Doctor Who series 2
The second series of the British science fiction programme Doctor Who was preceded by the Christmas special "The Christmas Invasion" broadcast on 25 December 2005. A regular series of thirteen episodes was broadcast weekly in 2006, starting with "New Earth" on 15 April and concluding with "Doomsday" on 8 July. In addition, two short special episodes were produced; a Children in Need special and an interactive episode, as well as thirteen minisodes titled Tardisodes. It is the second series of the revival of the show, and the twenty-eighth season overall.
It is the first series to feature David Tennant as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his TARDIS, which appears to be a British police box on the outside. The Doctor continues to travel with his companion Rose Tyler, with whom he has grown increasingly attached. They also briefly travel with Rose's boyfriend Mickey Smith, and Rose's mother Jackie. The series is connected by a loose story arc consisting of the recurring word "Torchwood". This is also the first series to be preceded by a Christmas special, the success of "The Christmas Invasion" led to the Christmas special becoming an annual tradition.
The Cybermen were reintroduced with a new origin story set in a parallel universe. In the "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel" two-part story, the Doctor and his companions crash land in a parallel London where the Cybermen are being created on modern-day Earth. The Cybermen reappear in the 2006 two-part finale "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday", exploiting a breach between universes to invade the Doctor's Earth.
Russell T Davies returned as the head writer for the series. The production of all episodes was overseen by Phil Collinson, while Julie Gardner took on the role of executive producer. The musical score was composed by Murray Gold. Most of the filming was conducted in Cardiff, Wales. The critical reception was overwhelmingly positive, with the series garnering acclaim for its writing, themes, performances, and production values, culminating in multiple awards, including five accolades at the BAFTA Cymru Awards.
Episodes
Supplemental episodes
Two mini-episodes were also recorded: "Doctor Who: Children in Need" was produced for the 2005 Children in Need appeal, and interactive episode "Attack of the Graske" was recorded for digital television following the broadcast of "The Christmas Invasion".''Tardisodes''
Thirteen Tardisodes, ranging from lengths of 40–55 seconds, were produced to serve as prequels to each episode. All episodes were filmed as part of the second series' production cycle.Casting
Main characters
Series 2 was Tennant's first in the role of the Doctor; his casting was announced on 16 April 2005. Following his brief appearance in the closing moments of "The Parting of the Ways" he was next seen in the Children in Need special, broadcast on 18 November 2005. "The Christmas Invasion", broadcast one month later, marked his first episode. In 2005, Tennant had starred in Casanova, written by Russell T Davies and produced by Julie Gardner, when he was offered an audition as the Doctor, which surprised him as it had not yet been publicly announced that Christopher Eccleston would not be returning to the role. He was offered the role at Davies's home, and was initially concerned that if the series was not recommissioned he would become known as "the person who played the Doctor for 35 seconds".Billie Piper continued her role as companion Rose Tyler, for her second and final series. Piper departed as a regular following "Doomsday". She would return as a regular in the 2008 series, and in a cameo in "The End of Time". She later explained that her decision was due to the unexpected success of the revival. Piper said that she "didn't like the responsibility of being a role model".
Guest stars
continued to guest in the series as recurring character Jackie Tyler. Shaun Dingwall returned for several episodes as Pete Tyler and Penelope Wilton reprised her role as Harriet Jones for the Christmas special. Noel Clarke's character Mickey Smith, a recurring guest character during the first series, featured in several episodes as a companion of the Doctor. Zoë Wanamaker reprised her role as Cassandra from "The End of the World".Elisabeth Sladen featured in the episode "School Reunion", returning to the character of Sarah Jane Smith, companion of the Third and Fourth Doctors. Following this episode, Sladen was asked to reprise her role in a spin-off series titled The Sarah Jane Adventures. John Leeson also featured in this episode as the voice of K9.
