(697) Rose

If I am being honest, then I am really excited that I have reached this part of the marathon. I am sad that I have left the classic era but there is something fun about watching episodes that I have watched within the last decade. In fact today’s episode aired 10 years and three weeks ago. The debut episode of the Russell T Davies era was one that I was as excited as I had ever been about Doctor Who. The trailers had aired on BBC TV and there had even been billboards that I had passed everyday going to and from work. There was even a bit of hullabaloo about the episode leaking online just days before it was transmitted but I was a good boy and didn’t take a sneak peak. I can also remember in those days being obsessed with any pictures taken of what was going on. One final thing I remember is that Graham Norton’s voice appeared during Rose’s first encounter with the Auton’s.

There is a lot to talk about so I might miss some of the things so let’s start from the beginning. The theme tune is fantastic and I think it’s one my favourites of the new era. It’s a rare instance of this episode being named after a companion and nowadays having no pre-title sequence. When the episode starts it is in space and zooms into Rose’s bedroom. The episode is designed to be seen from Rose’s point of view. The first couple of minutes are designed to show how dull her life is but it takes about five minutes for it to become interesting when she meets the Autons and then is saved by the Doctor. I think that Christopher Eccleston’s first appearance is good and in keeping with the new run style that modern day Who has adopted.

I like Christopher Eccleston’s performance. When you consider the shows he has worked on in the years before and after then its amazing that he wanted to play the role even its for its for just one series. What is impressive is that it comes across naturally and he does the comedy just as well as the serious stuff. There is a bit where Ecceleston is talking about the earth spinning and he says it in such a way which shows that his Doctor is just as good as those that have come before it. Ok let’s address the costume because it’s the first time in a long time that the costume hasn’t been the talking point of the Doctor. Not since the Tom Baker costume has a costume been less noticeable. Even ten years later it’s still a costume that looks good.

Another thing I should address is the new TARDIS console. It’s breath-taking and there is no other way of describing it. It takes 26 minutes for the TARDIS console room to appear and the first time Rose sees it is the first time we see and the camera moves around like we are in awe of what we have seen. The fact that its so big means that its possible to film scenes in the TARDIS from whatever angle possible. It’s so good now that when you walk through the TARDIS doors that you go straight through to the console room and the doors match. That was a major consistency problem during the classic era where the doors inside the TARDIS console room are huge and yet the outside the doors are tiny.  It’s also nice now that when we are outside

This episode marks the first appearance of the Auton’s since 1971’s Terror of the Autons. It’s quite a good choice of RTD’s to use the Autons because they are a good enough villain that long-time fans will appreciate and mannequins are something that new fans can see the potential for menace. The Autons breaking through the shop windows is something that they wanted to do in Spearhead from Space but were unable to do for budgetary reasons. Now we get to see what it would have looked like and it didn’t disappoint. It’s rather odd and cool to see the child Autons walking around and also Autons in wedding dresses. It perhaps isn’t the greatest use of the Autons in this story but they served a purpose and it would be nice to see them back in Doctor Who again.

The scene with the Doctor and Rose walking is quite good because it establishes them as friends. I like how Rose is willing to go along with what the Doctor tells her. Although it’s a friendship that hasn’t quite formed. This is highlighted in the scene by the London eye where Rose is rather miffed that the Doctor doesn’t seem bothered about Mickey. Rose asks the Doctor why he sounds like he from the north and the Doctor reply’s with that plenty of planets have a north. I thought that this was a fun line.

Some of the dialogue that appears in this episode is rather more grown up compared to what would have been said in the classic era. The use of the term breast implants and Shunt off seems rather brave to stick in a drama that appears at 7pm on a Saturday night.

The London Eye is an iconic part of London and is used in this episode as part of the story. It’s not the first time that a part of London will be used in a Doctor Who adventure but I think its quite clever. The location filming of the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament are lovely and it’s a bonus of the new series that the cameras used have improved in quality enough for things to look this good. Even though some of the scenes in this episode are filmed in a studio, it doesn’t feel like that and the quality of the picture doesn’t change at any point.

Jackie sadly comes across rather annoyingly. She comes across as your rather typical council flat mom just after a quick money. At no point during this episode did I like her very much and when she was about to be wiped out by wedding dress Autons, I didn’t worry about her. Noel Clarke is sadly saddled with a character that is a bit wet really. In recent years the character of Mickey grows up by in this episode it’s rather frustrating. The worst bit comes after his incident with the bin. He gets this weird make up to make him look different. It’s just

Clive is played by Mark Benton and I could watch Benton in pretty much anything. He plays someone who has been studying the Doctor and comes across as some sort of conspiracy theorist. The idea that the Doctor leads a trail of is a clever one because he would leave a mark and in this age of things being logged it is inevitable that you could put things together. Sadly he gets shot in the face by an Auton which seems somewhat unnecessary and right in front of his son and wife with no follow up on how they are. It is perhaps the downside of a story taking place in just forty-five minutes that this sort of thing couldn’t be addressed but I think that had this happened twenty-years earlier then it would have formed part of the story.

There are things that don’t work so well. The series of pictures that Clive shows Rose don’t look convincing. The worst one is the one of the Doctor in Texas 1963. Another thing that doesn’t work is the effect of Mickey being pulled into the bin. It looks a bit dodgy.

The episode has a NEXT TIME bit at the end of the episode which is something that is a 21^st century thing which in the absence of a cliffhanger is the thing used to lure people into the next episode. It’s a nice little teaser but considering I am watching it in 24 hours time it doesn’t have quite the impact that it did in 2005. As an opening episode it did what it needed to do and I think satisfied the long-time fans and draw new people into the show. I thought that there was plenty to like and thought that the performance of Christopher Ecceleston and Billie Piper were good and now the introductory episode is over it means that the show can get back to being the classic show it is but with better special effects