Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 1 - Rose
First up, Rose. Christopher Eccleston's first episode as the Ninth Doctor, and Billie Piper's first appearance as companion Rose.
When plastic mannequins start coming to life in the department store where she works, Rose Tyler is saved by the Ninth Doctor, who blows the building up before bidding her farewell. The next day however, he appears at his flat hunting a plastic arm that she took home with her. When the arm comes back to life and attacks both of them, The Doctor lets Rose know it's the Nesteen Consciousness, an alien threat, and that he's heading off to sort it out, in his funny Northern way.
Intrigued, Rose tries to find out more about The Doctor online, and comes across a website run by a chap called Clive, who has found evidence of this Doctor in several different periods of history, including Dallas at the assasiniation of JFK. Heading over to Clive's house with her boyfriend, Mickey (who does his best to look dangerous in a yellow VW Bug), she sees the evidence, but thinks he's a nutter when he declares The Doctor an alien. Unbeknownst to Rose, Mickey has been attacked by a wheelie bin and changed into a plastic Auton (just like the mannequins), although she fails to notice this as he drives her rather erratically to a local restaurant.
Whilst Rose remains blissfully unaware of Mickey's transformation (she seems to treat him like the inattentive one, but really Rose, come on - he's acting stranger than...sliced bread? I need better metaphors), The Doctor has tracked the Nesteen Consciousness' signal to the restaurant and rescues Rose, introducing her to the TARDIS. Rose's 'meeting the TARDIS for the first time' reaction is to run outside in horror, before running back in, which seems to be a rather common reaction. As The Doctor confesses that yes, he is an alien, they search again for where the Nesteen Consciousness is hiding. Rose completes the first half of her Companion interview by locating where it's transmitting from, below the London Eye, they rush underground to confront it, taking a vial of 'Anti-Plastic' (the worst name for a weapon since...sliced bread? Seriously, this is getting embarassing) as backup. The Doctor tells the Nesteen Consciouness to bugger off and leave Humanity alone, but it refuses, blaming The Doctor as he failed to save its homeworld during the Time War, and keeping him held captive with a couple of Autons, who take the
Outside, The Doctor tests Rose's loyalty to Mickey by offering her the job of full-time companion. As Rose can't shake Mickey from her leg, she explains that she's rather stuck and needs to take care of him, but thank you. However, The Doctor realises that he left a vital piece of information off the job advert, so he returns and explains that the TARDIS travels in time. Now that she knows this, Rose shakes Mickey off her leg, and joins him, in a rather bizarre slow-mo run. Next stop, 5,000,000 AD!
Series 1 kicks off with an episode thats plot isn't really all that memorable, but that does a great job of introducting us to the characters and rules of the Doctor Who universe (or the Whoniverse, for th 3 Doctor Who fans there who've never heard it shortened thusly). I can remember when I first watched this thinking that plastic mannequins coming to life can't exactly compare with armour plated killing machines, but that the way Rose proves herself to The Doctor during the episode meant it didn't matter. From the very first 'Run!', it's clear that we're being taken on an exciting adventure, where we'll meet danger, but have a lot of fun solving it along the way. The humour that I love about Who is present from the start as well, particularly Rose's line about how lots of people being strange in public has to be students.
First impressions of The Ninth Doctor - There's a harshness about The Doctor at the beginning, when he tells Rose to go home to her beans on toast - if it does turn out that this is a Doctor coming immediately from ending the Time War, he's certainly showing some scars. In many ways, although I know that I'll come to love him, he's not the most instantly lovable character. That's clearly just Eccleston and the BBC trying to find the right tone to play with, which is always the same in a pilot.
Also, there's the line about how he's 'having to blunder about saving the life of every stupid ape on this planet' - that's a far cry from the Doctor we know that loves nothing more than saving humans. I can't think of any occasion when the Tenth or Eleventh Doctors say something along these lines, although maybe they've mellowed and learned to love Humanity again by then.
