Rose

Rose represents a very powerful beginning to the new Doctor Who series. There are lots of strong elements present, but I have also some misgivings, which I think, after viewing the second story, The End Of The World, are justified and will perhaps be entrenched within the series.

First, though, the good bits.

The pace of the story works incredibly well for what the serial set out to achieve. Essentially, this is a story introducing the Doctor and Rose, and giving the audience a taste of what the world of Doctor Who involves. In this it succeeds admirably, and so to quibble about a less than detailed subplot involving the Nestene invasion is really irrelevant. I’m actually quite surprised that some aspect of a story was told behind this introduction. It was clever of Russell T. Davies to involve the audience towards the end of the Nestene plot (and choosing a relatively straightforward invasion plan too), and we manage to get some semblance of a story with the impression that it has been going on for some time. For this story the pace worked brilliantly because of its aims, but I feel future episodes that are centred around story-telling rather than characters will suffer from the 43-or-so minute format.

The atmosphere built around the Nestene invasion and the mysteriousness of the Doctor was very effective. The initial sequence of Rose in department store’s basement is chilling; Clive’s elaboration on the Doctor slightly sinister and apocalyptic; and the denouement taking place in the Nestene base as well as the attack by Autons in the department store desperately exciting. That the Autons manage to pose a threat and gun down shoppers without a massive body count or gore being shown is a credit to the director.

The special effects are superb. Never has Doctor Who reached this height – and what a height! They’re so good, I’m not surprised the viewers that know Doctor Who of old don’t go dizzy for a bit wondering if this is still the same show. The Auton design is very realistic and their movements threatening, inhuman and still managing to convey the sense of being alive… yet not quite alive. The CGI rubbish bin has a great liquid quality and the Nestene Consciousness looks far better than the hairy tentacle monster from Spearhead From Space.

The inside of the TARDIS is magnificent in its scale. It has a creepy dark green glow that is perhaps more suited to the Master than the Doctor, and one has to wonder how he can see anything in there! I think the general design of the TARDIS is spot on, but its atmosphere has to be lightened somewhat – the Doctor isn’t a creepy alien who likes to skulk about in the dark and brood. At least, I hope not! The TARDIS, I believe, should have a homely feel, which is well lit and inviting. When Ace calls the TARDIS "home" in Survival, she isn't talking about anything that looks or feels like the new TARDIS design. The telemovie TARDIS, while less alien with the wood panelling and very Welsian, carries a more accurate spirit of what the interior should be like, even if the current design is better.

As for the characters, Rose shines as inspired, both actress and character meld beautifully together and she is really the star of the show. I shan’t go on about how good Billie Piper is as Rose – everyone else is saying that already, and rightly so! Hopefully she will continue as such a strong character throughout the series, and I’m glad she’s coming back for the second series.

Rose’s mother is wonderfully stereotypical and has some great lines about compensation and “skin like an old Bible”. Mickey is fairly lame and hopefully a character we don’t get to see again. Clive is well used for what he is there for. I must say his demise was rather touching, not emotionally, but in the sense that it gave a real presence of threat to the Autons.

Now to the Doctor. I both like and dislike him. This is appropriate for the character of the alien Time Lord, who is not one of us and should not always be seen as someone we can approve of continually, being far more complex than Superman. But unfortunately I think I dislike him for the wrong reasons. There are times when you can’t help but dislike or even loathe Hartnell’s, Colin Baker’s or even McCoy’s Doctor, but usually this is because of your human response to their seemingly inhuman actions: they act selfishly, or see the bigger picture and not the individual, or are dubious in their intentions, making them seem slightly evil. As an alien not part of the human species and foreign to human culture, this is all well and good. Yet this is not why I dislike Eccleston’s Doctor so much. I actually thought the scenes where he apparently forgot or disregarded Mickey because he was focused on the bigger picture were great. His alien aloofness too is depicted well. 

What I’m not liking about Doctor number nine – and from the look of the second story, what we are going to be stuck with – is that he seems to be a manic buffoon who wears broad, inane grins for no apparent reason and both makes and laughs at the lamest of jokes. Most of the attempts at comedy by Eccleston and Davies are misplaced: the slapstick with the Auton arm, the truly appalling “armless” joke (couldn’t they have come up with something both original and witty, like Tom Baker’s, “What a wonderful butler, he’s so violent!”?), the price war joke, etc. There are times when the silliness works: the mucking about with the cards, the Doctor’s child-like zeal at the prospect of danger when he pulls off Auton Mickey’s head, the “fantastic” line, etc. But there are other times when one has to wonder what the director or actor were thinking. It’s okay for the Doctor to crack jokes, laugh and be silly (and silly looking) but these actions should fit a relevant context (such as putting off an enemy) not just be put in here or there to make him look alien. Ultimately it makes him look laughable and ridiculous. (One reviewer rightly pointed out that one problem with Eccleston's approach is his attempting to show all the lust for life the Doctor has but doing so by shoving it down your throat even second.)

