Finally! A Russell T. Davies episode that I really enjoyed!

Ok, so I liked "Rose", and "The End of the World" was good. "Aliens of London" and "World War 3" just made me want to cringe at times. Taken as a whole, Mr. Davies episodes have been the weaker ones of this run of Doctor Who, being somewhat lean in the plot department and filled with left-wing political preaching, sexual innuendo and juvenile humor in the form of flatulent aliens or burping trash bins. "The Long Game" avoids most of these pitfalls to one extent or another (apart from the ever-present left-wing politics... one would think we're watching televised NAs here), though it has a few of its own. On the whole, it's pretty good.

Just to knock out the complaints first, so I can get on to the strengths of the episode, let's start with the year: 200,000? I mentioned this in my review of "Bad Wolf" since the setting is the same, but there's no way that I can accept so many similarities to the 21st century would exist 198,000 years in the future. Look at how much societies have changed in 2000 years, or 5000. It's night and day, and yet the year 200,000 looks not too dissimilar than our own time, some technical and architectural details aside. It's absurd.

Leaving that aside, the idea of a society manipulated and made docile by the mass media is nothing new, but it's handled well enough here. The Doctor, Rose and Adam arrive during the time of "the fourth great and bountiful human empire" to find that empire's growth has been stunted by media manipulation. People don't think or question, they just accept what they're spoon-fed on the 24-hour news and information network, broadcast from Satellite Five. Evidently they don't have the sense to turn the TV off.

Naturally, the Doctor smells a rat and starts to sniff out the source of the problem. In the context of this story, unlike others this season, it seems appropriate that he does not himself end the threat, but instead leads Cathica to the truth of events so that she can end it, since his goal once he determines what the problem is, is to get people to think for themselves. Of course, there's likely to be anarchy and chaos for a while if the population is as dependent on media as the episode makes them out to be.

Cathica and Suki were both well-realized characters. The episode's only real "uh-oh, something's wrong here" moments came when Suki steps from the lift into the glorious floor 500 only to find an icy room with dead people. It wasn't hard to guess that this was where she would end up, but the scene still worked well, as did her sudden change into freedom-fighter mode, which I did not expect. The misdirection at the beginning of the episode where the Editor talks about someone being out of place is well executed as well. I (of course) expected that he was talking about the Doctor and Rose rather than Suki, so her singling out as the one out of place and promotion was a nice little twist.

Cathica's desire to avoid trouble and not be involved with the Doctor's little bit of anarchy is nicely realistic, but it's also nice to see that she has enough curiosity or concern to take the elevator up to the 500th floor and see what's there. And it's nice to see that she has the courage to act when the true facts are presented to her. My friend who watched this episode with my wife and me got a good laugh out of the "you should have promoted me years ago" line, and decided that the moral of the story was "always promote your good employees".

I like the villains of this episode. I've not seen Simon Pegg in anything else, but he seems to be enjoying his role in this episode, and is indeed one of the highlights. His character, The Editor, is mean and nasty by virtue of his actions, but he's also amusing and fun to watch. I get the sense that he enjoys his job, though I wonder how he got it, and what happened to the marketplace of ideas when it comes to news, if indeed the Jagrafess and satellite 5 have a monopoly on the media. The Editor says that he works for a consortium of banks, seemingly another swipe at the free market and capitalism by RTD, when ironically the free market and competition of ideas would solve the problem presented us by the episode.

The Jagrafess is a big nasty zit with teeth, with no real motivation. Cool monster, but if I were him, would I hang around in a space station playing network executive? Not likely, but maybe that's what Jagrafesses the universe over like to do.

As for the regulars, temporary and otherwise, they all get a decent amount of screen time. The Doctor acts as troublemaker and motivator, a typical but well-executed role for the character. Rose has less to do than usual, but we get to watch the rather interesting idea of a companion who is along for the ride so he can get something out of it. Adam has some backbone to get that thing installed in his head, if not a lot of common sense. The Doctor's condemnation of him and unceremonious dumping of him back home is rather cruel, especially considering that the Doctor facilitated his actions in the first place by encouraging him to jump in with both feet, and by giving him the unlimited finances that enabled Adam to pay for his operation. The ending of the episode leaves a sour taste in my mouth since Adam in no way deserved quite so harsh a punishment. Hopefully we'll see the situation remedied somewhere down the line.

