Rose

Well, it's back... and it really is about bloody time. Worth the wait? Worthy of the hype? Was anything going to be? I'll start from the beginning...

The title sequence was everything it needed to be, and nothing more, but then why would you want a title sequence to be more than it needed to be? The visuals were stylish and in keeping with the shows traditions as well as injecting a little more pace to the proceedings from the outset. And I think this idea of urgency was behind the updated theme music also. Gone is the dum-da-dum-dum-da-dum, deemed not energetic enough, and we have in its place a swirling orchestra more indicative of our time and pace (yes, I mean pace). All in all then, I think a success. And no. I'm not going to start a picket line outside BBC HQ insisting the doctors face be re-instated in the titles, because I didn't miss it, personally.

Moving on then and we open with a whirlwind day in the life of Rose which does it's job in all of about a minute, which is good as there are only 45 of them to pack a story into these days. Before you know it Rose and the ghost of Graham Norton (a very fired BBC sound technician is crying into the bottom of a whiskey glass as I write this) are creeping down an ominous corridor before being pounced on by some mannequins under the control of an alien being and it's as if The Doctor had never been away. Up he pops to save the damson in distress with some pithy dialogue, a smile, a sonic screwdriver and a bomb that looks not an awful lot like a bomb, but it matters not a jot. In a slight departure from the ways of old what follows is the almighty exploding of the top floor of a building which actually does look like the almighty exploding of the top floor of a building.

Things move on, again wasting no time, to the introduction of the supporting cast. We meet Rose's gossip-prone and slightly tarty mother Jackie as well as Rose's big wet shrug of a boyfriend Mickey. And the script I'm happy to say doesn't reserve all the choice lines for The Doctor or Rose. special mention then for Jackie's "It's aged her, skin like an old bible" and of course the laugh out loud line about her neighbour who sued the council because someone said she looked Greek, "she was Greek but that's not the point". Up pops the doctor again and in a nod to us the knowing fans checks his reflection indicating that he has recently regenerated. "oh no!" I hear you cry, "continuity gaff, because later Clive shows pictures of him throughout history so he must have been around for a while". Sigh. I shall take a moment to dispel this myth. There is no continuity problem here. Why would you think these pictures of Clive's were necessarily taken before the doctor meets Rose? Think about it. Why not during or after his time with or Rose? Even whilst she'd nipped out of the Tardis to find a Ladies? There are so many explanations it doesn't bare dwelling on, which I realise I am doing, so I'll move on... You're always treading a fine line when you play the killer disembodied arm card, and although this may not be the most original, nor my favourite part of the episode, it isn't so cringe inducing it makes you want to change channel. Which is a stroke of luck. the "armless" quip may have been a quip too far. Before we get to the last supporting character Clive, we get to witness a little of both what I thought was good and questionable in Eccleston's performance. The Doctor and Rose take a stroll in a rare, more subdued, moment and rose steels the opportunity to quiz the Doctor on who he is. The questionable first then: I wasn't entirely sold on the manic smirking with which Eccleston's doctor at first replies to Rose's queries, however I get the impression this was something of a one-off, I hope I am right. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against the Tom Baker-esque broad smiles such as when he exclaims "fantastic" in front of the millennium eye, but in this walking sequence there was something demented about the smiling, ala plastic Mickey almost. The good: The falling through space speech, where Eccleston flexes his acting muscles and gives the cheek muscles a much needed rest. Anyhow, enough about performances for now. The character of Clive and the idea of using the internet to trace the doctor through history I thought was both intriguing and clever from the point of view of this being an introductory episode. I kind of liked that we didn't get bogged down in pictures of the doctor in previous incarnations for the same reason I liked that the doctor didn't harp on about his previous dealings with the Autons (in fact he didn't harp on about 'Autons' at all) because to the first time viewer all of this would only have been disengaging, had it been included it might only have smacked of self-indulgence.

While Russell T Davies is poking fun at the doctor who fan base (in a nice way, of course) we are treated to the sight of Mickey being devoured by an empty wheely bin, although, as my brother pointed out to me, quite why the owner puts his bin out for collection with nothing in it is beyond me. I remember when it was first leaked that Rose's boyfriend was to be eaten by a wheely bin thinking that it could turn out being an incredibly naff moment. In fact I was finding it difficult to think how they could successfully pull such a moment off without it seeming ridiculous. Then I though of a moment in Ghostbusters 2 when a bath tub comes to life and tries to eat a baby, and what made that scene was the animated bathtub, the elasticity of it, it looked like a living thing. Lo and behold, wheely bin success!! What in the old days would have been a bin with flapping lid at best, what we had here was a snarling, snapping, living bin monster that actually worked. Admittedly the animation at this point may have been a bit more Shrek than Star Wars (although, that said, there are some pretty ropey effects in Star Wars) but it did enough, and it was from this moment on I think I really started to believe in this new Doctor Who. And it burped. I'm not going to talk about the burp. Plastic Mickey with his constant and unnatural smirking (as opposed to Eccleston's. Only kidding. I liked him really) was the creepiest thing in this episode, and definitely brought the best out of actor Noel Clarke. Not sold on the effect when The Doctor shoots the cork into his head but it didn't bug me enough for me to dwell on it.

On to the obligatory companions first entrance of the Tardis. Nicely handled. And was that an intentional throw back to the old days when Mickey breaks through the suddenly not quite so metal-looking door? Seems strange to say this but I had imagined the new interior of the Tardis would be bigger, maybe it's those huge columns that close the space down. I like the design but I'm hoping it will not prove to be a one room Tardis.

The rest of the episode I will cover quite briefly, and it does, lets face it, pass by quite quickly anyway. I liked the doctors double take gag with the millennium eye, I liked that he tried to reason with the Nestene Consciousness and then expressed guilt over the destruction of it's world, I liked the consciousness itself as a special effect as did I the effect of the London Eye as a transmitter. Wasn't so sure about the lightning bolts in between though, but I feel guilty for even picking that nit. By the time the shop dummies actually started to wreak havoc over London unfortunately there wasn't enough time left in the episode for them to do an awful lot of damage. They just about managed to kill Clive (much to my dismay) but couldn't quite bump off Jackie (much to my dismay, although this was due to laziness more than anything else, her daughter was making speeches and all they had to do was pull the trigger, so to speak). Rose did a Tarzan impression, the anti-plastic um... anti-plasticked the Nestene and the roof started randomly exploding, as it does. Then came what I have to say was one of the finest examples of acting in Doctor Who that I can remember, when Rose initially turns down The Doctor's offer to accompany him and although he tries to hide it you can almost see his hearts break. Many a "awww" was heard in my living room, I can tell you.

Well, that about sums it up I think, good writing, good acting, good effects, good news! I wasn't even as upset by Murray Gold's music as some others were (although it was a bit loud at points). I'm going to reserve judgement on the 45 minute format until of few more episodes time, but I will say I think this first episode could have done to have been an hour. Also I must confess to not being a fan of the "next week..." segment of any show, including Doctor Who. That said, I can't wait for next week, and I'm especially looking forward to the first two parter where the writers will have been able to, dare I say it, pace themselves. 

One last time, look it's the Autons! (raucous applause)