Here's the first episode thread to start you off.

This thread has episode 1-1 spoilers in plain view!

Remember read the "Doctor Who Exceptions and Notes to the Site Spoiler Policy" thread.

Man - I remember watching this ep on BBC1 yonks ago.

It was really damn good. Fine acting, great suspense, and a cool - if cheesily so - main nemesis for the team (Frigging Mannequins.)

I was actually surprised when I watched it -- it managed to take the best bits of American shows (wit, suspenseful storytelling, good character beats) while also retaining the quirky humour us Brits are best at.

Oh - and Rose...

... really good link into the show.

I was a little bit uncertain about Doctor WHo being resurrected since I am a grumpy mid thirty-something who grew up with Who on tv. But 5 mins into this epi and I was totally totally convinced.
Chris Eccleston ROCKS as the Doctor.
And LOVE those mannequins. So completely Who.
TARDIS - nice mix of modern tv techniques and old fashioned WHO-ness.
I wasn't sure at first about Rose Tyler I thought she was going to fall into the category of Perri you know scream and run and nice to look at and not much else. But she grew on me too.
Also subtext was beautifully done - enough for us shippers and not enough to annoy hard core Whonorelationshippers.
In summary EXCELLENT!

They did a brilliant job using Rose as the entry way into the show. I had never seen an episode Who before I saw this, and I really watched it on a whim. I was uncertain until the moment that CE came on screen, and was completely in love with the show by the time he said "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" It really was the simple way that he said that one line, a little serious, but with a total tone of mischief behind it.

I understand that Rose is only the second episode of Who basically told from a companion's point of view, and it's interesting that the other one was the first episode. I suppose it makes sense to do it again for the reintroduction of the whole series. Even the villians make perfect sense for the show, because their almost comedic appearance shows that Who isn't all gloom and doom, but often has its tongue in its cheek. The perfect start to a great series.

"Rose" is the only episode I've seen of the new series so far, and while it was terrific to have the show back again I thought this episode was a bit too derivative of "Spearhead from Space" and "Terror of the Autons".

That said, I'm quivering with anticipation over finally getting to see the rest of the new series, and I really hope SciFi picks up the next season too.

I thought this episode was a great start to the new series. I was worried about a new series after the fiasco of the TV movie but was over that within a few minutes. Chris Eccelston had me hooked on his Doctor in seconds.

I was mostly impressed that the show had finally grown up and was being treated as areal science fiction drama and not a children's show. Don't get me wrong, I adore the cheesiness of the original show, but Rose established the show on a whole new level for me.

HeadCase:

For clarity's sake, are you referring to the 1996 movie with Paul McCann or the 2005 Christmas movie?

'Cause, while I really don't remember the 1996 movie, I liked the 2005 one, though I'll refrain from saying why since I'm pretty sure it falls under the spoiler policies.

I would assume Paul McGann one. 2005 Christmas Movie wouldn't make sense from a time perspective, unless one has a TARDIS.

So who will be testing WHOknowledge?

I was referring to the 1996 movie. Sorry, should have been more specific.

Oh, neat. I didn't know that, but it does make sense. Although I watched some of the old series (in reruns, I guess) as a child, I only have an indirect memory of it. That is, I can remember running around the house with my brothers screaming "We are the Daleks! You must obey!" in increasingly higher-pitched robotic voices, but I remember nothing about the show it's self.

I found the mannequins were a bit too cheesy (and where the hell did they get those guns?), but I still really liked the episode. I loved Christopher Eccleston *sniff*, and liked the character of Rose, although I warmed up to her a lot more in later episodes.

CE mentioned in an interview that giving Nine a "northern" accent was a big decision, and I thought that was pretty cool, as one of the things I love about Nine is his accent and I like that the show demonstrates that the Doctor can be intelligent without that necesitating a specific accent.

I thought "Rose" was a typical get to know everyone/introduce the premise (particularly for new viewers) kind of episode. I didn't really think it was particularly spectacular, but then again, the best (and most entertaining) first episode (granted Who had been on for years, but still) of a show I've ever seen was "Truth Be Told" (Alias) and that was nearly five years ago.

All of that said, however, I did like the episode quite a bit and I loved how the relationship between the Doctor and Rose was set up. Plus (as a total 'shipper starting from this ep), the hand-holding never fails to make me swoon.

Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper completely sold me on the characters in the first ep. With Eccleston, it was that first line and with Piper it was how she portrayed Rose's reaction to learning that the Doctor is an alien. Wonderful stuff.

ETA: D'oh.