Overall: a nice self-contained episode where nothing terribly cringe-worthy happens. The message of the episode does not overwhelm the plot and the guest actors are all excellent. 8 out of 10.

One thing I admire most about the new series is the way that every episode fits into a wider narrative as semi-independently of the story that it tells. This creates a sort of loose story arc that is designed to create not just an advancing plot but also characterisation and theme. However, there has to be a healthy balance as an episode is still required to tell a good story in its own right, and that's where The Long Game falls down. Opinion of it reflects this: it bottomed out the Outpost Gallifrey season one poll, and many reviews have been negative. I don't feel that it's the worst episode of the season, but in terms of sheer structure it's arguably the one with the most flaws.

The opening scene is actually quite fun, with Russell T. Davies writing quirky dialogue that manages to stay on the right side of indulgence. It is let down by the big plank that is Bruno Langley as the abortive companion Adam: Dalek was too good for him to let it down, but that's not the case here. Also, the notion that Rose is wilfully cheating on Mickey (see also The Empty Child) makes me wonder about the moral centre (I don't want to sound prudish but I'm a white middle-class guy from Surrey and it'll only be a few years until I'm made illegal). We see a brief shot of Satellite Five before the titles, and the cross between The Ark In Space and 2001: A Space Odyssey works brilliantly creating a much more inventive design than the one for The End Of The World.

After the titles the gig gets wrecked by what I call the Kronkburger scene, as that piece of nonsense perfectly epitomises this sub-Dragonfire set-up of people running round ordering fast food; at least in that episode the milkshakes didn't taste of beef. The music is irritating (Murray Gold is generally okay but he really can't do jauntiness) and the scene is in general overly camp – something Davies stated he was going to be careful about. The Doctor as written by him is completely at odds with the character as written by anyone else, as the sparkling eccentricity that has made him such a captivating television figure for so many years gives way to simple buffoonery. In this case the Doctor is deliberately putting on an act, but for the series in general that point stands. Furthermore, the unimaginative design of the year 200 000 has bee criticised so much that I'm not going to go into it here. It's not all bad though: the massive infodump given by Cathica is at least given some context with the Doctor pretending to be from management, and Simon Pegg puts in a great performance that perfectly suits a character that could so easily slip into pantomime.

The aforementioned beef slush-puppy is another deeply silly scene and continues Davies's habit of creating a largely comedic contextual universe for the characters: in the original series the settings were serious and comedy was added later by the characters, and comedy doesn't feel at all appropriate when it becomes intrinsically part of a non-comedic narrative. It's strange that in an episode featuring two notable comedy actors that I should be complaining about this while praising Pegg as one of its best features. Also of note is Cathica's introduction of "ladies, gentlemen, multisex, undecided"; one of Davies's hobbies seems to be provoking reactions with gratuitous references to sex and sexuality. This is something I never wanted to discuss any episode in relation to, but the cumulative effect throughout the series makes it difficult to ignore. The fact that no aliens are in the room at the time makes it dramatically unjustified, and it merely comes across as self-indulgent writing. I don't want to sound parochial or like I hate the very concept of sex and gender in Doctor Who (not at all); all I have a problem with is Davies's constant need to bait his audience. I'll say again that it's the cumulative effect of the series as a whole that sees me vent my frustration at this scene, as I don't want to mislead you as to the significance of it on its own.

The information stream is a hardly a gigantic leap of imagination, but is certainly off the wall in practice mainly because of the completely loopy idea of people having holes in their heads; unlike, say, Aliens Of London's space pig this sees Davies get right the mix if humour and the genuinely disturbing.

The revelation that Suki is a rebel is an interesting twist as the viewer is expecting the Doctor to be identified. The snowy floor 500 looks brilliant and contains a genuine jump-moment when the corpses are discovered. It is well directed by Brian Grant, who makes good use of a handheld camera, but does go on too long. It finishes with Suki's death though, which is a great moment especially considering that, like many of Davies's episodes, the mortality rate is a fairly low 33.3%.

So far the episode isn't terrible, but I can't shake the feeling that more should have happened by now. It is paced like original series episodes were when they had a leisurely hour and forty minutes to tell their story. This is the main problem with the episode that, through its poor execution, a good core idea goes to the dogs. We're halfway through the episode, and we're still at the initial-setup stage of the plot.

