I don't know about underrated as it was a very successful series and is still adored by many people today.
For me, personally though, I can't say I liked too much, with it standing as my least favourite New Who series and one of my least favourites series of the overall show. Not a huge fan of the Tenth Doctor because he never felt much like the Doctor to me, being a bit too human and romantic rather than odd and enigmatic, and Rose lost any likeability she had this series (I assume they were trying to go for a flawed character, but I feel the bad vastly outweighed the good), and putting them together in a romantic, soap opera plot really bogged down the series. Not only did it make little sense with the Doctor's character but it turned the enticing bond between Doctor and companion into something cheap and silly. The way it was written, like much of RTD's writing, was trying too hard to be dramatic and sentimental and ended up feeling too contrived and artificial to really be very emotional. It felt more like RTD was writing a self-indulgent fanfic of these two characters he really liked together, rather than writing something convincing and with actual weight.
School Reunion, The Girl in the Fireplace and The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit were pretty good episodes, though the first two had their flaws. Elizabeth Sladen returning is definitely a bonus, Moffat's plotting was very cleverly done, and the Ood story was very creepy and intense. Everything else I found ranged from mediocre to utterly terrible. Without sounding repetitive I really do find Love and Monsters and Fear Her to be among Doctor Who's worst episodes, and New Earth was also just terrible.
The finale had potential but the whole "Daleks vs Cybermen" thing just ended up being all glam and fireworks to fill in the gaps for a rather dull and cheesy goodbye story to a character I no longer cared for. The end scene at the beach just made me feel like I wasn't watching Doctor Who anymore but rather some teen soap drama.
I love The Girl in the Fireplace, one of my favourite stories of the revived show. The awkward thing for me about it is how close the Doctor and Reinette get, the great chemistry between the characters helped by the off screen "chemistry" between the actors!
To me though it seems a bit jarring for Ten, having been so fascinated (and besotted?) with this exotic woman, to go back to Rose afterwards and continue where he left off...
I love The Girl in the Fireplace, one of my favourite stories of the revived show. The awkward thing for me about it is how close the Doctor and Reinette get, the great chemistry between the characters helped by the off screen "chemistry" between the actors!
To me though it seems a bit jarring for Ten, having been so fascinated (and besotted?) with this exotic woman, to go back to Rose afterwards and continue where he left off...
I'm guessing he was just getting his own back after Rose had four different potential love interests in Series 1.
And because TV often glorifies unfaithfulness and gives the impression that you need to love at least two people at once to be doing it right, but I won't go into that rant. :P
But I digress, The Girl in the Fireplace was a clever and beautifully done episode, and despite my disapproval of the Doctor falling in love with humans, it had a truly heartbreaking ending. That one episode told a far more convincing and engaging love story in just 45 minutes than the story with the Doctor and Rose managed in two entire seasons.
I don't get how Series 2 is underrated at all, many people still act like Ten/Rose is the absolute peak of new Who. I personally hate the boring Satan Pit two-parter, think the Idiots Lantern was wasted potential and a bit too similar to the even worse Fear Her, while Love and Monsters is obviously dire. Rose is worse than she was with Eccleston, Tennant got better with Martha/Donna, but although there were plenty of bits I didn't particularly like in the second half of the series, it was still very good overall.
One of my least favourite seasons. In New Who second least favourite season.
Didn't have the top quality episodes of all the other seasons, episode consistency was poor, weak arc, Rose turned into a *****, the relationship between Rose and The Doctor was also a no no.
My favourite series is Series 4 (2008), followed by Series 5 in 2010.
My least favourite is Series 9. My least favourite story is Sleep No More. Ughh!!! What a mess of an episode!
I haven't seen it since the season originally aired back in 2006. Even though I didn't mind it (as I did like Rose Tyler), I have never found myself wanting to revisit it again. Only series 1, 3, 4 and 5 are the ones I like.
In saying that Series Two is my least favourite series, I personally am not saying that it's bad, just that when you have nine series of beautifully constructed television to choose from, something has to be last.
For me, it's difficult to hate Series Two, as it was the first series of Doctor Who I ever watched, and it got me into the show. However, as a young Who fan, I really didn't get into it that much, it was only the Cybermen and Daleks appearing at the end of the season that really got me properly into it, in time for Series Three which I enjoyed even more.
