There was some bad feedback a few weeks ago from someone who had seen the pirated copy of the pilot episode "Rose", about which I was immediately skeptical. The review, that is. It seems my feelings at that time were wholly justified, because I've recently watched said copy myself, and couldn't disagree more. I intended to avoid peeking at it until it showed up on my own TV, but I hadn't figured at this point we Yanks would still be waiting for any word of a network picking it up. Out of courtesy to the current BBC regime, who rule all in time and space for bringing Doctor Who back, I wanted to wait a few days until it launched in England before I wrote my review. Though I don't think anyone should worry since my thoughts are encouraging after all. And I know I'm still going to watch it in its PROPER setting of my television via my cable connection. Let me just start from the top and work forward...

If that pilot episode's a caterpillar, there's probably one effin' sexy butterfly on the way...

The title music isn't the final version in what I saw. I've heard the new arrangement played in several different settings, from the trailers to a snippet aired on one of the BBCs morning shows, and it is a testament to the original's awe and mystique, which literally serves as the backbone for the meat that Murray Gold has grafted onto it. Frankly, I'm dying to hear it in clear digital stereo as soon as some network, ANY network in this land of opportunity decides to pony up for the rights to air the thing! I'm not 100% sure that the title sequence is the final version, either, but I like what I see, and can't wait to see it married to the proper melody.

Now here is where people are going to have the most problem with this episode. It suffers from the exposition syndrome. Folks, you need to get over it. If you want Doctor Who back you're going to have to suffer through the obligatory period of introductions, explanations and plot development. The great news is that, whereas the 1996 TV movie shoe-horned more established history into ninety minutes than anyone could digest without the aid of pharmaceuticals, this one succeeds brilliantly at the same effort in half that time with a sensibly leaner plot.

Some will say that the choice of villain is lame. Some will say the means by which the Doctor handles and resolves things is too easily achieved. Some will say they should have shot from the left in stead of the right. But you know... we're not running the show here. What they've done is the only thing they could do in a case like this. INTRODUCE THE DOCTOR! That's what it's all about, nothing more. The fact that he's got the solution to the whole situation literally up his sleeve is beside the point. By way of character Rose's point-of-view, we get swept up in the Doctor's world, and as you will perceive, events are already under way. Through her eyes, we've just stumbled into the midst of it all, and the fact that these events whizz by at an unsettling pace, brilliantly brings the viewer into Rose's humdrum life and how she herself is struggling to cope with what she's found herself suddenly involved in. But of course, that has always been the place and purpose of the Doctor Who companion: to be the on-screen manifestation of the viewer's interest. Since we can't ask the Doctor "what's going on?" they serve that purpose for us. Some may find the first chunk of the show (I'm not saying how many minutes go by, because that'd give away when things turn interesting!) rather dull, but that's the point. Rose's life is very uninteresting. When she runs into a life-threatening situation there's only one way out, and I'll give you an obvious hint: she doesn't escape on her own.

One thing I noticed was the parallels between this story and the 1996 FOX movie. Certainly, both were out to achieve the same ends, the re-introduction of the Doctor's character. But while the movie went to the length of showing the Doctor regenerate from the last actor from the original series into the new actor, this outing neatly steps past that event and, frankly, I don't miss it. I was delighted to see, as I'm sure many will be, that they even made a brief nod to his most recent regeneration (which apparently took place not too long before the story began!). And the nature of the reference is an even subtler nod to a moment in Tom Baker's post-regenerative recuperation.

This goes a long way to explaining what I'll just call Christopher Eccleston's somewhat over-the-top delivery. The Doctor is apparently still coming to grips with his new body and apparently, in regards to the above-mentioned moment, has dressed himself without a mirror. His demeanor is almost defiantly cheery and his body language has more spring in it's step than a staircase built from Serta mattresses. Once again, some will groan, "Ohhh, no, too much!" But these mannerisms are all the more effective when the flow of chaos is broken by a sudden moment of dramatic lucidity, like when the Doctor explains to Rose who he is is such a way that one is left feeling both transported and at the same time a little saddened at the hint of his inner loneliness.