Tamsin Greig's creepy, subtly suggestive performance as the nurse is something I can't quite fathom out, but it certainly tops anything that Langley can manage acting opposite her. The Editor's line about nonentities being promoted is another stalling attempt at satire from Davies; like the low-brow toilet gags and occasional smut the cumulative effect is very grating, and the same goes for the vomit-o-matic.

I'd just like to say that I note with glee the fact that the lift door wobbles as the Doctor and Rose enter it.

Only once the heroes have been captured do we learn anything new since the beginning, either for the episode itself or its place in the series – so badly is The Long Game constructed. However, the confrontation between the Doctor and the Editor is very good and the Jagrafess looks amazing, although its silly convoluted full name sees Davies plumb the depths by plagiarising himself having come up with the ridiculous 'Raxicoricofallipatorius' for World War Three. The 'slave' discussion is great, but why doesn't the Editor sense Cathica come into the room since he's just said how he can detect everyone's thoughts?

The explanation of the Jagrafess leads to many unanswered questions and is inadequate. This is largely intentional, but that doesn't make it a good thing. The Long Game is merely a forty-five minute trailer for Bad Wolf, without containing any real substance to sustain it independently. Taken on its own terms the viewer merely comes away thinking "is that it?", and if I hadn't heard Davies say that these questions would be answered I wouldn't have given it the benefit of the doubt.

And, with that, the Jagrafess is destroyed. Just as the viewer is hoping a bit of proper plot is going to come along the whole thing is over, although we should be grateful that there's no massive fart noise as the Jagrafess explodes. One silly moment is that Suki somehow grabs the Editor even though the zombies' chips are deactivated; even if you explain this away as the Jagrafess taking revenge it's still a cheap attempt at providing dramatic justice. The final scene, in a cursory mention, is straight out of an unfunny sitcom.

I've tried to be kind to this as I've seen many worse episodes (there aren't so many plot holes here as Davies's episodes usually contain), but even so The Long Game is disappointing. It can be seen more sympathetically in the light of Bad Wolf, but in a sense that is irrelevant; however useful it is for the general narrative the fact remains that it is unable to stand up on its own. Therefore, for all it's snappy dialogue and decent visuals, The Long Game remains a very unsatisfying episode.

Hope you’re in the mood for some good eatin’, ‘cos I’m gonna roast a turkey! Season 24 is condemned almost universally as being one of Doctor Who’s weakest: excessive, poorly made and with a ridiculous tone that drives the series into a different but equally poor direction to the one it recently held. However, it always seems to me that Delta And The Bannermen gets of scot free, with many praising it for its intelligent teasing of science fiction values. I say intelligent, but I simply want to get into the swing of the sarcasm that’s going to characterise this review. This is because Delta And The Bannermen is my candidate for Worst Story Ever, one of the only moments to make me ashamed to be a fan. And I don’t like saying that.

Oddly though, it actually begins fairly well with a decently staged battle scene, with some good special effects and some decent pyrotechnics. What lets it down though? The same thing that let a lot of other stories down. Keff. McCulloch. There are so many opportunities to slate him here that in the interests of avoiding repetition I’m going to get it all out of the way now: he is actually Satan himself. His attempts at parodying 1950s rock and roll are revolting (appropriate, though) and this is the third story in a row where a sickening synthy version of the theme music has been jammed into the incidental music. And that’s saying nothing about the sickening synthy version of the theme music that is, in fact, the actual theme music.

Ken Dodd’s manic overacting is painful to watch and, as usual, every time Mel opens her mouth I get the overwhelming desire to plug it with my shoe. While I’m listing through the rubbish characters, then you have to love those comedy Americans! Just picture the forced rictus smile on my face as I wrote that. Stubby Kaye’s line of “Wales, in England” is just about bearable, but a cheap shot. Other than that, it’s dire; the acting is stagy and the dialogue – “it’s exposition, but it’s funny!” – is too crummy for words.

