‘Hello, Rose. I’m the Doctor. Now run for your life!’ And so with those words, a new chapter in the Doctor Who canon begins. Almost a decade ago, when the TV movie aired and Paul McGann similarly declared that he was the Doctor, I boasted in a fanzine editorial that Doctor Who was back, bigger, better and bolder. Of course, the TV gods conspired to put Doctor Who back to rest before that somewhat idle boast could ever be validated!

I’m more mature now and less inclined to exaggerate, but after seeing Rose (and also The End of the World), I feel optimistic about the new program and its future beyond this year. It appears that Russell T Davies and the production team were very conscious of the importance of introducing the Doctor, Rose and the TARDIS in the first episode without alienating average television viewers (who after all are critical to the program’s success) and were not prepared to repeat some of the fundamental mistakes of the TV movie.

As much as I adored the drama and stylish direction of the TV movie, not to mention Paul McGann’s performance, it is easy to say in retrospect that perhaps the film's greatest failing was that it commenced with the assumption that the audience was already familiar with the characters of the Doctor, the Master and the TARDIS, not to mention the concept of regeneration and the overall mythos of the Time Lords. Nine years later, it seems the new Doctor Who production team has heeded the lesson. Rose tells the story largely from Rose Tyler’s perspective and it is a great introduction not only to the Doctor, but also a fantastic way of introducing friends or colleagues to the program without overloading their senses with the program's mythos.

Rose nevertheless crams in a lot for a first episode of Doctor Who: a new Doctor, a new companion, a revamped TARDIS and, for the first time since the 1970s, the Nestene Consciousness and the Autons. In someone else’s hands, this could have been a disaster, but by telling the story from Rose Tyler’s perspective, we first and foremost get an entertaining episode of television. Russell T Davies knows when to inject the right moments of quirkiness and humour (for instance, the attack of the disembodied Auton arm!), when to introduce elements of mystery and fascination (Clive’s conspiracy theory that this mythic Doctor has been seen throughout the centuries) and when to project menace and a sense of impending doom (the recreation of that classic Seventies moment when the Autons, disguised as shop window dummies, spring to life).

Although the episode is titled Rose and the bulk of the story and the action is seen from Rose’s eyes, it is also a great introduction to the new Doctor. Christopher Eccleston took absolutely no convincing that he was the Doctor. His contemporary look in production photos (compared to the Doctor’s traditional taste for Edwardian finery) initially threw me some months ago, but that is more than made up for in his performance. He manages to perfectly convey many contradictory features of the Doctor’s character: his sense of mischief (posing as a waiter in the restaurant scene between Rose and the ersatz Mickey), his naivety and innocence (failing to recognise the flirtatious advances of Rose’s mother!) and his timelessness (his speech about how he can feel the Earth’s rotation through the solar system and how insignificant one’s place can almost be to the size of the cosmic forces surrounding them was a gem of a speech). Russell T Davies clearly deserves some credit here for writing such a great part for Eccleston (particularly for the latter speech), but it is Eccleston who brings Davies’ dialogue to life and has us hooked from the moment the Doctor first appears. It is just such a great pity that Eccleston has already decided to move on!

Billie Piper also is a pleasant surprise as Rose. When she was first announced as the companion, I felt the same scepticism that many fans once felt about Bonnie Langford’s casting as Melanie. In Billie’s case, her past as a Britney wannabe seemed all the more ominous. However, to her credit, Billie has defied those expectations. She plays the part with zest and attitude, just what we would expect of a strong-minded 18-year old woman who is a little down on her luck in terms of her career aspirations (and with such an insipid boyfriend to boot!). She is easily identifiable amongst younger viewers and there is no doubt that for even older viewers, she symbolises our own desire to escape the shackles of our menial lives and take a trip around the galaxy in the TARDIS. It helps Billie enormously that Davies wrote her character to be independent and streetwise from the outset, but no amount of good writing can disguise the on-screen chemistry that Billie develops with Christopher Eccleston almost immediately; their banter and exchanges as the Doctor and Rose is delightful to watch.

It is a little difficult to judge the new program’s production values on the viewing of one episode (especially as the events of Rose are set in contemporary times), but the direction of Rose is slick and tightly edited, and the series looks great on film. It has a more natural, organic feel, compared to the combination of film and video sequences which Doctor Who was traditionally renowned for. The visual effects provided by the Mill (both for the title sequence and for the Nestene Consciousness) are so good that you really take them for granted (a good sign really because in a series such as this the effects should be never be so impressive Star Wars-style that they distract the viewer from the intrigue of the storytelling). It will be interesting to see, though, how the Mill realises the program’s demands when the Doctor and Rose travel to other worlds (although we see some promising signs in the subsequent episode The End of the World).

However, if the TARDIS interior is a sign of what we might expect to see of alien environments and possible futures, then again there is good cause for optimism. The design of the console and interior seems to pay homage to all the TARDIS sets that have gone before. Most notably, the design echoes the feel of the grand TARDIS set from the TV movie, but the interior police box double doors are also strongly reminiscent of the double doors used for the TARDIS interior in Peter Cushing’s Doctor Who and the Daleks as well. The metallic walls peppered with the customary TARDIS roundels also remind me of a TARDIS design that Doctor Who Magazine adopted in its comic strip for a time during the Nineties (which perhaps isn’t a surprise either as one of the men behind the concept drawings for the TARDIS interior is Bryan Hitch, an award-winning comic book artist on DC’s The Authority. Perhaps the interior is also a homage to fellow artist Lee Sullivan’s work on the DWM comic strip!).