Though their names were never mentioned, they were credited as Autons. From wikipedia:

So, yes, it was really cheesy, but that's how the old series was as well.

There was a moment when I realized that I would probably love this show, and that moment was the appearance of a CARNIVOROUS TRASH RECEPTACLE.

It took me a while to really fall in love, but that wacky offbeatness gave it a unique appeal.

Polter-Cow for me it wasn't the fact that there was a carnivorous bin, but rather that I bought that there was a carnivorous bin.

Even though "Rose" isn't my favorite episode of the season or the strongest, I always love that moment at the very end when Rose runs into the TARDIS. The episode does a great job of showing just why Rose would go along for the ride.



TEotW always makes me cry at the end of the episode (instead of the beginning), it's so bittersweet. I like that it's being shown as part of the premiere because it's a good introduction to the emotional impact the show is capable of, as opposed to the rather less serious "Rose".

By the time that Rose and the Doctor are holding hands, and running into adventure with big smiles on their faces, well if that hasn't hooked people than Doctor Who probably isn't the show for them. Or the ending with Rose running for the Tardis after, "Oh and did I mention, it travels through time?"

Rose isn't the best episode, but it is the perfect intro for the characters and the series.

And I'm a shipper, so I just loved the Doctor confessing being lonely to Rose in The End Of The World, and them going off to eat chips. Or French Fries for American viewers ;)

I loved the two episodes. I viewed "Rose" from the leaked copy on the internet a few weeks before it premiered, and was so silly happy with the result that I cried. Yes... I'm obsessed with this show but that's not why it hit me so hard. The events were so perfectly DW that even a revamp for the new generation felt right. CE was perfect from the first minute, Billie did significantly better than I thought she would, and then there were those amazing first few minutes... FANTASTIC!

(Seriously, I know I wasn't the first one to cry when we saw the interior of the TARDIS for the first time. Who else is with me?)

TEotW's strength also stemmed from not straying too far off the beaten path of DW. They were able to cram what could have been a 4-part Baker episode into 45 minutes and still convey the wonder of Rose's first culture shock. Would it have been a classic under old-DW pacing? I doubt it. I don't necessarily consider our version a classic either but it hits all the right notes and helps to reinforce the concept of the "typical" DW story... just in time to get all subversive.

(Did I mention the crying with the TARDIS? Fess up, people!)

I kind of miss the old serial format with cliffhangers, sometimes the one-hour format feels like they are rushing the story. That said I was really pleased with Rose. She is a really well fleshed out character, not just a two dimensional plot device. I like the way they interact.

I liked a lot of things about "Rose" but there were some bits so cheesy (like Rose not noticing that her boyfriend had gone all plastic, for instance, and I'll confess to thinking the slow-mo run into the TARDIS was laying it on a bit thick) that I had to reserve some of my judgment. Once I'd seen "The End of the World", though, I was unconditionally hooked. The ep has some definite logistical flaws (like everything that Russell T. Davies writes, it seems), but the characterization and dialogue were superb, and there were parts of it so genuinely and powerfully moving that I no longer doubted the show's ability to tackle character drama seriously.

As someone who has never seen an episode of Doctor Who before the new series, I wasn't really blown away from the beginning. I had no high expectation based on the past and no residual nostalgy as a lot of you do. Having said that, the new series sort of grew on me, really fast. I went from are they kidding me with this living plastic, to can't wait for the next episode after I saw EOTW. The actors are amazing and every time you can't wait to see what they will do next with their roles.

I didn't love "Rose" the first viewing, but after seeing it again, I noticed so many great scenes. The doctor's first introduction to Rose's mom where she is comming on to him is awesome. He actualy takes a moment to think about it before saying no.


[Spoiler tags are for spoilers. Thanks.]

I agree with posters who've said that EotW is what hooked them. "Rose" I saw and was utterly charmed that all the things I loved from the old series were intact, but that the new format allowed for better stories (sorry to Old Skool folks, but I think the half hour episodes suffered too much from the mad dash from cliff-hanger to cliff-hanger, which didn't leave much room for character development or at times, good plotting/pacing).

Then EotW aired, and I went from "omg this is charming!" to "OMG I AM ADDICTED."

To their credit RTD et al. talk about people calling them on this in their episode commentary on the dvd. Their take on it was that realistically, who's going to think that their boyfriend has been turned into plastic? As for me I found it weirder that she didn't call him on his swerving all over the street. (Or maybe she did and it was off-screen.)

Another favorite bit of mine from that episode was Rose asking the Doctor why, if he is an alien, does he have a northern accent. And his response: "Lots of planets have a north!" He's so defensive about it. it cracks me up every time.