I mentioned "parallels" between this story and the TV movie. The aforementioned moment of lucidity is similar in mood to a scene in the movie where the Doctor reminisces to his companion Grace about stargazing in his youth, leading unexpectedly to a charming moment involving the fit of his new shoes. The scene in Rose's home reminded me of when Grace brought the Doctor to her house to examine his health. Different events transpire but the way in which each Doctor picks things out from his surroundings and "makes a moment" for the viewer to appreciate. And in the end, the Doctor finds himself restrained and on the verge of destruction, leaving the companion to heroically show their mettle by saving the day by saving him. Hell, I even made connections between things like shots of Doctor and companion running at - and past - the camera hand-in-hand, and the fact that in both cases, the Doctor was seeking an essential something that they only eventually found with the companion's assistance. In the movie it was an atomic clock (or a piece of it), and in this case it;s a transmitter.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not implying plagiarism or re-hashing of old plot devices at all. I'm saying that what this production crew did was take the bare bones elements that the TV movie used and employed them to a much greater effect! And once again I ask, nay, BEG all the viewers, fans and non-fans alike, to consider these things when they have their chance to see it. Once the whirlwind exposition is past, we can settle in and enjoy the ride. Remember the first episode of Buffy? Compare that to subsequent episodes if not the future history of that series, and you can forgive the occasionally frenetic pace.

Christopher Eccleston's Doctor is weird! But in the way that leaves a grin lingering on your face. This is due in part to the post-regenerative recovery I believe he's getting through, but also stems from the aforementioned loneliness that seems to be lurking beneath the surface. His is a Doctor that has lived nearly 1000 years, has been to one side of the universe and back as well as from one end of time to the other. He probably hasn't yet seen it all, but he's certainly seen enough to give anyone a melancholy perspective on the nature of everything. They say it's the worst to be alone in a crowd, so what does one feel when that "crowd" encompasses the collective mass of life throughout the history of the universe? (And to any writer working on the series who may be reading this, you're welcome to quote that question in a future script : ) ). When someone with so little life like Rose brushes against someone who's lived more life than anyone probably ought to, there's bound to be an equalizing effect on them. Many have been the murmurings of the new Doctor's "love" for Rose, and when you take this dynamic into account, it's apparent that they need each other. With the Doctor's irritable exclamation to Rose that he can't afford to focus all his emotional energy on the death of one human while he's trying to save ALL of the "stupid apes on this planet", we get an idea of the scale of his sense of responsibility, possibly mixed with a dose of self-imposed guilt.

The "scary" factor is fairly middle-of-the-road this time out with alien forces moving zombie-like towards their human victims amongst other moments. But I will say there was one part in particular that gave me a bit of a chilled feeling. A character is killed and duplicated, and at a later moment the doppelganger is sitting, speaking with the deceased's friend. I found it mildly unsettling each time the double's face snapped back to a smile when they finished talking. Maybe others won't see it like that, but I found myself thinking, "Hey, that's actually kind of creepy."

Now, I said at the beginning that I had some criticism, but really, it is nothing that can't be laughed off. By process of elimination it's awfully petty. The first thing is the choice of music at the story's climax. For a scene involving a potential mass-slaughter, it sounded awfully "doot, de-doot, de-doo" perky to me. I forgive this by saying that once again, it's ONLY the first episode for cryin' out loud, and they're trying to establish a sense of wondrous adventure. In the end the Doctor saves the day and you want more! He even advises Rose that it's always that dangerous in his world.

The other thing takes place when a character is absorbed by the enemy and afterwards they actually cap the experience off with a "belch" sound. Okay, I can forgive a lot, including this, but really, now! BELCH?

Oh, and another thing about the music... the negative review totally panned all of it, and I honestly can't see why. Other than what I've said, I felt it was perfectly acceptable.

One other thing original series fans might suffer from is whiplash from the speed of the plot. It's been said many times before in different settings that people have learned all of the old TV and movie story-telling devices from the past sixty years, so when a story is told today it moves at a faster pace, getting to the heart of the matter, whereas many years ago, the viewer would have to have things established in detail in order for the story to progress. Since sixteen years have passed between the end of the old series and the dawn of the new, one is bound to have a sense that it's not Doctor Who-like because it's moving "too fast". I'm sure we'll all get over soon enough, though. I can't wait to see the first two-parter and judge how it feels compared to a traditional 90-minute story. There'll probably be so much going on in that story as a whole it'll be very exciting, if this 45-minute sample is anything to go by.