That’s enough about the bells and whistles ... ‘What about the story?’ (or lack thereof) I hear you ask. I suspect that ‘older’ hardcore Doctor Who fans will pick holes in the storyline and bemoan the series’ new 45-minute, single-episode format (to the traditional 25-minute, four part tales of old). I can foresee some of the older fans accusing the series of being more ‘Doctor Who-lite’ in terms of storytelling and whinging that the latest Auton invasion is so secondary to the plot that they could almost have been any generic monster. Some fans are also likely to ask all sorts of mind-boggling silly questions like ‘Why was the Nestene Consciousness hiding in a sewer under the Thames?’ – in effect attempting to put things into context when it isn’t necessary! It really doesn’t matter. The episode is entertaining enough to hold its own without going into these finer details and as an introductory episode to a brand new series, it shouldn’t be expected to. It’s likely that the storylines will get more sophisticated as Rose, ‘our Earth point of view in space’, becomes more acquainted with the Doctor’s world. What most works about the episode is its quirkiness. Davies works a lot of humour into the drama very successfully (for instance, witness Rose’s reaction when she first enters the TARDIS while escaping the Auton replica of her boyfriend!) but not at the expense of the drama itself.

I also personally don’t think that the series’ new format will limit the potential for innovative stories and broader characterisation (as more cynical fans will attest). The single-episode stories (such as Rose) are more likely to be character-driven tales, while the double-episode stories (such as Aliens of London/World War Three) will be more action-orientated (although Rose also has its fair share of action for one episode, as we see with the opening sequence in the department store!). Indeed, some of the best examples in the runs of other series such as the various Star Trek and Stargate series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Smallville and even Who’s one-time stablemate Blake’s 7 have been character-driven single episode stories. I doubt Doctor Who will be an exception.

Doctor Who is at least back for the time being. Bigger, bolder, better? I’m not prepared to make an audacious statement at this early stage, but I think I have better reason to be optimistic about the good Doctor’s future exploits now than I ever had any reason to when Paul McGann's Doctor briefly graced our TV screens. Let’s hope the average viewer will embrace the new Doctor as warmly as Rose does in the episode and as the fans undoubtedly have.

I remember watching Doctor Who when I was a little kid. It was years ago, but I still remember hiding under the quilt on the couch watching “Planet of Evil”. The red outlined antimatter creatures scared the crap out of me. Even the opening music scared me. But I’d hold my ground and watch because the stories were really great — some of the most innovative science fiction ever on the television.

Although I wouldn’t classify myself as a hardcore fan, I’ve been watching Doctor Who for a long time. It was one of the original three sci-fi shows that got me hooked on the genre (the others being “Star Trek” and “Battlestar Galactica”). As television shows go, Doctor Who was somewhat ahead of it’s time, with strange stories about robots and aliens at a time when most fans still got their science fiction fix from cheap paperbacks and comics. The Classic Series became a cult hit after a while and ultimately played for a whopping 26 seasons.

Since I was totally into the creepy stories, I didn’t really notice at first the episodes I was watching were already some ten years old and the special effects were. . . well. . . kinda old. Lots of cheesy Chromakey stuff and guys in rubber suits. Pretty typical of British sci-fi and horror from that era I suppose.

Doctor Who had been off the air for around fifteen years and I had fairly low expectations of the new stuff, especially after seeing some of the saucy promotions. I’m not even sure why I formulated that opinion, since Russell T. Davies was responsible for the outstanding series “Queer as Folk”. Guess I figured that he was too much of a contemporary writer for sci-fi. And I must admit, another thing that crossed my mind was: Wow. Billie Piper. Kind of like a British Britney Spears. They must have hired her ‘cause she’s easy on the eyes. Christopher Eccleston got my interest up though — he’s a well known, serious actor. The last thing I saw him in was “28 Days Later…”, where he did outstanding job as the slightly crazy Major West.

Unlike the new Battlestar Galactica, which got to build up it’s season with a mini-series, the new Doctor Who must rely on it’s first episode, “Rose”, to serve as the introduction for the entire new series. In the minds of the audience, it sets the tone for the rest of the series and it will be the episode that hopefully brings in the viewers for more. And if that’s not enough, it has 26 years of previous material to live up to.

While it’s not perfect, I was surprised with just well “Rose” succeeded in introducing the new series. Pilot episodes are usually kind of boring, but “Rose” was actually quite entertaining. The storytelling is contemporary, light and fast, and it does a competent job of presenting the new versions of the main characters. The monsters in this one — it isn’t Doctor Who without monsters — are none other than the Autons, the animated mannequins featured in the classic episode “Spearhead From Space”. This tip of the hat to the classic series amused me greatly.

We have us now a contemporary, modern Doctor Who. Although I don’t have a good frame of reference for it, I never got the impression that previous Doctor Who seasons really cared if they were contemporary or not. This Doctor Who is very preoccupied with being current, from the way it is shot, to the curious, peppy music, to the snappy way that dialog is delivered. This is modern television, and every attempt has been made to make it accessible to new fans, something which will no doubt anger the hardcore ones. The half-hour mulit-part cliffhangers are now replaced with one hour stories (though apparently there will be multi-part ones).

Even though I suspect the producers knew it was going to be widely distributed outside of Britain, every attempt seems to have been made to deliver contemporary, almost trendy, British language and humour. North Americans like me are left to figure out the odd bit of it on our own, and that’s the way it should be. Doctor Who is a British hero, after all.

Unlike previous seasons, this new Doctor Who is a lot lighter in tone and this doesn’t come without a price. Certain technical details are overlooked in favour of this lightness, such as Rose’s inability to notice that her boyfriend is all of a sudden acting funny and looks kind of plastic. About half-way in I was reminded of “Shawn of the Dead”. Adopting this levity is to no doubt soften up the image of the show and appeal to a greater audience. Some of the humour is pretty silly, like the Doctor’s explanation that a deactivated Auton arm is now “armless”, but some of it is downright hysterical. They even fancifully explain Eccleston’s Lancashire accent:

Rose: So if you are an Alien, how come you sound like you come from the North?

Doctor: Lots of planets have a North.

Eccleston plays a more modern Doctor Who in this more modern show. Unlike Doctors before him, the Ninth Doctor has no long scarf, no funny hat, no question marks, and no velvet jacket. He’s got a black leather car-coat, Doc Martens and a buzzcut. In “Rose”, he’s energetic, almost manic. If anything, Eccleston plays it too manic. I’ll only be able to stand him saying, “Fantastic!” once per show. The Doctors before him tended to be whimsical, aloof, stiff upper lip and all that. This Doctor is in your face. He’s a man of ACTION. He doesn’t just walk places, he runs.

