Series 2 (Doctor Who)

Series 2 of Doctor Who was David Tennant's first full series as the Tenth Doctor. It wrote out Billie Piper's Rose Tyler and briefly introduced the character of Donna Noble. Significantly, series 2 also served as a mild advertisement for the then-forthcoming Torchwood television series, since its main story arc established the origins of the Torchwood Institute.

Unlike series 1, the main production team did not feature Mal Young. Instead, Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner carried on as executive producers and Phil Collinson continued in his role as the main producer — an arrangement that persisted through to series 4's Journey's End.

Everything from the 2005 Children in Need Special to Doomsday was a part of the series 2 production block — though the "regular season" is typically characterised as the stories from New Earth to Doomsday.

Overview
The main story arc for the season was the Torchwood Institute, referenced only twice previously, which served to lead up to the final episodes as well as the Torchwood spinoff series. A secondary arc dealt with the development of the love story between Rose and the Doctor. Series 2 saw the return of the Cybermen to television, and the return of companions Sarah Jane Smith and K9. Both were last seen (notwithstanding independent, fan-made productions) in 1983; their successful return sparked the commissioning of a second spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures, for CBBC. The series 2 finale saw the introduction of Donna Noble.

This was the first series to feature a "Doctor-lite" episode. These were episodes in which the Doctor (and, usually, his companion) only appears in one or two scenes, with the story carried by new, supporting characters. This allowed David Tennant to film two episodes at the same time. Love & Monsters was the first episode to use this innovation, though it did not receive the same level of acclaim as later Doctor-lite episodes such as Blink and Turn Left.

Each episode (not counting the specials) was accompanied by a short teaser "Tardisode" which was only viewable on the Internet; this experiment was not repeated for succeeding seasons, though several online prequels would once again be produced for series 6; the Tardisodes were the first BBC-filmed Doctor Who productions since TV: Mission to the Unknown in which neither the Doctor nor a companion appeared (with the exception of the Tardisode for TV: School Reunion which featured Mickey Smith).

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke

Recurring

 * Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri
 * Pete Tyler - Shaun Dingwall
 * Jake Simmonds - Andrew Hayden-Smith
 * Harriet Jones - Penelope Wilton
 * Lady Cassandra - Zoë Wanamaker
 * Face of Boe - Struan Rodger (voice)
 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * K9 Mark III / K9 Mark IV - John Leeson (voice)
 * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
 * John Lumic - Roger Lloyd-Pack
 * Yvonne Hartman - Tracy Ann Oberman
 * Queen Victoria - Pauline Collins
 * Tobias Zed - Will Thorp
 * Rajesh Singh - Raji James

Guest

 * Sycorax leader - Sean Gilder
 * Mr Finch - Anthony Head
 * Madame de Pompadour - Sophia Myles
 * The Wire - Maureen Lipman
 * Eddie Connolly - Jamie Foreman
 * Tommy Connolly - Rory Jennings
 * John Jefferson - Danny Webb
 * Ida Scott - Claire Rushbrook
 * Zachary Cross Flane - Shaun Parkes
 * Elton Pope - Marc Warren
 * Victor Kennedy - Peter Kay
 * Chloe Webber - Abisola Agbaje
 * Adeola Oshodi - Freema Agyeman

VHS
All episodes of series 2 including the Children In Need special and The Christmas Invasion were released in July 2006 by Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment.

DVD
All episodes of series 2 were released in 2006 in both individual volumes and in boxset form by 2|Entertain and Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment for Region 2, in 2006 by Warner Home Video for Region 1. However, in region 4 volumes 3, 4 and 5 along with the complete box set were released by CTHE under the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment name.

In 2014 the series was re-released on DVD in the US, split into two volumes labelled "Part One" and "Part Two" respectively, mimicking the home video release of Series 6 and 7. This release is missing much of the bonus content seen on the previous box set. Re-packaged versions of the complete series were also made available.

Bluray
Series 2 was included in the Doctor Who: Complete Series 1-7 Bluray boxset, released on November 5th, 2013 in the US and November 4th, 2013 in the UK.

Novels

 * The Stone Rose
 * The Feast of the Drowned
 * The Resurrection Casket
 * I am a Dalek
 * The Nightmare of Black Island
 * The Art of Destruction
 * The Price of Paradise

Promotional trailer

 * A trailer using specially shot footage of the Doctor was created to promote the new season.