The Next Doctor

199 – "The Next Doctor"
Doctor Who episode
The connection between Miss Hartigan and the Cybermen is broken.
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companions David Morrissey (Jackson Lake) Velile Tshabalala (Rosita Farisi)
Others Dervla Kirwan – Miss Hartigan Nicholas Briggs – Cybermen voices Paul Kasey – Cyberleader Ruari Mears – Cybershade Edmund Kente – Mr Scoones Michael Bertenshaw – Mr Cole Jason Morell – Vicar Neil McDermott – Jed Ashley Horne – Lad Tom Langford – Frederic Jordan Southwell – Urchin Matthew Allick – Docker
Production
Directed by	Andy Goddard
Written by	Russell T Davies
Script editor	Lindsey Alford
Produced by	Susie Liggat
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Incidental music composer	Murray Gold
Production code	4.14
Series	2008–2010 specials
Length	60 minutes
Originally broadcast	25 December 2008
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "Journey's End" (episode) "Music of the Spheres" (mini-episode) "Planet of the Dead"
List of Doctor Who serials

"The Next Doctor" is the first of the 2008–2010 specials of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who that was broadcast on 25 December 2008, as the fourth Doctor Who Christmas special of the revived series. During its original airing, the episode had an audience of 13.1 million viewers and was the second-most-watched programme of Christmas Day 2008.

In the episode, the Doctor visits Victorian era London during Christmas and meets a man claiming to be a future incarnation of the Doctor. The Cybermen (of the design of the parallel universe's Cybus Industries Cybermen) return in this episode, following their appearance in the two-part finale of series 2 in 2006, "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday".David Tennant stars as the Tenth Doctor with companions Jackson Lake (David Morrissey) and Rosita Farisi (Velile Tshabalala).

The Doctor lands his TARDIS in London on Christmas Eve, 1851. Overhearing cries for help, he encounters a man calling himself "The Doctor" and his companion Rosita, attempting to capture a Cybershade. The Cybershade escapes the trio. The Doctor, in talking to the man, comes to believe he may be a future incarnation of himself, who is suffering from amnesia. The man, dubbed the Next Doctor, takes the Doctor to a nearby house of a recently deceased reverend, believing him tied to a series of disappearances around London and the Cybershade. Inside, they discover a pair of Cybermen data-storage infostamps, which the Next Doctor recalls holding the night that he lost his memories. The two are attacked by Cybermen and the Doctor attempts to fight them off with a cutlass, but the Next Doctor kills them using electrical discharge from the infostamps.