In fact, all of the supporting characters are a bit on the wacky side, almost like they were caricatures. On comedic characters like Rose’s useless boyfriend Mickey, or her scatty mum, this works. Mickey annoyed the hell out me, just as the writer had hoped. But for some reason I found that this didn’t translate quite as well to the Doctor himself. I wanted more from Eccleston’s performance, like he was holding back or something. You get little bits of it here or there. His frustrations with humanity’s lack of awareness brim over occasionally. He snaps at Rose: “If I did forgot some kid called Mickey it’s because I’m trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering about on top of this planet, alright?” He insults humans a lot, actually.

And despite the manicness, every now and again there is an earnesty to Eccleston’s performance. He pleads with the Nestene Consciousness to do the right thing: “That’s not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the War. I wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t save your world, I couldn’t save any of them!” He’s forcing it out a bit, to be sure, but I’m not cringing, either. There’s some interesting history to this character.

But the real story here is Billie Piper. Her performance as Rose is, frankly, brilliant. I expected so little from the companion character but was given so much more. Of all the characters hers is the most normal, yet the most interesting. She completely nails the twenty-year-old, directionless working girl. Her bored, post-high school look barely conceals a curiosity and intelligence on par with the Doctor’s. The wackiness of the rest of the supporting cast plays well against her straightforward, honest portrayal.

Never once during the show did I not buy into her performance. When called upon, her comedic timing is right on, and her grasp of her character is clearly evident. She even gets to be smug:

Rose: You were useless in there! You’d be dead if it weren’t for me.

Doctor: Yes, I would. Thank you.

Really, Piper steals nearly every scene that she’s in. And, well. . . she is easy on the eyes, too.

So I’m thinking that the hardcore fans aren’t going to be all that impressed because the pace, the tone and the characters deviate somewhat from the classic series. But these are the same folks who filled the forums with jive when they found out that the new Starbuck in the new Battlestar Galactica was going to be a girl. But all of the basic Doctor Who elements are still there: The Doctor is still odd, the companion is still down to earth, the monsters are still weird, and the TARDIS is still bigger on the inside, than it is on the outside. So the rest of us more “casual” fans can relax and enjoy Russell T. Davies’ modern, fast, humorous and thoroughly entertaining take on a classic British science fiction series.

The Doctor: “Fantastic!”

Jabe the Tree: “I don’t understand. Just what is fantastic about that?”

Just about everything I’d say. 

THE END OF THE WORLD is just what the series needed after the manic introduction to the new Doctor Who in ROSE. 

I will confess, on first viewing, I was hugely disappointed by the opening episode. For me the anticipation of the first instalment in a new series after sixteen years absence had built up to gigantic proportions. As the 45 minutes of ROSE came to an end, I was left sitting on the sofa in bewilderment. Is that it? What was it all about? Did it make sense? What was with the soundtrack? Will it get better? 

However, I left it a few days and watched it again. And again. And each time it got better. So much so, by the time of THE END OF THE WORLD, I was again looking forward to the rest of the series, but with more realistic expectations. I am not saying the second episode only works for those with low expectations though, because this is a truly great episode which not only screams Doctor Who is back, but this is well and truly Doctor Who for 2005. 

With a brief re-cap of how Rose came to be with the Doctor, we find ourselves following the story immediately after her slow-motion run into the TARDIS, reminiscent of the days of the Hartnell and Troughton series, when one story ran almost immediately into another, and the characters didn’t even have time to catch their breath before they began their next adventure. With Rose’s excitement piqued by the Doctor mischievously enticing her to an exciting period in the future, they arrive on Platform One - a mile-long observation deck in orbit around the Earth – just in time to witness the devastating expansion of the Sun, half an hour or so before the world explodes.

Also assembled on Platform One to watch the destruction of the Earth are “the great and the good”, or as the Doctor points out “the rich”; an assortment of aliens such as the Moxx of Balhoon and the Face of Boe, and multiforms that originated on the planet, such as the Trees from the Forest of Cheam and the last ‘pure’ human, Cassandra. However, one of the guests has hatched a murderous plot, one which sees the station’s crew bumped off, and threatens the whole space station. 

One of the noticeable aspects of this second episode is the pace. Gone is the quick-MTV style editing of the previous instalment, to be replaced with a slower, slightly more gradual story. The main benefit of this is that it allows time to build up the tension which was rather lacking in ROSE, while giving the viewer a chance to keep track of the plot and follow all the rather wonderful jokes which Russell T Davies has littered the script with.

And what a script! Its an amusing tale told against a fantastic back-drop, with wonderfully odd characters and touches of social satire, from the ultimate personification of human greed and vanity in Cassandra, whose hundreds of surgical enhancements have left her nothing more than a stretched flap of skin with eyes and a mouth who needs frequent moisturising, to the ecological considerations of man’s total inconsideration of his environment. As Rose herself comments after the Earth has exploded in a massive ball of flame, “we were all too busy saving ourselves to notice it go.” There are also hints of what is to come, as the Doctor reluctantly tells Rose of a devastating event that happened in the years since he has been off screen, and which will have major implications for our hero.

This episode continues to show why the casting of the two leads was spot-on. The new Doctor develops quickly, with Eccleston settling down into the role very comfortably. I wouldn’t be surprised if future polls show the ninth Doctor to be one of the most popular incarnations. His manic grins capture a sense of Tom Baker’s alien barminess while McGann’s love of life is demonstrated by the glee with which he welcomes the arrival of the assembled multiforms and what is more, he clearly enjoys flirting with Jabe the Tree. Thankfully the goofiness is toned-down and we see flashes of Hartnell’s touchiness, especially when Rose quizzes him about his origins. 