I think I was the opposite - I watched it twice the week it first showed and was delirious with excitement. But when I got the DVDs, I found it a little hokey, especially compared to later episodes. I think it works well as an introduction. End Of The World is the one that made me go "Hell yeah!" - specifically, for some reason, the scene when Tainted Love comes on the jukebox.

This may be the first time America is getting Doctor Who relatively real-time, but it isn't the first time many of us are seeing it -- PBS used to run old episodes in many cities. I first saw it when I was living in Boston (and honestly, I think it may have been on Channel 38 instead of WGBH), and then Channel 21 on Long Island started running it from the beginning back in the late '80s (with a huge gap from late Hartnell through late Troughton).

What I loved most about 'Rose' was Billie Piper's bum. Okay, so I'm shallow.

Heh.

I also had never seen a DW episode before one of my friends convinced me that these were great. I almost don't want to see the old episodes because the new ones are apparently so different!

Hurry up, new season! And Torchwood! Captain Jack....sigh!

BTW, do any of the Brits happen to know which estate Rose supposedly lives on? I'm always curious and haven't been able to figure it out.


[Spoiler tags are for spoilers. Thanks.]

I'm only half a Brit, but I can answer that question. According to Russel Davies, her full address is: Flat 48, Bucknall House, Powell Estate, London, SE15 7GO (it was given in the Doctor Who Annual 2006).

Spoiler tags are for spoilers.

Ah, well I guess that makes a bit of sense. I had read somewhere that the bad guys were called Autons, but I didn't really know anything about them. I'd thought that the Autons had just brought the mannequins in the storefronts to life somehow and then those mannequins had just happened to find guns... lying about.

I hate Rose, she annoys the crap out of me, weekly. I like her annoying boyfriend more that I like her. That being said, CE and BP have real chemistry together and while I may throw up a little bit in my mouth, it's a small, small price to pay for hearing the DW theme song every week on my tv. Yeay! DW is back!

Inquiry: Where and when does this air in the U.S.? I know a lot of people are talking about, but I have no idea where to look for it.

17th March - clue's in the topic title. Sci-Fi is the channel, 9pm I believe the time.

I'm glad this show is finally getting aired in the U.S.

But I wonder about SciFi's commitment to the series. It doesn't seem like they're advertising it very much at all, and I suspect they're only viewing it as something to show in between seasons of Stargate and Battlestar Galactica.

SciFi's Schedulebot has the March and April airings online.

http://www.scifi.com/schedulebot/index.php...text=doctor+who

Actually, '24' has separate threads even for hours which air back to back on one night. But anyway...

"Rose" took a little longer for me to buy into. It's a great episode for families viewing at teatime; I'm not sure it's quite such a natural hook for sci-fi fans tuning in on cable. But I love "The End of the World" -- especially Rose's loneliness and the truth about the Doctor's people. I wonder how references to the banning of religion and cracks about the Deep South with go over in the US!

I felt that EotW was the weakest ep of the series. I just felt it was overlong and too cliched.

The other thing about "Rose" that's important to note is that it immediately says, by reintroducing old enemies right off the bat, that it immediately reconnects with older viewers with one of the better episodes and says "This is the same canon" (in otherwords, not a BSG reimaging).

Plus, the character of Clive (aka red shirt) not only brings in the time travelling and reincarnation element that the intro show can't really get into, but also has to be an in joke for "superfan" Ian Levine (A friend of mine found a great photo that, side by side, Clive and Ian could be long-lost brothers, which unfortunately I can't locate).

So while the story is light as to give more focus to the characters, it immediately attaches to the old Doctor Who and gets new viewers prepped for what is to come later.

HeadCase:I believe it does, so I started a separate thread.

"Rose" was a good intro ep, and perhaps benefited from putting us squarely in her world. EoTW is a good counter point, as it starts to show the Doctor and what he's about.

Personally, I would have loved it if instead of Britney, that one of Billie's songs had been used. I'm a fan of meta.

Also, one of my friends who is part of our Who fan group got a job working for Apple, in iPod support. So at one meeting, when we were watching EOtW, we called him up and said that we had problems with our "iPod Wurlitzer"; it would only play Tainted Love and Toxic. Lots of laughs about that one.

Yeah I personally felt Ep3 was the one that really locked me in as total must see TV or die trying.
I mean I love Rose - it was great to be back in Whoverse and to have such a rocking Doctor. EOTW had cute moments but I don't know it failed to really engage me the same way as Rose and Ep3 did. It just seemed too self-consciously cute.

