Doctor Who Series 1 - A Wonderful Introduction
So this is an intimidating idea for a series of reviews I am going to try my best to keep up with. ‘Doctor Who’ is a show I have a lot of nostalgia for, and it still stands up today as one of my all-time favourite Sci-Fi properties with such a weird and wonderful past that I just adore. New Who is my ball game, I’ve dabbled occasionally in Classic Who but there is so much to go through that I've always stayed with the Doctor Who I grew up with. Without further ado, I am going to break down each and every episode of New Who starting with the 2005 reboot with Christopher Eccleston.
Rose
And this is where it all began, again. ‘Rose’ is a wonderfully camp introduction to the new series and quickly establishes the tone and characters so efficiently. The companion of Rose is introduced in a beautifully normal way, she is recognisable and relatable before she meets the Doctor and the context of her family is something Russel T Davies, the showrunner, loved to explore. ‘Rose’ serves as a function to recreate this camp obscure sci-fi show from the 70s into a modern-day context and it finds the balance between homages to the absurdity of the original show (the burping bin) and the introduction of the new tone and reinvention. Eccleston’s Doctor is my favourite Doctor, from that very first ‘Run!’ he is charming, intelligent and aggressively weird, he always managed to find that balance between alien and human that no other Doctor quite managed to pull off as well as the subtle hints towards Davies’ ambitious Time War storyline being intriguing and shows Eccleston’s performance ability. It’s concise with how it establishes its characters, yes it has a camp tone, the villains of the Autons are admittedly dumb but that isn’t really the focus of the episode, instead, the focus is in the name of the episode, Rose.
The End of the World
The second episode picks up literally seconds after the last one and is a ridiculous over the top alien filled murder mystery with tree people, talking skin and blue people yet it is also a wonderful way to develop the character of Rose Tyler. The humanity that Davies’ consistently brought to his sci-fi is the part I admired the most about his writing, he creates such a bizarre concept and focuses on the impact on the characters, Rose is obviously overwhelmed and a lot of the episode is devoted to developing her like a fish out of water. The production design is beyond beautiful, every character feels unique and weird but it all serves a purpose in the narrative which is the most fascinating part. The mystery and actual conflict aren’t the most compelling and is really quite predictable, but the thematic and character-based writing is incredible and the character of Cassandra is entertaining and a genuine unsettling villain in an unconventional manner. A really nice content episode that extends the mystery of Eccleston’s Doctor and develops Rose’s character fantastically and those closing interactions between Rose and The Doctor prove Davies’ skill as a writer and flesh out this idea of the time war in an extraordinary way.
The Unquiet Dead
Watch out! It’s Gatiss Time! Mark Gatiss is one of the most acclaimed British writers of the 21st century and his work on Doctor Who is always just a bit bland. Granted, ‘The Unquiet Dead’ is a brilliantly fun episode, once again carrying on seconds after the last episode we arrive in Victorian England and fittingly witness a supernatural horror with Charles Dickens. This is nothing more than a fun off-beat episode, historical figures in episodes are always utilised for hilarious comedic potential and Dickens’ bigger than life personality is brilliant when placed against Eccleston, as well as some genuine heartwarming interactions, especially the closing moments between the two. The villain's effects still surprisingly stand up and are genuinely creepy, their motivation is a bit muddled towards the end but they once again entice the audience into the mystery of the Time War, as well as our first Bad Wolf mention. It is creepy, exciting and a typical historical episode of Doctor Who.
Aliens of London/ World War Three
After a couple of adventures, Rose returns home but is accidentally a year late much to her families shock and horror, and then an alien crashes into Big Ben and chaos involving farting aliens and bizarre political commentary ensues. You can imagine this is a tricky two-parter for me, I adore the opening episode and its weird tone but in the second half when it’s big CGI green aliens running around No.10 it is somehow less entertaining. The opening moments are some of my favourite of the series, with genuine human consequences to the Doctor’s actions and the hilarity of their reaction to the alien spaceship is amazing. The political commentary is beyond misguided and confused, I'm not sure what they were going for except ‘Politicians are big farting greedy monsters’ but it is consistently entertaining and the character of Harriet Jones is brilliant. The highlight is definitely Rose’s maturity and interactions with Mickey and Jackie and of course, Eccleston’s doctor being charming and unusual. The second half is a bit too action packed but I do love some of the dramatic dilemmas in the closing moments, but overall the villains are bizarre and a series of weird decisions. The closing moments are fantastic as Jackie and Mickey’s fear of the Doctor creates a really interesting companion dynamic.