This Doctor’s total disgust with humanity is also very strange (he disparages humans three or four times in the episode). This may be only a trait he retains for this first episode, just to show that he isn’t “one of us”. Let’s hope so. I don’t mind a Doctor who occasionally puts humans in their place, but to constantly denigrate the species, well… one wonders why some with that attitude even bothers to help anyone. His thanks to Rose at the end of the story seems to suggest that his dislike for humanity is only temporary. (Indeed in The End Of The World, the Doctor only makes one jibe against human beings.)

I don’t have any problems with the Doctor’s northern accent. The colloquialisms and slang are fine, but a bit overused (too much “ya” instead of “yes”, etc.) and instead of being a medium through which the richness and beauty of the English language is explored (something a great writer like Robert Holmes handled only too well), Doctor Who now seems to be on the same level of pedestrian and unartistic dialogue that most shows on telly inhabit today. The sign of a lazy writer, Mr Davies. Perhaps most people won’t have a problem with this point; it’s probably the English teacher in me that is annoyed by it. Yet there is another issue that is more of a problem. The Doctor now has a northern accent because the actor playing him is from Manchester. Fine. But highlighting this difference in the story was a huge mistake. Invariably what the Doctor sounds like, as well as what he looks like, is going to be different all the time because of the different actors playing the role. There should be little differentiation, however, between the character based on the attributes of the actor. When you write the role of the Doctor you write it based on the character of the Doctor, not if the actor has a northern accent, is short, has gingivitis, etc. No character ever asked the Seventh Doctor why he sounded slightly Scots. In the telemovie the mistake was made:

Grace [trying to excuse the Doctor’s eccentric behaviour to the policeman]: “He’s British.”

Doctor: “Yes, I suppose I am.”

What crap. He only sounds British because he is being played by a British actor and for an American audience, which should be irrelevant. That is the universality of Doctor Who, that anyone can play the character. Similarly, if the Doctor regenerates into a woman, the fact shouldn’t be emphasised. That the new series made the same mistake when Rose asked the Doctor why he sounded like he came from the north suggests they haven’t really got a grip on things. Either that, or it was another attempt to score a cheap, lame joke. At least the “lots of planets have a north” was funny. (I’m getting the impression that this Doctor Who series is going to delight in cheap jokes – as Rose tells the Doctor in the second story when he says something - I think it was a joke! - about the “Deep South”.)

In fact, Russell T. Davies seems to introduce a lot of lewd or sexual dialogue into his stories. Rose has more than it’s fair share: Mickey’s “any excuse to get you into the bedroom”, Rose’s mother trying to pick up the Doctor, the Doctor’s “his gay and she’s an alien”, the mention of breast implants, etc. While the world we live in is obviously sex obsessed to the point of ludicrousness, the world of Doctor Who should be relatively free from such tripe. I call it tripe because it is used cheaply, as either a poor joke or an attempt to seem “contemporary” and “relevant”. Some sexual jokes can work really well but only if they are in character and not forced. Thinking ahead to The End Of The World, it seems this trend continues however.

Regardless of these criticisms, Eccleston’s approach to the Doctor is fresh and full of energy. His intensity and sudden changes of expression from hardness to softness (for example, during the wonderful “world revolving” speech) add a lot to the character. The way the Doctor is introduced is perfect and the mystery as to his identity is kept up throughout the story. The Ninth Doctor’s ability for quick thinking is superb and while this might leave the audience in the dark for some time – since he doesn’t seem to explain anything he does, for example, what the sonic screwdriver is (which he uses way too much for my liking) – it adds tremendously to the intelligence of the character. It’s a real shame that Eccleston won’t be around for much longer as the Doctor because his character has real potential to be one of the best.

Apart from some misgivings to do with the Doctor’s character, dialogue and length of the episode, Rose begins the new series in style. It is atmospheric, exciting and effective in its intentions. Welcome back Doctor Who! 7.5/10