Rose

"The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history."

Writer: Russell T Davies

Format: TV

Broadcast: 26 March 2005

Series: 1.01

Featuring: Ninth Doctor, Rose

Synopsis

When Rose Tyler meets a mysterious stranger called the Doctor, her life will never be the same again. Soon she realises that her mum, her boyfriend and the whole of Earth are in danger. The only hope for salvation lies inside a strange blue box.

Verdict

Rose was a terrific little episode to kick off a brand new era of Doctor Who! The importance of this story in the wider history of the show is unparalleled because if this went wrong, then who knows where we might be with this wonderful programme of ours that now transcends television. Changing the format to 45 minutes single episodes was a brave move that worked well and it certainly introduced my girlfriend to the show in a good way and she's the reason this and subsequent television episodes are getting re-blogged. It's been a long time now since I have watched most of the modern era and I have only watched episodes from Series 10 onwards with her so instead of constantly talking about this era of the show and having trivia and competition between us, we've finally managed to sit down and start watching the stories together which I'm excited about because we both love the show so much so to watch episodes together that we haven't seen is going to be just great. Gemma loves Rose as the companion and this is a very strong start for her as companion. Introducing the series through her eyes is such a clever move and the moment we first meet the Doctor as he grabs her hand and now infamously tells her to run is fantastic! The plot behind all of the introductions is a very solid one and having the familiarity of an old enemy that doesn't require any previous knowledge of their last outing way back in Terror of the Autons was superb. The Autons along with the Nestene Consciousness make for a brilliant enemy and I literally cannot look at a shop window dummy nowadays without thinking of this episode. The blank faces of them are so lifeless and that makes them scary which works very well. Rose wanting to know more about the Doctor is lovely considering she's only had a brief meeting,  but so much happened to her including her place of work blowing up! The scenes with Clive and his knowledge of the Doctor was really fun and having now listened to Battle Scars and Her Own Bootstraps, I can appreciate the continuity of those audio adventures so much more now having revisited this episode. Getting to explain the significance of those to Gemma was great for me. I thoroughly enjoyed. The way the TARDIS was mysteriously shown throughout before the big interior reveal was very nicely done and I must admit I loved seeing this TARDIS interior design once again as it really is tremendous. Mickey was really entertaining and seeing how he is with Rose allowed Gemma and I to draw similarities between our own relationship which was a lot of fun. Jackie also is a fun character and I noticed so clearly now that the scenes with her outdoors with the Auton attack were in Cardiff. I've noticed so many more locations now I'm back living in Wales and with football going and work, I have become so accustomed to the capital so recognising shooting sights here was a lot of fun. The moment the Doctor looks in the mirror and sees himself in this face for the first time was a strong point of discussion because Gemma knows how much I am anticipating the Ninth Doctor Adventures from Big Finish, but she can't get her head around the fact that there will be no Rose. Could he really not have looked in a mirror for so long? That's a question I agree with putting forward! As a whole, this is a really strong and exciting opener with a good enemy and a lot of action. Rose's introduction is brilliant and the way she grows and actually helps the Doctor defeat the Nestene Consciousness is really well done. Overall, a really good episode that was wonderful to revisit!

Rating: 8/10