The Doctor has (or had, at least to his own mind) eliminated an entire race of Daleks, so he's certainly not averse to the odd killing.

Mark

Because he saw humanity within him.
He knew The Master was a crazy despot, but he saw that somewhere within him, there was goodness, so he couldn't totally reconcile himself with killing him.
If the person is offered to change their ways and they pass on the offer, sometimes The Doctor is left with no other choice.

Mark

The Doctor was alone and angry. His companions usually pull him back and keep his moral compass balanced. This time, Solomon was in the wrong spaceship with the wrong TimeLord.

Who was David Tennant's companion?

Chris Ecclestone - Billie Piper
David Tennant - ?????
Matt Smith - Karen Gillan

Who is missing?

::EDIT::: I know there was some overlap with Billie Piper (I think) but I'm sure there was another main companion.

iirc Billie Piper was in Tennant's shows. There was also the one who was an actual doctor (Martha?) and Donna, who was irritating.

Martha and Catherine tate

Ah, yes, forgot about them.

Just watched Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. I liked it. Not the best episode but was definitely good

Donna was hilarious!

http://youtu.be/BZ82iJiDNbM?t=1m35s

Um. Let's just say humour is subjective.

Wasn't it Ecclestone's Doctor who let the Lady Cassandra dry out, causing her to explode? Let's not forget Tennant's Doctor dispatching the Sycorax with the aid of the tangerine in the Christmas special. I'm sure there are more examples, but I need coffee...

My summary of this season, to date...

Episode 1. Not entirely happy about this, as I had seen so much about how "every Dalek ever created" would feature, but I didn't see too much evidence of this. A wasted opportunity. Going back to the talk of Oswin, and whether her name is an anagram, I'm wondering if it's a teaser message...

Episode 2. Much better. Really liked the humour, and Queen Neffi kicks ass! I did say to Mrs. V, after the spaceship blew up, that I liked how the Doctor had shown he can make the call when needs be. Rory's dad, was a good character but I can't help but wonder why they bought him in now... are they setting us up for more emotional turmoil?

The Doctor let the Sycorax go. The Prime Minister unleashed Torchwood on them and blew up the ship.

He bounced a tangerine off the hull of the ship which knocked the chief wossname over the side when the ship was thousands of feet in the air. In that case though you could possibly go with the get-out that hitting someone with a tangerine isn't usually fatal. Leaving a homing beacon on a space ship being pursued by a swarm of missiles certainly is.

I think Ecclestone's Doctor is maybe the one of the modern stream that is most... if not bloodthirsty then at least willing to go 'the whole way' if he felt he had to - his reaction to finding a lone dalek was entirely single-minded; 'Kill it as quickly and as completely as possible' . Which kind of went along with his persona of being the war-traumatised soldier. Tennant's Doctor was the other extreme, irritatingly so in fact. There's really no need to keep apologising for everything the way he did.

But when he travelled alone, he did go a bit mental.

The Doctor's character was designed with his own agenda. Hartnell's Doctor sabotaged the TARDIS so he could look around Skaro, instead of keeping his companions safe and just getting out of trouble. That selfish edge got lost along the way, but Eccleston was able to do post traumatic stress disorder and that brought back the unstable elements of the character.

Tennant was a bit too manic, and at times he went almost not parody with it. Smith, if given the material, can be more disturbing. I thought the exchanges between the Doctor and Solomon to be very well performed - by both actors involved - and the execution (and it was nothing less than that) to be delivered in such a cold way that you have to wonder what's coming up.

The universe has forgotten him. The Ponds are getting older (that's to be expected). He knows he'll see them age and die. I am wondering if we are going to see him buckle under all of this and he's be the cause of the Ponds' demise. Whatever happens, I think Smith will be acting his arse off this series. I think he was coasting a bit in the last one.

Yep. It's the companions that keep him compassionate towards all the evildoers of the universe. I agree on both these points.
I think the season opener set up some stuff that we'll see paying off towards the end of the season, and the killing of Solomon reinforced that if you're a baddy and The Doctor tells you to stop or else, you better bloody well stop, or face the consequences.
Interesting times ahead, I think.

Mark

It was definitely a bit more mid season for me. The opener rightly started a new arc and asked plenty of questions. Last night's was enjoyable, but not on the same level.

I miss Eccleston, but I agree that Smith really has yet to do his best stuff. And disturbing is a great word in that context.