Doctor Who: Rose

Mike says Christopher Eccleston will always be my first Doctor. He had something special, something dark and scarred in his Doctor, and I really dug that. The season, and Eccleston, really grow and get stronger as the season goes on. I love Rose, and I thought using her to bring us into the Doctor's world was great.

Eccelston's Doctor, to me, seems to be a man who, with nothing else left to him, resumes his work protecting and saving humanity. But his passion, his love for the work, is gone. He now does it for the adventure, the danger, and perhaps the faint hope that he will fail, and his pain will finally come to an end. Rose brings back his purpose and rebuilds that connection to humanity.

The several references to stupid apes and cursed mudball are what lead me to believe this. When Eccelston finally changes to Tennant, he leaves that pain behind and embraces hope. And Rose was the cause of that.

The episode itself is pretty so-so. Plastic aliens? meh. But The Doctor and Rose running to save the day? Cool stuff. One of the reasons I think British shows are a bit stronger is that they are made more like American mini-series. And so, from the beginning, they know where they're going. I like that a lot.

Doctor Who is a great show, and the first season of the "new" Who is pretty well done, even if you do have to wait a few episodes for it to really start cooking.

Kate says I like David Tennant, but every time, I see anything from *New* Doctor Who, Season 1, I remember again how fabulous I think Christopher Eccleston is.

He really is my favorite Doctor Who. It's that accent, for one thing, and he seems a warmer personality to me than Tennant; the sexual energy between him and Piper is more believable than between Piper and Tennant (despite there being an 18 years difference between Piper and Eccleston and only an 11 years difference between Piper and Tennant). And, too, although Tennant is a gifted actor, I think Christopher Eccleston has a . . . greater range . . . subtlety . . . edge? Something.

Of course, I really love Season 1 anyway. I prefer Billie Piper to all the other companions (yes, even Donna, though she comes a very close second!), plus it has more single episodes (you know me and single episodes). The pilot itself is good. I actually think the other two episodes on Disc 1 are better (do you think this list has taught us that pilots are rarely as good as later episodes?), but there are the creepy mannequins and the extraordinary fast dialog that you have to keep subtitles on to get (if you do, you'll realize how funny it is; one of my favorite lines is Jackie's: "Arianna got two thousand quid off the council just 'cause the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek. I know she is Greek, but that's besides the point - it was still a valid claim.").

And Eccleston does very good pure physical comedy.

Mickey is well-established as the childhood friend/boyfriend who Rose cares for but who just can't compete with the Doctor and all he represents. One thing I really love about Rose (and Donna) is their fierceness to be OUT THERE. Rose loves the Doctor, and Donna cares for him, but they are pure adventurers as well.

Mark Benton does an awesome job as the crazy guy with a shed (having a shed, in Britain, is like . . . a guy building a boat in his basement in the U.S.). His speech brings up an interesting theme with Doctor Who and one which I actually remember from seeing Doctor Who briefly in my childhood. It was an episode with Tom Baker: someone says something to him about bringing death, and he's stumbling around on a hillside, guilt or grief-stricken.

That's it. That's all I remember. But it was THE memory I had of Doctor Who, so when Mark Benton goes into his little speech about Doctor Who being a harbinger of death, I always go, Yep, that's Doctor Who. It's a really fascinating idea because Doctor Who saves people, but he is also an omen of destruction (and often is directly responsible for people/aliens dying). I think it is interesting that the ruthlessness was there from day one (1963 day one) or at least from Tom Baker's time. (By the way, this is one reason I think The Big Bad Wolf refers to something other than what it ends up referring to in Season 4. This is a case where I really don't want to give spoilers, but The Big Bad Wolf was totally overplayed and undersold.)

I do recommend Season 2 (with Piper and Tennant) and Season 4. Season 3 has a few fantastic episodes, but Martha Jones is so annoying, you want to slap her. I do give the Season 3 finale major thumbs up, mostly due to Derek Jacobi (holy schamoolies!) and John Simm. Season 4 has Donna, which makes up for a lot, but it has way more 2-parters than the other seasons. The finale is okay, but they should have brought back Eccleston for the second Doctor Who!

On to List 2!!