Looking back, I think Series Two is okay. For me the two parters are far more successful than the single parters: the Ood two-parter is suitably creepy and Age of Steel feels like proper Doctor Who, and Doomsday, although incredibly cringey at times, is a really really top episode of Who, albeit not quite my favourite RTD finale, it's certainly close.
For me the biggest problem is how dated and cringey it all is, which makes it difficult to rewatch. The domestic elements are so ham-fisted and there's a lot of really cringe-worthy comedy. As hinted, none of the single-parters jumped out at me. New Earth is fine, Tooth and Claw is okay, School Reunion never really resonated with me as I wasn't a Classic Who fan, and as such I never really warmed to SJ as a character (although I appreciate that certainly isn't the case for others). Girl in the Fireplace is for me Moffat's weakest contribution to the RTD era, it explores some interesting concepts and the humour is far better than most of the series but again it's nothing special. The Idiot's Lantern is saved the dubious honour of being the worst episode in the series only by the awfulness that is Love and Monsters and Fear Her, both of which are just so, so bad.
I rewatched quite a bit of Series Two recently and most of it doesn't stand the test of time. I really, really like David Tennant and always have but he definitely has "New Doctor" syndrome in the early stages, which affected both Smith and Capaldi in parts of their first series. He's not quite sure what he wants his Doctor to be and it shows. And as for Rose Tyler? She remains my least favourite companion and comfortably the worst thing about Series Two, despite having a lot of potential in the criminally underrated Series One.
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I love The Girl in the Fireplace, one of my favourite stories of the revived show. The awkward thing for me about it is how close the Doctor and Reinette get, the great chemistry between the characters helped by the off screen "chemistry" between the actors!
To me though it seems a bit jarring for Ten, having been so fascinated (and besotted?) with this exotic woman, to go back to Rose afterwards and continue where he left off...
I'm guessing he was just getting his own back after Rose had four different potential love interests in Series 1.
And because TV often glorifies unfaithfulness and gives the impression that you need to love at least two people at once to be doing it right, but I won't go into that rant. :P
But I digress, The Girl in the Fireplace was a clever and beautifully done episode, and despite my disapproval of the Doctor falling in love with humans, it had a truly heartbreaking ending. That one episode told a far more convincing and engaging love story in just 45 minutes than the story with the Doctor and Rose managed in two entire seasons.
My favourite series is Series 4 (2008), followed by Series 5 in 2010.
My least favourite is Series 9. My least favourite story is Sleep No More. Ughh!!!
For me, it's difficult to hate Series Two, as it was the first series of Doctor Who I ever watched, and it got me into the show. However, as a young Who fan, I really didn't get into it that much, it was only the Cybermen and Daleks appearing at the end of the season that really got me properly into it, in time for Series Three which I enjoyed even more.
Looking back, I think Series Two is okay. For me the two parters are far more successful than the single parters: the Ood two-parter is suitably creepy and Age of Steel feels like proper Doctor Who, and Doomsday, although incredibly cringey at times, is a really really top episode of Who, albeit not quite my favourite RTD finale, it's certainly close.
For me the biggest problem is how dated and cringey it all is, which makes it difficult to rewatch. The domestic elements are so ham-fisted and there's a lot of really cringe-worthy comedy. As hinted, none of the single-parters jumped out at me. New Earth is fine, Tooth and Claw is okay, School Reunion never really resonated with me as I wasn't a Classic Who fan, and as such I never really warmed to SJ as a character (although I appreciate that certainly isn't the case for others). Girl in the Fireplace is for me Moffat's weakest contribution to the RTD era, it explores some interesting concepts and the humour is far better than most of the series but again it's nothing special. The Idiot's Lantern is saved the dubious honour of being the worst episode in the series only by the awfulness that is Love and Monsters and Fear Her, both of which are just so, so bad.
I rewatched quite a bit of Series Two recently and most of it doesn't stand the test of time. I really, really like David Tennant and always have but he definitely has "New Doctor" syndrome in the early stages, which affected both Smith and Capaldi in parts of their first series. He's not quite sure what he wants his Doctor to be and it shows. And as for Rose Tyler? She remains my least favourite companion and comfortably the worst thing about Series Two, despite having a lot of potential in the criminally underrated Series One.