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.

Major spoilers throughout, so if you haven't seen it DON'T READ THIS!!!

First of all we have the new titles, which I found slightly unoriginal in that it is just an updated version of the old slit scan going down a tunnel idea (apart from the brief moment where the TARDIS materialises into real space), presumably showing the TARDIS' flight through the time/space vortex. I might have preferred something more abstract; weird shapes that morph, like a constantly evolving Rorschach inkblot. Something more like the original "howlaround" titles from the 60s maybe.

That said, the effect is nice and the colours pleasing, and the titles are hardly the most important element of a show anyway.

As for the music, well I was expecting to hear the music from the "ride of a lifetime" trailer, which I rather liked as it retained the exact same main melody from the original version of the theme and added a new backing. I find the final version is lacking the power and eeriness of that one, although it still may grow on me, and it's such a classic piece of music it is hard to really ruin it.

In all the titles and music aren't bad at all really, and still beat the McCoy titles by a mile!

Onto the show itself now and we start with a shot of the Earth from space, the POV of which falls through the atmosphere and comes to land in Rose Tyler's bedroom! This is very well designed and effectively executed.

Next we have a very fast sequence of brief shots which succinctly sums up Roses' busy day to day life as a London shop girl. The music here is rather naff, but this is forgivable. The department store she works in is called "Henrik's", presumably not a real store (the lettering puts me in mind of Harrods, probably intentional). Rose takes the lift to the basement to run a last-minute errand and we know that the fun is about to start!

Of course the basement is deserted and underlit, and the lack of music (just a few strange noises) as Rose creeps warily about looking for Wilson helps the suspense immensely. The animation of the Autons is nicely done, they move slowly at first and we hear the dry plasticky squeaking of their limbs (also one apparently male mannequin has its shirt open, revealing a considerable pair of manboobs!). This is the cue for the Doctor to appear, snatching Rose away from a deadly Auton karate chop (these Autons don't seem to have guns) that severs a lead pipe!

Interestingly, the first contact between Rose and the Doctor is him holding her hand to lead her away from danger. The "action" music here is a bit tacky, but we are transfixed as an Auton tries to grab the Doctor through the closing lift doors. The Doctor wrenches the Auton's arm clean off and Rose is alarmed, especially when he throws it at her! It is here we see the first glimpse of the Sonic Screwdriver!

As Rose attempts to rationalise what is going on the Doctor appears defensive and unwilling to say too much, he has his arms tightly crossed, something he does several times during the episode. He gives Rose a quick and (to her) incomprehensible explanation and rushes her outside so he can plant his bomb alone, seeming to only tell Rose his name and that she should run as an afterthought. The possibility that the Doctor is a terrorist must have crossed her mind surely?

The subsequent CGI explosion is fairly well achieved, as the transmitter goes up and the top floor windows blow out. How many viewers were glad the action didn't switch to 16mm film of a 2 foot high model erupting in slow-mo? As Rose runs, we get our first look at the TARDIS too.

Back at Rose's house, and we are introduced to anorak-wearing boyfriend Mickey, who isn't painted as the most thoughtful or caring beau, but the playful nature of their interaction suggests that she does have affection for him. I suspect the leather-jacketed stranger isn't far from her mind though. Does she keep hold of the Auton arm because it is connected to him? Maybe not, since she tells daft Mickey to get rid of it (which he oddly does without question).

We know the Doctor will pop up again soon, but the exact location is unexpected, and it's pretty amusing. Rose's mum is flirting with the Doctor, but his answers to her remarks are perfectly innocent (he is "strange" because he's not human!). We learn that the Doctor takes coffee with just milk, and either there are no mirrors in the TARDIS or he has just regenerated.

The Doctor's actions with the magazine, book and playing cards reminds me of Doctor 4's showing off to Harry Sullivan, but it's a shame Rose doesn't notice, even when the Auton arm is attached to his neck. Eccleston's facial reaction is a bit over the top, but less so than Pertwee's reaction to the old school Nestene's tentacle attack, and I found this pretty funny and the effect is rightly achieved without CGI this time (I think).