And then there's the TARDIS. What can I say? It's the most beautiful, not to mention HUGE set that a BBC production of the show has used since the original pilot. The concept of the Doctor being akin to a space-traveling hippie with the TARDIS being his van, is so apt, one wonders why they never thought of it before. The control console is supposedly a lash-up of whatever pieces and parts he could find from whatever time periods he visited grafted onto the futuristic equipment already there. This isn't actually addressed in the first episode, and I don't know if they'll actually explain this, but that's how the production team came up with the new look. For the moment we get a few good tantalizing glimpses within, but not much beyond that. It will be interesting to see what lies beyond the inner door, leading deeper into the ship.

Bottom line is: forgive the hyperactive pace, be patient and let the future episodes unfold and keep an open mind. For those who really enjoy this, especially those who've either sneaked a peek at the bootleg or taken a trip north of the border to catch it on April 5 when those lucky, stinkin' Canadians get it, you may find yourself really feeling pissed at the Sci-Fi Channel for being so shortsighted. Wasn't that network originally established to be a haven for the sci-fi geeks out here? A place that's supposedly capable of recognizing that there's a thing called "Doctor Who" which has a solid base of fans in this country who are hungry for a new chapter in their favorite story? A friend of mine and I were having fits over it not long ago, exclaiming sarcastically, "God! If only someone would come up with a TV network that actually showed, you know, science-fiction. Where shows like this or Wonderfalls or Dead Like Me could find a home and thrive there. Oh, yeah... I think there is one and it's called THE SCI-FI CHANNEL!!!"

The wait is worth it. You will enjoy!

For the past sixteen years, the concept of “a new series of Doctor Who” has existed purely in the abstract – a dream in the minds of the fans, something to debate and conjecture over, write articles about on internet message boards, talk to other fans about down the pub. As the years went by without any new television series, so each and every one of us began to imagine what such a thing, were it ever to happen, might be like. This long period meant that we all had time to build up our individual fantasies of what we wanted, until we all had a ‘perfect’ Doctor Who constructed in our heads, whether consciously or not. 

This is part of the problem of Rose, but only for fans – suddenly, rather than each having our own visions of the future, there is only one, and it’s here and now and right in front of us and it’s real. It’s such a culture shock to find that it’s actually here, that we perhaps risk forgetting that it can’t satisfy everyone’s desires – that would be impossible. Nor should it strive to – this is, after all, a new series for the general public, and however many nodding winks it may tip to fandom, it can never be exclusively designed for a few thousand of us amongst the millions, let alone for an individual fan amongst those thousands.

Rose was not my image of perfect Doctor Who, of course it wasn’t. I’ll tell you what it was though – pretty damn good.

First things first then, Christopher Eccleston. It sounds a crass and obvious thing to say, but he really was one of my favourite actors long before he ever got the part of the Doctor. I remember well sneakily staying up late in my room as a twelve year-old, because I was desperate to find out what happened to all of Our Friends in the North, but more than any of them I wanted to see what became of Eccleston’s Nicky. The intensity and sheer watchability he brought to that and other previous roles is present here, but with so much more – a wonderful sense of a lust for life, a line in bad jokes, charisma and great comedy timing. On first watch I wasn’t convinced about his wrestling with the Auton arm, but second time around I really enjoyed it. His whole comic routine in Rose’s living room was wonderful – for a moment he has the ‘Fonz touch’ of previous Doctors as he goes to shuffle the cards in a fancy manner, and it’s all suddenly lost as cards fly all over the place. The intelligent and the farcical going hand-in-hand – very Doctorish.

