FTA: Doctor Who: Dalek and Boom Town

This ninth, penultimate volume of articles from Celebrate, Regenerate! covers stories from the Ninth Doctor. (See here for more on this project.)

Dalek
(Main article.)

Picture the scene. It’s the 30th April 2005, and you’re a nine-year-old boy whose only previous experience with the Daleks was seeing one of them blow up in The Five Doctors. I had spent the entire week prior being incredibly excited, discussing with my not-we friends what was to come. When the time arrived, and I saw this wonderful new design, I really felt that New Who was here. Not only did Robert Shearman’s script return the Daleks to our screen, but it also managed to make up for 16 years of public mockery. In short, he managed to make Daleks cool again.
      At the story’s heart, it’s a very basic base-under-siege setup. The museum is the high-security base, Henry Van Statten is the project’s misguided leader, Diana Goddard is the smarter underling and the lone Dalek is the monster attacking them. But this is no ordinary Dalek. Shearman’s script not only reintroduces the Daleks and makes them cool again. He manages to take the most genocidal species in the Universe and makes them sympathetic.
     Dalek provides Eccleston’s most powerful performance in his painfully brief time as The Doctor. The first interaction between the Doctor and the Dalek showcases not only the Time-War backstory that Russell T Davies had woven into the series, but also the depth of the Ninth Doctor’s characterisation and the levels of hatred and anger still locked away inside. It also contrasts Rose’s infectious humanity, and it the first time that we really see the Nine/Rose companionship work in a way that compliments them both.
     The character of Adam Mitchell does seem like it doesn’t really belong in the story, but in reality Bruno Langley’s character feels like a clever parody of 80s companion Adric – a young boy genius with a penchant for ruining the Doctor’s plans through his own incompetence. Adam Mitchell is a statement by RTD: he’s not going to make the mistakes of the past, and especially those made in the JNT era.
     Dalek isn’t just entertaining, but it’s also RTD’s mission statement for the new series. He’s gonna bring back those old monsters, he’s gonna make them awesome, and he’s not gonna mess it up. And what a mission statement that is, because it works, and Dalek is one of the best stories in Season 27. I think that today and, more importantly, I thought that as an excited nine-year-old boy waiting for his first Dalek story.

Boom Town

(Main article.)

Written in place of a Cartmel-esque story about how Rose was a custom-made companion, Boom Town is often put down by fandom simply for how unassuming it is. It may at first glance appear to be a rather dull story, seeing the return of an unpopular villain lambasted for being too silly. But the story of Blon Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen is one that proves, in its way, that RTD was better than his detractors gave him credit for. Instead of an adventure written for the kids, Boom Town presents us with a surprisingly adult examination of how the show treats morality, looking not only at the effect that companions have on those left behind, but also at the nature of heroes and villains.

      My favourite scene in all of NuWho is this episode’s café scene. Filmed on the quick, due to Annette Badland’s other filming commitments, the scene not only cuts into the core of Blon Fel Fotch’s motivations, but also looks at why The Doctor does what he does and why this incarnation in particular feels such a weight of guilt. Even though he is easily able to shoot down Blon’s transparent attempts at moralising, he is affected by her accusations against his character. Even though we know that he is a far superior being morally, his own guilt from the Time War arc prevents him from believing it. Eccleston and Badland manage to portray two conflicted alien beings, both of them grappling one another morally and spiritually.

     Elsewhere, the characters get a chance to do a Black Orchid and just goof around for a bit. After the absolute scare-fest of Moffat’s Empty Child two-parter and the devastating series finale, Boom Town is the perfect break to give our Tardis team (plus Mickey) a chance to get their character development in before the end. The episode is a concession, an admission that character and story have to sometimes take precedence over action and romance. Boom Town is 45 minutes of character drama that both lets our characters breathe and puts them in greater personal pressure than they’d seen for the entire twenty-seventh season.

Thanks.

Review: Doctor Who 1.12-13: Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways

Nine faces the last adventure.

The finale rolls in, and we're presented with a story that not only concludes Nine's era, but also very much reflects the end of an era in how the show was produced. Series One was an experimental phase for the show to really dig its heels into the social landscape once more, and it wouldn't really fully enter the public consciouceness until Series Two. The Bad Wolf two parter takes the early 2000s art-deco aesthetic and popular culture, and really gives it a final sendoff.
     The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack arrive after being picked up by a transmat beam. They find themselves in futuristic versions of 2005 TV shows - The Doctor is in a cruel version of Big Brother where eviction means death, Rose is in a cruel version of The Weakest Link run by an android where eviction means death, and Captain Jack is nearly vivisected by Trinny and Susanna robots. These I feel makes the story incredibly dated from the off and don't help future generations of viewers. The Doctor breaks out of the house (with Lynda, played by Eastenders actress Jo Joyner), and realises that he is on Satellite Five (from The Long Game) 100 years since the downfall of the Jagrafess. In a commentary of modern culture, the lazy approach of the people from the earlier story has evolved into a society where people are teleported to the Satellite (now called the Game Station) at random, and placed in one thousands of games where only one person will survive. These games are broadcast around the world 24/7, and the Human Race has been reduced to a slave-like civilisation. The station is run by the mysterious Bad Wolf corporation, a name that Rose and The Doctor recognise.
     He immediately turns his attention to Rose, who's trapped inside The Weakest Link and is very close to being sent off. She is constantly jeered by Rodrick (a pre-survivors Paterson Joseph) who is desperate for his life. There's also a sneaky reference to Torchwood, which will be next year's arc word. Jack manages to escape the droids planning to kill him and arrives to The Doctor with heavy artillery, as the two stage a break-in of the Anne-Droid facility. As Rose runs to join them, she is seemingly vapourised, and the look on Ecclestone's face is enough to convey the grief and sorrow the character feels.

Lynda with a Y.