Having said that, the cheeky grin from the 'Northern' Doctor is here right from the start. No matter the incarnation, there's always delight in danger from The Doctor. When I think back to Eccelstone, I always see that grin as he proclaims 'Fantastic!', so it was a bit of a shock to see him being so grumpy before. I always saw David Tennant taking this part the Ninth Doctor and exaggerating it when he plays the Tenth, and I think it's the bit of the Ninth that works best. Where Matt Smith being suddenly hostile and grumpy works well, I don't think it does for Ecclestone. Serious, yes, but not actively hostile.
The Doctor's willingness to give everything a chance before destroying it is laid down here as well, as he gives the Nesteen Consciousness a chance to right its wrongs, before putting an end to it. It's a key part of his character, and it was important to establish it right at the beginning. If he is coming fresh from the Time War, he's obviously trying to make sure he never does anything like that again without exhausting his options first.
His despair at the Time War rears its head too, as the Nesteen Consciousness accuses him of not doing anything to save its world. He pleads that the couldn't save it, or any other world that was lost, and it's great contrast to the rest of episode where he's been either grumpy or smiling like a crazy person. His general attitude, as discussed above, is definitely that of someone who has recently lost something, or has had a lot of trouble, at least intiitally. Even assuming that he has been to Dallas in 1963 etc., this still tells the tale of a man who has a lot of sorrow in his heart.
Moving on to Billie Piper and Rose, I think she clicks with the role straight away. I find it very difficult to choose my favourite of the modern Who companions, but Rose is a very strong candidate. Piper is perfect at delivering the right level of humour, shock and fear, but most of all it's her interplay with the other characters that works so well. She's our guide to discovering this world, and she's terrific at it. We don't know what to make of The Doctor to begin with, just as she doesn't, but at the end we too know that he's the one we want to be going on an adventure with.
The warmth between Rose and Mickey, and the slightly antagonistic relationship between Rose and her mother, Jackie, are also great to watch here - Rose gently teasing Mickey about whether there's a match on at the pub he's offered to take her for a drink, or Jackie telling Rose to sell her story as she needs a way of making money now, are great nods to where the show will go with these relationships. Jackie's flirting with The Doctor (whatever incarnation) begins here, and had me creased up as she teases him about only being in her dressing gown.
Noel Clark makes me laugh all the way through - I know that he can play a hard man, but watching him play a bit of a wimp pretending to be a hard man is brilliant, particulary when he's sat behind the wheel of a yellow VW Beetle (that most manly of cars) trying to intimidate Clive. It's a scarily manic grin when he gets turned into a plastic Mickey. I'm also fairly certain that whoever was playing him without a head wasn't having to act when they were stumbling blindly into everything during the chase in the restaurant...And hugging Rose at the end like a small child is classic.
There's definitely a different feel to the series now - perhaps that's just the camera quality, or the fact that in the first episode they're wandering round council estates rather than worlds in outer space. Also, it's the pilot episode. It feels less cinematic, which is understandable, and in it's infancy - I love it for this reason though, because as viewers that's exactly where we are at this point in the story.
As you'd expect, from the very beginning the music is stunning. There's hints of the Doomsday theme running through, and it's spine tingling, especially as I know how it's going to come about in the Series 2 finale.
How It Fits Into The Series As A Whole
When they contact Clive, the picture of The Doctor suggests that he must have been around with that face for a while, so what is the discovering himself in the mirror thing about? One note about the picture - they musn't have had much of a budget for the Kennedy photo, as it's awful! He looks so badly photoshopped it's unreal.
The Bad Wolf Sightings
None - but they'll start cropping up in the next episode. Clearly there wasn't any point putting them in the pilot!
Overall
A solid start to the series, which introduces the new characters and themes of the Whoniverse perfectly. It's slightly let down by a forgettable main plot, but then it was surely never meant to be memorable for that reason.
8/10
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