This is not an out-and-out comedy Doctor though – he’s also excellent when called upon to do the more serious stuff, such as the ‘world spinning’ speech to Rose, or the confrontation with the Nestene Consciousness where he pleads almost guiltily that he couldn’t save its world. Is this the sound of a plot arc being dropped into place, perhaps? References to ‘The War’ are interesting – it’s probably a coincidence, of course, but way back in 1963 CE Webber and Donald Wilson, two of the show’s triumvirate of creators, were of the opinion that the mysterious ‘Doctor’ character in the series they were dreaming up was a refugee from a massive ‘Galactic War’ tens of thousands of years in the future, suffering from some form of amnesia brought on by the horror of what he’d seen there… Never a concept developed upon in the series itself of course, but worth mentioning.

A Doctor needs his companion of course, and in this case we have the episode’s eponymous heroine, Rose – Rose Tyler, this project’s bearer of the Russell T Davies trademark surname. I have to admit I was one of those who was a little surprised when Billie Piper’s casting was announced back in May 2004 – yes I was prejudiced, of course I was. “Why you gotta play that song so loud?” I was always more than willing to give her a chance though – I trust this production team, and it’s clear to see why. Piper is fantastic – her ‘mockney’ accent may take a little getting used to, but I think that’s more to do with being used to hearing her natural speaking voice in interviews so much over the past couple of weeks.

Rose is an interesting character – at first she seems to be nothing more than an ordinary, everyday girl from London working in a shop, but there are glimpses of something else beneath the surface. There’s the sense of unfulfilled ambition – she left school under what are hinted at as being slightly unusual circumstances, something to do with a boy… This extra spark of life, a verve for existence, that she shows is perhaps what attracts the Doctor to her as a new travelling companion. There is a very slight touch of the Buffys to her, too – the line where she talks about being an “Under sevens gymnastics” bronze medallist was just the sort of self-effacing quip Joss Whedon might have penned for his famous leading lady, although you get the sense that Rose is going to be using her brains rather more than any sort of kick-boxing moves as she confronts the bad guys.

That brief slice of Buffy-type dialogue was part of the mix of influences at work in the episode – the Doctor holding the still-talking head of the Mickey-Auton was straight out of Total Recall, which the slightly comic council estate life Rose and her mother lead echoes Shameless, the Channel 4 drama by Davies’ great friend Paul Abbott. The mention of cats and council estates, with the TARDIS parked on the corner of a sunny suburban street in summer, also brings to mind Survival, the final story of the original 1963-1989 run of Doctor Who – an unintentional sense of picking up where we left off, perhaps.

Because despite all of those influences, all of the modern pacing and production, this is still very much Doctor Who. The sense of fun mixed in with the adventure, the righteous crusading of the Doctor tempered with his unhumanity, and the fact that he wants to give the Nestene Consciousness a chance before he has to destroy it… All of this comes right out of the heart of the series we all know and love. This is certainly Doctor Who, and very good Doctor Who at that.

The production was uniformly excellent – well-paced, well-shot and with only the incidental score from the usually-reliable Murray Gold occasionally jarring – Gold’s done an excellent job on the new mix of the theme, however, admirably accompanied by pleasingly familiar-seeming visuals from The Mill. In fact the only technical aspect to let the BBC One broadcast of the episode down were the two very brief sound bleeding errors from BBC Three’s concurrent broadcast of the Strictly Come Dancing tie-in show: unfortunate, perhaps, but I’d challenge anybody to say that these two three-second or so interruptions in any way spoiled their enjoyment of the episode.

Given how much there was to fit in and how brisk the pace was, it’s surprising there was much room for any supporting characters, but Davies has always been good at quickly establishing character, and the main supports were all very good. A few have suggested that Mickey is ‘token ethnic comic relief’, but I think this is nonsense – yes, he’s a bit useless, but that’s just his character. There’s nothing derogatory about it – Jackie and Clive are equally comically drawn and I don’t see anybody complaining about them being stereotypes.

Clive of course is one of Davies’ knowing nods to us, the fans – he is one of us basically, from a world where we don’t have a show but an actual real Doctor to obsess and make websites over. The collection in his shed was nice, and the photo from 22nd November 1963 was a lovely touch – the new beginning going right back to the first time around. Oh, and his wife’s line of “She’s read a website about the Doctor, and she’s a she?” was one of my great favourites. I would have liked to have seen more of Clive – a shame he ended up being a rather resigned victim of an Auton attack.