     The Controller of the Games is a human girl, wired into the system. She answers to other masters, and during a solar flare she is able to speak normally. The Doctor and Jack storm in, finding the TARDIS - The Doctor demands answers as to why Rose was killed. The girl tells him to beware her masters before becoming sedate again. Jack soon realises that the beam used to kill contestants is in fact a teleporter, and that Rose is still alive. When they track the signal, however, they find that the endpoint of the teleporter is the mothership of a Dalek fleet hovering behind the moon. For the last hundred years, the Daleks have been controlling everything, playing the Long Game as implied by that episode. Rose is revealed as being held captive by the Daleks and Nine gets a brilliant monologue where he quietly defies the Daleks' appeals to his humanity and tells them that he will save Rose regardless of anything they can do.
     The Doctor and Jack use the force field from Boom Town to fly onto the Dalek ship unharmed, where they rescue Rose and discover that these Daleks were created from the losers of the Games - mutated humans. The Emperor Dalek survived the Time War and created these Daleks, and now they follow him and believe him to a God. Heading back to the Game Station, Jack helps prepare the station occupants to act as the lines of defence while The Doctor prepares a superweapon on Floor 500. He sends Rose home in the Tardis, stranding himself in 200,100. Rose tries to return to the Future to the chagrin of a relieved Mickey and Jackie, while The Doctor works on the weapon and is taunted by the Emperor Dalek, who points out that the superweapon will kill everyone on Earth as well.

Bad Wolf.

     Ignoring the fact that messing with time nearly killed everyone in Fathers' Day and that even The Doctor was unsure what would happen in Boom Town, Rose decides that she needs to open the heart of the TARDIS to tell it to return to 200,100. While initally against the idea, Jackie and Mickey eventually decide to help her, and apparently a big yellow truck is enough to open the Tardis console. The heart of the Tardis enters Rose and she becomes a superpowered entity, capable of resurrecting the dead (Jack, who becomes immortal here) and turning the whole Dalek fleet to dust. She spreads the words Bad Wolf through time to lead her there, creating an ontological paradox. Nine, realising that she will die, absorbs the Heart from her and saves her, taking her into the Tardis and heading back to London. As she recovers, he apologises and says goodbye, turning into David Tennant. Boo hoo.
     The second half of this story is where the majority of the problems with RTD's characterisation come into play. Rose becomes a whiney, selfish little girl, throwing a tantrum and going against common sense because of her discontent with what most would consider to be a decent life. The whole script for The Parting of the Ways is written as a buildup to her return to 200,100 - a literal and metaphorical deus ex machina of the most magnificent kind. It isn't well written, but it is well performed and certainly has spectacle. On repeat viewings, the Bad Wolf entity is a huge cop-out that stems from a characterisation problem and for me that isn't a good ending for the Ninth Doctor.
     The first half does have its problems, though. While shows like Big Brother and The Weakest Link still fill our television screens, who's to say that the same will be able to be said in ten years, or twenty? It also didn't help that the continuing themes of information manipulation and satire were completely dropped when the pepper pots made their appearance.

Eugh. Who's this bloke?

     And before I conclude, I'd just like to talk about David Tennant. At the time he was great, but as his years wore on I began to recognise that the character brought across during his era wasn't one that I particularly liked. Tennant was the cornerstone of RTD's Who, and as an old friend of RTD Tennant had the scope to explore his scripts in more ways. I won't be reviewing any of Tennant's stories, for I fear that they would be too full of vitrol and boredom.
     Christopher Ecclestone's painfully short tenure ended on a two-parter made up of strange bedfellows; the first a piece of satire and brilliant dramatic buildup while the second a deus ex machina waiting to be sprung. It relied on flawed characterisation and bad dialogue to force a conclusion onto the series, but it was a fitting end for one of the best of the Doctors in this premier year for Doctor Who's return.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: Misfits returns!

Review: Doctor Who 1.11: Boom Town

Annette Badland stars as returning villain Blon F.F.P.D Slitheen

Quite possibly the last episode of this series to be written, Boom Town was produced as a space-filler between the Moffat two-parter and the two-part finale, and as such RTD had room to have some fun. Remembering Annette Badland from the Slitheen two-parter, he wrote this episode with her character in mind and produced something rather wonderful. On its own it's nothing special, but get deep enough into it and it's one of NuWho's first examinations of the Doctor's modus operandi and the flaws in his actions, as well as a study of evil on the whole. Oh, and she still farts. A bit. But we'll ignore it for now.
     The crew arrive on the Cardiff Rift, sealed during The Unquiet Dead. As they wait for the TARDIS to refule, the gang also meets Mickey, who's come up from London. They discover that Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen (in human guise, played by Annette Badland, Bad Girls) survived the events of the Downing Street bomb and has worked her way to the position of Mayor of Cardiff. In an attempt to escape the Earth, she planned to build a new power station (Blaidd Drwg, which the Doctor finally notices as Bad Wolf) and set it to meltdown on top of the Rift, and then using a space-surfboard to ride the shockwave. The Doctor intends to take her back to Raxicoricofallapatorius to face justice, and thus she remains their prisoner for the remaining twelve hours.
     As Jack connects the surfboard up to the TARDIS (it's apparently a good source of power), Blon taunts the crew, who are unable to look her in the eye. Rose and Mickey go off into the city and argue about Rose's abandonment and Mickey's activities afterwards. Using safety precautions, The Doctor follows Blon's last request and takes her out to dinner. This scenario provides easily the best segments of the episode, where Blon begs for her life by turning around the Doctor's own beliefs. She mentions how she spared one of the meddlers into her program, and The Doctor rebuts saying that that's how all murderers sooth their conscience. She replies that only a killer could know such, and that she should be the one he spares. Both Ecclestone and Badland are brilliant here, and said scene is easily my favourite of Series One.

Torchwood, anyone?