The Navarinos and their bus become part of a completely comedic, parodic universe for the episode that puts it at complete odds with the programme it’s supposed to be. Could you ever imagine the bus being hit by a meteorite and crashing on Sutekh’s rocket, or next to the Chula ambulance? No. Reason? Those two examples are intelligent, well thought-through ideas, and this one belongs on the scrap heap. That’s a big problem with this story: the complete lack of thought. We never get told why Gavrok wants to kill the Chimerons, we never get told why the baby grows like it does; the villains have no real motivation, and many of the other characters act bizarrely as well: see the cliffhanger to part two (the Doctor’s thinking just makes no sense). At least Don Henderson and Belinda Mayne play it straight, although Mayne is so poor that she must have blackmailed the productions staff into casting her. When she shoots the communication screen, Gavrok’s explanation that she “somehow” switched it off demolishes what little credibility he ever had.

The dancing passengers on the bus is another cringe-inducer, and Hawk and Weismuller continue to bury the episode. The special effects of the bus crash are straight out of Button Moon (a shame, as the effects are generally one of the few real good points about season 24), although it’s nice to see the TARDIS actually being used for one. It was always a simple tool for establishing setting but this was taken to an extreme in the McCoy years and to see the Doctor doing something other than piloting it to Earth is a relief.

I’d have to agree with Mel’s assessment: they picked a sucky location, a cheap, run-down package-holiday nest of putrefaction only redeemed slightly by the pleasant countryside around it. Give me a good old reliable quarry, any day. And I’ve nothing against the Welsh, I’ve lived with several in my time, but Burton is seriously annoying. Ray is slightly better (especially in those leathers, nudge nudge), but her exaggerated cute-little-girly characterisation grates. She could be OK, if only she didn’t open her mouth so much.

The Doctor gives the mechanic Billy free reign with a load of alien technology. Timeline? Aw, who cares, let’s rock!

Ken Dodd’s death, after all these jokey shenanigans, seems unnecessary and inappropriately nasty and mean-spirited (a lot like the death of Clive in Rose). If Malcolm Kohll had to pick such a nauseating tone as he largely does, he should at least be consistent.

At the party, Billy is dressed up in a cheap James Dean / Marlon Brando parody. This may seem minor, but in a sense it epitomises what’s wrong with the story: it proclaims to tease 1950s stereotypes while at the same time pandering to them. It doesn’t have the imagination to be truly satirical, and therefore falls short of its targets and ends up being that which it mocks. And for those cameo fans out there, Keff McCulloch can be seen in the band. Funny, if I was him I wouldn’t be so keen to show my face.

At the cliffhanger to part one, the Doctor gives himself away by a feeble sneeze, snapping the needle on my clichй counter. I’d only just mended it in time to lose it again at the sight of Keillor’s smoking shoes: they only just got away with that in the Meltdown episode of Red Dwarf, and that was a comedy programme. This isn’t. It tries to be, but you wouldn’t have heard me laughing. I’m not against comedy in Doctor Who, but a fairly important requirement of comedy is that it should be funny. The model baby is good, but with Mel in the room screaming it’s the sound effects I object to.

Goronwy, at last, is a nice piece of characterisation. His ambiguity is nice, and I like the theory that he may be an old retired Time Lord. It’s only a shame he’s played so camply by Hugh Lloyd.

Oh, and that DJ is entirely unnecessary. Bad review are certainly therapeutic, but I never enjoy slating my favourite show and I’d much rather watch a good episode than a bad one – but I must confess it was only the thought of tearing into it here that kept me going. The idea of an omnipresent threat rapidly approaching is a good one, by boring direction from Chris Clough and its unremittingly saccharine tone suck dry any sense of tension.

Belinda Mayle’s acting when Delta learns the Bannermen are on their way? Lame. David Kinder’s acting when he learns the Bannermen are on their way? Lame. Delta And The Bannermen? Lame. Ray’s catchprase of “He’s been ihyoniiiiiiiiiised!” is really getting on my nerves now and, although it’s not a new observation, those Bannermen really do look like a load of yuppies on an adventure weekend. The deaths of all the Navarinos leave an unpleasant taste, another example of the kind of action adventure this sometimes tries to be. It wants to have it both ways, and consequently succeeds in neither.

