The Tenth Doctor is dead! Long live the Doctor!
Now that I look back on it Russel T Davies and his crew of insane writers did some fairly amazing stuff considering the 40 year history of Doctor Who (now approaching its 31st season-- something only soap operas have achieved). The Ninth Doctor in Davies's first season imperceptibly (and tastefully) broke down decades worth of desexualization, and in so doing addressed (if obliquely) the inherent oddity of the premise of the show itself (namely that a incredibly old time-travelling alien picks up impressionable young girls).
The first companion, Rose, in the only the second episode calls the Doctor her date! Later on in the two-part story "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances", the Doctor says to Rose, "You just assumed, didn't you, that I don't dance?". This is after the Doctor uses "dance" metaphorically when talking to Rose about Captain Jack's indiscriminate sexuality. Nine's tenure ends with a pretty spectacular kiss.
When Ten is in a position to examine his new appearence, though it's hardly the right time as he is concurrently trying to save the world (obviously), he asks Rose if he's sexy. With Ten this is true, and with all other Doctors emphatically false. This gives Davies a Doctor who has more than just charm, and more than a few times Ten is fawned over by both passersby (an old lady even cops a buttcheek feel in "The End of Time pt1") and his own companions. Ten, however, is almost completely oblivious. The exception to this case is Rose, for whom he has a mutual affection that he can't fully express. Davies finds a really weird way around this in "Journey's End", simultaneously making Doctor Who one of forerunners in solidifying fan fiction as canon.
During Davies's run we saw (of sorts) TWO female Doctors (granted, unlikely to end even as Moffat becomes showrunner, as some of Eleven's first words are, "oh no, I'm a girl!"), albeit one through parthenogenesis, the Domestic Doctor, if by proxy and shunted to an alternate universe, and Doctor/Master ("I like it when you use my name" and "You could have been so beautiful!"). It's my view that Davies consistent torturing of the Doctor one way or another reflects the mentality of someone who has known the character his whole life and wants to put him through the paces.
Doctor Who is a deeply moral show. The Doctor himself is the judge, jury and (reluctantly) executioner, of every situation he runs into. He's the ultimate hero-- it's hard to find any fault with his reasons. Interestingly, Davies works within this idiom and on a few occasions twists it, showing the audience that can be perilous to trust the hero. The Doctor's Unofficial Fan Club, LINDA, is almost completely immolated. Companions are sucked into alternate universes or their minds are destroyed, those that live are turned to fighting. Davros, the leader and progenitor of the Doctor's fatal nemesis, the Daleks, brilliantly points all of this out in "Journey's End". Yet his companions (and the audience through them) follow him anyway, his magnetic charm assuages all fears.
Every once in a while, however, this theme was taken even further. Ten, very unlike Nine, could take the situation at hand to dangerous extremes. Once he had made up his mind about something he would follow through, in spite of the consequences. Like Nine, and yet unlike him, Ten had conflicting desires, both to live and a pathological need to put himself in harm's way. Nine had a more straightforward suicidal streak, having died and regenerated after stranding himself on a space station rigged to explode. Ten, in the "Runaway Bride", nearly killed himself by doggedly killing an ancient race of spider-people. He overstepped his bounds in "Waters of Mars", just by wanting so badly to save his own hero, Adelaide Brooke, and directly causes her death. Davies has fairly consistently undermined the legitimacy of his own hero, showing that it's very bad not to question what the Doctor is up to. On the other hand, none of this is so jarring (with the exception of "Waters of Mars", wherein that's an intentional choice) that it destroys the Doctor's charm.
Ten was emotional, vain, and manic. Of any Doctor he was the most easily shaken-- he hated the idea of his death almost as much as the Master, his long-time friend and enemy, who has gone to any and all lengths to live. In "42" he cried and shook as he tried to rid his body of the influence of a sentient star. In the "End of Time" he berated Wilf for his insignificance and that he as a centuries old member of a dead race shouldn't have to sacrifice himself for an old man. When he finally began to regenerate he sabotaged his future self and burned his own ship, his oldest and most constant companion!
Ten's extreme reluctance to accept his new future as the Eleventh Doctor rankled me more than anything Davies has ever done. Doctor Who as a show only exists now because it accepts change. Every few years there's a new Doctor and a new crew and new writers, and the most that the previous crew can do is make the transition as smooth as possible. Ten's crying (literally) that he doesn't want to go, as much as it echoes the audience's feelings, is not going to help the audience move on and help Eleven's legitimacy as the Doctor. Contrast this regeneration with Nine's-- he calmly reassures Rose, who's frightened and knows something is up even if she doesn't get what exactly is happening, that he won't be seeing her again with this daft old face, but a new one. I never saw Nine's regeneration when it was broadcast-- instead I was just slightly confused as to why there needed to be another person and why he was so annoying.
As Eleven's run is set to start soon, I'm hoping that Steven Moffat pushes the show in interesting ways, and that he plays to little Eleven's strengths, whatever they may be.
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