Shakespeare Code (Series 3, episode 3) he's in a tiny bed with Martha, and you can tell what she wants (wink wink). But, while trying to figure out the witch craft he says, “Rose would know. A friend of mine, Rose. Right now she'd say exactly the right thing.” At this point, we must remember that this reboot is taking into account all the past Doctors as well. Which means he's been through countless companions. He has had to say goodbye to countless people, and he never longs for any of them as much as he does for Rose. (Of course I'm saying that as an educated guess because I have just started watching through the old ones. But at least for sure in the reboot, he never longs for any like he does for Rose.)
You could make the argument that his relationship with Amy, while not love in the romantic sense, could rival that of the one with Rose. However, Smith's Doctor actively let Amy go. (SPOILERS) He told River that it wasn't really he who would be dying on that beach, he could have just as easily told Amy. But he didn't. He let her believe he was dead. Tennant's Doctor was going to let Rose leave her mother and alternate-universe-father forever just so she could stay with him. The Doctor cared more for Rose than any other companion and it made him show human emotions that he didn't normally show. It made him selfish and, once he lost her, destructive.
And don't give me the River relationship as a counterexample. It's not the same at all. That relationship feels more like an inside joke instead of the true love of Tennant and Rose's. Maybe it was supposed to feel like the relationship with Rose, but then that failing would fall on Matt Smith's lack of acting. It's a perfect example of the type of story line Tennant could pull off that the other Doctors couldn't. Sure they can all act like crazy kids, but only one of them could go from that to being in love with a human, to eccentric, melancholy, and ultimately destructive to those he wants to save the most once he loses that human.
He's adorable. (Yeah I just pulled that card.)
Look at him. He's cute. He's adorable. Compare him to Eccleston's elephant ears (which actually isn't that big a deal for me) or Smith's giant chin (and unfortunate resemblance to an ex-boyfriend which is obviously something that only applies to me but it's my blog so screw you guys). His hair. His smile.
His beautiful big brown eyes. His red converses with his blue suit (my favorite outfit of his. His brown one with the white converses is adorable, but boring). Damn guys, how could he not be your favorite?
Syd
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