As far as part three is concerned, I was getting too sick of it to take notes. My interest was going the same way as my will to live. Gavrok and his Bannermen get stung by bees, and do you know what? I don’t care. The escaped Bannerman is a bit of a wuss really, and is it me or does he look a bit like Andrew Cartmel? The sonic cone on top of the TARDIS makes the end very very obvious, but at least it means the end is in sight. It could be worse: the story could be average length. For those who like this sort of thing, Sylvester McCoy cops a feel of Sara Griffiths when he’s marking out the boundary around the TARDIS. Hey, I need a bit of a laugh, I just watched Delta And The Bannermen. The ending is abrupt and rubbish, poor Ray gets left high and dry, and TURN THAT MUSIC OFF!

Season 24 is to be commended for attempting something new after the suicidal regime of old under Eric Saward, but it seems to be merely an instinctive panic rather than a measured response and nowhere is this better illustrated than Delta And The Bannermen. Much as it pains me to admit it, now that I’ve reviewed it I could comfortably never see it again.

I’ve always been a huge fan of multi-episode story arcs that take two episodes or more to fully develop the story they are trying to tell. The last season of Star Trek: Enterprise was mostly made up of two or three-parters. Having to wait until next week is always exciting. You just never give up guessing what will happen next week, and make the prospect of viewing part two or three even more exciting.

So, with the new series of Doctor Who in full swing, I anxiously await the two-part adventures. They bring the great memory of the original series, waiting until the next week to see what happens next. The first two-part adventure, “Aliens of London” and “World War III,” was a mixed blessing. The first episode was alright. The great suspense, acting, and production values were let down by needless fart-jokes. The second episode, however, was much better.

For me, the second two-part adventure was the one I’d wanted to see the most. As a historian, I always enjoyed watching the Doctor Who adventures that took place in the past. And, while I know that it’s science-fiction, I always look to see if the look and feel of the period is captured correctly. So, with immense excitement, I sat down to watch “The Empty Child,” and then “The Doctor Dances.”

“The Empty Child” washed all my concerns away within the first ten minutes. The period feels right, and the scenes of the London Blitz are exciting, and as historically accurate as you can get within a science-fiction story. The main story itself is also fascinating. The scenes of the empty child, and those he has infected, are terrifying. I never thought that the idea of a “disease as injuries” would work, but it does so brilliantly. And the eerie cliffhanger ending sends chills up the spine, and you wonder what’s going to happen next.

After “The Empty Child,” I thought that it would be hard to come up with a clever follow-up. But the second part of the story, “The Doctor Dances” not only does so, but it proves to be the best episode of the series to date. The visual effects, storytelling, and acting are all at their peak of success. The explanation of what is going on may seem awkward on paper, but works brilliantly on screen. The ending of the episode is really well-done for two reasons. Not only do we see an emotional reunion of Jamie with Nancy (who, it turns out, is not Jamie’s brother, but is actually his mother), but we get to see what has to be a first for Doctor Who: for once, no one dies. It is these fantastic elements that make this episode a classic.

Christopher Eccleston continues to prove himself to be a fantastic Doctor. After his dark turn in “Dalek,” I thought his performance couldn’t get any better. But he proves me wrong in this adventure. We not only laugh at his jokes, and are shocked by his revelations. At the end, we feel what he feels when he realizes that everyone will live at the end of this adventure: we are all filled with joy. His brilliance as an actor continues to surpass expectations for the character.

Billie Piper also continues to shine as Rose. She reminds me a lot of Sarah Jane Smith from the original series. She always seems to get herself into trouble, but manages to always make us laugh. Piper has proven that she can stand side-by-side with Eccleston, and is never over-shadowed by him. Not only that, but she is very attractive to boot!

The new character introduced to the show, Captain Jack Harkness, is very interesting. John Barrowman gives a great performance in the role. He’s not only funny and intelligent (for the most part), but proves that he is worthy of a leading-role in the spin-off series, “Torchwood.” I can’t wait to see what else he can bring to the character in the next few episodes.

In closing, I feel that “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” are the destined to become THE classic adventure of the Eccleston era. But the journey isn’t over yet. There are three more episodes left in the first series of the show. Let’s see how the Doctor will do when he faces his old enemies Margaret (from the first two-parter), and the Daleks in the series’ closing two-part adventure, “Bad Wolf” and “The Parting of the Ways.”