      Eventually her plan becomes clear, as the TARDIS starts opening the Rift. As they convene on the TARDIS, Blon drops the act and reveals that her plan B was to use the enrgy from any alien advanced enough to capture her and use that to open the rift, accomplishing the same thing as her Plan A. The Doctor also reveals that she shouldn't have picked the TARDIS, because the Heart of the TARDIS is sentient and immensely powerful. After staring into the light for a few seconds, it grants her wish of a new start and she is reduced to an egg. Mickey runs off in a huff, and the trio head off to give baby Blon a new life on Raxicoricofallapatorius.
      A breather really was necessary before the finale, as later years have shown, and this episode is perfect for just that. It's quite literally a time-out for the TARDIS crew and the audience, a chance for them to reflect on what we've seen and look forward to the finale.Others find this episode boring, and I can see why they would - 45 minutes doesn't really suit a "breather" like this - but I really, really like it because for what feels like the first time RTD is giving some serious commentary on the Doctor Who mythos. And it's brilliant. Even Annette Badland, who was really camp in the Aliens of London two-parter was brilliant here in both personas - the silently terrifying atoner and the campy supervillain.
     Problems with this episode? There are a few niggles. The Slitheen costume is still as unconvincing as a wooden rat, and the few flatulence jokes (which thankfully ceased once the deep moral testimonies started) felt even more out of place. This episode felt like Aliens of London but for... grown-ups. The concept was taken a lot more seriously - Blon described execution via Vinegar as painful and slow, and focussed on the death of her entire family. To her The Doctor was as much of a villain as she was to humanity. 

She's an egg.

     Boom Town is excellent simply because it's interesting to watch. It's not exciting or action-packed, but it doesn't need to be because it's in between two very action-packed stories. Instead, RTD is able to take some time out to show us our characters and their personalities, and that slow, gentle character work combined with a chance for the actors to really pull out all the stops make this a captivating and fascinating 45 minutes. And that's all there is to it.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: Nine bows out as the Daleks return in Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways.
  

Review: Doctor Who 1.9-10: The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances

"Those would have been terrible last words."

Before he was the showrunner, Steven Moffat worked mainly on comedy. His first work for Doctor Who was the 1999 parody The Curse of Fatal Death, starring Rowan Atkinson, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley as various incarnations of the title role. Another life-fan of Who, Moffat consistently provided the best episodes of RTD's tenure, and this is where he started, in his first serious piece for Doctor Who canon. It's no surprise then that this two-parter is the best story of Series One by a long shot.
     Despite how the years have passed, the story is still touched by Moffat's sense of style and writing. Here we have all of his stereotypes - an empowered female character (Nancy), The Doctor liking mundane objects (bow ties, bananas) and a villain who isn't being deliberately evil for the sake of it. It also shares his only problems during the RTD era; he much prefered to focus on The Doctor and on the characters of his creation, and the current companion (Rose here) gets left out of the equation. Regardless of this, the story is still compelling due to said strong characterisations and the tense yet ultimately fulfilling nature of the scenario.
     Nine and Rose follow a capsule through time, a cylindrical object giving out a mauve alert symbol (red is apparently considered camp) to 1940s Earth. The Doctor realises that he's in the height of the blitz, while Rose follows a haunting little boy and somehow winds up hanging from a barage balloon as an air raid flies over London. The exterior Tardis phone rings, and a girl appears called Nancy (Florence Heath) tells him not to answer it. The call comes from the voice of the child, who keeps asking after his Mummy. Following Nancy, The Doctor discovers her modus operandi - she raids the houses of people flouting the rationing system to feed her troupe of orphaned children. At the house, the child appears again and Nancy gives a second warning, telling The Doctor not to touch him, or else become like the child.

"Run, rabbit run, rabbit run run run."

     Rose is saved from certain doom by the first appearance by Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), whose inital characterisation is loveable but holds a certain underlying dickishness. His omnisexuality, included from the off, is an interesting feature. Fandom often accused RTD of a "gay agenda" because of his sexuality and the higher number of homosexual characters in his works, but this is possibly the most sexual episode of the series and it doesn't discriminate. Jack introduces himself as a former Time Agent who has gone freelance, and is persuaded that Rose is a member of the organisation, and offers to sell the "Chula warship" for a price. His ship, like the Child, is capable of transmitting over any electrical device as well as using little healing robots called Nanogenes.
     The Doctor, still looking for answers, follows Nancy one last time. She leads him towards the crash site of the warship, and then points him in the direction of London's Albion Hospital. There he finds Dr. Constantine (Richard Wilson) surrounded by patients who have become like the Child, all of them sharing the same injuries and acting like programmed zombies, all of them looking for the Child's mother. Constantine finally succumbs to the plague, in the only scene in Doctor Who which still freaks me out. This two parter is scary, still, and it was the first time NuWho really proved that it could be. Sure, The Long Game's corpse-robots were creepy, and the Dalek was a tad merciless, but the combined mixture of body horror and the tension of whether our characters will succumb make this extra special.
     Having scanned for alien tech, Jack and Rose teleport into the hospital to meet up with The Doctor, who shows the time traveller exactly what his shuttle has done. Jack explains that the shuttle was empty, and that he was a conman attempting to sell them the shuttle and then have it destroyed by a German bomb. We go into cliffhanger with the zombies suddenly cornering the trio and the Child about to touch Nancy, but all is resolved when The Doctor appeals to the zombies' childish hive mentality by telling them to go to their room. The trio venture up to the room where the Child was kept, and in a creepy scene they ponder his nature before finding that the Child has indeed returned to his room. Using Jack's sonic blaster they escape to a saferoom, with Jack teleporting back to his ship and bringing up his colleagues while Nancy says goodbye to her adopted family. Both sides head to the bombsite, where they convene.

