Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1 Overview

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1 Overview

So, that's our revisiation of Series 1 out of the way. There's no way we'll finish all the episodes of modern Doctor Who before the 50th Anniversary special, but that's what happens when you're starting a distance learning degree, have a young child, are writing a novel. several picture books and a couple of musicals, AND want to show the odd bit of affection to your wife every now and then.

Let's start off with a quick recap of all the episodes from this series, including the Christmas special:

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 1 - Rose

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

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 2 - The End of the World

It's got it's moments, particularly the bits we learn of The Doctor's backstory, but it doesn't as well as some other episodes, and the 'funny' bits about traditional Earth ballads are just embarassing.

4/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 3 - The Unquiet Dead

A much stronger episode than previously, with a couple of genuine scares, and a great moral conundrum and myster at the heart.

8/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 4 - Aliens of London

The strongest episode so far, it's full of excitement and intrigue, with some excellent development in the relationships between characters, and it ends on a cracking cliffhanger.

9/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 5 - World War III

A strong conclusion to the first two-parter of the modern Doctor Who. There are some truly excellent moments, particularly when The Doctor shows how much he cares about Rose with the despair about putting her in danger, and the plan the Slitheen have for the destruction of Earth is fiendish and scarily easy to pull off.

9/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 6 - Dalek

The best episode so far of the revived Doctor Who, and possibly of all seven series by the time I've revisited them all. Full of tension and drama, and some phenomenally good acting, this should be one of the starting points for converting non-Doctor Who fans. Unmissable.

10/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 7 - The Long Game

It's not up to last week's standard, but it's a great piece of sci-fi TV, and has some great moments of growth in the relationship between The Doctor and Rose, and showcases The Ninth Doctor's sense of morality in giving everyone a chance to prove themselves. Well worth watching still, just don't tell me Adam is an interesting character.

8/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 8 - Father's Day

A very important episode for Rose, and a tragic story. Billie Piper really comes into her own, and we see an interesting twist on the idea of what would happen with a time travel paradox. Great stuff.

9/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 9 - The Empty Child

The introduction of Captain Jack Harkness, the creepiest enemy on children's television (until the Weeping Angels arrive), and some great dialogue combine with a wonderful mystery to make this essential viewing. Can't wait to re-watch the second one.

10/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 10 - The Doctor Dances

A wonderful end to a wonderful two-parter, it’s a powerful and emotional episode that is all about re-uniting a lost child with its mother. Some excellent humour interwoven with a dark plot, and the (temporary) addition of Captain JackHarkness to the TARDIS crew. It’s dark, moving, and one of the best double-episodes of all-time.

10/10

Revisiting Doctor Who – Series 1, Episode 11 – Boom Town

The general plot and feel of the episode is very generic, but there are some fantastic bits of dialogue that are genuinely hilarious. If there was a compilation of funniest moments from the episode, I'd suggest just watching that instead.

6/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 12 - Bad Wolf

A fantastic cliffhanger showcasing everything that has been brilliant with Series One - it's funny, exciting and tense, with a great mystery running through it as to why The Doctor, Rose and Jack have ended up where they are, and it sets up the finale perfectly. Wonderful stuff.

10/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 13 - The Parting of the Ways

A great way to end the first series of the modern Doctor Who. An episode full of excitement and danger, even if the solution to the Dalek problem is a little too easy. Christopher Ecclestone bowed out on a brilliant note.

9/10

Revisiting Doctor Who – Series 1, Christmas Special - The Christmas Invasion

A fun episode, with some great first impressions of David Tennant's Tenth Doctor. It's very, very funny in places, and raises some interesting moral questions, although it isn't the best of the Christmas specials. Tennant's introduction makes it a must-see though, and the rest of the cast are on fine form.

8/10

Overall rating for this series (just to make it fun): 8.4

The Best Bits

It's difficult to pick when there are so many highlights, but here's some that really helped make the show show so good for me in Series 1:

Billie Piper as Rose

Last I knew of her before she took on the role was as a pop singer who had some half-memorable hits, and had absolutely no acting experience that I was aware of. Little did I know just how important she would be to the revival - I've heard several sources say that, whilst David Tennant made the show his own from Series 2 onwards, Series 1 was Billie Piper's show rather than Christoper Eccleston's. Rose was our gateway into the world of The Doctor, and she was the perfect mix of both excitement and fear of the unknown. 

The sadness and despair that Christopher Eccleston brought to The Doctor

We are surely heading towards a big reveal about the Time War in the 50th Anniversary special, but the seeds of it were sown right at the start of Christopher Eccleston's tenancy as the Ninth Doctor. From the moment that he reveals he is the last of the Time Lords in the second episode, we see his guilt at what happened (which we're not fully clued up on at this point) manifesting itself as both anger and sorrow - we'll later come to learn that it's because he caused the genocide of both his own people and the Daleks. Speaking of Daleks, this brings us to...

Dalek (episode)

Quite simply, one of the best episodes of the modern Who. It's full of tense moments, from the first time we see it and The Doctor unleashes his fury, to the moment it unleashes its death ray upon anyone it can, but the real strength of the episode is how it continually turns the role of The Doctor and the Daleks on its head - we may see The Doctor as the good day and the Daleks are evil, but the way he screams about wanting to wipe them all out is exactly the same attitude that the Daleks themselves have. When it tells him 'you would make a good Dalek', you can see the dawn of comprehension on his face as to what the Time War has done to him. Only when he chooses the route of being a coward in the series finale, instead of another mass slaughter to stop the Daleks, does The Doctor start to redeem himself. It's all wonderful stuff.

The Worst Bits

There’s really very little to complain about with Series 1. It was the first series of the modern Who so we probably let it off things more than later series, but it was a bit of a struggle to come  up with the following list. However, despite being Doctor Who, it isn’t spot-on perfect, so here we are:

The general cheesiness of Episode 2 

It’s probably the weakest episode of the series generally, but what really drags it down for me are the awful attempts at referencing the 20^th Century, which are just plain unfunny. Yes, it’s to tie the episode to what viewers and Rose know, but it just doesn’t work at all. There's so much humour that is genuinely laugh out loud funny throughout the series, it's hard to know how they missed the mark so badly here, except perhaps that they were still just settling down into what the show was going to be like. 

Adam

I’m sure there was meant to be something about the character that made us care about what happened to him, but I’m not sure what it was. I know he was added to show what happens when you cross The Doctor, but all we end up doing is wishing he’d been thrown off the ship earlier for being a spectacularly lame character. Plus, the very next episode we see Rose disobey The Doctor in Father's Day, in a manner which resonates in such a more powerful manner because of the relationship we've seen them build up over the series.

Overall

What more can I say except for 'fantastic'? From the introduction of Rose, to Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor full of despair at what happened in the Time War, to the genius of Dalek and the The Unearthly Child/The Doctor Dances two-parter, Series 1 re-introduced the world to Doctor Who, and gave us a reason to applaud British science-fiction again. Thank God for Russell T. Davies.