Doctor Who (series 2)

Episodes

The first episode of the series, "New Earth", was also the first episode since Doctor Who was revived not to be set in the vicinity of Earth, and the first story since The Greatest Show in the Galaxy from Season 25 to be wholly set on an alien world; every episode of Series 1 had taken place either on Earth itself or on a space station in the vicinity of the planet.

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". 13 TARDISODEs were also produced to serve as prequels to each episode. All episodes were filmed as part of the second series' production cycle.

Main characters

Series two was David Tennant's first in the role of the Doctor after he was cast on 28 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 full episode.

Billie Piper continued her role as companion Rose Tyler, for her second and final series, Noel Clarke's character Mickey Smith, a recurring guest character during the first series, featured in several episodes.

Guest stars

Camille Coduri 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.

Elisabeth Sladen featured in the episode "School Reunion", returning to the character of Sarah Jane Smith, companion of the Third and Fourth Doctors. John Leeson also featured in this episode as the voice of K-9.

Other guest stars included Adam Garcia, Daniel Evans, Zoë Wanamaker, Anna Hope, Pauline Collins, Anthony Head, Sophia Myles, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Andrew Hayden-Smith, Don Warrington, Maureen Lipman, Danny Webb, Shaun Parkes, Claire Rushbrook, Will Thorp, Marc Warren, Peter Kay, Shirley Henderson, Simon Greenall, Moya Brady, Kathryn Drysdale, Nina Sosanya, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Raji James, Barbara Windsor, Derek Acorah, Alistair Appleton, Trisha Goddard and Freema Agyeman, who returned to co-star as Martha Jones the next year.

Production

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. Recording for the Christmas special began on 23 July 2005, with production on the series itself beginning on 1 August 2005 and concluding on 31 March 2006.

New writers for the show included Toby Whithouse, creator of the Channel 4 drama No Angels, Tom MacRae, creator of Sky One's Mile High, Matt Jones, also a prolific script editor and producer, and Matthew Graham, co-creator of the BBC science fiction series Life on Mars. Previous writers Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies all contributed to the series, with Davies continuing to act as head writer and executive producer. Stephen Fry was due to write episode 11 but was forced to withdraw as he could not complete the script in time so Russell T. Davies hired Matthew Graham to write Fear Her. Phil Collinson produced all episodes, with Julie Gardner as executive producer. The series was directed by James Hawes, Euros Lyn, James Strong, Dan Zeff and Graeme Harper, who had directed episodes of the programme's original run. The series is primarily set on Earth (though not as much as the first series was) due to the cost involved in creating another planet, according to Davies. Only two stories are set on another planet.

The second series encompassed a loose story arc based around the word "Torchwood", which first appeared in the 2005 episode "Bad Wolf". The mythology of Torchwood is built across the series; 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". 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. The Doctor and Rose are forcibly separated by these events, which lead to Rose's entrapment within a parallel universe.

The Doctor and Rose are indirectly responsible for their separation; their enjoyment of the events of "Tooth and Claw" horrifies Queen Victoria and leads to the establishment of Torchwood. Over a century later, the institute's foolish actions are resolved at the expense of the Doctor and Rose's companionship. "It's deliberate when that happens [The Doctor and Rose's arrogance]", said head writer Russell T Davies, "and they do pay the price. In "Tooth and Claw", they set up the very thing — Torchwood — that separates them in the end. It's sort of their own fault."

Production blocks were arranged as follows:

A Children in Need special and an interactive episode, entitled "Attack of the Graske", were both produced alongside the series.

A series of 13 TARDISODEs were also produced. These mini-episodes (approximately 60 seconds in length) served as prequels to each forthcoming episode, and were available for download to mobile phones and viewable at the official Doctor Who website. The TARDISODEs were recorded intermittently from 31 January to 8 April 2006.

Australia

In Australia, this series aired in 2006, on ABC at 7:30 pm Saturdays. The premiere episode was the 2005 Christmas special. During the runs of these episodes, the Doctor Who Confidential Cut Down was not shown at that time. This series aired again from Tuesday, 27 January 2009 starting with "The Christmas Invasion" at 8:30 pm. From 3 February 2009, not only was the show airing on ABC2 on Tuesdays at 8:30 pm, Doctor Who Confidential Cut Down episodes aired right after the episode. This is the second time that the Doctor Who Confidential Cut Down episodes were shown; the first time happened in 2008 when airing series 4 of Doctor Who. Then from 2 January 2012, episodes were shown at 7:30pm on ABC2 daily from Rose to The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe to the lead-up of Series 7. The lot of episodes were repeated again a second time later that year.

Awards and nominations

At the 2007 BAFTA Cymru Awards David Tennant won Best Actor for his performance in "Doomsday". Russell T. Davies won the award for Best Screenplay for the episode "Doomsday". Billie Piper was nominated for Best Actress for her performance in Doomsday but lost. Louise Page won for Best Costume, while Neill Gorton and Sheelagh Wells won for Best Make-up for "The Girl in the Fireplace", Cripspin Green won for Best Editor for his work on "Tooth and Claw". At the 2007 BAFTA TV Awards Crispin Green was nominated for Best Editing Fiction/Entertainment, while The Mill were nominated for Best Visual Effects.

At the TV Quick and TV Choice Awards the show won Best Loved Drama in a double win with the award being presented to Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson. David Tennant won Best Actor for his portrayal of The Doctor. While Billie Piper won Best Actress for portraying Rose Tyler. At the National Television Awards the show won three awards. The show received Most Popular Drama award for the second time in a row, David Tennant won Most Popular Actor and Billie Piper won Most Popular Actress again, repeating her success from the previous year. At the 2007 Constellation Awards the show won Best Science Fiction Television Series of 2006, David Tennant won Best Male Performance in a 2006 Science Fiction Television Episode for "The Girl in the Fireplace", while the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation who co produced series 2 won Outstanding Canadian Contribution to Science Fiction Film or Television in 2006. The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 2006 was awarded to "The Girl in the Fireplace". "School Reunion" and "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday were also nominated. Steven Moffat's writing for "The Girl in the Fireplace received a nomination from the Nebula Awards. The show was nominated for five awards at the 2006 RTS Television Awards Best Drama Series, Best Production Design for Edward Thomas Best Costume Design – Drama for Louise Page, Best Make Up Design – Drama for Sheelagh Wells and Neill Gorton and Best Visual Effects – Digital Effects but did not win a single award.

At the 2007 Saturn Awards the show was nominated for two awards; Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series and Best Television DVD Release, it did not win either. The show was nominated for the Scream Award for Best TV show but did not win. At the 2007 SFX Awards, the show won Best TV Show, Euros Lyn and Steven Moffat won Best TV episode for "The Girl in the Fireplace". James Strong and Matt Jones were nominated for "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" and Graeme Harper and Russell T Davies for "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday". David Tennant won for Best TV Actor and Billie Piper won for Best TV Actress. At the 2007 VES Awards Nicolas Hernandez, Jean-Claude Deguara, Neil Roche and Jean-Yves Audouard were nominated for their work on the werewolf for the episode "Tooth and Claw".

Soundtrack

Selected pieces of score from this series (alongside material from Series 1 and "The Runaway Bride"), as composed by Murray Gold, were released on 4 December 2006 by Silva Screen Records. On 19 August 2013 the soundtrack was released on 12" Vinyl as a limited edition with only 500 copies.