The Autons themselves were fantastic, blank-faced, unstoppable and suitably menacing, only really letting the side down a little when the three brides just stood there pointing their guns at Jackie and not shooting her in the several moments they had before they were deactivated. But hey-ho, it’s nice to still have Jackie around – she looks as if she’s set to provide more comic relief in the contemporarily-set episodes, and her ludicrous attempt to seduce the Doctor was a nice way of signposting just how uninterested he is in that sort of thing, thank you very much.

Overall then? Superb. The first time around I was a little worried there was too much humour for my tastes, but I think after a second viewing I was simply worrying because I was watching it with my parents and I was anxious that they’d find it too silly. Needless to say, they loved it – the burping wheelie bin went down well, and I can’t see what all the fuss has been about concerning it. Yes, it’s a comic moment, but it works. The humour never undermined the drama, it nicely counter-pointed it, which has always been how the very best Doctor Who has worked down the years.

So of course it wasn’t perfect. It never could have been it had too many expectations and dreams weighing down on it for that. But it was a fine start to what looks set to be a very fine series indeed.

After what seemed like forever, the familiar yet re-vamped music began accompanied by an interesting new title sequence – a sequence much more faithful to the ‘classic series’ than I anticipated, something of a combination between the Pertwee and Tom Baker titles, but with much, much better effects obviously.

Rose, the episode title; a fast montage of contemporary London. Rose Tyler, the eponymous heroine, entering a spooky storeroom full of what we fans know to be Autons…

“Run for your life!”

I watched the episode with my fiancйe, her stepfather and her 8-year old cousin. For forty-five minutes none of the adults in the room spoke bar myself, and that was only to answer the 8-year olds’ plot-related questions. As soon as Eccleston appeared on the screen he had us in the palm of his Gallifreyan/Mancunian hands (half human, or so the story goes), and the pace of the story carried us to it’s conclusion before we even had chance to decide what we thought of this new Doctor, of this new show. Although the forty-five minute format has had (and will continue to have) its detractors I consider the pace of the show to be one of its strongest weapons.

When the Doctor arrived Rose’s flat I really began to like this new Doctor. I always admired Colin Baker’s Doctor for being arrogant in that almost unlikeable sort of way, but Eccleston’s Doctor is arrogant in a ‘cool’ way, he’s not conceited he’s convinced. It is interesting to watch his respect for Rose develop over the episode as he realises she is more than “just another ape” that he’s here to save; after all, she saved him!

There is a huge comic potential for the new Doctor - take him dismissing Jackie Tyler’s seductive advances. “Anything could happen,” she says. “Nah!” says the Doctor, turning and walking away. It was downright funny – at first I was worried the new show would be too funny, but that isn’t the case. It’s funny in the way it always was, the way Troughton was, the way Tom Baker was, and so on, just slightly more risquй and contemporary. “He’s a gay and she’s an alien!”

I also liked the Doctor checking his appearance in Rose’s mirror, implying a very recent regeneration, very recent indeed if he hasn’t seen his own face clearly yet! It was nice to have the continuity link to the old series, especially as it isn’t set it stone and opens the door for a ‘flashback’ episode featuring Paul McGann later down the line if the series continues. After all, there would have been little point in doing a Time and the Rani style regeneration, it would serve no purpose at all other than to confuse the new audience, and on the same note it would be equally wasteful to bring back Paul McGann for ten or twenty minutes when he deserves a much better send-off after his years on the Big Finish audio adventures. 

I was surprised to hear that some fans were complaining about the scenes in Clive’s shed where he shows Rose the ‘evidence’ he has gathered about the Doctor. This was one of the highlights of the show for me, made even more enjoyable thanks to the in-jokes poked at the fans of the old series, in particular the online contingent. True, it would have been nice to see some pictures of Doctors 1 through 8, but again, I think it would only alienate new fans and perhaps taint the mystique of this new Doctor in the eyes of brand new fans who know almost nothing about him.