"He's... Empty"

      Jack's meddling with the warship - an alien ambulance unit - leads The Doctor to the truth. As the ship calls upon the Zombies as an army to protect it, The Doctor explains that the ship was filled with Nanogenes like those on Jack's ship - ones that found the dead Child and used his body as a new template for the human race, taking over everyone who appeared, to them, different. As The Child approaches to lead the army, Nancy breaks down in tears and the Doctor works out that the Child is Nancy's, one she had as a teenager and was too ashamed to even tell of his parentage. Nancy finally accepts her motherhood and the Nanogenes follow suit, fixing all of the zombies and reverting them to perfect health. Having attempted to save the others by stopping the bomb from exploding himself, sacrificing his life, The Doctor deems Jack worthy for companionship and saves his life by inviting him aboard.
      Perhaps more indicative of Moffat's comparatively more mature attitude to this story is the sexual undertones underlying everyone's relationships. As per the title of the second episode, Moffat uses "dancing" as a metaphor for sex, which seems inconspicuous to young viewers but cheeky to the older ones. That aspect of the episodes balanced out the horror and made it a lot more watchable than it would have been had it only been one or the other.
     The Empty Child two-parter is, quite simply, a well-written and well acted story. Moffat's focus on character while also presenting intriguing and heartwarming sci-fi ideas makes this story so much more, and the fact that it's so scary and yet so ultimately optimistic makes it a first for NuWho. As I said above, it is by far the best story of Ecclestone's tenure from both subjective and objective viewpoints, and I love it.

Thanks. RIP JOHN LENNON

NEXT TIME: The Slitheen (well, one of them) return, and Torchwood gets some groundwork.

Review: Doctor Who 1.8: Father's Day

Pete Tyler

During the era in which Who was off air, the nature of modern sci-fi changed. Notably, time paradoxes and examinations of such became incredibly popular, and to keep up with the times Who was going to have to produce a story that messed with Time. Moffat would later take this and run away with it, but in Series One this task was left for writer Phil Cornell, who was a prolific writer of Doctor Who fiction during the Era. Taking an opportunity to develop the characters as well as present an interesting concept, Father's Day has the right ingredients to make one excellent cake.
     Rose's father Pete Tyler (Shaun Dingwall) died when she was a baby, and the memories of the aftermath have haunted Rose ever since. On her request The Doctor takes her to the incident in 1987, where Rose wants to make sure that her dad didn't die alone. The first time, however, she fails, and so The Doctor lets her do it again with the warning that they can't cross timelines with their past selves. Rose can't help herself, pushing her dad out of the way of the oncoming car and saving his life. The Doctor is angry at her because the laws of time have been broken and now they'll have to pay the price.
     The Tardis interior disappears and strange creatures (not named, but referred to in publicity as Reapers) arive out of nowhere and start eating people. After barricading everyone inside a church The Doctor explains that these are creatures who live outside Time and who have come to sterilize the wound. The Doctor himself is eaten by a Reaper and the TARDIS is destroyed, but everything is set right when Pete realises that he shouldn't be alive and throws himself in front of the car, which had been driving around the block for the entire episode.

Rose and Nine try again. No, not that way. Rude.

     I mentioned in previous reviews that this series touched upon the characterisation of the Companion a lot more than the classic series, and this is a big example of the techniques this series uses to do so. On its own, Father's Day would make a decent if slightly convaluted (the laws of time presented here are never visited again) sci-fi time travel story, but it's the underlying plot with Rose's dad that makes it so compelling. Both Rose and then The Doctor are prepared to rip apart space and time for one man, who it turns out is nothing like the rich businessman of Rose's imaginings but more of a Del Boy. Then, of course, we have the lovely touch where it's revealed that Pete instead sacrificed himself to the timeline to save the woman who he now recognises as his daughter. This is great characterisation right here.
     However, this does strike a pretty big contrast when compared to the previous episode. All Adam did was send some info about futuristic computers home and he was kicked out of the TARDIS; here Rose endangers the entirety of time and space and Nine's hunkey dory about the whole thing. And herein lies its main issue; the episode is more skewered towards an emotional reaction rather than an intellectually satisfying one. Instead of learning her lesson here, Rose would go on to make even more time fuck-ups and there really is no excuse after what happened here. I can accept that The Doctor may have felt some empathy with Rose for wanting to return the people she loves, but Rose had to break more laws of time just to fix the mess she made.

Do not fear the Reaper...

     RTD's Who was always about the big emotional punch and this is yet another episode where that focus gets in the way of what could have been a really good sci-fi story. It could have been perfect, but the story was a little too balanced towards the melodrama and often felt ignorant of common sense - a let down for what is otherwise one of this series strongest episodes so far.

Thanks.

Review: Doctor Who 1.7: The Long Game

Cathica is very openminded.

Even an avid 80s Who fan like myself has to admit that the general public didn't like that period. Colin Baker's turbulent era effectively killed the series despite better scheduling, and the series died a slow death four years later. The Long Game is an episode that story-wise and aestheically harks back to the 80s in many ways, particularly in the set design and the general tone of the story. Will The Long Game redeem the memory of the 80s? As we'll find out, yes and no.
     I mentioned last time that Adam, the new companion, was the shortest lived companion and the only one in Who history to be ejected for bad behaviour. His actions in this episode, which include sending information from 200,000 to 2012, make the 80s comparison incredibly unfortunate. He's the modern Adric through and through, from the irritating naivity, boy-genius arrogance and the selfish attitude. All he needs now is a set of pjamas.
     Nine, Rose and Adam arrive on Satellite Five, a space station orbitting the Earth in the year 200,000, at the height of the Fourth Great and Bountful Human Empire. The Doctor is worried when he discovers that the station, a news agency, is using technology several hundred years out of date - using implanted chips to operate computers and holes in people's brains to organise information. He's also intrigued by the station's command structure, in which people are promoted at random to a legendary Floor 500, which then turns out to be a freezing cold control room run by The Editor (the brilliant Simon Pegg!!!) and an unseen monster.

Tamsin Grieg opens Adam's mind.

