Doctor Who Review - Rose

15 years on from when Doctor Who burst back onto our screen after 16 years of absence, the show has seen many new faces and a bit of a decline in quality, in my very biased opinion. So because I felt like it, I decided to go back and write a review about the pilot of the revival of Nu Who, Rose.

This was the first episode with very underrated actor Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, and he is in my opinion the best iteration we’ve ever had. He conveys so much in just this episode alone, even though he’s essentially a supporting character to the eponymous Rose. He’s clearly suffering from the Time War’s toll on him, he’s regretful and guilty, but also relishing every moment he has to mess around and save the world. That results in a great character and a great performance from Eccleston, and he stands in front of Tom Baker and David Tennant as my favourite Doctor.

Nice to meet you. Run for your life!

Billie Piper as Rose was also a really good choice, a streetwise shopworker with a ton of kindness and excellent relatability. She was a great way to introduce viewers to the series via her easy, realistic personality, but also demonstrated the charm and strength of the most admired companions of old Who.

One of my favourite things about the episode Rose is its world-building, which has become a bit of a problem in later episodes and particularly Jodie Whittaker’s era. London lives and breathes as a living, normal place, but the interactions of Rose and the Doctor, as well as the encounters with conspiracy theorist Clive who follows the Doctor, really set up a universe of infinite scale, way beyond our human comprehension. This particular era of Doctor Who set up enough to allow our imagination to fill in the rest rather than spelling it out or overstretching itself, and it’s really commendable.

In terms of direction, Keith Boak does a mostly great job of keeping the effects work grounded, with the Auton enemies in particular looking fantastic on the screen. Boak’s direction of acting, particularly a great long take showing Rose and the Doctor walking through an apartment complex, is very strong, and the cinematography is also really good for TV, full of light and colour. Murray Gold’s score is awesome as well, if intrusive at times, really selling the mixture of modern day stress and sciencey weirdness.

The flaws with this episode come in two areas, the special effects and the tone. Now I get it’s a 2005 made for TV show, but my god, the visual effects in this episode are atrocious. Some of them look like Nintendo 64 villains on a VHS tape, and really stand out against the practical effects.

Literally the Great Mighty Poo from Conker painted orange.

And tonally, this episode has some weird deviations. It holds a moderate-to-dark tone for most of it, but occasionally slips into cartoonish silliness, such as the infamous “burping bin” and Mickey going full Neo on a champagne cork. It’s clearly trying to cater a bit more to the kids watching this show, but they were already engaged enough with the scary monsters and action. This is overkill.

But regardless, I really like this episode of Doctor Who. It was a great introduction to the series, and I would recommend starting from here and going to about halfway through Season 7, because after that it gets VERY inconsistent. I’m going to give Rose an 8/10.

Anyway, I’m going to do a few Doctor Who reviews over time. What episodes would you like me to review, and what do you think of Rose? Leave your answers in the comments.