As for the gripe that “if they Doctor has only just regenerated, then how does Clive have pictures of him at famous events in history, e.g. Kennedy’s assassination (nice reference to An Unearthly Child, by the way) and with the family due to sail on the Titanic?” I think the answer is appalling obvious; the Doctor is a Timelord. He travels through time. These photographs, although taken in the past, may actually be in the Ninth Doctor’s future. His life is far from linear after all! How did the Seventh Doctor put it, “…perhaps in the future. My personal future, that is. Which may be the past…”

Personally I thought the wheelie-bin scene was awful and wasn’t all that impressed with the CGI either! It’s inclusion though is justified in that the 8-year old I watched the show with was covering his eyes and would not go near wheelie bins the next day!

Now, when Rose entered the TARDIS was where I think Russell T. Davies and company got it exactly right for all the fans, old and new alike. Rose’s wonder and exasperation; the Doctor’s short, blunt answers. The best TARDIS interior of the lot; very alien, very epic, very weathered. The production team also managed to do what I’ve never seen done on the show itself in that they create a beautiful effect where the interior of the TARDIS is visible from the outside when the doors are open. When I was a child watching the classic series I could never quite work out the relationship between the Police Box exterior and the interior – I always know the latter was inside the former, but in my mind’s eye I envisaged some sort of ‘hallway’ or ‘interim room’ between the Police Box doors and those huge, white cylinder-covered doors (which when fully open, appeared white and covered-covered on the outside too, oddly!) In this new TARDIS, on the inside you can tell the doors are the Police Box doors – it all fits together wonderfully. An absolute triumph for the production!

When the TARDIS materialises by the London Eye the interaction between the Doctor and Rose is brilliantly done, emphasising the Doctor’s alieness, his alien values, and his apparent lack of compassion which again reminded me very much of Colin Baker, or even William Hartnell’s Doctor, more concerned with the greater good than one life. Colin Baker often said he wanted his Doctor to be able to step over a dead human body, and then cry over a dead butterfly. I think Eccleston has the potential for that kind of powerful contradiction in his performance, to have that alien quality that suggests he knows and understands far more than we are ever capable of.

As many people have pointed out, the plot itself is simple and throwaway, for this one story the plot being used as a device to carry the characters rather than vice-versa; it’s Rose, not Doctor Who and the Autons III. That said, the Autons are as formidable and memorable foe as any seen in the classic series, and their inclusion was an excellent choice for the seasons’ opener. Moreover, it wasn’t just the same story rehashed for a third time. Davies took the general formula for an Auton story, broke it right down, kept what would have been the last two episodes of a classic serial, and crammed it all into forty-five minutes. On top of this, he added another layer, a layer (I think) will set up Aliens of London/World War III, and perhaps reveal another facet to the Doctor’s character. The mention of this “war,” and the Doctor’s apparent guilt at not being able to save the Nestene’s world. Was the Doctor a soldier in this galactic war? More likely, was he an interfering pacifist, trying to stop the bloodshed? This first episode, simply though the plot may be, succeeds in the sewing the seeds of mystery for what will probably be this new show’s first story arc… 

As for the conclusion, in this day and age Rose saving the Doctor was almost a political necessity, and it also explains the Doctor’s growing respect for her, why he asked her to join him in the TARDIS. Her reluctance to leave Mickey and her Mother was also a nice touch, but her hanging up the phone on her rabbitting Mother and the classic “Exactly” line to the brilliantly cowardly and selfish Mickey stole the last scene.

They’ve modernised it, and although I was one of the few advocates of the 1996 TV Movie, I was glad to see that it was British through and though, right from the Doctor’s northern accent to the London Eye. The TARDIS was spot on, the Doctor was compelling, and for once the effects weren’t crap. It’s not exactly as us hardcore fans would have made it, it’s not in the style of Big Finish or the New Adventures, it’s not my perfect idea of what Doctor Who should be but it’s the closest that they’ve ever got and that’s the highest praise I can give this quite magical new series. First-class!

I await the end of the world with bated breath.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Doctor Who is back!

The Doctor is back, and it's about time and time again that I see the usual and inevitable comments and opinions about the first episode. There is only one way people will be able to enjoy the "perfect" episode of Doctor Who, and that's to write, direct, produce and star in it themselves. In the real world, fans will have to mix some water in their whine because this is a series for the general public, as it always was at the height of its popularity.

