The pros and cons of the one and only Doctor Who season with the ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston.
Rose
PROS
The first three minutes.
The introduction to the Doctor.
Jackie is instantly one of my in-laws.
Autons creepier than I remembered. That scene with Rose in the basement is actually very tense.
Mostly Eccleston. His swanning off scene is great, especially when he nearly corpses.
The London Eye double take.
Autons massacre
Clive. Poor old Clive.
CONS
The direction is schizophrenic. Did someone touch this up with an edit? Can't recall. (NB: Jon Arnold says they did.) Some of it is edited amazingly. Other bits are staged extremely clunkily. One scene cuts away five seconds after it ended which makes Eccleston look awkward.
Eccleston is not at his best in the scenes with the Nestene intelligence.
The Rose/Mickey relationship. They retconned what a crap boyfriend he was in later appearances though.
Clive stands there for a good few minutes waiting to die.
Not keen on the Doctor calling people stupid all the time.
Roses gymnastics skills are that rare actual case of RTD just throwing a solution out of nowhere. He's usually far better at seeding everything important in.
Overall, vitally important TV and the bits that work still work very well 20 years later.
The End of the World
PROS
The SFX holds up.
Toxic shouldn't work as a joke but it fits well as incidental music for jeopardy.
The Moxx of Balloon
Jade the Tree is such a nice character.
The plumber, though news went OTT at the time claiming it was the first time the show made you care about a small role. Tell me you never watched classic Who without...
The Steward, while he lasts
The last of the Time Lords speech.
Camera work showing how disorientating the culture shock is to Rose.
CONS
Never been a fan of Cassandra, I'm afraid.
The Doctor is an absolute git. Showing off with all that pumping of the TARDIS (which it doesn't need subsequently) and basically rushed Rose from her mum nearly dying to the destruction of Earth and then has a go at Rose for having a perfectly reasonable panic attack over it all.
They killed the Moxx of Balloon FFS
The stupid fans. "This episode was badly written," said Sigourney Weaver in Galaxy Quest. RTD borrows it here.
Jade's sacrifice is senseless. After she dies, the Doctor escaped the final fan by controlling time and seconds in a Time Lordy way. Why not do that thirty seconds earlier? This exists solely to kill a sympathetic character for the hell of it.
While Cassandra is a horror, the Doctor bringing her back to the station solely so she'll die is cold.
Overall stunning to look at but a bit bleak for my liking. Luckily iirc the doctor thaws out considerably in the next few episodes.
The Unquiet Dead
PROS
Alan David's half assed one man attempt to stop an alien invasion. His world weariness gets all the best lines.
Roses speech about dead years coming back to life.
Simon Callow. Playing Dickens as a frail man...because he's dying.
You know who doesn't believe in the great men of history thesis? This Dickens guy, who reacts to it with depression and distaste. Even at the end when he asks if his books last you can tell from Callow reaction he doesn't believe the doctor.
Eve Myles.
Setting up the Rose dad dead plot point via second sight is very RTD.
The big bad wolf, she basically saw the Daleks there.
"I love a happy medium."
Gwyneth calling out Rose for patronising her.
A story about rationality sees the heroes saved essentially by a ghost. I like that.
CONS
The Great Man of History thesis
The Doctor is a bit of a sod to Rose.
Rose patronising other people, not for the last time.
The twist was very controversial at the time although the Gelth murder a guy before the opening credits. They were evil all along is a Dr who trope though...meep meep.
Five great performances does kind of disguise the totally incoherent plot.
The Doctor himself isn't written very well.
Overall, it's a slight plot which is more about the feels. After twenty years I'm used to that in modern Dr Who, indeed we saw Ncuti Gatwa in a successful version of that weeks ago. I think there's a lot to enjoy in this RTD/Gatiss mashup.
Aliens of London (2 parter)
PROS
Big Ben gets destroyed. That was the big HOLY ¤¤¤¤ Dr Who is back moment.
David Verrey, Rupert Vansittart and Annette Badland are so convincing that they overcome the lousy direction.
Harriet Jones MP.
Its actually quite funny ie "pass the port to the left" etc.
CONS
Too many fart jokes.
The BBC reporter guy is woeful. No, not Andrew Marr, the actor playing a BBC reporter.
The CGI has dated badly when it comes to the Slitheen running.
