The End Of The World

I saw this episode Sat. night during its first run and am now more excited for the new series than ever before. Eccleston is brilliant - he's intense and it's a different Doctor than we've ever seen before - ruthless at times - there is an edge. There are some important backstory points about the Time Lords that the purists are going to be scratching their heads over - I'm now more inclined to think that maybe even Eccleston isn't necessarily the "9th" incarnation per se based on the new "history" of the Time Lords being presented here for the first time - the continued reference to the "war" and all that...

The first five minutes in the TARDIS is the best scene ever of the Doctor taking someone for a spin - finally, the Doctor seems to have his TARDIS under control and can travel to any time and space seemingly at will - this is a Doctor with an agenda and his more traditional hero portrayal here reminds me of the Peter Cushing movies in the sense that Eccleston is very pragmatic and is very focused on achieving the mission at hand.

Interesting deviation from tradition by having a "teaser" before the credit sequence - I thought I was missing something - had I tuned in too late? It's a good way to recap what happened the week before in case you missed it...

Billie Piper is great and really holds her own - this pairing is a great way to launch the return of Dr. Who. 

While I feel sad to hear Eccleston is departing so soon, I can't help but feel that this will actually turn into a brilliant stroke of fate for the series - now everyone will be glued to this season to find out what can lead up to the eventual regeneration, including the Christmas special (they should pass the torch at Christmas) and now of course everyone will tune in like mad next season AGAIN to see how the next fellow does it! 

I miss the cliffhanger and now understand the format of the new series and how it's going to fit the 45 minute single-story episodes: the Doctor shows up in the middle of a situation and it's up to him and the companion to get to the bottom of things quickly before it's too late. Think of it as showing up at a lavish Murder-Mystery dinner party and having to solve the whodunnit before dessert is brought out...

There were a lot of really cute in-jokes (like "I-pod" and "Tainted Love" and "Toxic" and "Michael Jackson") that made the episode very entertaining - for a story set entirely in orbit on a space station (ode to Ark in Space and Four to Doomsday?) this is definitely the best - the digital visual effects are great for the time they've got and while not entirely photoreal - okay, it's not like they have Star Wars resources here - they do the trick nicely to convey what's being presented and you lose yourself in the story. 

Gone are the days of running down the corridor again and filming it the other way... it's the limit of the digital effects which will hallmark this incarnation of the series...

There's not much chance for guest characters to have proper story arcs developed in the new format - it's clear we're going to learn a bit about the Doctor and his "history" each week with another morsel of info here and there... by the end of the season I'm sure a lot of the mystery will be revealed.

This Doctor is more "Batman" than Professor Dithers - he's a man of action, a hero - someone who's clearly got a job to do. No stopping to sniff the celery stalk for this timelord!

Bravo!

This the kind of new blood the series needs to rejuvenate itself - it's fresh, it moves fast, and it's fun to watch. Very entertaining. Really, superb writing by Davies. Superb.