Significantly though, this Doctor displays some human emotions rarely seen in any of his other incarnations. We see him shed a tear - a first, in the shows 41 year history (?) - when Jabe talks of how remarkable it is that he even exists, and then later he displays a surprisingly vengeful side to his character, when he allows his actions, regardless of Rose’ plea, to end the villain’s life. Eccleston’s powerful performance in these scenes and then later in the last scene, surpasses anything from the classic series, with only Baker’s ‘Do I have the right?’ speech from GENESIS OF THE DALEKS coming anywhere close. With the announcement that Eccleston will not be returning for a second series coming days before transmission, it is very disappointing that the show is to lose one of the best talents it has ever had.

Billie Piper demonstrates why she is perfectly cast as Rose. After the break-neck speed of the first episode, she captures Rose’s sense of suddenly being overwhelmed by her situation and the realisation of what she has done in so quickly abandoning her old life and rushing to join this stranger about which she knows nothing. Not only is this questioning of her actions refreshing – how many of the Doctor’s previous companions displayed this very human of reactions – but also allows the audience to learn more about the Doctor, without a jarringly obvious info-dump. 

Of the other characters, it is Cassandra who is the most engaging. The last of the ‘pure’ humans, Lady Cassandra O’Brien.delta.17 is a wonderfully acidic and self-centred individual, a testament to some of the worst excesses of human nature, displaying vanity, greed and a disregard for life that may stand between her and her goal. While Rose’s references to her as a bitchy trampoline and Michael Jackson illustrate RTD’s wit, her demise is truly fitting of a Who ‘monster’ with a gloriously gory pop. That Cassandra leaves a lasting-impression which would usually be undeserved from the four or so minutes of the screen time that she has, is testament to both Zoe Wannamaker and RTD for such a wonderful creation, although the real honours must go to The Mill. When I first heard about Doctor Who’s first fully CGI human character, I had reservations. I thought the potential for her to descend into an unrealistic cartoon so badly rendered that it would float on screen, was enormous, but The Mill have pulled it off brilliantly. 

In fact, The Mill have done a great job with all the visual effects for this episode, surpassing those seen in ROSE, although I believe the story’s futuristic setting helps. It is harder to escape criticism of special effects when they are used in the context of a contemporary setting, as opposed to the more fantasy-based settings. That is not to demean their achievement in anyway though, as the high level of CGI is maintained throughout the episode, only occasionally faltering, such as when the Doctor places an spider saboteur robot on the floor, and the visible jump to CG animation. 

Visually, what makes this new series stand out from the old is the very apparent attention to detail and the investment of money into more expensive sets. We can actually believe that the Doctor’s rickety old TARDIS is just that. The frantic pump-action operation of the console and the alarming shuddering and juddering of each flight give the impression that this time machine is every bit as old as the Doctor’s 900+ years. And its not just the detail on the series key elements. The ‘retro’ design of Platform One, combining metal and wood in some MDF inspired vision of the future banishes any memory of the tin foil covered computer consoles of old, and later the design takes central stage in a very dramatic finale when the Doctor has to run the gauntlet through the air conditioning. 

Clearly, as much thought has also gone into the smallest aspect, from the blood visibly pumping through Cassandra’s veins, to the script of the future English language and the twisting of notions and facts over generations and millennia, as exemplified in the legendary Ostrich egg and what Cassandra believes is called an iPod. It is this iPod which leads to a couple of odd moments when pop music becomes part of the soundtrack. I’ve often wondered how Doctor Who would work with the use of contemporary pop music in it. I will admit I wouldn’t have thought of putting a shot of a space station drifting towards the destruction of the Earth to the strains of Brittany Spears’ TOXIC, but that’s what the production team have done and in a strange way it works.

And speaking of the soundtrack, Murray Gold’s work on this episode is a great improvement on the first’s pumping electro-beats, a somewhat calmer tone which is far less intrusive than that of its predecessor. 

It is also good to have a pre-credits sequence in place, acting as the closest thing we’ll get to the cliffhangers of old in this new mostly single episode format. I gather they are here to stay, and jolly good too!

Finally, what are the comedic highpoints of the episode? Well, there are so many. The wonderfully cantankerous steward’s ‘shop floor’ announcement about the owner of the blue box. Rose introducing herself to a twig. The Doctor’s “What you gonna do? Moisturise me?” retort to the threat posed by the villain’s henchmen. Or how about Cassandra’s throw away line about her youth? There is so much here to chose from, even some slightly more adult orientated jokes, which I will admit slightly shocked me. 

But then this isn’t the Doctor Who of 1963 to 1989. This is something else. And absolutely fantastic it is too!

As with “Rose,” I’m reviewing this episode after only one viewing, although I must say after re-watching “Rose” I did pick up on some things I didn’t notice the first time around and I’m even fonder of that story now than I was when writing my review.

First off, the Mill and the production team as a whole has to receive a huge thumbs up for the best visual effects seen on an episode of Doctor Who. They AT LEAST equalled those seen in the TV Movie in my opinion. I loved the look of Platform One – very pristine, very art-gallery like – exactly the kind of place you’d imagine a bunch of celebrities watching the World’s End. In particular the robotic spiders, the Mox of Balhoun and of course the Lady Cassandra all stood out as wonderful ideas that finally can be realised with credibility thanks to the budget and the amazing people working on the show. 

As for the story, I was very happy to see that it continued at the pace “Rose” ran along at. From the first two episodes, this series never lets you catch a breath let alone leave you with a dull moment! 

The variety of aliens on show was something I was both looking forward to, yet was slightly worried about – after all, if they looked crap in this day and age the series would lose viewers faster than the BBC regenerates it’s Doctors. However, as I mentioned above I was impressed with most of them – only the blue humanoid and blue midget aliens I thought were a bit unimaginative, at least in their appearance, though Davies’ script did take the time to introduce us to the female plumber and let her win our sympathies before making her the robotic spiders’ first victim, and she was more developed as a character than some of the more-hyped aliens in the story. Why did she need “permission to speak?” Is our future as full of prejudice and class division as our society now?