What I think will be a factor for the remaining twelve episodes will be a tension between those who see television as a visual medium and those who see television as talk radio or visual book writing. That seems to be a major theme in some of the preceding reviews, and may be a direct result of the overkill of novels that kept the series alive for the past 13 years.

What initially struck me as positive is the aggressive visual style of the episode Rose. Show, don't tell. We wisely get a sense of Rose's life in only 93 seconds in a wonderful sequence where the rest of the world goes by quickly with swish pans and ramp edits, and her world, despite some quick cutting shots, seems to move slowly. 93 seconds is all it took, and only a "See you later" of dialogue. Within two minutes we have established the baseline from which she will grow and develop as a character over the course of twelve more (plus?) episodes.

This brings me to a point I think many are overlooking when they comment on "too much" and "no character" and such. Think of the 2005 season much like Season 23 or Season 1: a year-long journey where not everything gets handed to you on a silver platter in episode one. If it were handed to you in episode one, what do you do for the other twelve? Recycle it all? Repeat it all? That would not be effective. Russell T Davies knows that the series has to maintain character cliffhangers throughout thirteen episodes as much as plot cliffhangers throughout the run. You can't start at the top of a cliff, because there's only one direction to go; rather, we need to see Rose and the others climb the hill to that cliff.

Another wise decision was having the creepy bits also come within the first five minutes. It might have been interesting to have Rose observed by some shadowy figure in the basement (you know Who) while she calls for Wilson, but still the creepiness works, and the chase scene was effective in its pacing and urgency. No stumbling, brightly lit Mandrels anywhere here.

Wilson's death resulted in a missed opportunity for some DW-style black humour. Some of the Doctors would probably have said, "The CEO position's been terminated" or something (remember the sign on his door) instead of "Wilson's dead." Maybe that's just me looking for stuff like that.

The first five minutes is make-or-break, and so far episode 1 is a winner on all counts. This is followed by some sparkling banter in the elevator that quickly establishes the Ninth Doctor as someone who can shift gears in the time it takes to ascend eight floors, before he detonates a bomb and destroys a building. Love it. This causes Rose to lose her job and immediately establishes an interconnectedness between what the Doctor does affecting Rose and what Rose does affecting the Doctor.

And we still haven't hit the ten-minute mark! Is this too fast for viewers? I have read that a programme must capture channel flippers within THREE SECONDS to hold them! Three seconds! There is no attention span anymore. This is a world where written communication to the other side of the planet takes one second as opposed to one minute by fax or one fortnight by mail. Get used to it, because it isn't going away. I wonder how long it will be before we have split screens showing two plot strands at once…

So, dialogue must be minimal and precise like a poet's poetry. Action must be quick and effective. For the most part, we will arrive after things have been set up, because we will not be allowed to spend 25 minutes setting up grandiose plotting. The plots will already be running. The audience will have to jump onto the side of a speeding train, because the train sure as hell won't be waiting for passengers at the train station. 

Rose's mom is so grotesque that she puts a smile on my face. The running gag about compensation and the dialogue about the Greek woman are straight out of Robert Holmes' quill. I look forward to her ongoing outrages as the series progresses.

It was probably a mistake to kill off the character of Clive, as he may have been both a useful provider of facts and possibly a thorn in the Doctor's side. I enjoyed his brief stay in the show as I swear I know him in real life! He also allowed some visual comedy by boyfriend Mickey who made me chuckle every time he glared at Clive or his neighbours. And did anyone else catch the Survival music in Clive's neighborhood?

Most people hate the incidental music. It was possibly aimed too much at the young women who groove to that sort of funky hip hop stuff, but that's the point: Rose is a 19-year old woman who would listen to it. It relates well to her and she was the focal point of the episode. I suspect we will hear different styles in future episodes.

Rose (the episode) then arrived with a confidence and a brazen declaration that this is the way it is, so take it or leave it. Finding a middle ground for the general public and fans is so very tough, and I think the production team nailed it. If the fans were 100% happy with it, then something somewhere is amiss.

I don't think I have ever seen a better "introductory episode" in any show. 9/10.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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