Almost a year after the new Doctor Who series aired in the UK, I’ve purchased the newly-released Canadian DVD box set so that I can finally have a look at this new take on the old Doctor. I’ve tried to avoid too much spoiler information, but it’s impossible to avoid all details if you spend any time on this website, which of course I do. Consequently, while I was looking forward to the new series, I was prepared to be disappointed as well. I’ve read about the Doctor swearing, the flatulent aliens, the same-sex kiss, the Doctor having romantic inclinations towards Rose, the belching trash bin, etc., all of which are things the original series never delved into, and are not necessary to make Doctor Who fresh and successful. So I wondered whether the show would be worth watching and whether my favorite show had become another failed modern remake, bereft of the charm of the original series, despite the high ratings and generally good reviews. 

Does it hit all the right notes? The answer is: mostly. As I opined to my wife after having seen the first seven episodes, the new show is generally good with objectionable bits. Obviously I like it well enough to have watched the episodes, and to watch the rest in time, but I can give few episodes gushing enthusiasm. It’s more of a restrained enjoyment for me. There's a lot of room for improvement on the show. I do think the new theme arrangement is outstanding, probably the best since the Troughton/Pertwee/Baker version. The special effects, while not 100% convincing in some cases, are light-years ahead of the original series. The music is generally good, though it overwhelms the dialogue sometimes and ought to be a bit more restrained. The 45 minute format seems to work quite well, and we get an occasional two-parter, so we’ve not lost cliffhangers entirely. 

Getting down to the story at hand, I have to say that “Rose” is generally quite good. I’ve watched it twice now, and it holds up well. It’s a pretty straightforward story. The Nestenes, having evidently lost their planet in the time war, are intent on taking the Earth for their own. The Doctor is trying to track them down and stop them. Rose Tyler gets dragged into events and like so many before her, ends up becoming involved in the Doctor’s life and travelling with him. 

I’ve read a lot of ‘there’s no plot’ comments about “Rose”. The introduction of Rose is the plot, is it not? The Autons are important, but they dominate the last third of the story rather than the whole episode. We skip the Doctor’s discovery of the threat and the way he works out how to defeat said threat, but admittedly we’ve seen that before, many times. As viewers, we can get straight to the business of defeating the Autons, or we can take a fresh approach and join Rose as she continues to encounter and learn about the Doctor while he’s on the hunt for the hidden Nestene Consciousness. I’d rather take the latter journey. The notorious plot contrivance of ‘anti-plastic’ is admittedly a quick way to finish things off, but dropping it on the consciousness is the equivalent of poisoning someone. As such, it’s a concept that’s sci-fi in name only. 

There are a number of good things about this episode. Showing us events from Rose’s point of view is exactly the right way to go about things. The quick view of her home/job/boyfriend/general daily routine is a very nice encapsulated display of her very ordinary life. Then we see the disruption of that life by the Autons and the plot gathers pace from there. This allows us as viewers to see events unfold from the outside along with Rose and identify with her rather than being thrown right away into the Doctor’s world. It’s not only appropriate to relaunch the series with a back to basics approach, but it doesn’t assume knowledge of prior stories. Both old and new viewers can follow along. Other nice touches in “Rose” include the use of Autons as the enemy of the week. Their use ties the new series in with the old right from the start, as do familiar sound effects like the TARDIS takeoff/landing sound and the Auton handguns. Rose’s use of the internet to gather information about the Doctor is a nice modern touch. Rose herself is a strong character, who gets scared, angry and confused, but also has it within herself to show some heroism when pushed. Billie Piper is quite good in the part. 

Some not so nice touches include over-use of domestic life, which starts to get ‘soap-opera’-like at times. It’s restrained here in the first episode, and even somewhat appropriate given the need to show the ordinary life that Rose will (sort-of) leave behind, but it becomes intrusive later on in “Aliens of London”. Admittedly it is something new that we haven’t seen with prior companions, but I’m not sure I want to see too much more of it. If you’re going to travel, go travel for goodness sake! Enough with Jackie’s gossipy friends and Mickey’s goofiness. Why waste time on that when we could be seeing the universe? I watch Doctor Who for imagination and escapism. not fictionalized depictions of ordinary life. 