The first half of the story’s “whodunit” format was a clever route to take. Despite being a “family show,” I knew that even kids would work out that the faceless guys dressed in black robes who sound like Darth Vader were a little too obvious to be the real villains – my money was on the female Tree or the Lady Cassandra. After I’d heard the Mox speak and all the women in the room go “aah,” that ruled him out of contention. 

Davies script, apart from being a fast, funny and compelling sci-fi romp is also a lovely piece of social commentary – how only the richest and most famous life-forms are invited to watch the End of the World – an activity in itself which seems a bit weird; sick even – and in making the Lady Cassandra the villain (who incidentally got the biggest laugh of the show from me when she talked about “being a little boy”… wonderful stuff Russell), this vile piece of skin who thought about nothing else than being rich, “…thin and dainty…”; the epitome of a self-obsessed shallow individual certainly gives us pause for thought in our “nip and tuck” culture.

Ecclestons’ comments to the media about the Doctor being “brutal to his enemies” didn’t really wash last week as he wanted to give the Nestene a chance (very like the Doctors of old) but this week I see what Eccleston meant as Cassandra was left to dehydrate and explode quite gruesomely. Perhaps not quite as brutal as the 6th Doctor’s cold-blooded killing of the villainous Shokeye in “The Two Doctors”, Doctor number 9 seems to have dealing with his enemies spot on.

It’s so sad to say now we know that he’s leaving in the Christmas Special, but Christopher Eccleston really is the perfect Doctor for the 21st century. He can handle action – for example, look this week how he strolled right up to the mime-droid thingys and ripped one of their arms off. He looks like he’s always one step ahead – “…if you’re as clever as I am you can reverse a teleportation beam…”. He’s very funny, has a great accent (up the North!!!), and as this week’s episode shows, he can show emotion, far better than any of the previous Doctor’s ever did if I dare be so bold, though I’m sure that has more to do with the wonderful script than the quality of the Doctor. My favourite thing about him though is that he goes at a hundred miles an hour, he has that zesty Tom Baker/ McGann quality and he still has that Hartnell/Colin Baker grumpiness about him. We’ll miss you Chris!

Now thinking back to “Rose” for a moment, the Doctor mentioned fighting in “the war” and was at his most emotional when he was pleaded that he couldn’t save the Nestene’s world, that he “…couldn’t save ANY OF THEM,” implying world other than those belonging to the Nestene were destroyed. At the time, I thought the reference was just an allusion to the upcoming Aliens of London / World War III two-parter, but it is beginning to look like far more. 

Still thinking back, I loved the Doctor’s reply to Rose when he just answered “yep” to her question about him being alien – no mention on Gallifrey or the Time Lords; I was hoping that this issue would be given the proper time to be explored in another episode. I think that the production team has taken a far better approach in spreading the ‘revelations’ about the Doctor out, there was already enough in the first episode for new viewers to take in without sticking in a throwaway one-liner about the Doctor’s homeworld.

It surprised me how beautifully the Doctors’ origins were explored by this episode, beginning with Rose’s argument with the Doctor about where he’s from and he wouldn’t answer. “You wouldn’t know where it is anyway!” He couldn’t bring himself to say the name. Secondly, through the female Tree scanning the Doctor, then later revealing to him that she knows where he is from. That scene has to be my favourite of the first two episodes – the Doctor with a manly tear trickling down his cheek, the Tree putting her hand (branch/sap?) on his arm to comfort him and so eloquently summing up the thoughts of collected fandom “…it is a miracle that you even exist.” Even then, he couldn’t bring himself to speak he was so overcome with grief. 

The implication that Gallifrey has been destroyed, making the Doctor the last of the Timelords, is a superb idea for the new series as like almost 42 years ago in “An Unearthly Child,” the Doctor is once again truly out on his own, a wanderer in the fifth dimension, only this time he is further than home than he ever has been before – he can NEVER go home because it isn’t there. His decision to take Rose to witness the destruction of her homeworld must have been his way of letting her see his pain, letting her feel his loss, bringing her closer. After the adventure was over, the Doctor finally explaining to Rose about his world being destroyed brought the episode to a fitting and emotionally-satisfying climax, eventually ending with the Doctor taking Rose back to contemporary London for a bag of chips, the message as Eccleston said being something like “enjoy life, because it doesn’t last forever.”

Easy as it was for the Doctor to simply whip the TARDIS back nearly five billion years so Rose could still enjoy her world, I’m almost positive that the Doctor can’t travel back in time to Gallifrey before it’s destruction, the ramifications to the timeline would be too great and even if they weren’t, I’m sure Timelords are born into a specific time and at least on Gallifrey lead linear lives, to have TARDISes popping up all over Gallifreyan history would be too chaotic to think about! In the “classic series,” stories on Gallifrey always took place in a linear order, though I think this was more to do with stories making sense to the viewers! Maybe that infamous “Time barrier” surrounding the planet did just that – blocked out time travel? Who knows. I’m sure this question will be addressed down the line, as will the other wonderful questions raised – what was this war? WHAT HAPPENED TO GALLIFREY? 

The destruction of his planet may help get the Doctor over with the new audience as more of a tragic and lonely character, but to a seasoned fan who has seen every existing episode and listened to most of Big Finish’s audio offerings, the loss of Gallifrey is hard to comprehend. What of President Romana? Leela? The High Council? Rassilon, Omega… all that history, gone. It’s still hard to take in! I heard that the destruction of Gallifrey was going to be in the final 8th Doctor BBC novel, though I sincerely hope not as now it’s been set up it HAS TO be explored on screen, if not in this series than in the next (thanks for series 2 by the way, BBC Wales!)

There were so many little touches to this story that brought a smile to my face, moments of outright comedy (the Doctor dancing to “Tainted Love” on the jukebox; amusing referred to as an “iPod!!!”; his “jiggery-pokery” with Rose’s Nokia!) to moments of horrific poignancy (that awful Britney Spears song, “Toxic,” being played as a piece of ‘classic’ music as the world ends; Rose commenting that the world ended and ‘no-one noticed’ because they were too busy saving themselves.) Far too many little touches to give credit to in a review.