Once the arm is deactivated the Doctor is keen to be off again, and it's only due to Rose's persistence that he reveals more about himself. We get the one-day-famous "falling through space" speech and more hand-holding. This time the hand-holding seems symbolic of their brief relationship, as he finishes the speech he lets go of her hand, as if to accentuate the fact that he has to leave and they will never meet again.

For the second time this episode, the Doctor and Rose part ways. I get the impression at this point that this Doctor likes to operate alone, maybe because something bad happened to his previous companion? The music in this scene is nice, the vocal element is quite effective, and the dialogue is top notch.

Rose goes to Mickey's flat, but the Doctor is the real reason she is there: she wants to use Mickey's PC to investigate further into his background. Dialogue between Rose and Mickey establishes that he is something of a slob. Rose is obviously not a regular net user, she types "Doctor" into the search engine and seems surprised to get over 17 million results! A few more tries and she finds the site of conspiracy theorist Clive.

The next part is a mixture of good and bad. Mark Benton is a favourite of mine (and RTD obviously). His performance shifts from daft (but harmless) Internet loony to someone we think should be taken seriously quite convincingly, and his lines here establish the darker aspects of the Doctor's character very well. A disappointing aspect of this scene is the photo of the Doctor in the crowd at Kennedy's assassination, it is so glaringly faked that one might wonder if we are to think that this is something Clive has knocked up with Photoshop, rendering all his evidence null and void.

These scenes are intercut with a bemused Mickey's encounter with a moving wheelie bin, which I found amusing at first and a bit suspenseful. The CGI effects here seem undeveloped: the strands attached to Mickey's hands don't blend in with the rest of the bin, and look too glossy. I would have preferred it had the effect been realised physically with the bin lid covered in a tar-like substance. Also I didn't think too much of the burp, but if the kids enjoyed it then that's okay, and it may have been included to soften a potentially disturbing scene for the very young.

There is more daftness to come, the plasticised Mickey effect is too much to allow suspension of disbelief when Rose comes back to the car. Why doesn't she notice the rubber hair, the fixed grin, the bizarre dialogue and the crazed driving and let it pass without comment? Does Mickey often act like this?

In the next scene in the restaurant at least the Mickey copy has managed to improve its disguise, and finally Rose questions his behaviour. I'll admit I didn't recognise the Doctor at his first interruption, but practically cheered with delight the second time (was this because I knew that the Doctor's involvement meant the end of the Mickey clone?). The cork in the face is accompanied by a silly "boing" effect and the CGI effect looks like something from 10 years ago. At first I wondered why the Doctor decided on this method of attack, then realised on the second viewing that his intention was probably to reveal the copy to Rose.

The fake Mickey redeems itself somewhat with the attack on the restaurant (the CGI hands here look dated also, and I can't help but be reminded of T2). We also get a taste of the new Doctor's ruthlessness, grabbing the auton by the neck and wrenching its head off! In fact, he seems delighted by his actions! Rose shows quick thinking by setting the fire alarm off, instead of just standing still and screaming (good girl!). One very odd thing here though, as the Doctor and Rose run through the kitchens, her face seems oddly distorted with effects, seemingly on purpose. Does anyone know why?

Out in the back yard is the TARDIS (this Doctor seems to have perfect control over where it goes these days), and some funny dialogue ("Nah, tell you what, let's go in here" & "You can't just hide inside a wooden box!"). Nicely, Rose doesn't just follow the Doctor into that very small wooden box, but tries other options first. It's only when she runs out of options that she enters, and her reaction in exiting again and walking round the outside seems very understandable.

So, onto the new TARDIS control room, which has already been discussed quite a bit, so I'll say that so far I have no reservations and really quite like it. It's hard to believe that the interior once was the size of a living room and had walls that were studio flats with roundels printed on! I'm intrigued to see how the organic theme develops.

Also here we have quite a bit of explanation for the new fans, succinctly written by RTD, and that nice vocal music again. The alien side of the Doctor comes up again, he's totally forgotten about the original Mickey!