Along those lines, the attempted seduction of the Doctor by Jackie was just silly. Introducing sex is an another attempt to make the show more ‘relevant’ and ‘adult’, much like Eric Saward’s tendencies towards including violence and high body counts were meant to make the show more ‘adult’. Both approaches come across as juvenile rather than serious. As do the flatulent aliens later on, but I’ll get to that nonsense when I review “Aliens of London”. The belch from the Auton trash bin is just as lowbrow and unwelcome. 

Moving along, all of the plot and supporting characters are meaningless without a good Doctor, so how does Christopher Eccleston stack up with all of the other Doctors? 

He’s a good actor, and very energetic. He’s a bit more cruel than past Doctors though. He’s very dismissive of humans in general, who have gone from ‘quite my favorite species’ (Ark in Space) to “stupid apes”. While the Doctor has criticized humanity in general in the past, this is certainly a harsher generalization and seems odd for the character. He does have character traits from past Doctors, reminding me of Pertwee on a bad day with his cutting remarks to several people and general short-temperedness. Skipping ahead a bit to “the Long Game”, his abandonment of Adam with the chip in Adam’s head seems especially cruel. Hartnell in the early days might have abandoned companions to their fate (as he suggests in "The Daleks"), but at least he had the excuse of trying to protect Susan. The Doctor grew out of that behavior trait, but seems to have regressed somewhat. 

Eccleston’s Doctor does have the manic grin of Tom Baker’s version, though his take to the character is miles from Tom’s approach. Eccleston’s Doctor takes the ‘big picture’ view of history or a threat that reminds one of Hartnell or Tom Baker. The way he forgets Mickey reminds me of the fourth Doctor’s seeming disregard for Laurence Scarman’s death in Pyramids of Mars, where the good of the race is so paramount in the Doctor’s mind that individual deaths can’t be dwelt upon. However, in contrast to his seeming callousness, the 9th Doctor is still willing to risk his life for others, which says a lot for the selfless side of his nature. In short, I think Eccleston is generally playing the same character as all the others, with many of the same character traits, but with much less patience and likability. I presume a lot of his short temper is due to his losses in the Time War, which is clearly the backstory to just about every episode so far. He has survivor’s guilt and a lot of anger perhaps. 

To wrap things up, “Rose” is a decent episode and a good start to the new series. It’s an improvement on the last few years of the original series, but does not hit the heights that the best serials of the old Doctor Who attained.

As I prepared to view the very first episode of the new Doctor Who series, my mind raced back to the late eighties. I still have fond memories of watching the original show with my Mom when I was young, and the show was on PBS. The excitement, thrills, and humor of the classic series will always fill my mind with times of joy. 

With that being said, the excitement I had for a new episode when I was five came back to this young man of 21. 

Questions began to pop up as well: Will it be as good as the original? 

Will Christopher Eccleston, the star of films such as "28 Days Later" and "The Others," bring the same spirit to the Doctor as his predecessors? 

Will the companion be of much help, or useless as usual?

But those questions and more were answered with an enthusiastic YES! The first episode, "Rose," is a fantastic beginning to the new series. From the very outset, it didn't feel like a new show, but a continuation of the original. The spirit of the classic series is still there, while also having a fresh style. The storytelling is also there; Davies' wrtiting is on par with some of the best in Sci-Fi, from Star Trek to Battlestar Galactica.

Eccleston is brilliant in the role. He brings to the role the excitement and humor that were trademarks of Tom Baker's era, while also bringing new dimensions to the role. Billie Piper is great as Rose Tyler. Finally, a companion who doesn't scream every five seconds, and is actually able to help every once in a while. Other cast members, from Camille Coduri to Noel Clarke, do fine jobs in their roles.

Of course, one of the most exciting things about "Rose" is that instead of inventing a new enemy to begin with, the creators brought back an old nemesis: The Autons, as controlled by the Nestene Consciousness. As with the original Doctor Who adventures "Spearhead from Space" and "Terror of the Autons," the Autons are still frightening, and the wonders of CGI render the Nestene Consciousness as a truly terrifying creature. 

As the episode ended, I sat back in true astonishment. The Doctor was back, and I couldn't wait for the next episode. The cast and crew have done a fantastic job of bringing a new dimension to Doctor Who, while still keeping the spirit of the original series. And with most modern sci-fi shows being too dark and humorless, it's great to have a show come along that doesn't take itself too seriously, and is suitable for younger children as well.

BRAVO!

Grade: A (On a scale of A+ to F)