Supplemental episodes

Two mini-episodes were also recorded: "Doctor Who: Children in Need" was produced for the 2005 Children in Need appeal,^[6] and interactive episode "Attack of the Graske" was recorded for digital television following the broadcast of "The Christmas Invasion".^[7][8]

Tardisodes

Thirteen Tardisodes were produced to serve as prequels to each episode. All episodes were filmed as part of the second series' production cycle.^[10][11]

Main characters

Series 2 was Tennant's first in the role of the Doctor; his casting was announced on 16 April 2005.^[12][13][14] 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.^[15] 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".^[16]

Billie Piper continued her role as companion Rose Tyler, for her second and final series.^[18] Piper departed as a regular following "Doomsday".^[19] She would return as a regular in the 2008 series,^[20][21] and in a cameo in "The End of Time".^[22] 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".^[23][24]

Guest stars

Camille Coduri continued to guest in the series as recurring character Jackie Tyler.^[25][26][27] Shaun Dingwall returned for several episodes as Pete Tyler and Penelope Wilton reprised her role as Harriet Jones for the Christmas special.^[28][29] Noel Clarke's character Mickey Smith, a recurring guest character during the first series, featured in several episodes as a companion of the Doctor.^[30]

Elisabeth Sladen featured in the episode "School Reunion", returning to the character of Sarah Jane Smith, companion of the Third and Fourth Doctors.^[31][32] Following this episode, Sladen was asked to reprise her role in a spin-off series titled The Sarah Jane Adventures.^[33] John Leeson also featured in this episode as the voice of K9.^[31]

Other guest stars included Adam Garcia and Daniel Evans in "The Christmas Invasion",^[34] Anna Hope and Adjoa Andoh in "New Earth",^[35][36] Anthony Head in "School Reunion",^[32] Roger Lloyd-Pack in "Rise of the Cybermen" / "The Age of Steel",^[37] Rory Jennings, Margaret John, and Maureen Lipman in "The Idiot's Lantern",^[38][39][40] Claire Rushbrook in "The Impossible Planet" / "The Satan Pit",^[41] Nina Sosanya in "Fear Her",^[42] and Raji James and Barbara Windsor in "Army of Ghosts" / "Doomsday".^[43][44] Freema Agyeman, who appeared briefly in "Doomsday", would later return to co-star as Martha Jones in the following series.^[45][35] Andoh returned for series 3 but was recast as Martha's mother.^[35] Pauline Collins, who appeared in "Tooth and Claw" as Queen Victoria, had previously appeared in The Faceless Ones (1967) as Samantha Briggs.^[46][47] Nicholas Hoult was considered for the role that went to Jennings.^[38]

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.^[49] The series was the first series of Doctor Who to be preceded by a Christmas special.^[50] The success of the Christmas special led to it becoming an annual tradition.^[51] Production on the series began on 1 August 2005 and concluding on 31 March 2006.^[52][53]

Phil Collinson produced all episodes, with Julie Gardner acting as executive producer.^[54][55]

Writing

Russell T Davies continued to act as head writer and executive producer, contributing several episodes of the series.^[56] New writers for the show included Toby Whithouse,^[57] Tom MacRae,^[58] Matt Jones,^[59] and Matthew Graham.^[60] Returning writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat also contributed episodes to the series.^[61][62] Stephen Fry was due to write the eleventh episode, but was forced to withdraw as he could not complete the script in time.^[60][63][64] Davies consequently hired Graham to write "Fear Her".^[60] The villain of the episode "Love & Monsters", the Abzorbaloff, was designed by the winner of a Blue Peter contest.^[65]

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.^[66]

The second series encompassed a loose story arc based around the word "Torchwood", an anagram of "Doctor Who",^[67][68] which first appeared in the 2005 episode "Bad Wolf".^[69] 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,^[70] and its establishment is shown in "Tooth and Claw".^[71] 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.^[71][68] The Doctor and Rose are forcibly separated by these events, which lead to Rose's entrapment within a parallel universe.^[72]

Filming

The series was directed by James Hawes,^[67] Euros Lyn,^[73][74] James Strong,^[75][76] Dan Zeff^[77] and Graeme Harper.^[78] Harper had previously directed episodes of the programme's original run.^[75][79]

Recording for the Christmas special began on 23 July 2005.^[80][81] The Clearwell Caves were used twice, the first time as the interior of the Sycorax ship and the second time as the Beasts Pit in "The Satan Pit".^[82][83] Production blocks were scheduled around the directors.^[56] Majority of the filming took place in Wales,^[83] particularly in Cardiff.^[84][58][61] Parts of "New Earth" were shot at the Wales Millennium Centre. The centre was used during promotion of the series.^[85][83]

"Tooth and Claw" was originally part of block one, but due to production issues was pushed to block two.^[86] The episode was shot in Llansannor Court. The building was later reused for "The Unicorn and the Wasp".^[83] "The Girl in the Fireplace" used the Dyffryn Gardens for both the gardens and palace of Louis XV. The gardens were used for various other episodes including "Deep Breath" and "The Wedding of River Song".^[83]

A Stella Artois brewery was used for the upgrading chamber in "Army of Ghosts".^[87] The Coedarhydyglyn House was used for Jackie and Petes mansion in the episode. The house was later used in "The Angels Take Manhattan".^[83] Southerndown Beach was used for the beach that The Doctor and Rose say goodbye in "Doomsday". The beach was later reused in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship".^[83]

