David Tennant and Catherine Tate star as The Doctor and Donna Noble in Doctor Who

So, David Tennant came and went on the BBC's long-running show Doctor Who and after debating with myself for months over whether to watch the shows, I decided to go ahead and do so.

I was happy with Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor. I hated the Timeless Child arc, which has essentially destroyed the value of any life-threatening situation the Doctor now finds him/herself in. An immortal Doctor is not nearly as empathetic as one who is never sure of how many regenerations are left.

Like many other Whovians I hoped that Russell T. Davies would magically ignore or unwind the Timeless Child arc. And, technically, they can always do that. They didn't have to do anything in these 3 specials.

I suspect he didn't want to disrupt the continuity established by Chris Chibnall, who technically didn't destroy the Doctor's mortality single-handedly as there was that 4th Doctor episode where earlier lives (than the William Hartnell Doctor) were hinted at.

But the episodes The Five Doctors (another special) and The Time of the Doctor had retconned reasonable explanations for the Doctor having more than 12 lives. The Time Lords can grant more regenerations. I wish Chibnall had left it at that.

But enough whining. What's done is done (for now - RTD can always fix the franchise and show that the Doctor isn't truly immortal - that the Time Lords did have to grant more regenerations to him/her).

I was able to watch these shows on Disney+ although I'm sure they're available on other streaming services.

2023 Special 1: The Star Beast

David Tennant's 3rd incarnation of the Doctor (he was numbers 10 and 11) is reunited with Donna Noble. Another spaceship crash-lands in London and Donna's daughter Rose (played by Yasmin Finney) encounters a small furry creature that calls itself The Meep.

The Doctor is drawn to Donna's home as U.N.I.T. zeroes in on the creature. But another group of aliens (Wrarth Warriors) have also landed and are hunting the Meep.

Mayhem ensues and the Doctor and Donna are reunited, even to the point where he must restore her memories in order to save the world. But don't worry - there's a way for Donna to be saved, too.

I wasn't thrilled with this episode as it was so rushed it didn't make a lot of sense, but what the heck, we got to see the Docctor and Donna back in action again.

Special 2: Wild Blue Yonder

This one was bizarre in ways that only a Doctor Who special can be. Donna Noble has spilled coffee on the T.A.R.D.I.S. console and therefore it's gone mad, mad, mad, mad.

BTW - the new T.A.R.D.I.S. looks great.

So after a brief encounter with (pre-knighted) Isaac Newton in an apple tree (where the Doctor and Donna bestow the inspiration for "mavity" upon him), the Daring Duo dash off to somewhere beyond the farthest edge of the universe.

I mean they literally end up in nothingness as the Doctor is able to point out where the universe is for Donna when they are looking out into the vast reaches of (almost) empty space.

They find themselves on a huge spaceship the purpose of which is not immediately evident. And there is an ancient robot on the spaceship that is slowly walking down a huge corridor. Every now and then an ominous voice calls out something in a language even the Doctor cannot understand and the ship's internal components reconfigure themselves.

The T.A.R.D.I.S. vanishes and the Doctor concludes that one of its emergency protocols has activated, a self-preservation algorithm.

It turns out the Doctor and Donna are not alone on the ship. And that's all I'll say about the episode itself.

I liked this one better than the first because it took an unusual turn for a Doctor Who episode. It went into almost pure thriller mode and it reminded me very much of the classic episode Midnight (another David Tennant/Catherine Tate episode where they visit an airless resort planet and he finds himself trapped on a terrifying tour with a nameless entity).

There's just something cool about a story where the Doctor simply can't jump into the T.A.R.D.I.S. and go somewhere or somewhen and change things around to his (or her) own advantage. When the Doctor must deal with the danger directly and resolve the problem with wits it's usually a very engaging story, and this one was just that.

Special 3: The Giggle

I did not warm to this episode as much as I warmed to the previous special. There's nothing wrong with it. I just wasn't familiar with the villain, which character has engaged with the Doctor before. So unfortunately I wasn't able to connect with the conflict the way fans who have seen the right previous episodes would.

Neil Patrick-Harris appears as a menacing and pretty spooky Toymaker (a "classic" Doctor Who villain).

We're back on Earth and U.N.I.T. is once again involved as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart attempts to protect humanity from a maddening signal the Toymaker has embedded into the medium of television.

This threat calls for time travel but the Doctor is at a disadvantage as he must play the Toymaker's games on the Toymaker's terms. The episode is more of a psychic thriller than anything else.

I liked the resolution of the conflict, and that's all I'll say about that.

The way they introduced Ncuti Gatwa as the next Doctor was unique and intriguing. I think he'll be a fun Doctor to watch and I'm looking forward to seeing his episodes. I just hope Russell T. Davies doesn't revisit this Timeless Child nonsense again. He acknowledged it with one line from David Tennant and as far as I'm concerned that's all that RTD needs to do to maintain continuity.

David Tennant Breaks All Kinds of Whovian Records

Not only is David Tennant only the second Doctor actor who has technically married another Time Lord actor (his real-life wife is Georgia Tennant, who played the Doctor's Daughter opposite David Tennant), he's the only Doctor actor to play the same "face" 5 times.

Tom Baker played two Doctors (the Fourth Doctor in the 1970s and the Caretaker in the special "Day of the Doctor").

David Tennant played the 10th Doctor AND the 11th Doctor (per 12th Doctor Matt Smith's explanation to Clara in "Time of the Doctor"). But David Tennant also played the human Doctor who stayed with Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) in the alternate universe where she was never born but her same-universe Mum got together with the alternate-universe Dad.

And now David Tennant has played the 15th Doctor but ended in a weird situation where he's kind of still alive but apparently not a Time Lord any more? I'm not sure about that one. I'll have to rewatch the episode, I guess.

But the bottom line is that somehow David Tennant's last incarnation of the Doctor continues even while Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor will go on and continue the show.

So I'm sorry if I spoiled some things here but it's all very complicated.

And a final hat tip to Ruth Madeley, who appeared in the first and third special as U.N.I.T. consultant Shirley Bingham. Ruth was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair so I'm sure finding good parts is a challenge for her in the action/adventure genres. They gave her character a great role in the first special. She didn't get much to do in the third special but maybe we'll see her again in future shows.

Yasmin Finney is also a cool companion. I hope they bring her back at least for occasional visits. It'd be a shame if her character was only used in the first and third specials. She didn't get much to do in the third special, either.