Rose

The Doctor is back, and it's about time and time again that I see the usual and inevitable comments and opinions about the first episode. There is only one way people will be able to enjoy the "perfect" episode of Doctor Who, and that's to write, direct, produce and star in it themselves. In the real world, fans will have to mix some water in their whine because this is a series for the general public, as it always was at the height of its popularity.

What I think will be a factor for the remaining twelve episodes will be a tension between those who see television as a visual medium and those who see television as talk radio or visual book writing. That seems to be a major theme in some of the preceding reviews, and may be a direct result of the overkill of novels that kept the series alive for the past 13 years.

What initially struck me as positive is the aggressive visual style of the episode Rose. Show, don't tell. We wisely get a sense of Rose's life in only 93 seconds in a wonderful sequence where the rest of the world goes by quickly with swish pans and ramp edits, and her world, despite some quick cutting shots, seems to move slowly. 93 seconds is all it took, and only a "See you later" of dialogue. Within two minutes we have established the baseline from which she will grow and develop as a character over the course of twelve more (plus?) episodes.

This brings me to a point I think many are overlooking when they comment on "too much" and "no character" and such. Think of the 2005 season much like Season 23 or Season 1: a year-long journey where not everything gets handed to you on a silver platter in episode one. If it were handed to you in episode one, what do you do for the other twelve? Recycle it all? Repeat it all? That would not be effective. Russell T Davies knows that the series has to maintain character cliffhangers throughout thirteen episodes as much as plot cliffhangers throughout the run. You can't start at the top of a cliff, because there's only one direction to go; rather, we need to see Rose and the others climb the hill to that cliff.

Another wise decision was having the creepy bits also come within the first five minutes. It might have been interesting to have Rose observed by some shadowy figure in the basement (you know Who) while she calls for Wilson, but still the creepiness works, and the chase scene was effective in its pacing and urgency. No stumbling, brightly lit Mandrels anywhere here.

Wilson's death resulted in a missed opportunity for some DW-style black humour. Some of the Doctors would probably have said, "The CEO position's been terminated" or something (remember the sign on his door) instead of "Wilson's dead." Maybe that's just me looking for stuff like that.

The first five minutes is make-or-break, and so far episode 1 is a winner on all counts. This is followed by some sparkling banter in the elevator that quickly establishes the Ninth Doctor as someone who can shift gears in the time it takes to ascend eight floors, before he detonates a bomb and destroys a building. Love it. This causes Rose to lose her job and immediately establishes an interconnectedness between what the Doctor does affecting Rose and what Rose does affecting the Doctor.

And we still haven't hit the ten-minute mark! Is this too fast for viewers? I have read that a programme must capture channel flippers within THREE SECONDS to hold them! Three seconds! There is no attention span anymore. This is a world where written communication to the other side of the planet takes one second as opposed to one minute by fax or one fortnight by mail. Get used to it, because it isn't going away. I wonder how long it will be before we have split screens showing two plot strands at once…

So, dialogue must be minimal and precise like a poet's poetry. Action must be quick and effective. For the most part, we will arrive after things have been set up, because we will not be allowed to spend 25 minutes setting up grandiose plotting. The plots will already be running. The audience will have to jump onto the side of a speeding train, because the train sure as hell won't be waiting for passengers at the train station. 

Rose's mom is so grotesque that she puts a smile on my face. The running gag about compensation and the dialogue about the Greek woman are straight out of Robert Holmes' quill. I look forward to her ongoing outrages as the series progresses.

It was probably a mistake to kill off the character of Clive, as he may have been both a useful provider of facts and possibly a thorn in the Doctor's side. I enjoyed his brief stay in the show as I swear I know him in real life! He also allowed some visual comedy by boyfriend Mickey who made me chuckle every time he glared at Clive or his neighbours. And did anyone else catch the Survival music in Clive's neighborhood?

Most people hate the incidental music. It was possibly aimed too much at the young women who groove to that sort of funky hip hop stuff, but that's the point: Rose is a 19-year old woman who would listen to it. It relates well to her and she was the focal point of the episode. I suspect we will hear different styles in future episodes.

Rose (the episode) then arrived with a confidence and a brazen declaration that this is the way it is, so take it or leave it. Finding a middle ground for the general public and fans is so very tough, and I think the production team nailed it. If the fans were 100% happy with it, then something somewhere is amiss.

I don't think I have ever seen a better "introductory episode" in any show. 9/10.