So, Harriet Jones was going to be PM for 3 terms in a Golden Age, but then the Doctor changed history - so the Tenth Doctor is basically responsible for Brexit? Thanks.
Dalek
PROS
Pretty much the entire thing? Its bloody amazing and still holds up incredibly well.
OK, the Dalek vs 100 guys scene.
Genuinely, all of it. Even "intru-a-window". Perfect 42 minutes of Dr Who.
CONS
Adam is rubbish.
Rose basically condemns 200 people to die.
The Long Game
PROS
The Space Ship has a nice design I guess.
CONS
Adam is rubbish.
Simon Pegg is very undercooked, unusually.
The Jagrafess is a bit... rubbish.
Adam is rubbish.
It's just... a bit rubbish, sorry.
Also, Adam is rubbish.
Father's Day
PROS
Feckless dads doing anything for their daughter.
The instant shine the Doctor takes to Pete.
The Doctor with baby Rose
Pete works out the entire plot by deduction.
Pete looking for any sign he didn't actually die in Roses tales of the future.
The Reapers
CONS
Nothing.
I could nit pick, but it would feel churlish after watching such a magnificent and emotional story.
The Empty Child
PROS
"When this war started I was a father and a grandfather, now I am neither." One of the most killer lines in the show.
Its genuinely spooky.
Richard fn Wilson. Nailing it. As usual.
What's actually happening to the victims is horrific.
For all his flaws, John Barrowman pretty much is Captain Jack, instantly.
Eccleston might be at his best here. He's properly good at the comedy too.
They give all the clues to the solution away in foreshadowing in this episode.
CONS
Rose doesn't speak like the RTD Rose, she speaks like a Moffat character. This leads to clunky dialogue about alien tech and Spock early on, even if I laughed at the Captain Jack punchline later.
So far, if you take away The Long Game (which sticks out like a sore thumb), Series 1 is six strong episodes in a row, with the Doctor Dances to follow.
The Doctor Dances
PROS
Just this once, everybody lives.
"There is a war going on, did you maybe miscount?"
Creepy child
Cliffhanger resolution
Nancy.
"I'm trying to resonate concrete"
I completely missed before that the doctor unites Nancy, Jamie and Dr Constantine so they each gain a surrogate for the family lost at war.
CONS
The dancing metaphor is stretched.
The dad actor is terribly acted.
Gay shaming characters is not on, no matter how terribly acted they are.
Boom Town
PROS
Dinner scene
Annette Badland
CONS
Rose and Mickey histrionics go on far too long.
So many sex gags I could be watching Torchwood.
Despite main philosophy of story there is no real comparison between Rose and Margaret. The latter has personally murdered dozens and planned genocide at least twice. Rose thought the last Dalek was a panda preservation case.
Jeopardy appears when plot needs it. Then vanishes equally fast.
I didn't like this when broadcast but then reappraised it but have now deappraised back to 'not much cop".
Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways
PROS
Lynda with a Y!!!
Genuinely love the evil Weakest Link and Big Brother. They are evil after all.
Patterson Joseph adding great depth to a minor role
Just this once Rose, every ¤¤¤¤er dies
"The door should hold." RTD's most evil foreshadowing.
The space wheel inspired by Kit Pedlers wheel in space.
Floor 0 massacre
The Controller
The cinematography. Dalek reveal through mirrored reflection. Chefs kiss.
A cliffhanger...for the Daleks.
Eccleston was never better than the final scene of Bad Wolf IMO
CONS
Lynda with a Y (hashtag sad face). Does get one of the greatest death scenes in TV history though.
What has RTD got against chips?
More Mickey v Rose melodrama but at least the Daleks get in the way.
Do you think the lunar penal colony avoided all this?
That rarity, a new Who finale that improves with age. With hindsight we now know the Ninth Doctor was born in the aftermath of believing he'd pressed the big button to wipe out two races. The entire series he has the PTSD from that act. In the finale, in the exact same situation, the Ninth Doctor realises what we all knew, that he'd never have pressed that button because there's always another way. He's not the monster he thought he was and he can die at peace. Just excellent.
I miss Eccleston already, can we get him back please?
Season Ranked
- Empty Child
- Bad Wolf
- Dalek
- Father's Day
- Aliens of London
- Unquiet Dead
- Rose
- End of the World
- Boomtown
- Long Game
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