     Nine shows off to Adam by giving him futuristic money and Rose allows him the use of the SuperPhone to ring home. While Nine and Rose uncover the corruption in the news system and head up to confront Floor 500, Adam noses about with the futuristic computer system, getting himself a hole-in-the-head implant and trying to broadcast the information home with the SuperPhone. The Editor captures Nine and Rose, who the Editor recognises because of Adam's exploits. His master is called the Mighty Jagrafess, a giant gelationous blob on the ceiling that requires cold temperatures to live. One of the workers who had been following the events of the episode (and chatted with The Doctor) also discovers the secret of Floor 500 and uses her head-hole to send all the heat to the top, killing the Jagrafess and saving the world from corrupt misinformation. Adam gets kicked out at home.
     One of the biggest problems that I have with The Long Game is that despite the Doctor's proclamations that the people of 200,000 are living in a terrible dictatorship where a giant blob controls all passage of information, I really don't see it. How are we, the good people of 2005 (2011 at time of review, but for the sake of argument) supposed to feel the slow of technology in 200,000 when we've never visited said period before? Everyone looks pretty happy, and a system is a system, despite how ridiculous the system may appear. Nine tries pulling the "slavery" card, but the controlling nature of the Jagrafess on individuals only seems to really affect the workers on Satellite Five, and the only things put upon the people of Earth are registers. Not exactly 1984. And yes, it was making them more xenophobic and developing them as a race of people that didn't ask vital questions. Seems nothing much as changed in 199, 989 years.
      And there's the fact that a guest character saves the day yet again, with The Doctor this time tied up by computer controlled corpses and a man with a terrible goatee. I love Nine but his track record, "saving the day" wise isn't that good in that he only ever explicity saves the day once, and did that with assistance.

Shouldn't I be off making Hot Fuzz?

       Yet, despite how bad it seems on paper, I really enjoy The Long Game. I can't help but adore the campy aesthetic, Pegg's flamboyant performance and sets made out of cardboard. There's a rich layer of satire running underneath that, while reducing the almightly problem behind the episode into a more trial modern issue, gives it more layers than it really deserves. Case in point; how is Satellite Five any different to modern Western governments? RTD hasn't always been clever with his satire, but here it's better than normal. I also, despite his nature, like most of Adam's scenes, especially the ones on Floor 16. The medicinal floor, Adam goes there to get his brain-chip and his nurse is the wonderful Tamsin Grieg whose understated performance is charming despite its one-dimensional, expositional nature. Christine Adams' supporting role as Cathica is interesting to watch and as the Saver of The Day this week she needs to be.
     The Long Game is a cheesy satire with the aesthetic of the eighties and the performances to match. It fails in the same areas that it suceeds and while it could have been one of the best episodes of the series it's let down by the same things that bring it up. I like it, but in places I don't and I can see why it's one of the lower rated episodes of this series that doesn't include anything particularly offensive.

Thanks.

Review: Doctor Who 1.6: Dalek

The "Metaltron"

Introduced in the series' second ever story back in 1963, the Daleks quickly became Doctor Who's most iconic enemies. Inspired by Terry Nation's memories of the Second World War, these genocidal cyborgs appeared on over 14 occasions in the classic series. When RTD brought back the series, he made it clear that they would be returning, and soon. This story, an adaptation of a Sixth Doctor audio story called "Jubilee", is an exercise in bringing the concept back to our screens and bringing them up to date.
      Before going into anything I will admit that despite my many problems with the stylistic choices during RTD's era, his Daleks are the best of the lot (and certainly better than the Moffatian teletubbie hunchbacks}. Unlike previous and future models, where the design feels very shoddy, the RTD Dalek is sturdy and both looks and feels like a real machine. This particular Dalek is an anomaly when it comes to the rest of the era, mainly because of the superb writing in the story which sees the single-minded creature slowly become more liberal.
     Nine and Rose land in Utah 2012, on the bottom floor of an underground museum owned by greedy industrialist Henry Van-Statten. The Doctor, who has demonstrated his alien know-how, is sent by Statten to identify his only living specimin - a creature known only as a "Metaltron." When The Doctor is locked in with the creature, he is distressed to find that it is a run-down Dalek. In one of Ecclestone's best monologues, he angrily taunts the Dalek because of the destruction of both their races in the Time War, exposing a lot of guilt and anger rarely seen in the Doctor up to this point.

Exterminate

     While The Doctor is taken away and examined himself (being an alien n' all} Rose and the base's British Boy-genius Adam (Bruno Langley, get familiar} visit the Dalek for the themselves. The creature is resigned to its fate as the last of its kind, gaining Rose's sympathy. When she touches the Dalek's casing, however, it takes some of her DNA and rejuvinates itself, killing its handlers and absorbing the entire internet.
     As Adam and Rose try to escape the Lockdown, the Dalek mows down rows of guards. It's shown to have a rotating mid-section, a bullet-melting force field and the ability to fly (dismissing a joke about Daleks and stairs that persisted due to its disproval in 1988 not sinking into the public consciousness}. Along the way The Doctor and Van Statten argue endlessly due to the latter's greed and insistance that the creature, being the pride of his collection, not be shot. The Doctor manages to come up with a plan to lock the Dalek deep within the museum, the problem being that Adam and Rose are still inside. Adam manages to escape and The Doctor assumes her for dead; later disproved when it's revealed that the Dalek spared her. Not willing to take the chance of losing her again he lets the Dalek through.
     On the way to Statten's office the Dalek begins to question its purpose, Rose's DNA having corrupted its genocidal ideology. While The Doctor goes off to get some alien weaponry, it arrives in his office and begins to question him. Rose persuades it to spare Van Statten by giving it "freedom" - she takes it up to the highest level, where it blasts a hole in the roof and opens its casing to feel the sunlight. The Doctor arrives and is prepared to kill it before Rose shows him what's happening - the Dalek is mutating into a creature with human ideologies and ideas, something that to a Dalek is torture. In incredible pain, the Dalek orders it own suicide and kills itself. The Time War over, the two head off, bringing a confused Adam with them.

The Atoner.