As the first sort of “regular” story I can’t see how anyone would not be impressed by it. Horrible little robotic spiders running around, people (and Trees) being burned alive, and best of all the intrigue surrounding the Doctor, his world, and his relationship with Rose. I hope this character development continues as it has been doing, slowly, a little bit at a time, and I’m very interested to see how Mark Gatiss’ story continues to develop the relationship between our heroic duo next week as Russell T. Davies has done so brilliantly thus far…

Beginning at the beginning, it's surprisingly cool to see "Doctor Who" starting off with a modern-day-TV-style "previously on Doctor Who" clips montage (though they didn't use the words) and then a pre-credits teaser before launching into the title sequence. I like it!

It's also extremely cool to have so many amazing visuals to see in a "Doctor Who" episode. And it's hard to pick favorites too... there's all the exterior shots of the Platform, the swelling red sun, the Earth, the shuttles, the fantastic shot of the exploding Earth (I wonder which will be better... this shot or the one in US theaters in 3-1/2 weeks time... this one will be tough to beat), all the different sorts of alien life forms (especially Cassandra), the spider robots, etc. etc. etc. They pulled out all the visual stops on this and turned in shot after gorgeous shot, and gave the series as a whole the extra-strength steroidal shot it needed to put all the low-budget complaints from the critics aside in a big way.

All the different aliens were terrific both in their extremely creative designs and well-executed appearances. This would all be for nought, of course, if all they were was what they looked like, but selected members of them are given good screen time and good things to say, do, and be. Though all good, the best of this bunch were Jabe, Cassandra, and Raffalo the plumber (note: all female). I love the idea of Jabe's people being intelligent trees to whom a breath of carbon-dioxide-filled air from your lungs is an intimate gift... I love the satire dripping from every appearance of Cassandra and her moisturizing men... and I especially loved Raffalo the plumber who needs permission to speak and is grateful to Rose for giving it to her. My heart really sank when Rose left and we stayed with her shot because it was then obvious she was about to get killed. The fact that it did sink proves how quickly she became endearing, thanks to both the character writing and the wonderful performance by Beccy Armory. I say she was unrecognizeable enough to be given another part in the next season. Anyone else agree?

I loved most of the humor in this... a particular favorite was Cassandra's mistaking a jukebox for an iPod and her choices of music. Note how at first the songs seem to be nothing more than jokes, but then note how the lyrics are suspiciously appropriate for the scene in question (especially "Toxic"'s), and then note who it was selected the songs... Cassandra was giving herself away here, though no one in the station noticed apart from perhaps the Doctor... he seems to keep looking in Cassandra's direction as though he's already figured out it was her when he's using the spider-bots to find the culprit. And my favorite funny line: "What are you gonna do? Moisturize me?"

There were three scenes in particular that stood head and shoulders above the rest of the story, for the emotion they each conveyed. 

In chronological order, the first was the one where Rose and the Doctor have their argument about how he's just letting the TARDIS translate for her mind without asking her first and then she demands to know who he is and he very angrily won't tell her. You instantly wonder what he's being so defensive about, and when you look at Eccleston's face, he looks genuinely damaged here. Then he calms down, does some jiggery-pokery with Rose's cell phone, and lets her call her mum five billion years ago, which cheers her up no end and is pretty moving in itself. I got a little lump in my throat as Rose realized she was really talking to her mum... that smile Billie used here lit up the scene more than the swelling sun. 

The second scene is the one where the tremendously regal and beautiful Jabe reveals to the Doctor that she knows what he is and how she can't believe he exists and how very sorry she is. Again, it's the look on the Doctor's face... that look of real hurt and damage that tells you something big has happened to him, even more than Jabe's dialog did. (though it could also have been because someone spoiled the secret for me in advance) 

The third scene is the final one, where the Doctor takes Rose back to present-day London and a crowded street where they can smell chips, to show her both that her world is still there and that it won't last forever. It reminded me in a way of the scene from part one of "The Trial of a Time Lord" when the Doctor is trying to console Peri for similar reasons, only this scene had the tremendous advantage of being able to be shown and not told, thanks to the newer (and probably very blown) budget. This would've been a great scene if it had stopped here, but it became a classic one when he reveals to her that his planet's been destroyed in a war that they lost (undoubtedly the same one that turned the Nestenes into refugees), and that he's the last of the Time Lords. That damaged look crossed his face again here, only this time it was followed by a look of healing... as though this may have been the first time he's been able to actually say this to anyone, and just getting it out has helped him. His choice of ultimate destination for Rose's first trip is clearly the choice of his subconscious... like it needed to see Earth's sort-of-natural death. That, I think, is why he went there... not to impress Rose, but to sort out these events in his own mind, though I suspect he didn't realize this consciously until the end of the episode. My fan genes wonder how he can be certain that he's the last of the Time Lords, given that there were a number of renegades out there in the universe like the Monk, or Drax, or the Rani, who you'd think weren't on Gallifrey when whatever happened happened, or that there might still be some locked away in Shada, or other things like this, but for now I'll take him at his word. I'm also wondering where the TARDIS is getting its power from now, but there's loads of ways to answer that too, and again, I can be patient.

The "damaged" Doctor bit also goes some way to explaining his actions (inactions?) in the final scene back on Platform One with Cassandra, where he teleports her back and then doesn't lift a finger to prevent her drying out and dying. His morality has shifted it seems, and seems more stereotypical Texan-Republican than the Gallifreyan we used to know... seeing it destroyed must be the trigger for this, and I suspect we'll get to know why in more detail later on. I hope Rose helps him on this, as she just starts to in this story just by being his emotional sounding board at the end. I think she'll try, and I'm guessing that's a thread they'll be exploring at times during the season.

