Arnold
CibbuanoDoctor Who Volume 1 DVD
December 18th 2006 09:32
Rose
"Run!" And with that, the Doctor is back. Rose acts as a kind of re-imagining of the early 70s Doctor Who serial Spearhead in Space... replaying the iconic images of murderous mannequins bursting through shop windows for a whole new generation. Aside from this, and a few other nifty sequences bristling with newfound vitality and energy, the invasion plot is rather by-the-numbers and underdeveloped. The real star of the episode if Rose herself. Much like the very first episode of Doctor Who back in 1963 we are introduced to the Doctor through the eyes of an everyday person. Rose is wonderfully brought to life by Billie Piper and it's apparent from the script and her performance that this new series of Doctor Who will be a lot more character-driven than it's predecessor. A good episode and a good start to the new series.
The End of the World
What really clinched the new series as a success for me was this episode. Quick to set up new boundaries, the production team starts to sketch in a new backstory for the Doctor here... we're told of 'The Time War', a war that saw the Doctor left as the last of his people. This new mythology will drive a lot of the new episodes of Doctor Who and give the overall series more momentum than the show ever really had in the past. The End of the World takes place far into the future and we're shown a whole menagerie of new aliens - the production team visibly keen to show off the show's new and improved budget. We're also introduced to Cassandra - an arrogant and grotesquely vain villainess who fits in with the best of the camp Doctor Who villains of the late 70s. Some of the effects sequences in this episode are stunning.
The Unquiet Dead
This episode didn't really do much for me. The production team take the new Doctor into the past for the first time... unfortunately their uninspired choice of destination will be indicative of their further choices for historically-based stories later in the series. The Doctor can travel anywhere in time and space! Why not have him go back into pre-history? Or into the past of a country outside of Europe? The first few years of Doctor Who certainly didn't shy away from taking the TARDIS to destinations as diverse as medieval China, Aztec America or ancient Troy... and their budget would've been miniscule in comparison. Anyway, enough ranting. This episode is set in Victorian Cardiff and features some spooky ghosts. It tries to do scary/period Doctor Who but it only gets halfway there. It's fun to see Simon Callow play Charles Dickens (not only is it good to see such an accomplished actor appearing in Doctor Who, Callow is also a huge Dickens buff - having even written a biography of the man). The Unquiet Dead also achieves it's setting rather easily through a combination of the tried-and-true BBC costumes department and the new and improved budget.
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