Dalek
This is my favourite episode of Doctor Who. ‘Dalek’ made the Daleks a terrifying force of evil and this is an important episode in Eccleston’s development. Robert Sheehan reinvented the Daleks and this episode demonstrates the thought-provoking fear that the Daleks create and the shows best exploration of The Doctor’s relationship with his arch enemy. Eccleston's performance is beyond fantastic, his anger towards this single creature and his guilt and sorrow of the events of the time war are amazing. This is the darkest episode the show has approached so far, with the idea of an unstoppable killing machine destroying an entire military base creating some outstanding action and tense scenes. I adore this episode for its beautiful character study of Eccleston’s Doctor, and the reinvention of the Daleks as well as brilliant development of Rose as able to utilise empathy and understand this creature as vulnerable. Van Statten and Adam are brilliant additions and have a genuine impact on the plot and themes in a way most supporting characters fail to do. Those closing confrontational moments are some of the most poetic deconstructions of these two old enemies and this is a stand-out of the series.
The Long Game
This is a weird episode, Rose brings Adam along for a trip to the year 200,000 where they visit a mysterious news station with Simon Pegg as the villain. This is an episode dedicated to really nothing, its a way to show how Rose has grown and her excitement to show this bizarre adventure to Adam which creates a brilliant dynamic between the trio. The character of Adam is admittedly a wet blanket of a character, he serves the purpose of making mistakes and his character just comes off as an absolute idiot. But what this episode does amazingly is the world that it creates and the design of this bizarre news station is so unusual and a lot of the ideas, such as the data points in peoples heads are fascinating. It doesn’t offer up the most original plot structure, as it creates mystery and solves the mystery in a climactic moment but it’s got such a quirky uniqueness to its presentation that I can’t help but love it. Also, taking Adam back to earth and giving him the treatment that he deserved was a perfect ending to his character.
Father’s Day
Oh, I love you so much ‘Father’s Day'. In a surprisingly dark turn for the show, The Doctor takes Rose to see her Father’s death only for her to save him and cause a monumental paradox. For me, this is one of the most ambitious steps the show has taken, to make an episode about grief and coming to terms with death in a raw and unsettling way. This is another example of Series One’s understanding that sci-fi works best when embedded with character, the paradox feasting Reapers are a metaphorical sci-fi device of showing the potential and dangers of holding on to what is lost. I think this is the episode to best show Nine and Rose’s relationship as the two of them go at conflict but at the end reach a beautiful mutual understanding which cement this as one of the greatest feats of the show. A massive shoutout to Shaun Dingwall as Pete Tyler, whose wit and intelligence results in the most emotional scene the show will ever attempt, Pete’s sacrifice is one of the best-written scenes and now is a better time than ever to mention about Murray Gold’s incredible score throughout the series. An absolute standout of beautiful writing, performances and one of the most ambitiously emotional episodes, Nine taking Rose back to the TARDIS hand in hand is a beautifully quiet way to sign off on.
The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances
And the beginning of Steven Moffat shows a fantastic two-parter that cemented him as one of the most exciting writers on the show until he actually got his hands on the show. These two-parter features fantastically witty writing, terrifying concepts and the introduction of a fan favourite character in Captain Jack Harkness. These episodes are sublime, with their absolutely terrifying concept of The Empty Child mixed in with genuine interesting Science Fiction, with an incredibly satisfying denouement that is something Moffat rarely managed to pull off since. For such an eerie and scary concept and tone, Moffat writes some hilarious lines for Nine, Rose and Jack as they seem to embody this light-hearted adventurous nature to their experiences that are a nice change of pace from previous episodes. They are exciting, creepy and so much fun, with a fantastic set of supporting character and iconic villains, in a fantastic climax The Doctor learns that sometimes “Everybody Lives” and those closing moments of dancing showing an important and sad moment for Nine’s character.