     Before I start gushing, I'll get down with this episode's negatives. Dalek is the intro story for Adam, the shortest-lived companion to have travelled in the TARDIS. Bruno Langley, whose main role before this was Todd on Coronation Street, simply doesn't act the role well. Couple that with his annoyingly arrogant boy-genius status and his actions in the next episode, and he feels like an Adric for a brand new generation.  Luckily his performance is drowned out by the main cast, who are on top form here and perform some of the best material of this era. We'll talk more about Adam next week.
      The thing that stands out the most for me is the direction, which manages to take the bland set and ensemble and squeeze every last drop of emotion onto the screen. It's cinematic in a way that isn't distracting, and the shots through the Dalek's eye play a much greater role here than in the past. Compared to Euros Lyn's theatrical style, Joe Ahearne is much more modern and gives the story the required treatment.
     This is the culmination of our reintroduction to the series in many ways. The Daleks are finally back in the picture after 17 years waiting, The Doctor and his Companion are well-characterised and the series' arc is feeling rewarding. The real arc of this series is the constant mention of "Bad Wolf," but Davies does another, more subtle one to do with the Time War. The War is crucial to Nine's characterisation as the atoning veteran and it seems fitting that nearly every episode of this series contains some reprecussion of it, as if Nine is stumbling through the consequences of his actions. By Dalek, he has realised that the War has made him become the thing that he despised - a killer - and makes the effort, like the Dalek, to become more human. 

The Dalek Mutant is ill.

     Dalek is one of my favourite episodes of Nine's series because of its powerful direction, well-written story and the excellent caliber of acting from Ecclestone. There was a minor quibble here or there mainly due to some of the guest cast, but overall it brought back the series' most popular villain in a way which secured it for the remainder of RTD's reign. Not quite a masterpiece, but enjoyable and intelligent nonetheless.

Thanks.

Review: Doctor Who 1.4-5: Aliens of London and World War Three

"I could save the world but lose you."

Cliffhangers on Classic Who were a big deal. They were the long-lasting, make or break judge of a story's quality, the scenes which the viewers remembered for long afterwards. In NuWho's first two-parter, RTD returns as writer and delivers a story which aims to show exactly what the modern series' cliffhangers could do. Unfortunately it also stands out as a story with a lot of internal strife of the sort that I've already mentioned when discussing RTD's work - brilliant satire and social commentary mixed in with appeals to younger children. As will become the norm now, I'll be covering this two-parter in one sitting.
     As I mentioned, RTD's tenure on the show saw us explore companions' private lives so much more than before - the predecessor, really, to Moffat's very character-based arc. At the time it was an innovation in storytelling that felt completely modern and cutting edge (in Who terms anyway...}. Despite how advanced it seemed, this focus only really equated to two characters, Jackie and Mickey, as well as more frequent trips to the "present." The Aliens of London two-parter was, for convenience, filmed with the last "present" episode Rose as one of the first episodes shot. But that's not why it's rough around the edges, so I'll move on for now.
     After the future-past tour, The Doctor takes Rose back to London to see her mother and boyfriend. Despite his best efforts at arriving twelve hours after she left, he finds out too late that she's been gone a year and Mickey's been suspected of her murder in the mean-time. Despite how whiney Camille Coduri's portrayl can sometimes get, I do enjoy these scenes at the beginning of Aliens of London because of their realism and how they explore what was then unknown territory. This is followed by a discussion on the rooftop - a rather obvious greenscreen set, but it's perfect for what happens next - a spaceship flies over London and takes out Big Ben before crashing in the Thames. The world thinks that this is First Contact, and so while London celebrates and Rose faces Mickey's tale of the year he's had, The Doctor uses the Tardis to get a little closer to the action.

"It's only a model." "Shh."

     The scenes in the Morgue are some of the best in the first episode, despite sharing a lot of the episode's symptoms. The "alien" from the crashed ship was taken there and The Doctor follows the trail. They believe that it's dead, but when it awakens - in a scene that pays homage to one of the best scenes in the Movie - the current doctor there, one Dr. Sato (three-fifths of the Torchwood Cast is in Series One alone, it's awesome} ends up meeting The Doctor. The "alien," it turns out, is a pig with an augmented brain, and literally walks on hind-legs before being shot down by gunsmen, who are then berated by The Doctor. Ecclestone here doesn't betray the fact that this is one of his first episodes. In it, he portrays the vision of his Doctor that makes me like him so much - grief and sadness over the death of any living, feeling thing.
     The action segues into 10 Downing Street, where the majority of this story is set. Here we meet out villains for this episode, who besides being incredibly unbelievable in their characterisation are the sole reason that this story is on so many fans' worst episodes list. I'll spoil it now, because a point really has to be made. The villains of this story are ambitiously-used green aliens called the Slitheen, an evil family of gangsters from a tribal society that have inflitrated the UK Government by killing major figures and then using their skins as suits. To do so they wear a compression device around their necks, which due to pressure on either their bodies or the writer's spinal cord causes them to be incredibly, incredibly flatulent.
      Now, before I go any further, I'd just like to say that I am not a prude. I swear punctuatively. I do not "look down upon" certain types of humour - my only requirement is that I find it funny. I'll even allow it if I'm somehow not in the target audience - as long as I feel that it is funny to them. The Slitheen, on the other hand, belong in the same region of absurdity as burping bins and skin on a frame. RTD said his target age range was 8-12 years of age. I was 8 when this story first broadcast and like Cassandra, I didn't find it funny then and it's still bloody irritating now.

MP for Flydale North.