Upon arrival at Embankment the Doctor defends his uncaring behaviour, saying he has greater concerns. He also is obviously very proud of the TARDIS, patting the exterior and grinning as he explains its appearance to Rose. There is an explanation of the aliens' presence on Earth and their plans, and the first mention of a "war" (more on that later), and also a funny scene with the Doctor unable to see the obvious (remember he's an alien!).

Next up is a shot to excite even the most jaded Who fan, the Doctor and his assistant running across London Bridge at night, with red buses going by and Big Ben (yes, I know!) and the London Eye in the background. It's utterly cliched, but who cares? London at night looks atmospheric and colourful too. More hand-holding as well!

Once the Nestene's underground lair is located we know we are in for a treat and this part didn't disappoint me in the least. The location is fantastic; large, grungy, and nicely lit too. Presumably this used to be a foundry, very apt since the Nestene this time appears to be a large sentient blob of lava (some nice CGI thankfully). This isn't keeping with continuity, but so what; this is sci-fi!

Interestingly, the Doctor attempts to reason with the Nestene, citing an intergalactic law (and he said to Rose earlier that he wasn't the police?!), and this may have worked too if the Nestene hadn't grabbed the TARDIS earlier. The Doctor maintains he isn't an enemy, but the Nestene reveals the TARDIS to show him that it knows exactly who he is, and the presence of the vial of antiplastic doesn't exactly help back up his story. It is now we come to the most intriguing line in the whole episode...

"I fought in the war, it wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world, I couldn't save any of them!"

This line lets our imaginations run riot, with its mention of an unknown war and the Doctor's no doubt major involvement in it. The idea of the Doctor "fighting" in a war may well challenge our ideas about what the Doctor is and does, and suggests that this situation on Earth may be all his fault. With many future episodes involving aliens on Earth, we can probably expect that their backstories revolve around this war.

And so the Nestene invasion kicks off, as Auton mannequins at the Queen's Arcade come alive, smashing their way out of the shopfronts and slowly rounding on the shoppers, who think at first it's a publicity stunt! This important sequence left me slightly disappointed, due to occasional slack editing and the reluctance to actually show anyone being shot (something old Who never really shied from), resulting in something of a lack of impact.

It would have been nice had the child Autons been used more, an opportunity for some chilling scenes missed here, but we had a few types of Auton, some without facial features, and the brides were a nice idea. The scenes of chaos were realised on a larger scale and more effectively than old Who would have, so I won't be too critical.

I was surprised to see a promising recurring character like Clive killed off here, maybe Mark Benton had a busy schedule and couldn't return? I liked the way he realised all his suspicions were true just before he died, giving his life's work some (brief) meaning.

With the Doctor held captive, it is up to Rose to make an effort. Understandably she is scared and it takes a while, and the speech to herself is a bit daft, but at least it makes her options clear and gets across the need for excitement in her life. With the antiplastic absorbed into the Nestene, the Autons are stopped just in time to save Roses's mum and of course the lair has to explode in spectacular style (and it does, convincingly).

As for the final scene, well, we know how it will end, but it's interesting to see the Doctor practically asking Rose out (rather shyly too, but for an alien he doesn't do a bad job). Mickey is cowering by some bins and obviously needs looking after, so Rose declines. In a nice reversal of action hero stereotypes here, the man is the one clinging meekly onto the woman for protection! We see the interior of the TARDIS through the open door, and then The Doctor's gone, but only briefly. It only takes a mention of time travel to sweeten the pill for her, and she's running for the TARDIS as the end music begins (and I am glowing with pride!).

So after 4 viewings so far, I can only describe Rose as a success (with some reservations). Piper was more than good enough to be the Doctor's companion, and Eccleston himself shows much promise in the title role, only hinting at what might be to come in future episodes. If I didn't like the Mickey clone scenes too much, I won't blame Noel Clarke as his performance is fine in the other scenes (and it was a fairly thankless role anyway).