Boom Town
After a set of dark ambitious and complex episodes, we take a step back and enjoy a small quiet revisitation of the Slitheen in ‘Boom Town’. This episode is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, its plot is simple, spending most of its time fleshing out the moral dilemma as The Doctor deals with the idea of sentencing a sentient being to death. Its equal parts hilarious, charming and intriguingly tense with the formidable Annette Badland as Margaret the Slitheen as an intimidating and charming villain, her performance is empathetic and complex as well as hilarious. The exploration into The Doctor’s moral backbone is what excels the most about the episode, but it is let down by the inclusion of Mickey and his scenes with Rose are a bit domestic, it illustrates a good development in Rose’s character of the effect of time travelling on her personality. It’s a quaint, well written and compelling piece of drama with amazing comedic moments and intriguing character decisions.
Bad Wolf/ The Parting of The Ways
And we arrive at the finale of Eccleston’s tenure in the TARDIS and this two-parter is dark, gripping and a fascinating character study. In a hilariously dated sequence the TARDIS team get kidnapped into TV shows where losers are disintegrated, this is real pulp sci-fi and the kind of stuff I love but its when The Doctor learns more about this station that the episode becomes simply marvellous. The Dalek's reintroduction is terrifying and proved that Davies always knew how to do stakes, he improved this conflict through Nine's character development throughout the series resulting in one of the toughest final acts to an episode of Doctor Who. The Time War had been hinted at all series and instead of taking the audience back to it in the finale, instead, we see a recreation of the moral dilemma he had to face, which is tense and ultimately drenched in sadness. Rose returns to earth and here Davies finishes his complex thematic arc for the series, she returns to reality and goes to the extreme to return back and help the Doctor, and then we have that fantastic conclusion to Bad Wolf in a satisfying and emotional conclusion. But its how Davies explores mutuality of respect in the companion Doctor relationship, he literally gives Nine some humanity as he sees Rose's God-like persona tearing her apart, Davies strips back this relationship and those closing moments with Nine are heartbreaking and iconic.
The Christmas Invasion
From the second Tennant arrives on screen he is an exciting Doctor in every single way, he is charming, bizarre and thoroughly entertaining, it’s just a shame he spends the majority of the episode asleep. ‘The Christmas Invasion’ is an episode I go back and forth with, there are some amazing moments but at the same time, there is so much fluff that it doesn’t really stand up as much as it could do. The villain in the Sycorax have fantastic design, cool concept with the idea of a race that pick up their knowledge of human's from a probe containing their blood, but ultimately they are just a race of aliens that show up to conquer the earth, which has been done countless times. The political response is quite interesting and the return of Harriet Jones is a definite highlight, seeing how the Earth responds to aliens is always a fascinating part and seeing Rose have to really take a call to action independently is a nice moment for her character. The episode’s fatal flaw is an awfully slow middle section where nothing is really developed and the frustrating Christmas gimmicks are exhausting. But the second Tennant wakes up and wanders out of the TARDIS, he doesn’t hold anything back and I love his introduction, the fight is a bit dumb but Davies is quick to establish who this Doctor is if it’s a bit on the nose. Overall ‘The Christmas Invasion' is an over the top farce which lacks Davies' subtle character beats, except for an amazing introduction to the Tenth Doctor and his confrontation with Harriet Jones is one of the smartest moments in Tennant’s run.
The first series will always hold a special place in my heart, you could argue it’s blissful nostalgia as I revisit this season but I will always appreciate the amount that is achieved in this first season. Davies had to reintroduce what is essentially a piece of British history for a modern audience, whilst creating a slur of fantastic companions and balance a lot. The series has such an ambition to it whilst never feeling obnoxious, Eccleston is electric as the Ninth Doctor, he feels distinct and charming whilst shrouded in guilt and trauma from the Time War. It is extremely dated with moments of utter camp nonsense but personally, that gives the series a lot of charm and originality and a sense of confidence that I strongly admire.
Thanks for reading!