     The most mind-boggling thing for me is that when I think about it, the Slitheen work. I mean, they really are perfect in all but a few important respects. They've got a great design that scares kids and interests adults, a methodology that borrows from Invasion of the Bodysnatchers and Tony Blair's foreign policy and they, like the majority of good Doctor Who monsters, are green! And then comes the problem. I mean no disrespect to Annette Badland or David Verrey, who played the main Slitheen leads in their human guises. I've seen them in other things and they are individually good actors. Therefore in my mind the blame falls soley on the writing. These villains, these creates with no regard for the six billion people on Earth, need to be intimidating. Threatening. Dare I say it, Scary. All impressions of fear vanish the moment that I watched Annette Badland have to act out a scene in which she shook her bottom and farted while grinning like a loon, and some small part of me died a slow death. They speak in baby-talk, act like children in a way that doesn't make them more terrifying and un-zip their heads every. fucking. scene. If it's so difficult to get into one of those skin-suits, then why do you keep taking them off?!
     Back to the plot. The Slitheen Leader, known by his human name Joseph Green, somehow ascends to PM in the incumbant's absence. He and his two friends are blasted by the head of the Army but they swap one of the bodies for him, giving them control over the military. Meanwhile, Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton of Shaun of the Dead fame} is being a back-bench busybody and manages to accidentally discover the Slitheen's identities.
     Jackie, meanwhile, witnesses the Tardis and is scared out of her wits. She calls a Government hotline for sightings and his Years with UNIT have he and Rose escorted to Downing Street. The Doctor is sent to a meeting of alien experts while Harriet breaks down in front of Rose and reveals the Slitheen's existence, as well as finding the Prime Minister. On the estate, a portly-looking policeman with a flatulance problem visits Jackie and starts un-zipping his head. At the meeting all of the experts begin to be electrocuted as all of the our protagonists find themselves in danger in a three-pronged cliffhanger.

Green! Wicked.

     So, after a 16-year wait for a cliffhanger, how does Aliens of London shape up? Well... it's a double-edged sword. One one side, the cliffhanger is ambitious in its three-pronged approach and is quite exciting. On the the other side, there's no tension whatsoever, plenty of ways to escape the cliffhanger as readily avaliable and the fact that the Next Time trailer played a few seconds after it.
     World War Three is by comparison a much more interesting experience because it lays off the Slitheen (for the most part} and focuses more on character development. The Doctor turns the electric device back onto the Slitheen, whose psychic link makes it possible for all parties to escape. The Doctor, Rose and Harriet end up in the steel-reinforced cabinet room, questioning the Slitheen's intentions. Over the phone to Mickey, they help he and Jackie kill the Police-Slitheen by dousing it in Vinegar. In turn, The Doctor executes his contingency plan - he helps Mickey hack into the Royal Navy to send a missile to destroy downing street, where all of the Slitheen are gathered. To cut a long story short, it worked, and everyone lives happily ever after.
     There isn't that much to go at with World War Three because a lot of it is composed of tense faffing about. My favourite bits would have to be The Doctor's speech in the cabinet room, one of Ecclestone's best ever line-reads - "I could save the world but lose you." - and Joseph Green's excuse that the aliens have "Weapons of Massive Destruction, capable of being fired in 45 seconds," a clear dig at the Iraq War, which was still fresh on everyone's minds.

Can you have a cameo if your show doesn't exist yet?

     The Aliens of London two-parter will go down in Who history for its more infamous segments than its well-made ones, which is a real shame because one thing that RTD can do is domestic drama. The episodes were let down by their unconvincing and irritating villains, not to mention their posterial activity. (I sicked up a little in my mouth just writing that. Urgh.} A selection of ideas that would have worked perfectly well on their own and ones that felt better in a Seltzerberg movie came jumbled into this disappointingly bad 90 minutes, with only the main protagonists' performances to salvage it. To quote Nine, "What did you do that for?"

Thanks.

NEXT TIME: Dalek! Yay!

Review: Doctor Who 1.3: The Unquiet Dead

"Pity the Gelth."

Mark Gattis has been a life-long fan of Doctor Who. Mainly a comedy writer in the League of Gentlemen Quartet, he often used his love for the program to influence his comedy during the Cancellation Era. His scripts for NuWho haven't always been up to scratch; his disastrous Victory of the Daleks is a good example. But he was chosen as the first writer of the series other than Russell T Davies, so this should be a marked difference from the first two episodes.
     The Doctor and Rose, heading for 1860 Naples instead end up in 1869 Cardiff, where corpses are coming alive sporadically, much to the chagrin of the Undertaker and his psychic maid (Gwenyth, played by Eve Myles of Torchwood fame}. By coincidence, the great Charles Dickens (Simon Callow} is in town, and one of the corpses interrupts a reading of A Christmas Carol. While the Undertaker has chloroformed Rose, The Doctor and Dickens {after a little flattery} head off in chase. Rose awakens to find herself in a room, where a mysterious blue gas animates another corpse. The Doctor figures out the nature of the creatures and manages to get her out of there. The corpses tell him to open the Rift, as they're dying.
     Charles denies the existence of these creatures. The Doctor explains the Rift for the first time (this episode is the base for Torchwood's entire mythos} explaining that there's something trying to come through. Charles listens to the gas and inspects the corpses, but The Doctor challenges his skepticism. Gwenyth and Rose talk, with Gwenyth talking about "big metal birds" and mentioning the Bad Wolf (this series' arc words}. The Doctor appears and reveals that because she grew up on the Rift, she's keyed into it.

What the Shakespere?

    They hold a "seance" and the aliens use her to communicate. They're called the Gelth, and claim that they've been removed from their own bodies by the Time War. They want to occupy the bodies of the dead. Rose is passionately against the idea but The Doctor wants to let them through. Gwenyth gets power of veto, and they head down to the Morgue to let them through. It turns out the Gelth actually want to take over the Earth, and so Charles escapes while Rose and The Doctor get trapped.
     As The Doctor apologises to Rose and informs her that she can in fact die before she was ever born, Charles works out how to defeat them, and turns all of the gas taps up in the house, which forces the Gelth to evacuate their bodies. Gwenyth, unable to send them back and already dead because of what's happened to her, she sacrifices herself by blowing up the house and trapping the Gelth. They mourn her, and then allow Charles his last Christmas present by letting him watch the Tardis materialise.
     This episode's guest cast are superb and provide some of the episode's best moments. Notable Literature-lover Simon Callow performs the role of Dickens perfectly, and his character undergoes a rather appropriately Scrooge-esque transformation over the course of the story. The moment at the end where The Doctor says that Dickens' work will live on forever is moving and well directed. Eve Myles, meanwhile, doesn't give us the over-the-top stereotype that the "psychic" archetype demands, and instead portrays a realistic 19th Century servant girl cursed with unusual circumstance.
       The Rift element within the Historical is not very well utlized here, but I don't hold that against the story as does introduce the device for later stories in this series and in Torchwood to do more with. The Gelth are an incredibly interesting species, their nature not only tieing into the ongoing idea of The Time War but also perfectly fitting the story's Dickensian Ghost motif.