Effects wise, I think generally they pulled it off, despite the CGI seeming simplistic and underdeveloped in some parts. A special mention here to the Nestene lair scenes, which were excellently realised. The direction didn't stand out especially, and the editing could have been a bit better, but it did the job well enough.

As for the script, RTD must be commended for his dialogue, which had me listening intently even on the 4th viewing. Not that much in the way of a plot, but since the focus of the episode is Rose and the introduction of the Doctor for new viewers, then that can't really be said to be that much of a minus (and there was an extraordinary amount of material packed into 40 minutes or so).

I really liked it. Now I can't wait for Saturdays to arrive, and the series holds nothing but promise for me. If the almost unanimously positive reaction on UK TV message boards, and the 10 million who tuned in is anything to go by, many more will share my enthusiasm.

Doctor Who is back!

A bit of self-intro to begin: I’m a die-hard Doctor Who fan. Ever since first watching the final half-hour episode of “Robot” as a six-year-old in 1979 on my local Chicago PBS station, I have been captivated by the adventures of the strangely-dressed man who traveled in a blue telephone booth. Even as I aged through adolescence and into adulthood, with my entertainments expanding and growing in sophistication to include the science fiction writings of Issac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Frank Herbert, movies such as Terry Gillium’s Brazil and Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, Yukio Mishima novels, Frank Miller comics, and nights at the theater, Doctor Who has not ceased to hold my attention with its deft mixture of intriguing concepts, fantastic storytelling and childlike wonder, blended with a dash of dry wit, cynical humor and brusque anti-establishmentarianism. 

It was never a perfect show, by any means. It’s sheer length (some 26 years) and the host of different writers and producers working on it meant that the travels of the good Doctor were marked by often jarring variations of tone and style (from good-natured family escapism to grand guignol horror to “hard” science fiction), not to mention inconsistencies in the ongoing narrative (From what I recall, there are two conflicting explanations for the sinking of Atlantis, two reasons given for the extinction of the dinosaurs, and the mythologies for Time Lord founders Omega and Rassilon don’t quite gel with each other). The acting occasionally descended into unforgivable camp, the studio-bound BBC locales were wobbly and rarely convincingly exotic (let’s not forget those endless quarry-pit alien planets), and the special effects could be (especially for my fellow US viewers) laughably garish and cheap.

Despite all that, Doctor Who, for me, has remained a remarkable television achievement. I’d dare say that no other show ever displayed such a daring and far-reaching sense of imagination. Name one other program that ever juxtaposed Avengers-style thrills with slapstick and melodramatic cliffhangers, against a backdrop of alien monsters, supernatural forces, and sometimes even the vast stretch of eternity itself? Not the interminable iterations of Star Trek, not even the spooky X-Files. No wonder the BBC management didn’t know what to do with it. The show (like the Doctor) was audacious and indefinable.

And now, after a prolonged absence (and the ill-fated 1996 Doctor Who TV-movie), the good Doctor has returned to our screens. How does he fare?

Judging from Episode One, “Rose,” I see a series that holds the promise of successfully carrying the mantel of the original Doctor Who. In Christopher Eccleston, we have a Time Lord who suitably fits into the pantheon of regenerations that preceded him, capturing the puck, intelligence and idiosyncratic nature that defined the character to previous audiences. I was initially put off by new leather-jacketed look, so distant it was from the Victorian frock coats and hats of the past, but Eccleston is so at home, so committed to his performance, it no longer bothered me. I’m quite impressed by the conviction of his performance, going into action-hero mode, challenging marauding plastic drones in the form of department store dummies, and then fearlessly plunging into a slapstick comic moment wrestling with a disembodied killer arm while new assistance Rose Tyler (actress Billie Piper) obliviously prattles on. That last bit could have felt painfully camp, but Eccleston pulls if off skillfully.

