In 2005, Russel T Davies, longtime Doctor Who fan, was successful in convincing the BBC to do something many fans had been vocally craving for fifteen years: bring Doctor Who
back to the air. This had been attempted once before, a co-production
with Universal pictures, which resulted in a poorly received made-for-TV
movie. This would be completely independent of that original attempt,
and as in the past, would be a completely British production. The show
was cleared for one season, featuring veteran actor Christopher
Eccleston as the Doctor and English pop sensation Billie Piper as
companion and star Rose Tyler.
Doctor Who is back, and to celebrate, I'm going to take a look at the show so far. Thisincarnation of the show, that is- it's a little more than I can do
right now to review 33 seasons, and besides, the show is different
enough to justify keeping them relatively separate.
That's
right, I said Billie Piper was the star. The show was named for the
Doctor, but he really didn't become the central character until after
Billie Piper left, and it was a gradual process. There are several
reasons for this. From a storytelling perspective, it's common to focus
the story on the character who is not
a seasoned time traveler and nine hundred year old (or older) alien.
This allows the audience (who is generally neither seasoned time
travelers nor nine hundred years old, although there are some
exceptions) to experience things in a way that they can be eased into it
and have things explained to them, without breaking the fourth wall or
resulting in forced contrivances.
Secondly,
Billie Piper was a star with several #1 singles in the UK. Not only
was it a great way for the pop star to live her dream of becoming an
actress, it was a great opportunity for the show to introduce itself to a
brand new generation that was already in love with the singer. I
assume, anyway. I didn't learn about her until 2012, myself. The third
reason, which is kind of an extension of the first, the original
incarnation of Doctor Who
had the same idea: the show was about the adventures of the human
companion in strange places, with the Doctor primarily functioning as a
randomizing factor, bringing the stars into strange situations to
experience.
At
least, this idea holds until the second episode, when Rose spends half
the episode having a nervous breakdown while the Doctor pretends she
doesn't exist. To be fair, I imagine that's what happens when you pick
up a girl who's just had her workplace destroyed by plastic aliens and
give her the opportunity to watch her entire planet die before leaving
her alone to cry while you go on a date with a tree girl who just called
her several synonyms for prostitute.
The
Ninth Doctor is a really fascinating character. For those unfamiliar
with the series, every time the Doctor comes extremely close to death,
he beats it by regenerating, which gives him a new actor and a new
personality. This is how the same character has been able to survive
for 33 seasons when he started out as an old man with health problems.
The Ninth in particular is a fairly recent regeneration at the
beginning of Series 1 (you can see him in the first episode examining
himself in the mirror for the first time with this face), and he's the
sole survivor of a massive time travel war that warped and changed the
history of the universe. The sum of the Ninth Doctor is a shell-shocked
Marine who survived firing the last shot of the war, only to find
himself surrounded by civilians he feels no love for, struggling with
depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Except for, you know,
having to play superhero for the humans.
Rose...
also has a lot to do, although for her it's less “healing” and more
“growing up”. The first episode (aptly titled “Rose”) sets the tone for
this character perfectly, when she leaves her injured boyfriend in
order to go with this strange man who's dressed as though he's having a
mid-life crisis and says he can travel through time. I disliked this
character from the start and it wasn't until this season's finale,
“Parting of the Ways”, that I began to develop some affection for her.
That's
a good way to describe this season: Self-centered people doing only
what they know, go through a transformation into something new. Rose
and the Doctor are the perfect examples of this, with the Doctor losing
some of his rage and selfishness and becoming something more alike what
he was in the past, with added experience, and Rose learning to care for
someone other than herself and not to rely on others to act for her all
the time. There are plenty of others, such as the
Rastacoricofalipatorian who was ready to destroy the Earth for her own
benefit gaining the opportunity to start anew by being transformed into
an egg, and con artist Jack Harkness, who after helping the Doctor to
save the world has his life saved in turn, twice, and transforms into a
hero that would go on to star in his own spin-off, Torchwood. Rebirths and second chances aren't a stranger to individual episodes, either; the season is peppered with them.
It's
parallels like this that helps to make this a truly unique season of an
already unique show. Unusual for the normally episodic Doctor Who,
this is a completely linear season. The first two episodes largely
stand on their own, and are essential to setting up who Rose and the
Ninth Doctor are. Episode three sets up a plot device that will make
episode 11 possible, while the following two-parter introduces
characters that would be essential to that episode. The next episode,
“Dalek” introduces the villain for the season finale, as well as leading
directly into episode 7, which sets up plot elements involved in the
season finale. The 8th episode is the only episode so far not
to feature into the season plot and, like the second episode, is a
growth moment for Rose, building off of themes established in the
previous episode.
I'm
not going to keep going like this- not only do you get the picture, but
the following two episodes remain to this day among my favorite Doctor Who
episodes of all time. These episodes introduce Jack Harkness, a human
time traveler and con artist, who inadvertently unleashes medical
nanobots unfamiliar with the proper shape of humanity onto the Earth.
This is a grim, horrific tale that started future showrunner Stephen
Moffat's climb in popularity which punctuated a bleak story of war
orphans with just enough humor to make it Doctor Who.
As
for the downsides to this story, well, this is essentially the first
season of what is essentially a new show. This means it's still finding
its voice. As I described to you earlier, neither of our main
characters are that likable to start with, and it's only through
empathizing with their excitement and sympathizing with their peril that
the audience is able to come to like them. Also in trying to find its
voice, Russell T Davies shot a little low for his target audience by
introducing farting, laughing, fat, green aliens... that thankfully
found their way into a spin-off targeting younger children (starring Doctor Who veteran Elizabeth Sladen) after their three episodes in this season.
The
end result of this is a season that combines a lot of great ideas with a
lot of cringe-worthy issues that are thrown in your face. This holds
the season back from being my favorite, but it doesn't keep it from
being the one I admire most and the one that clearly had the most
planning go into it. Is it the best way to introduce yourself to the
show? As I mentioned, it does feature two of my favorite episodes of
the show... but despite that, it might be a little healthier to get into
the show after it's found its footing.
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