Rose

After what seemed like forever, the familiar yet re-vamped music began accompanied by an interesting new title sequence – a sequence much more faithful to the ‘classic series’ than I anticipated, something of a combination between the Pertwee and Tom Baker titles, but with much, much better effects obviously.

Rose, the episode title; a fast montage of contemporary London. Rose Tyler, the eponymous heroine, entering a spooky storeroom full of what we fans know to be Autons…

“Run for your life!”

I watched the episode with my fiancйe, her stepfather and her 8-year old cousin. For forty-five minutes none of the adults in the room spoke bar myself, and that was only to answer the 8-year olds’ plot-related questions. As soon as Eccleston appeared on the screen he had us in the palm of his Gallifreyan/Mancunian hands (half human, or so the story goes), and the pace of the story carried us to it’s conclusion before we even had chance to decide what we thought of this new Doctor, of this new show. Although the forty-five minute format has had (and will continue to have) its detractors I consider the pace of the show to be one of its strongest weapons.

When the Doctor arrived Rose’s flat I really began to like this new Doctor. I always admired Colin Baker’s Doctor for being arrogant in that almost unlikeable sort of way, but Eccleston’s Doctor is arrogant in a ‘cool’ way, he’s not conceited he’s convinced. It is interesting to watch his respect for Rose develop over the episode as he realises she is more than “just another ape” that he’s here to save; after all, she saved him!

There is a huge comic potential for the new Doctor - take him dismissing Jackie Tyler’s seductive advances. “Anything could happen,” she says. “Nah!” says the Doctor, turning and walking away. It was downright funny – at first I was worried the new show would be too funny, but that isn’t the case. It’s funny in the way it always was, the way Troughton was, the way Tom Baker was, and so on, just slightly more risquй and contemporary. “He’s a gay and she’s an alien!”

I also liked the Doctor checking his appearance in Rose’s mirror, implying a very recent regeneration, very recent indeed if he hasn’t seen his own face clearly yet! It was nice to have the continuity link to the old series, especially as it isn’t set it stone and opens the door for a ‘flashback’ episode featuring Paul McGann later down the line if the series continues. After all, there would have been little point in doing a Time and the Rani style regeneration, it would serve no purpose at all other than to confuse the new audience, and on the same note it would be equally wasteful to bring back Paul McGann for ten or twenty minutes when he deserves a much better send-off after his years on the Big Finish audio adventures. 

I was surprised to hear that some fans were complaining about the scenes in Clive’s shed where he shows Rose the ‘evidence’ he has gathered about the Doctor. This was one of the highlights of the show for me, made even more enjoyable thanks to the in-jokes poked at the fans of the old series, in particular the online contingent. True, it would have been nice to see some pictures of Doctors 1 through 8, but again, I think it would only alienate new fans and perhaps taint the mystique of this new Doctor in the eyes of brand new fans who know almost nothing about him.

As for the gripe that “if they Doctor has only just regenerated, then how does Clive have pictures of him at famous events in history, e.g. Kennedy’s assassination (nice reference to An Unearthly Child, by the way) and with the family due to sail on the Titanic?” I think the answer is appalling obvious; the Doctor is a Timelord. He travels through time. These photographs, although taken in the past, may actually be in the Ninth Doctor’s future. His life is far from linear after all! How did the Seventh Doctor put it, “…perhaps in the future. My personal future, that is. Which may be the past…”

Personally I thought the wheelie-bin scene was awful and wasn’t all that impressed with the CGI either! It’s inclusion though is justified in that the 8-year old I watched the show with was covering his eyes and would not go near wheelie bins the next day!

Now, when Rose entered the TARDIS was where I think Russell T. Davies and company got it exactly right for all the fans, old and new alike. Rose’s wonder and exasperation; the Doctor’s short, blunt answers. The best TARDIS interior of the lot; very alien, very epic, very weathered. The production team also managed to do what I’ve never seen done on the show itself in that they create a beautiful effect where the interior of the TARDIS is visible from the outside when the doors are open. When I was a child watching the classic series I could never quite work out the relationship between the Police Box exterior and the interior – I always know the latter was inside the former, but in my mind’s eye I envisaged some sort of ‘hallway’ or ‘interim room’ between the Police Box doors and those huge, white cylinder-covered doors (which when fully open, appeared white and covered-covered on the outside too, oddly!) In this new TARDIS, on the inside you can tell the doors are the Police Box doors – it all fits together wonderfully. An absolute triumph for the production!

When the TARDIS materialises by the London Eye the interaction between the Doctor and Rose is brilliantly done, emphasising the Doctor’s alieness, his alien values, and his apparent lack of compassion which again reminded me very much of Colin Baker, or even William Hartnell’s Doctor, more concerned with the greater good than one life. Colin Baker often said he wanted his Doctor to be able to step over a dead human body, and then cry over a dead butterfly. I think Eccleston has the potential for that kind of powerful contradiction in his performance, to have that alien quality that suggests he knows and understands far more than we are ever capable of.

As many people have pointed out, the plot itself is simple and throwaway, for this one story the plot being used as a device to carry the characters rather than vice-versa; it’s Rose, not Doctor Who and the Autons III. That said, the Autons are as formidable and memorable foe as any seen in the classic series, and their inclusion was an excellent choice for the seasons’ opener. Moreover, it wasn’t just the same story rehashed for a third time. Davies took the general formula for an Auton story, broke it right down, kept what would have been the last two episodes of a classic serial, and crammed it all into forty-five minutes. On top of this, he added another layer, a layer (I think) will set up Aliens of London/World War III, and perhaps reveal another facet to the Doctor’s character. The mention of this “war,” and the Doctor’s apparent guilt at not being able to save the Nestene’s world. Was the Doctor a soldier in this galactic war? More likely, was he an interfering pacifist, trying to stop the bloodshed? This first episode, simply though the plot may be, succeeds in the sewing the seeds of mystery for what will probably be this new show’s first story arc… 

As for the conclusion, in this day and age Rose saving the Doctor was almost a political necessity, and it also explains the Doctor’s growing respect for her, why he asked her to join him in the TARDIS. Her reluctance to leave Mickey and her Mother was also a nice touch, but her hanging up the phone on her rabbitting Mother and the classic “Exactly” line to the brilliantly cowardly and selfish Mickey stole the last scene.

They’ve modernised it, and although I was one of the few advocates of the 1996 TV Movie, I was glad to see that it was British through and though, right from the Doctor’s northern accent to the London Eye. The TARDIS was spot on, the Doctor was compelling, and for once the effects weren’t crap. It’s not exactly as us hardcore fans would have made it, it’s not in the style of Big Finish or the New Adventures, it’s not my perfect idea of what Doctor Who should be but it’s the closest that they’ve ever got and that’s the highest praise I can give this quite magical new series. First-class!

I await the end of the world with bated breath.