Billie Piper fared well as the companion, serving as proxy for the newcomers in the audience. It’s through her eyes that we are first (re)introduced to the world of the Doctor, his dimensionally-transcendental TARDIS, and invading extraterrestrial meanies, so I’ll forgive her for this round if character development felt a bit minimal and rushed. As a Stateside viewer, I didn’t have any baggage about her career as a singer, nor did I notice anything about her accent, which left only her performance for my judgment. As such, I found her thoroughly believable as a normal, modern girl thrust into fantastic situations. Nice that she had hints of having more of a background than the previous companions (We meet her Mom and boyfriend Mickey, plus get a glimpse of her mundane pre-Doctor life at home and work), and that she wasn’t a girlish screamer like some of her predecessors. 

Getting down to the story, “Rose” isn’t particularly memorable in terms of either Doctor Who or other televised fantasy fare. It’s basically a rehash of the 1970s episodes “Spearhead from Space” and “Terror of the Autons” with the invading Nestene Consciousness and their killer plastic soldiers the Autons, and as such, is actually quite inferior. “Rose” lacks the slow build-up of menace of those old episodes, a fact partly attributable to having to cram in exposition for the Doctor and Rose, and partly to the new 45-minute episode length. In addition, for dedicated fans of the series, it’s a very sloppy episode with respect to the show’s details and history. In writer Robert Holmes’ original Auton stories, the Nestene were a disembodied form of energy that initially transported itself to Earth encased in plastic meteorites (unlike the “warp shunt technology” Eccleston’s Doctor references). Their invasion was methodical and carefully planned out, brainwashing key human allies, then taking over plastic factories that allowed them to build their murderous mannequins and then have them shipped out to London stores. Very Quatermass. When the Nestene finally did manifest themselves for the purposes of invasion, they took the form of an octopoidal mass of tentacles, not the molten living plastic vat that the new Doc ends up chatting with. I also found the Doctor’s dispatching of the Nestene with the handy test tube of “antiplastic” in his pocket a weak deus ex machina (especially since we never saw how he came about this miracle substance). 

I’m hoping that the reason that new series creator Russell T. Davies chose to re-use an old enemy and make the story simplistic was deliberate; an attempt to allow the audience to put most of their focus on Rose and the new Doctor. As an American, I have never had the opportunity to sample Davies other works for TV, but based on the articles I have been reading these past few months, his reputation as a writer is absolutely stellar, with the original UK “Queer as Folk” and “The Second Coming.” Therefore, I’m assuming that future stories will have a bit more dramatic and conceptual meat to them. I read another online review of “Rose” that absolutely hated it and felt it was a bit thin. I don’t go so far myself, but they did have a point.

In terms of production values, I was mightily impressed. Some viewers disliked the look of the film (done on some form of high-def video?) and the lighting chosen, but I felt it worked well and did not distract. I thought the CGI effects for the Autons and Nestene worked well, though a bit cartoony (Buffy-esque?) at points, but that seemed to fit the tone that Russell T. Davies and company were aiming at. The highlight for me was the interior design of the TARDIS. It seemed to be a combination of aspects of the 1996 TV-movie (the floor-to-ceiling time rotor, for example) and the control room that appeared in the 1990s Doctor Who comic strips (slanted walls, dark lighting). I thought it had a wonderfully alien quality, with its organic lines and unearthly shadows. Also fun to watch was the final gun-toting assault of the Autons, which basically was a remake of the climax of “Spearhead from Space” done on a bigger budget (this time we actually SEE the dummies smash through the windows, an effect that was conspicuously handled offscreen in more modestly-budgeted times).

The title sequence may have been a trifle unoriginal, quoting from the time-tunnel effect of the 1970s era, but I actually found its simplicity appropriate, as was replacing the hyper-synth versions of the theme from the 80s with a throwback remix of the original tune. The incidental music, on the other hand, was simply too loud and intrusive. Instead of commenting on the onscreen action, it seemed to overwhelm, making even a simple shot of the Doctor and Rose run across a bridge tiresome. 

The technical details are the least of my concerns for the future of the series, as what always attracted me to Doctor Who was the writing and acting. Plus, even Who’s bigger-budgeted US competition such as Star Trek: The Next Generation had its fare share of mediocre design and effects in its incipient episodes. 