"Rose" was the first episode of Doctor Who I ever saw, and it did its job - it got me interested. I had a certain advantage that I knew the premise of the series and knew the Daleks - UK and Norway are not that far apart and things filter through - but I was still a completely new viewer and "Rose" worked very well for me as an intro. For that reason, I'm still very fond of the episode. Not my favourite of the series, but in the top half. The plot might have certain weakness, but I love it for how it sets up the characters.

"The End Of The World" feels better plotwise, but I'm not as fond of rewatching it, for some reason. I love the little character moments in it, though. The hints of the Doctor's loss and his rather cold rage towards Cassandra. It really does a good job of hinting at what we see more of in "Dalek".

Rose is a great introduction (or in my case re-introduction) to Doctor Who. It's not plot driven at all, but is built upon establishing the character of Rose. And that works becaue my contention has always been the way we (the audience) relate to a new Doctor is by his companions. Even back in Spearhead from Space (from which Rose borrows a lot of its plot as it were), we had the Brigadier who we'd met twice before. I think this series was more fortunate than the McGann movie becuase it had 13 episodes to play with. Hence, we can have a story that sets up who the companion is and let us get to know her with the Doctor being a relatively minor character. Watch and notice that Eccleston comes in and out of the story but he's never the central focus.

This is in sharp contrast to the TV Movie where we had to regenerate the 7th Doctor, introduce Grace ,have the Master escape and then get the plot, such as it is going. It's a lot to cram in there. And it doesn't really succeed because the audience has no investment in any of these characters--they're all strangers.


Which the dark Doctor is a concept that continues from the 7th Doctor. I loved it and at the time I saw it, I debated a good bit with some friends about the Doctor's choice, since the classic series establishes that the Doctor is not a killer. I loved the scene and I can't wait..oh wait, that's a spoiler for this new season coming up so I'll leave that alone.

I also saw End of the World as testing Rose..to see if the Doctor can trust her and if she's worthy of travelling in space and time with him. As we see later, this trust can be misplaced and abused..such as we see with Adam.

"Rose" is also an episode that needs to be rewatched after the season is over to appreciate quite how clever it really is. It does its job as a sort of teaser for the main story - introducing the setting, the characters and the style - and you are surprised at how quickly it seems to be over (especially when, like some of us, you've been waiting for years for new Who!)
But later on, when the journey of a lifetime is complete? Watch it again and marvel.

I'm really envious of those people here who are going to be seeing it for the first time (unlike practically every other show here, some of which I have to experience vicariously through the recaps alone... :)

I will be re-watching Rose--and for that matter the entire series--starting next week. I am not a Neilson house, but I want to support the good Doctor's being accessible to the general population of the United States and not just to those of us who are a)obsessive fans and b)know where to find it.

I am hopeful the new shows will generate a new generation of fans who will enjoy the show half as much as I have over the years....

I had seen Rose on my friend from London's computer and I am pretty excited about Dr. Who coming to Sci Fi this friday. Cant wait to see the rest of the season.

One small thing I like about this show - they actually use the web. That fanatic's website is still online, although if one digs into it, it spoils the whole season. And the search engine actually makes sense.

Ok, I've just watched my CBC tape of "Rose" again. First of all, I think the beginning might have been cut off a little. It's all I have, so could some kind soul tell me if anything happens before Rose is in the basement (I think) of the store, calling "Wilson?" and the dummies begin moving? I'm sorry to have to ask, but thanks!

I really, really love this show. I think "Rose", as people have said, is a great intro for those who haven't seen it, and a great re-intro for those, like me, who don't remember much of it. So much about the Doctor is explained, yet it doesn't feel like "Here's what you need to know, in a nice list."

The scene where the Doctor is pleading with the Nestene consciousness and saying, "It's not my fault! I couldn't save your planet! I tried!" etc. was a lot more meaningful after having seen the rest of S1. Cool stuff.

Having also just rewatched "Rose," I have to ask, did anyone else think the Nestene consciousness said "Time Lord" at one point, after it went all panicky after seeing the TARDIS? Just me? Okay.

No, you're right - the only intelligible words the Nestene Consciousness says are "Time Lord".

Mack.

You didn't miss too much. The first few minutes start with Rose's alarm clock going off, her getting up and heading out to work. She's at work, we see some frames of her with Mickey, laughing and eating lunch together and then her back at work. Then, she's heading out with some friends from the store and I've forgotten why exactly, but she heads to the basement to find Wilson.

That's about where you came in....

Specifically, she was given the lottery pool money by the doorman to take to Wilson. She headed down there, heard a noise, and entered the room with the manequins.