This episode is not perfect, however, and my chief complaints are with the basic plot, which relies too much on tried and true cliches of both "Doctor Who" and the genre in general. It's another by-the-numbers story like "Rose" was, again possibly deliberately as just getting her and the audience into such a scenario is a job in itself, but the numbers were just too familiar for me this time. The worst cliche of the bunch is the set-piece at the end with the giant rotating fan blades. When "Galaxy Quest" did the same thing with pistons, it was funny because it was pointing out how pointless these straight-out-of-a-video-game set pieces are, but here they actually tried to play this straight and it failed miserably... apart from perhaps the very last bit where the Doctor uses what seems to be his time-senses to get through the last fan. But really, this was a real let-down, and it really cheapened Jabe's death for me, since it was so tired and contrived.

On a lesser note, I'm also wondering how pulling the arm off of one of the Meme robots and then yanking something out of the arm caused all of them to fall over dead. Eh?

The cliches in the plot didn't ruin my enjoyment of the episode, however, since most everything else was so right. I think I'll go with another 8 out of 10 for this one.

I came to really like Rose after my third viewing, and feel it’s a strong serial despite its problems. In this respect I may also develop an appreciation for the second story in the new Doctor Who series. And yet Rose initially left me feeling mostly positive – I recognised that the strengths of the episode far outweighed the weaknesses. The End Of The World, however, left me feeling flat on first watching it, and a second viewing has not really improved things.

I think what undermines this entire story is an air of facetiousness that makes it difficult to take anything seriously. Presumably this is to help inject comedy into the show, but instead it makes the show seem somewhat silly, very much like the stories of McCoy’s first season. Unfortunately, Russel T. Davies, while good at delivering the odd witty line here and there, is not very good at pacing his comedy so that it blends in well with horror, suspense or the darker elements of the show. He seems to lack the ability of past writers like Robert Holmes, Douglas Adams and even Eric Saward.

The underlying story borrows heavily from Adams’ The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe. There’s the similar presence of dignitaries and the rich getting together in a protected space station to view a large-scale cosmic event. There is also a similar ending, where the heroes (be they the Doctor and Rose, or Ford and Arthur Dent) return to a younger Earth before it was destroyed and muse on its future destruction and the futility, and somewhat absurdity, of it all. The idea that the Earth has been held in its classical state and protected by gravitational devices for what seems to be none other than artistic reasons is rather charming, and the whole context, while not original, is a welcome sight in Doctor Who.

The mystery theme built into the plot works quite well. The identities of the repeated Ming are secretive and their appearance makes them quite chilling. They are obviously the bad guys, as the Doctor points out. The impact of the mystery was never really who the saboteurs were, but what they were planning and why. At this level, the story fails to deliver. Firstly, because Cassandra’s role as the brains behind the scheme is revealed by the Doctor without any real effort on his part. He merely kicks the little spider droid and tells it to find its mummy like a puppy dog. Is there any reason why it should obey the Doctor? Did he reprogramme the spider? If so, why didn’t we see it? And secondly, even when Cassandra is revealed to be the real enemy, the “why” element fails simply because her plan is utterly ludicrous. If you’ve seen the show, you know what I mean. Even the Doctor comments on what a daft plan it is. Her vanity and ideas of race purity could have been played upon to construct a far more interesting scheme than simply demanding ransom money from kidnapping the people on board. While a hostage situation may have worked, why did she choose such a precarious environment in which to do it – and then herself make the environment even more precarious? And finally when the Doctor uncovers her plot, she resorts to that terrible writer’s clichй: the backup plan! Her going on about having shares in rival companies and making mega-profits due to their deaths is bloody inane.

I feel the Doctor in this story is far worse than in Rose, and all the elements that were wrong about his character in the first story come to the fore here. One of these factors is the Doctor’s lack of explanation regarding what he is doing and his over-reliance on gadgetry. It’s never really clear what the Doctor is doing when working with technology, and one of the most frustrating aspects of this story is the over-use of the sonic screwdriver to unlock doors, play with keypads, find out data, phase out spider droids, etc. without even the slightest bit of explanation what is going on. This Doctor seems to be the least resourceful yet; when in the slightest bit of trouble, out comes the sonic screwdriver, some slightly psychic paper or a similar gadget to deal with it. Think of how his reprogramming of the spider with the sonic screwdriver mirrors his cutting off the Nestene signal to the detached arm in Rose with whatever he was using. Another thing that struck me was when the Doctor passed through the final revolving blade to activate the station’s shields. Once again, his seemingly Jedi abilities only serve to highlight that this is a Doctor, unlike his predecessors, who isn’t particularly good at using his wits and ingenuity, and instead relies on “a magic ring to rub” as Glitz told the Sixth Doctor.

In fact I am finding the Doctor’s portrayal to be very concerning indeed. In Rose he was very manic, with bizarre grinning for no reason and mood swings from buffoonery to deadly earnestness. While this might have worked – as it did work at times for Troughton and Tom Baker – Eccleston’s grinning, inane outbursts (like his “Fantastic!” in this story that was totally inappropriate, prompting Jabe to understandably inquire why such a dangerous situation was in any way fantastic) and constant laughing occur at the least appropriate times. He doesn’t do it to annoy or deflect an enemy, or to put them off guard by seeming a clown – he just does it, all the time, for no apparent reason. What’s worse, I guess, is that it doesn’t even come across as intelligent buffoonery, but like a five-year-old who has drunk too much red cordial. Think of the scene when the Doctor starts bopping to “Tainted Love”!!! I mean, this isn’t eccentric behaviour, it’s sad behaviour!