The first two weeks of filming on block four were spent entirely on "Fear Her".^[88] Maureen Lipman appeared in "The Idiot's Lantern" but due to scheduling conflicts, recorded her scenes remotely in London. Lipman finished her recording in under a day.^[88] Block six, the final block, contained only one episode "Love & Monsters", which was directed by Zeff.^[89]

Production blocks were arranged as follows:^[90]

Soundtrack

Murray Gold returned to compose the music for the second series.^[91] Parts of the soundtrack were performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and orchestrated by Ben Foster, unlike in the first series, which was purely reliant on orchestral samples.^[92][93] Selected pieces of score from the first series, second series, and "The Runaway Bride", as composed by Murray Gold, were released on 4 December 2006 by Silva Screen Records.^[94] The cues from the first series were re-recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the original music having been created using orchestral samples.^[95]

Gold's arrangement of the main theme featured samples from the 1963 original with further elements added: an orchestral sound of low horns, strings and percussion and part of the Dalek ray-gun and TARDIS materialisation sound effects. Included on the album are two versions of the theme: the 44-second opening version, as arranged by Gold, and a longer arrangement that includes the middle eight, after Gold omitted the "middle eight" from both the opening and closing credits. Gold has said that his interpretation was driven by the title visual sequence he was given to work around. Often erroneously cited as being the same as the end credits version, this second version is in fact a new arrangement and recording.^[96][97]

Broadcast

The second series premiered on 15 April 2006 with "New Earth", and concluded after thirteen episodes on 8 July 2006 with "Doomsday".^[98] Doctor Who Confidential also aired alongside each episode of the series, continuing on from the previous series.^[99]

A Children in Need special and an interactive episode, entitled "Attack of the Graske", were both released alongside the series.^[7] A series of thirteen Tardisodes were also produced.^[8] 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.^[10][11]

Downloads of the Tardisodes to mobile telephones were less popular than expected: around 40,000 downloads, averaging 3,000 per episode.^[100] Downloads to personal computers were much more common, with 2.6 million downloads.^[101] Iain Tweedale, new media editor for BBC Wales, suggested two reasons for the low number of telephone downloads: although the BBC provided the episodes free, most users had to pay a fee to their mobile network, and many telephones were not compatible with the broadcasts.^[100]

In the United States, the second series aired on The Sci Fi Channel (now known as SyFy).^[102][103] In Canada, the series aired through the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation won a Constellation Award for their assistance and contributions to the series.^[104] In France the series aired on France 4. ^[105]

Promotion

The press launch for the series began on 27 March at the Wales Millennium Centre.^[85] A special trailer for the series was produced by Red Bee Media. The trailer included both clips from the series and special footage shot for it.^[106] Various episodes received screening prior to their official release including a Glasgow-based screening for "Tooth and Claw" and a Cardiff-based one for "The Christmas Invasion".^{[107][108][65]}

Home media

The second series of Doctor Who was first released on DVD in five volumes, with the first volume being released in Region 2 on 1 May 2006 and the final volume on 25 September 2006. The five volumes were also released in Region 4, invariably two months after the Region 2 release. The entire series was subsequently released in a boxset on 20 November 2006 in Region 2. All releases are for DVD unless otherwise indicated:

• ^(D) indicates a DVD release for a specific date
• ^(B) indicates a Blu-ray release

In print

"The Christmas Invasion" was adapted into a novel by Jenny Colgan. The book was then turned into an audio book narrated by Camille Coduri.^[131]

Ratings

The second series of Doctor Who was watched by an average of 7.5 million viewers, which was slightly down from the previous series, which was watched by 7.9 million viewers.^[132] Doctor Who's first Christmas special, "The Christmas Invasion", was watched by 9.84 million viewers upon its premiere on 25 December 2005,^[1][2] and, as of 2010, was the ninth-highest figure for an episode of Doctor Who since its 2005 revival.^[133] The series' finale "Doomsday" was watched by 8.2 million total viewers,^[5] beating a World Cup match between Portugal and Germany by over a million viewers.^[134] The series high was "Tooth and Claw" with over 10 million viewers, while the series low was "Love & Monsters" with 6.22 million viewers.^[1][135]

The series finale, "Doomsday", garnered the highest AI rating of 89%, while the tenth episode in the series, "Love & Monsters", garnered the lowest AI rating, at 76%, seven percent lower than the second-lowest AI rating.^[1] The US release of the series averaged a household rating of 1.05 million viewers.^[103]

Critical reception

Doctor Who's second series received positive reviews from critics.^[138][139] Series 2 holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 9/10, based on seven critic reviews.^[140] Many praising the finale "Doomsday" as one of the best episodes,^{[141][139][72]} and "Fear Her" as one of the worst.^{[142][143][144]}

Critics praised the performance of David Tennant and Billie Piper,^[145] praising the romantic tension between them.^{[146][147][148]} The series' CGI and use of cliff hangers also received praise.^{[141][145][149]} Writing for Slant Magazine, Ross Reudiger praised the dynamic nature of the series and the various settings.^[141] Writing for The A.V. Club, Alasdair Wilkin praised the loose narrative of the series, feeling that the "Torchwood" reveal was far better executed then the previous series "Bad Wolf".^[150]

Awards and nominations