If you don’t want to read spoilers about the first episode of the new Doctor Who series then you probably shouldn’t read this article. You have been warned.
One of my earliest memories of Doctor Who is the image of Autons coming to life in shop windows and shooting people with the guns in their hands. This would have been from Jon Pertwee’s first story Spearhead from Space in 1970. Rose, the first episode of the 2005 version of Doctor Who recreates this scene and thereby guarantees getting the approval of all fans of my age group.
That’s one of the main things that I took away from this first episode, the creators of the new series are determined that we know that there will be continuity back to the old series. The Autons look just how they did thirty-five years ago and their hands drop open to reveal their guns in exactly the same way. The TARDIS looks the same as it always did although the interior owes more to the Paul McGann version than the last BBC version and there’s a nice homage to all the previous “but it’s bigger on the inside” scenes when Rose first enters it.
At the same time, there are a lot of good new touches. Eccleston plays the Doctor as mysterious, slightly rude but with a nice dry sense of humour. I particularly liked Mark Benton as the conspiracy theorist who has been tracing appearances of the Doctor through history. I hope be becomes a recurring character.
Not everything worked though. The programme has the usual constraints of having to tell a complete story in forty-five minutes. This means there are a few too many coincidences. In particular the Doctor turns up in exactly the right place at exactly the right time a bit too often for it to be convincing. Some of the CGI effects looked a bit obvious (though it’s, of course, possible that the leaked copy I saw has unfinished effects in it). Oh, and the final scene where the Doctor persuades Rose to leave her boyfriend and join him in the TARDIS seemed very rushed to me.
But, all in all, I’m very impressed. It’s a lot better than the 1996 TV film and (to be honest) it’s a lot better than a lot of the old repeats that I’ve been watching on UK Gold. This was certainly made by fans of the show and it has enough continuity to keep the fans (or, at least, this fan) happy. I hope that the rest of the public enjoy it as much.
Now. How long until episode two is leaked?
Are you kidding?You actually thought it was good? I assumed it was part of Comic Relief week until I read that it is actually the real new episode…Positively Shocking… Sort it out BBC!Jim.
Jim,Perhaps you could explain what you didn’t like about it. As I’ve explained (in some detail) I thought it was really rather good.Dave…
From what I’ve been able to see so far, the ‘loved it’ reviews seem to be the majority so far, which I have to agree with. WHO has always been my fav and I absolutely loved this first episode. My one thought at the end was that now there will finally be something on TV that I can look forward to each week rather than the constant, never ending stream of reality television shows.
I absolutely loved the new eppy. It offered loads of continuity for those of us older traditional whofans, yet enthralled my kids who have never seen earlier shows. I liked the way the new Doctor was portrayed–inappropriate emotional responses and all (particularly, the shiny-happy pride in the Tardis: “It’s a disguise!”). I am not qualified to judge about the merits of the actress who plays Rose, but I assure you on the estrogen-scale, Eccleston is dishy in this part. Very, very dishy.
I saw it, and wasn’t particularly wowed by it. My thoughts are here:http://www.rocketshipvideo.com/rose.txt
Spoiler Alert: I thought Mark Benton bought it from the Autons? Let’s hope not! It’s kinder so far to its internet audience than The Simpsons can be. And the use of the internet within the story didn’t feel crammed in (what was the search engine we should be using for doctor blue box again??Jimm, your comment didn’t add much, I have to say! Are you going to make yourself a professional curmudgeon over the course of the series? At least say what you were disappointed by!