Now onto the death of Cassandra. In the past, the Doctor has stood by and failed to save a villain’s life at the last moment, even when it was in his power to do so, the most famous example being the Master’s apparent death in Planet Of Fire. With the new series, however, the Doctor seems to have a new view on how he deals out death, or allows it to be dealt out, which is rather disturbing. Firstly, perhaps because he is revealed to be the last of the Time Lords, the Ninth Doctor has an almost Judge Dred-like opinion on his responsibilities. His comments to Cassandra as she dries and dies suggest that everything has its time and place and her time was over. However, the look in the Doctor’s eyes and his body language tell us something else entirely different: here is a Doctor who has decided that she should die because of the deaths she has caused. The Doctor has done this in the past but has always shrouded his beliefs in a higher morality that seems to justify his negligence. This Doctor only says, “Oh well, that’s life” but with burning anger in his eyes. And there is the second problem with the Ninth Doctor’s approach to death and killing: he is far too emotional. I think it’s quite clear that the Doctor allowed Cassandra to die because she had caused the deaths of others – that is, he is her judge – but specifically he allowed her to die because she had indirectly caused Jabe’s death. The Doctor had developed an emotional attachment with Jabe and was filled with feelings of anger and hatred; his response was revenge. This is very dangerous ground for Doctor Who. A Doctor whose actions seem to justify revenge is completely at odds with the character’s established history. His judgement is also heavily clouded by his emotions. Why did the Doctor give the Nestene Consciousness a chance when it was already responsible for many deaths, such as Wilson the CEO of the department store where Rose worked? The reason is obvious: he never knew Wilson and never felt any kind of emotional attachment to him, therefore he judges the Nestene Consciousness impartially. But in this story, he deals with Cassandra as a form of revenge trip because of Jabe’s death. The Doctor should represent a figure, a hero, who does not resort to revenge, especially not on emotional imbalances.

While I hope some of this behaviour will mellow in future episodes, the Ninth Doctor seems to be the most immature of Time Lords, a veritable teenager in his ludicrous, socially inept behaviour, his resort to the “quick fix” solution of gadgetry and other devices, and his dangerous emotional imbalances.

Now on to the even bigger revelation that all the Time Lords are kaput and the Doctor is the last of his race. This was sweetly begun in a very touching scene between Jabe and the Doctor, which both actors pulled off in style. If only they’d left it there! The mystery surrounding the Doctor would have remained and instead of being an answer, this scene would merely raise more questions, more Doctor Who? After deliberately keeping the audience in the dark in Rose and doing so also throughout most of this story, Russell T. Davies spoils the show at the end when the Doctor reveals all. Why? What is the point? Unless there is a story during the series that will work off this revelation, I don’t think any kind of revelation should have been made at all.

The pacing and length of this story really harms characters, I feel. If you compare the screen time and development of characters in a story like The Curse Of Peladon with this story the difference is obvious. We see, for example, the Ice Warriors in the former serial as initially a threat, then as suspicious, then as honourable, etc. and others like Alpha Centauri and King Peladon also get a lot of development. However in this story, some characters, while looking great, like the Face of Moe and the Moxx of Balhoon, either say very little or nothing at all. A lot of money was spent on characters that were on screen for only about five or six minutes. When the Moxx died at the end of the story, his death should have elicited at least some kind of emotional reaction, but we don’t really get to know him, all we know is that he can deliver a mean spit ball. This is a problem.

The dialogue was great at times (“gift of air from my lungs”, “if you think that’s amazing, you should see the bill”, etc.), pedestrian through most of the story, and at times downright rubbish. Again there was a lot of unnecessary innuendo. As in Rose, the sexual references are obviously put in for humour, and while I don’t think Doctor Who is the ideal medium in which to talk about “prostitutes” and “bitchy trampolines” if you’re going to use this kind of language, at least make it funny. (Lewd language also says very little about the quality of English being imparted to children. One of the most enjoyable aspects of Doctor Who I found as a child was the use of quite a sophisticated English vocabulary and the artistry of constructing beautiful dialogue in a TV show.) When Jabe asks the Doctor about Rose’s relationship with him, why on Earth would she think Rose is his prostitute? (Other than the fact that the Doctor is actually dressed like a 20th century pimp, that is…) She is a tree, so her understanding of relationships should have been reflected in that way, perhaps asking the Doctor if Rose was his leaf stylist, herbalist, fertiliser, or hopefully something better! Rose then proceeds to tell Jabe to bring the Doctor back by midnight and leaves them to “pollinate” (her a relevant term, but the consequences are quite gross). The innuendo surrounding Jabe’s liana is also quite farcical. I’m surprised the Doctor didn’t say, “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours!” The attempts by Russell T. Davies to make Doctor Who funny, “contemporary” and “relevant” should not resort to ill-used, banal sexual humour.

After all that criticism, I should point out that there were some really great things about this story. Billie Piper is brilliant again as Rose – the lines written for her are great and Piper delivers them with conviction. Her culture shock by being surrounded by something so different is well portrayed, as is the Doctor’s concern for her. The scenes where she speaks with the maintenance worker and realises she doesn’t know who the Doctor is at all, and then insists on the Doctor telling her who he is are magnificent. And the way the Doctor makes up for his secrecy and Rose’s insecurity in the new environment by fixing her mobile so that she can call home is rather silly but charming and the joke at the end is well worth it. It’s a shame Rose spends quite a substantial amount of time stuck in a room about to be vaporised by pure sunlight, since she could have been used to uncover Cassandra’s plot rather then the unimaginative way it actually was uncovered. Finally, the reason for Rose understanding alien languages is well handled – a tip of the hat to the “Time Lord gift” mentioned in The Masque Of Mandragora. Thank God there wasn’t a Babel fish in sight!

Jabe is another interesting character and well acted. Her death was very touching and it was wise and noble of the director not to show us her charred remains. The initial greetings and gifts given by the various alien races are superb. Cuttings from Jabe’s grandfather, spitting by the Moxx, even the Doctor’s gift of air from his lungs, are inventive, relevant, funny and insightful. The line about the Titanic, though seemingly lifted from Robot, was great too.

The costumes, make-up, sets and effects glow with heaps of money being thrown at them. Once again the music was generally obtrusive and used poorly, especially during the spider scenes, where instead of the music complementing to their menace, actually made them rather cute and certainly less of a threat. 

Perhaps I just don’t shine to Russell T. Davies’ writing. Lots of people seem to have enjoyed The End Of The World and it certainly was fun. The third episode looks very promising, so I’m anticipating greater things to come! 4/10