What’s very interesting to note is how much the new Doctor Who reflects changes in our popular culture since the original show left the airways in 1989. There’s the new 45-minute format, as mentioned before, plus the fast pace we’ve come to expect with our modern comedies and cop shows, not to mention the MTV-induced attention spans of youngsters. Davies and his team are also obviously clued into what’s been going on in popular science fiction and fantasy lately. Although it can be argued that irreverently mixing humor and horror have always been part of Doctor Who, there’s definitely signs of influence from American shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, such as the scene in which Rose’s boyfriend Mickey (Noel Clarke) is eaten by a plastic garbage can, followed by a now-infamous burp which has made some viewers cry foul. Another Buffy-ish series of events unfolds as the plastic duplicate of Mickey the Nestenes send in comically attempts to deliver “romantic” dialogue to Rose, followed by a hands-on fight with the Doctor. Also present is an X-Files-type conspiracy theorist (Mark Benton) who has been researching the Doctor’s escapades through history.

With “Rose” I saw the seeds of potential. Doctor Who may have been reborn, Phoenix-like, but there’s still some ash that needs to be shaken off its wings before it really soars. Let’s hope that Davies and company have some real aces waiting to be released onscreen, and that, like Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Stracynski, they’re media aware enough to pay attention to fan complaints on the web and elsewhere, and rectify the parts of the show that aren’t working. For those fans put off by “Rose,” I’d like to remind everyone that Babylon 5 had a weak pilot, the original Star Trek went through two pilots before getting on the air, ST: The Next Generation had a first and second season many consider awful, and the popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer started with a critically-savaged movie that bombed at the box office.

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!!

Doctor Who is back. And it's fan-bloody-tastic.

Being a young'un (if you can call 20 'young') I've never before had the experience of sitting down to watch a brand new series of Who (I'm not counting the TV Movie because that wasn't a series and anyway I had to record it), so as a complete virgin to the wonders of new Who the whole experience made me a bit giddy. But giddy in a good way.

I've seen lots of old episodes of Doctor Who on video, from every era, and I have to agree with what RTD was saying in the 'New Dimension' documentary about each Doctor being relevant to his own specific time period. The ones that I watched were all relevant to the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the movie captured the essence of the 90s . . . and now we have Doctor Who for the 21st Century. It's new, it's different, but so are we and the series has evolved with us.

I love the new music. I know there have been comments about the lack of a face appearing in the title credits but for me that's a minor thing that was more of a mildly amusing recurring theme than a genuine mainstay of the series. Yes it was nice to have a face appearing to let you know who was starring but do we really need that? I love the time tunnel effects and the music has just enough of the original in to remind us that this is Who we're watching while adding a fantastic new spin. I particularly enjoyed the slightly orchestral feel of the later part of the title music.

The beginning of the episode was like nothing we've seen before. Fast-paced, choppy, you could be forgiven for thinking you're watching the beginning of the BBC's new drama series about the everyday life of a London girl - and that's perfect, because that's the point of Rose herself. She's an everyday London girl and this was the best way of introducing her. Being honest, I didn't at first warm to Billie simply because she had little to do in her first few scenes other than run around in a montage but by the time we had her walking down the dark corridors, I was beginning to see an actress who could quite easily become one of the industry's biggest stars.

Rose as a companion is intriguing. It's not the first time the makers of the series have claimed that the latest female companion will be 'on an equal footing with' the Doctor, but this time I get the sense that Rose will not go the way of most companions before her. She is a genuinely strong character and the very fact that she investigates the Doctor when she could quite easily just let it go makes me think that she is going to be as much a part of the action as the Doctor - someone particularly deserving of the title 'companion' rather than 'assistant'. I particularly enjoyed her 'gymnastics' quip towards the end of the episode and I couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief when she made the decision to leave her life behind and join the Doctor.

Now, for the Doctor himself.

If it's true that everyone has a Doctor, I think that the Ninth Doctor might be mine. I'm giving him time because I don't want to jump to any conclusions yet, but he is the deepest and most interesting Doctor I've ever seen and it's only been one episode. 

