Doctor Who: Every Doctor's DEFINITIVE Episode

David Tennant's Doctor always felt the most human, and so he was the perfect incarnation to realise Paul Cornell's acclaimed novel on TV.

Tennant puts in his best performance in the show, not as the Doctor, but as John Smith, allowing him to showcase his range as a gentle, vulnerable man who finds out that not only is he not real, but that he is doomed to face his own death.

Watching John fall in love with a life he can never have is devastating telly and Tennant sells it completely. John might share some of Ten's traits, but he is not the Doctor. Tennant's performance is brilliant, celebrating everything the Tenth Doctor is by showing everything he isn't – slightly cruel, slightly cowardly.

So yes, we can have a quintessential story that barely features the Doctor himself. In spite of the Doctor's absence, this is a thorough study of his character. We explore his callousness, his mythology, and his inability to truly account for human emotion, try as he might to mimic it. The story presents Ten as a force of nature, and that's before he even pops up.

When the Doctor does return, the shift is chilling. The punishments he devises for the Family are cruel, spiteful, and wildly darker than the behaviour we see week on week. Ten’s righteous fury tips into something genuinely frightening in this story, and it sets the scene beautifully for the arc that would eventually conclude in Tennant's run of specials.