Review: Doctor Who 1.1: Rose

The Doctor explodes into Rose's life.

When Doctor Who ended in 1989, it was the end of an era. The sci-fi phenomenon that had so affected British Culture for over 25 years was cancelled at the request of television executive Michael Grade, who hated the program. Aside from a few disasterous attempts like Dimensions in Time, the next Who wouldn't appear for seven years, when the Movie was released in 1996. That flopped, but it did inspire a producer by the name of Russell T Davies to revive the show and, 16 years after its cancellation, the revived show aired in 2005. The Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston, was joined by former 90's pop star Billie Piper as Rose Tyler.
     The weight upon this story's shoulders is understandably immense. Rose was faced with the task of not only proving that the show could be revived, but introducing the show and its mythos to a brand new generation while reinventing it to meet modern standards. The careers of everyone involved were on the line. Suffice to say that my reviews of Matt Smith's series are proof of how it fared. Rose has its issues, but before I go on about the specifics it is important to recognise its role in Who history.
     We're introduced to our companion for this season, Rose Tyler, almost immediately. She's a normal girl living a normal life; a blond shop assistant living with Mum Jackie (Camille Coduri} and happy with loser boyfriend Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke, whom I mentioned in TW:Combat}. Then one day she's attacked by show-window dummies in the back of her shop and meets an eccentric stranger known only as The Doctor. He helps Rose escape before he blows up the building; he's getting rid of the transmitter that's making the plastic beings (Classic Series monsters known as Autons} work. In the process she's given an Auton arm, which her boyfriend Mickey disposes of.

100% Polypropelene!

     The arm crawls back up to try and kill her, however, but The Doctor picks it up. Rose brings him into the house and questions him, but he walks out and tells her to forget him. Researching, Rose (with Mickey} goes to see a Doctor enthusiast named Clive {the creepy Mark Benton} who gives some backstory. Meanwhile, Mickey is... eaten by a wheely bin. That burps afterwards. Dear oh dear. Mickey is replaced by an obvious-looking Auton duplicate. The Doctor arrives and beheads the duplicate, taking Rose with him to the TARDIS.
     They trace the origin signal from the head but they can't get too close. After Rose gets over the shock of The Doctor being a space-travelling alien, they banter about Mickey and where the signal is coming from, which turns out to be the London Eye. Climbing down into the base of the Autons' leader, the Nestene Consciousness, The Doctor's calls for negotion fall on blind ears as they know that his Tardis was involved in the war that destroyed their home planet. While an invasion rages in London, Rose manages to save the day by pouring The Doctor's pre-prepared Antiplastic into the Consciousness. They all escape in the Tardis, and the two are dropped off at home. Rose initially rejects The Doctor's invitation, but when he says that the Tardis also travels in Time she agrees. In slow motion.
     The Autons are a risky move on the part of RTD, despite their use twice in 1971-2 to open a series. Their execution here is mostly brilliant - the alien invasion scenes are perfect but the scenes with burping bins and the like are incredibly silly even for the intended audience. These scenes tended to lean towards a more physical comedy strand, frighteningly close to later Red Dwarf. Despite this, their inclusion does act as a symbol, passing the torch from the original series to the new, and their storyline neatly introduces one of NuWho's main background events - the War that The Doctor talks about briefly in front of the Nestene.

The RTD Tardis makes its first appearance.

     Ignoring my fondness for Peter Davison and Colin Baker, Christopher Ecclestone is my favourite Doctor by far. I have the utmost respect for his incredibly prolific career and his portrayal of The Doctor is one of my favourites - the manic, eccentric humour hiding a more serious, cynical interior born of a dark past. His introduction is the monosyllabic summation of the series to date - "Run" - and sets a tone for the series better than any long speeches could possibly do. His best moment in the episode is the monologue that he gives to persuade Rose to forget him, in which he describes how he can feel the Earth turn and spin around the sun. Billie Piper, despite contempory worries, is brilliant as our companion Rose, who more than ever acts as an Audience Identification figure. Never before has the companion been so thoroughly written as to stand for the everyman.
    The TARDIS, after its last incarnation as a grand library in the Movie here scales down a bit into this earthy, coral-themed version. While it feels a little naked compared to the Matt Smith version, the design is very evocative of the machine's tempermental nature, as well as taking the central tenets of the old console room (hexagonal segments, a round console and a central column} and giving the design a new spin.
    Rose does pale when compared to some of the better episodes of NuWho, but as a premier to the new series it did its job spectacularly well. The leads are excellent in all respects and the use of the Autons is inspired. The episode's only low point is a few rare scenes that are too childish for most tastes, and that did lie with the execution of the Auton concept, but it did nothing to harm the story in the long run. Rose is a brilliant start to the revived series and left me desperate for the next Saturday to come.
The Doctor Does Not Save The Day.
Thanks.