Other guest stars included Adam Garcia, Anita Briem, Sean Gilder, and Daniel Evans in "The Christmas Invasion"; Anna Hope and Adjoa Andoh in "New Earth"; Ian Hanmore in "Tooth and Claw"; Anthony Head in "School Reunion"; Sophia Myles and Ben Turner in "The Girl in the Fireplace; Roger Lloyd-Pack, Andrew Hayden-Smith, and Don Warrington in "Rise of the Cybermen" / "The Age of Steel", Rory Jennings, Jamie Foreman, Ron Cook, Margaret John, and Maureen Lipman in "The Idiot's Lantern", Claire Rushbrook, Danny Webb, Shaun Parkes, Silas Carson, and MyAnna Buring in "The Impossible Planet" / "The Satan Pit"; Marc Warren, Shirley Henderson, and Peter Kay in "Love & Monsters"; Nina Sosanya in "Fear Her"; and Tracy-Ann Oberman, Raji James and Barbara Windsor in "Army of Ghosts" / "Doomsday". Freema Agyeman, who appeared briefly in "Doomsday", would later return to co-star as Martha Jones in the following series. Andoh returned for Series 3 but was recast as Martha's mother. Pauline Collins, who appeared in "Tooth and Claw" as Queen Victoria, had previously appeared in The Faceless Ones as Samantha Briggs and Gabriel Woolf, who appeared as the voice of The Beast in "The Impossible Planet" / "The Satan Pit", had previously appeared in Pyramids of Mars as Suktekh, a role he would reprise 18 years following this appearance in the 2024 episodes "The Legend of Ruby Sunday" / "Empire of Death". Nicholas Hoult was considered for the role that went to Jennings.
Production
Development
Following the success of the opening episode of the first series, the BBC announced that Doctor Who had been recommissioned for both a second series and a Christmas special on 30 March 2005. The series was the first series of Doctor Who to be preceded by a Christmas special. The success of the Christmas special led to it becoming an annual tradition. Production on the series began on 1 August 2005 and concluded on 31 March 2006. Phil Collinson produced all episodes, with Julie Gardner acting as executive producer.Writing
continued to act as head writer and executive producer, contributing several episodes of the series. New writers for the show included Toby Whithouse, Tom MacRae, Matt Jones, and Matthew Graham. Returning writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat also contributed episodes to the series. Stephen Fry was due to write the eleventh episode, but was forced to withdraw as he could not complete the script in time. Davies consequently hired Graham, who he had been trying to hire for series three, to write "Fear Her". The villain of the episode "Love & Monsters", the Abzorbaloff, was designed by the winner of a Blue Peter contest."The Runaway Bride", which was supposed to be the midway point of the original line-up, was moved early on to be the Christmas special for the next series, and was replaced by "Tooth and Claw", which had its roots in a story about "Queen Victoria and a werewolf", something Davies had been contemplating since 2004. The order of the first few episodes moved around a bit while being written, and were only finalised after the early scripts were partially done, in order to find the best way to develop Tennant's Doctor, especially for those viewers confused by the regeneration.
The series is primarily set on Earth due to the cost involved in creating another planet, Davies stated; only two stories were set on another planet. However, the team had learnt from the first series about the specific challenges faced by a sci-fi series; instead of last-minute changes to reduce CGI, plots were written in mind to use shots needing less CGI: gardens and concrete plazas, such as those employed in the then-recently released Battlestar Galactica show, which allowed an equitable budgetary distribution between stories. The second series came about quite differently from the first, not having to present every single detail to the BBC: discussions and plot changes happened as much in coffeehouses and on phone as it did in writing, and therefore the first outline had much more detail than the first series, allowing for a more connected series.
Just like the first series, the second series saw the return of another classic enemy, the Cybermen. Presented with the opportunity to re-introduce Cybermen to a whole new generation, Davies' prime objective for these Cybermen was to erase the word "silver" and to instead choose to stress the terms "metal" and "steel", emphasising the loss of their humanity as a source of their monstrosity.
The mythology of Torchwood is built across the series, though it did not feature in any of the early outlines or drafts for series 2 until its reveal in the finale even though it had first appeared in the 2005 episode "Bad Wolf". In "The Christmas Invasion", it is revealed to be a secret organisation which possesses alien technology, and its establishment is shown in "Tooth and Claw", whose late addition to the series allowed Davies to fix it in British history by associating it with Queen Victoria. References then gradually started appearing in the script of every episode: blocked websites, mentions of buildings and archives owned by Torchwood and so on. Contemporary Torchwood is finally visited by the Doctor and Rose in "Army of Ghosts" / "Doomsday", at which point it is situated within London's Canary Wharf and accidentally allows the invasion of the Cybermen and, subsequently, the Daleks.