Rose

Nine years of waiting, sixteen years of unfulfilled hope, twenty two years of fandom and it’s finally back. And how do I react to the first few minutes of new Who? Supremely hacked off!

But it wasn’t the new doctor that did it, oh no. It was that, after so much time waiting and praying, I was rewarded by an audio glitch that led to a baying crowd of Graham Norton fans invading my favourite show! Sadly I began watching ‘Rose’ having been wrong-footed from the off. Good thing I had recorded it really.

So what did I think second time through? I doubt there is enough space on the site to write it all down. One thing I did realise was that on my first viewing I was pre-disposed to distrust it. I suppose that it was the so-called fan gene that threw this dampener on things. After all, it couldn’t live up to my years of hoping and praying could it? Well it did. All I needed to do was to forget that I was a fan.

I found that I really enjoyed the contemporary new style of things. The rush about London as Rose lives her mundane working day was as refreshing and pleasing to me as great shows like Hustle (also back this week) have been. A couple of minutes into this first episode and we already know that Rose has a layabout mum, a job in a department store and a boyfriend that meets up with her in her lunch breaks. It’s the kind of speedy exposition that can be seen in the best of old Doctor Who and is absent in the worst of it. After all, why do we need so many episodes to find out that the Cybermen want to invade London? Get on with the popping out of the sewers by St. Pauls already! Many have wondered if the Doctor is suited to modern TV and I am glad to say that it is.

The plot, such as it is, seems superfluous to the introduction of the characters and the premise. Shop window dummies are coming to life at the behest of an alien invader. That’s it. No sinister plastics factory, no bearded man with a magical horsebox, just a vat of living plastic under the London Eye and a vague explanation involving a ‘Warp Shunt’. It is by far one of the shallowest evil schemes that we have ever seen in Doctor Who and you know what? I didn’t care. Okay it could have done with a little more time (the ‘invasion’ itself was over before it began and not particularly sinister for it) but I found myself forgiving this. I became swept up in what must be considered the main plot; Rose finding out about the Doctor.

This story dominates the proceedings and there are enough mysteries for newcomers to get through to make it quite rewarding. Seeing the story through Rose’s eyes is a great modern equivalent to Barbara and Ian following Susan Forman to Totters Lane those many moons ago. Indeed in many ways this story is better appreciated by new viewers than by us fans. A warning though; as a result it may seem somewhat flat and obvious to some. In fact I felt decidedly under-whelmed by the first reveal of the TARDIS interior because my fan bias. Try to look at it as a child may, however, and you’re less likely to feel short changed.

The writing really caught my attention. My first experience of the excellent Russell T. Davies writing ability was the superb (and deeply terrifying) Dark Season on CBBC. Mr. Eldridge, the peroxide blonde millionaire with a blinding white light exploding from behind his shades, was a villain straight out of the Doctor Who mould. With that memory alone etched into my mind I knew that he would put together something special. Oh, and he’s won an award or two.

So expectations were high and the script did not disappoint. Dialogue of this quality has rarely been seen in Doctor Who since Robert Holmes downed his pen for the last time. It had a confidence and believability in places that is quite beyond the stilted techno babble that was so often seen in the classic series. It felt natural and that’s very difficult to get right. The script was also very funny in places, the now infamous Heat quip being of particular merit as was Jackie telling Rose about her Greek friend getting compensation for being told she looked Greek. There was so much good stuff in there that it’s difficult to pick out a favourite but what really made the story for me was the Doctors eulogy on the world spinning through space. It purveyed so many things at once and was so well conceived that it must have been a joy to perform. Dialogue like this is the reason why we’re watching a new series of Doctor Who while Star Trek has come to its sad but timely conclusion.

Of course nothings perfect. Jackie seemed nothing more than a stereotype to me, comic relief where genuine affection between mother and daughter may have been better. At the end of the story Jackie is about to be mown down by three Auton brides and I actually felt sorrier for Clive’s family than I did her. The Auton Mickey’s glitching was unnecessary, the armless gag predictable and the “shunt off” quip more than a little naff. But faced with so much good writing the poorer stuff fades into the background and taken as a whole we’ve never had it so good.

Of course where is good writing without solid acting too shore it up? And this brings me to our protagonists. First up is Rose, played by ex teen pop pipstrel Billie Piper. I’ll go on record here to say that I predicted this casting right from the beginning. Many a time I waxed lyrical on the BBC’s forum about how good she would be and now I feel justified in my faith. Piper was radiant and solidly convincing as Rose Tyler, with just the right mix of Buffy-style sarcasm and adventure to make her unique as a companion. Indeed she almost single handily carried this first episode and that is no mean feat! She had subtlety in her acting that took it beyond a good performance and into a great one. Look at her face closely and watch her expressions to see what I mean. Bronze medal in gymnastics? You go girl!

And what of Ecclestone’s Doctor? Although the show was dangerously close to being stolen by Ms. Piper my attention was still drawn to the newest portrayal of our favourite Time Lord. Ecclestone has certainly confounded his critics by turning in a much cheerier performance than his track record has credited him with. This new Doctor struck me as being very childish, an outward gleefulness that only just covered a deeper fatigue, resignation and loneliness. It was definitely a many-faceted performance that went beyond many of his predecessors. Not even in the heyday of Tom Baker’s Doctor did we ever see more than one side of his character at a time and only by the Davison and McCoy eras did we scratch behind the surface and see something else.

Given to a lesser actor (and there is certainly an argument that McCoy didn’t quite pull it off) it may have been lost in the pomp and energy of the character. But Ecclestone is not a lesser actor. Given potentially disastrous lines like “they want to overthrow the human race and destroy you” he makes them solidly believable. He conveys this manic creature with an amount of energy that sweeps you along with him, at the same turning on a sixpence to confront you with a terrifying temper. “I am TALKING!” Yes sir. You are. Sorry.

Oh, and watch his face at the end when Rose doesn’t go with him. If that’s not the greatest piece of acting seen on TV this year I’ll eat my hat. You can literally see his heart break and he doesn’t say a word.

Moving to the production itself I felt that it was as glossy and polished as any modern TV has a right to be. All this fuss about not being filmed in High Definition really is crying over peanuts. The lighting was good, the style was fun and the sets flawless but the effects? Well I agree with a recent reviewer in the Guardian who commented that they are pre-built to look naff in ten years time. They are okay, a far improvement over the original series but you could still see the joins. The wheelie bin sequence was obvious green screen (the shadows give it away) and I’ve seen better lightning effects in my time (look at the Thames as the London Eye starts glowing. See something missing?). However unlike many I actually quite liked the Nestene itself and the descent from space was nice. I’ll chalk it up to first episode teething problems, I know the Mill can do better and I hope to see it as we go on.

So I'm not going to give this a perfect evaluation as there were problems in it that tarnished this first episode for me. The humour was dangerously close to overwhelming the danger that Doctor Who should be conveying to its sofa cowering audience. The arm attacking the Doctor was done for comedy when it could have been very creepy and the burp from the wheelie bin destroyed the realism of the scene preceding it. Ecclestone almost overdid his grinning when he leaves the flat and the invasion was far too short – did we see anyone actually die? Call me cynical but I didn’t feel any tension there at all. So all in all a solid first episode to build the new series on, if not the perfect Doctor Who story that it could have been.

Four out of five, Doctor.

Oh, and why do people see a plot hole in the Doctors appearances in time after a recent regeneration? Why can’t he travel to all those places after he has met up with Rose!? He has a time machine!!