It's already been mentioned on here but I'll say it again, in Christopher Eccleston's performance there are hints, glimmerings, of all the Doctors that have gone before - an authoritarian streak worthy of Hartnell, the 'armless' quip that is pure Troughton, a willingness to become part of the action like Pertwee, an amiable silliness inherited from Tom Baker, a boyish excitement that speaks of Davison, a certain irritability under stress that could be Colin Baker, a mysteriousness that was brought to the fore by McCoy and the love and compassion that epitomised McGann's short reign. In short, this Doctor more than any before him is, as the Fifth Doctor said in 'The Five Doctors', the sum of his memories.

This Doctor is the most alien of all the Doctors. He is driven by a love of all life but as is shown by his apparent forgetfulness regarding Mickey he is also capable of seeing the big picture. The Eighth Doctor would most probably have been as concerned for Mickey as Rose but in this new incarnation he has accrued a sense of responsibility that forces him to look beyond individuals, as his somewhat startling speech to Rose reveals.

Chris's performance was extraordinary. He managed to take the Doctor from one end of the spectrum to the other in the space of a few minutes with incredible ease and the sense that this was all completely natural. I love his slight swagger and easy grin, and I love that without realising it he has become the Doctor I wanted him to be.

There have been complaints about the lack of a regeneration scene. Whatever. I really don't think it's necessary and anyway the point of the story is that we arrive halfway through. A regeneration scene would have been complicated to explain to any new fans and its absence allowed us to hurtle straight into the story. I'd also like to point out to those who have complained that this caused a plot hole with Clive's pictures of the Ninth Doctor: he's a time traveller. Just because the pictures were taken sometime in the past doesn't mean they've already happened. The pictures of the Ninth Doctor could just as easily have been taken in five years' time when he decides to pay the past a visit. Hole closed.

The interior of the TARDIS is gorgeous. The similiarity between the new look the Time Rotor and the Rotor from the TV Movie provided a continuity bridge and the walls are like a more detailed, less harsh version of the original. The console is a delight, made up of a mish-mash of bits and pieces that look as though they're held there by Blu-Tack and the organic, coral feel of the interior makes it a mysterious, gorgeous wonder.

With the new TARDIS we are returned to the idea that this is a battered old Type 40. The movie interior was gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but it turned the TARDIS into the Doctor's living room and the console was so pretty that it seemed perfect. The point is that the Doctor's TARDIS isn't perfect, and with the console that looks like it's a Blue Peter experiment that sense of age is perfectly portrayed. The gangways also bring us back to the idea that this is a 'ship' - as it was often referred to in the Hartnell years - and gives the impression that the TARDIS itself is alive, a point that has been made several times in the more recent slew of books, and a point that would be interesting to see portrayed in the series. I also particularly like that the Police Box doors are now actually a part of the interior decor, my personal favourite point being that there is actually an old-style telephone behind where one would be on a real Police Box.

The Autons were menacing but not particularly frightening but that might simply be because we have so much violence on TV now anyway that the idea of a walking mannequin just isn't that frightening to us. The Consciousness didn't particularly impress me as a villain but the references to the Doctor's part in the 'War' intrigued me enough that this didn't particularly matter.

And this is where I reach the point: this was the first episode in a brand new series. If it had been about the Daleks, or another more menacing creature all the focus would have been on them. Using the only mildly scary Autons and introducing the Consciousness so late meant that we had time to get to know this new Doctor and Rose, meant that we were able to sympathise with them by the end of the episode so that when the Doctor realised that he had failed and the Consciousness was going to destroy Earth, we felt his pain with him, so that when Rose managed to wrestle aside the Autons and destroy the Consciousness we raised a cheer for her bravery.

New Who? Fantastic. Old Who? Fantastic. They're all the same Who. But this Who's been regenerated and it's not done any harm at all.

What was it the Sixth Doctor said?

'Change, my dear. And it seems, not a moment too soon.'

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)