The Doctor gets a stiff reception.

     Mark Gattis' first script for the series doesn't disappoint, with a clever and touching script that pays homage to one of the greatest writers of the 19th Century. For some, this is where Doctor Who "came back," and I understand why. The Unquiet Dead is a brilliant episode and surely heralds great things to come. What's that? The next episode is Aliens of London? Oh dear. Til next time.

Thanks.

Review: Doctor Who 1.2: The End of the World

Welcome to The End of the World.

"At the time of broadcast, it featured the most extensive use of CGI yet seen on Doctor Who." So says my main Doctor Who reference guide, The TARDIS Index File, on today's episode, The End of the World. After the opener, the best way for the makers of any series to cement a show's good image is to produce a good Second Episode. In the minds of RTD's production team, this amounted to splashing out on the special effects budget and creating lots of aliens and special effects. While the episode certainly does not lead up to it's title's expectations of quality, it does have a few issues that stop from doing its job properly.
     The episode opens with a continuation of Rose. The Doctor, trying to impress her, takes her five billion years to the future. They land on a space-ship, Platform One, designed to witness the destruction of the Earth by an expanding sun. Using The Doctor's psychic paper they're brought in as guests, and we get a strangely theatrical showcase of a wide variety of aliens, like The Moxx of Balhoon and the Tree People. Most interesting to Rose, however, is Lady Cassandra O'Brien (voiced by Zoe Wannamaker} who is the last human - a sheet of skin stretched out over a frame. The female tree person, Jabe, flirts with The Doctor, while mysterious men in cloaks hand out spheres. These spheres open out into spider-like robots that sabotague the ship and kill the ship's steward (an excellent performance by Simon Day, who we'll see more of in Being Human}.
     Rose is a little put out by the ordeal, and in another room she argues with the Doctor, who refuses to reveal his home planet. They reconcile and The Doctor alters her phone so that it can make phone calls throughout time and space. The ship shakes and while The Doctor and Jabe go into the Maintenance ducts to find out what's happening, Rose is knocked out and shoved into the room. Jabe reveals that she knows about The Doctor and is amazed that he even exists - and that she is very sorry. The Doctor manages to save Rose by the skin of his teeth.

"Sun Filters. Rising"

     In a poirot-esque scene, The Doctor uses the robot to identify the culprits - the shady guys, who it turns out are androids. They in turn are controlled by Lady Cassandra. She'd hoped to use the droids to create a false hostage situation and claim millions in compensation so as to further fund her operations. She teleports away, planning to kill them all. In true sci-fi style, The Doctor tracks the system restore switch to a big lever at the end of a corridor bolstered by three giant fans. The Doctor attempts to get across, with Jabe assisting by holding a switch to slow the fans down. Soon she becomes too hot and spontaneously combusts, leaving The Doctor to Matrix-style phase through the final fan and save the day - minus Jabe and the Moxx of Balhoon. Cassandra is brought back via some jiggery-pokery, and an angry Doctor watches as she dies without moisterisation by her assistance. The Doctor takes Rose home, reassuring her about the fate of humanity and revealing that his planet, Gallifrey, was destroyed in a war leaving him the only Time Lord left.
     The episode, despite how much it suffers from being a demonstration of the New Series' budget, does actually have some interesting ideas. The majority of the weird and wonderful things we're shown at the beginning of the episode get expanded upon, and while the aesthetic of the aliens is a little childish, the villain's motivation is straight out of political satire. It doesn't get the balance of ideas right, but that in mind it is an episode that I enjoy. It has a camp demeanor to it that I love, no doubt helped by Simon Day's Steward.
     One problem I certainly do have with it is the near-theatrical direction. The opening showcase of the various aliens felt very forced and trailer-like, and there's a scene later on where to show his angst The Doctor simply looks away from Rose in the manner of a small child. It's scenes like these that make some fans accuse Nine of being emo, and while it's important to show that the genocide of his people actually has an effect on him I do see their point. While Ecclestone's acting is usually superb this is one moment that really stands out and really it's more the fault of the director, Euros Llyn.

Moisturise me!

     Zoe Wannamaker really chews the scenery with Cassandra. The execution seems a little fake because of the 2005 CGI, but the core ideas behind her are sound - the human quest for immortality, the nature of purity and eugenics etc.. It's just that... well... she's a piece of skin over a frame with a face that hangs there without any real means of doing so. It stretches not only belief but my tolerance. Cassandra was a stupid character idea when I was a nine-year-old and it's still as stupid now.
     Yeah, the thing feels like a school-play and the alien designs comply with nothing Darwin ever thought of, but there is a charm to be found within The End of the World. Its writing is excellent, portraying a future which, despite being strangely focused on the 21st Century, still holds some of the constants we've come to know. There are "lower classes" of blue people, rival companies fighting each other and one big compensation scam to fund plastic surgery. The End of the World is a study of humanity's flaws, but it takes a strange method to do it with.

Thanks.

P.S. This is the last of my daily reviews. I'm going back into school on Monday, and thus the only reviews I'll be posting are of Torchwood 4, Doctor Who and Merlin and Misfits when they return. I will try to keep reviewing Series One, but don't be disappointed if I can't.

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.