07/11/25

New Doctor Who does space opera.

Doctor Who: The end of the world

This episode was first broadcast on April 2, 2005. A brief and somewhat spoiler-ish summary of the plot: it's the end of the world as we know it, but nobody notices.

With this episode, the BBC shows us that they were willing to do futurism and spend serious money on prosthetics, costumes, sets and special effects. The episode also picks up where the previous one left off, showing us more of who the Doctor and Rose are and how their relationship is starting to develop. It even gets in a bit of back story about the Time Lords, and it also introduces a couple of characters who would return in later episodes.

The good news:

• the Doctor and Rose get some excellent character moments. Especially Rose's response to seeing the earth die and her realisation that's she's completely out of her depth, coming after her earlier exhilaration, is very nicely done
• minor characters like Jabe the tree and Raffalo the plumber are written and acted well enough to become memorable
• the episode looks like serious money has been spent on it

The not so good news:

• as was the case with 'Rose', the writing is a bit of a mixed bag. The story moves along at a steady pace, the dialogues and the characterisation are great, and the inclusion of another bit of back-story is handled more elegantly here than in the previous episode. The story as a whole, however, isn't that strong. We get an Evil Master Mind who, like many Doctor Who villains that have gone before, can't come up with an Evil Master Plan without overcomplicating it. The result is a plot that provides enough twists and turns to keep us all entertained for the entire episode but that doesn't make much sense

My verdict:

Another case of 'enjoy the ride, don't worry too much about the story'.

More reviews of 'classic' and new Doctor Who:
Doctor Who reviews

The latest version of this review:
The end of the world (2005)

07/11/17

More Doctor Who reviews coming up, starting with the 2005 series.

Doctor Who: Rose

This episode was first broadcast on March 26, 2005. A brief and somewhat spoiler-ish summary of the plot: Rose loses her job and goes swanning off with a stranger.

The good news:

• this is an extremely well-made bit of 21st-century television. It's got excellent production values, it's well-paced and often quite funny
• Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper are both terrific here, and the episode does a great job of introducing their characters and establishing the relationship between them

The somewhat less good news - and beware, there are spoilers ahead:

• looking for answers, Rose finds a web site about the Doctor and goes to meet Clive, the owner. The way he describes the Doctor to her - as a mysterious stranger who always shows up when a major disaster is about to happen - seems like an excellent idea for a television series but it has very little to do with this television series. Also, the photos that Clive presents as proof are glaringly obvious fakes. The scene is pretty funny, though. ("Dad, it's one of your nutters!")
• on the way back, Rose fails to notice that her boyfriend Mickey has turned into a plastic replica of himself with a manic disposition and really, really smooth skin. This is hard to believe since, even if your relationship has cooled off a bit, this kind of thing is rather hard to miss
• there's not really a great deal of story here. At the start of the episode the Doctor is already hot on the trail of the aliens, and the final confrontation between him and the Nestene Consciousness, the episode's Big Bad, is mostly used to spout exposition about the series' mythology

My verdict:

Excellent start.

More Doctor Who reviews:
Doctor Who reviews

The latest version of this review:
Rose (2005)