Rose by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Keith Boak

 

“Rose” stars Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler, Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith, and Mark Benton as Clive.  It was written by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Keith Boak with Elwen Rowlands as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, and Mal Young as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturday 26 March 2005 on BBC One.

 

The road to bringing back Doctor Who was something of a long road with several false starts.  The 1989 hiatus wasn’t announced as a cancellation, the fear of repeating the 18 month 1985 cancellation.  As early as 1993 with the 30^th anniversary Children in Need special Dimensions in Time the idea that the show might come back was a possibility, with discussions for a television movie as early as 1989 before the show was taken off air.  The movie would materialize in 1996 under Philip Segal which would be yet another false start due to low ratings in North America, it being aired initially against an event episode of the sitcom Rosanne.  Scriptwriter Russell T. Davies had already found success in writing the drama Queer as Folk for BBC rival Channel 4, but Doctor Who would tempt him as repeats in the late 1990s as well as Comic Relief special The Curse of Fatal Death and the BBC2 Doctor Who night brought some interest.  The early 2000s saw several Doctor Who webcasts of original stories featuring Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, Paul McGann in Death Comes to Time, Real Time, and Shada respectively plus the official Ninth Doctor Richard E. Grant in 2003’s Scream of the Shalka.  Head of Drama for BBC Wales Julie Gardner working with Russell T. Davies on Casanova would culminate in a formal approach in 2003, with the announcement just in time for the 40^th anniversary of the show, sadly leaving the Shalka Doctor relegated to a one off.  Early 2004 saw development and casting with Hugh Grant and Bill Nighy approached for the role, but on March 20, 2004 Christopher Eccleston was announced in the role and two months later Billie Piper would be cast as Rose Tyler.  Filming began in July 2004 with the first block consisting of the first, fourth, and fifth episodes of the series under director Keith Boak.

 

“Rose” opens the revival of Doctor Who with Russell T. Davies as showrunner and scriptwriter of eight of the thirteen episode series order.  The episode was designed to be a complete reboot and retooling of the show for the 21^st century, doing away with the 25 minute serial format, instead taking inspiration from shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer for 45 minute, monster of the week drama.  Doctor Who is also not a typical reboot, with the original 26 seasons and TV Movie not being ignored, Christopher Eccleston being announced as the Ninth Doctor and eventually through archival footage and images this would be confirmed on screen.  Davies would stay in the role of showrunner until 2010, though in 2023 he is coming back for the 60^th anniversary and beyond with three specials featuring David Tennant before a full fourteenth series of the revival with Ncuti Gatwa in the role is announced essentially making Davies the modern day Barry Letts, reviving the show for a new audience and coming back years later to bring in another new era.  Reviving Doctor Who is a difficult task.  Before “Rose” and the revival there are arguably four points that could be considered as starting points, only two of which were successful for the longevity of the show.  An Unearthly Child, specifically its first episode, is a perfect example of how to setup a show by revealing the science fiction elements over halfway through the episode while Spearhead from Space opens with science fiction elements but is largely focused on new companion Liz Shaw as the two main successes for opening the show to a new audience.  Time and the Rani and The TV Movie on the other hand open with a hasty regeneration plus a script that has not really been edited and an extended prologue leading to a regeneration, both decisions that in the case of the former were recovered from once Andrew Cartmel was allowed to do his job and the later led to the show not being revived.  “Rose” manages to avoid these later pitfalls by taking broad inspiration largely from “An Unearthly Child” and Spearhead from Space.

 

The episode opens with the title sequence, one of the few times the revival will forgo the pre-title sequence, and it is largely a reimagining of the Fourth Doctor’s sequence rendered in CGI with the TARDIS catapulting through the time vortex to a genuinely great orchestral reworking of the theme by Murray Gold before the opening shot of the episode takes an orbital image of Earth before zooming in on London where we follow Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper, through her normal day.  Davies’ script here does an excellent job at quickly communicating to the audience who Rose is and establishing normalcy before the inciting incident of Rose being menaced by Autons in the basement of her job can bring in the first alien element.  The Doctor saves her and blows up the shop to flex the increased effects budget before the action is allowed to slow down for much of the middle of the episode.  Davies makes the right call in keeping the focus on Rose as we’re able to see her interact with her mother Jackie, played by Camille Coduri, and boyfriend Mickey Smith, played by Noel Clarke.  The audience learns about the Doctor through her eyes and investigations on the internet, leading her to well meaning conspiracy theorist Clive, played by Mark Benton, before Mickey is replaced by an Auton duplicate.  This is the halfway point of the episode where the Doctor really enters the picture, saving Rose again and showing her the TARDIS before they locate the base of the Nestene Consciousness under the London Eye as Autons invade London, Rose knocking a vial of anti-plastic to defeat the Nestene.

 

What makes “Rose” work is the large strokes of the plot are very simple and not bogged down in continuity.  While the Nestene and Autons are returning villains, Davies’ script at no point explicitly references events of Spearhead from Space or Terror of the Autons and there really is no need to.  Boak’s direction at the climax is essentially an updated version of the Spearhead from Space climax using more angles than available for a 1970 television production, but that isn’t a problem as mannequins coming to life and breaking through their shop displays will always be a frightening action sequence.  Eccleston’s performance as the Doctor is also effortlessly charming, with Davies setting the Ninth Doctor as a more distant portrayal of the character.  While there is an attempt to make him more alien, Davies sets the character up as very close to being human, just a distant human who has gone through trauma.  There are references to what will be revealed as the Time War as a mystery and thrust for the main story arc of the first series, an arc that is focused on what has happened to the Doctor before the series and how Rose becoming a companion will affect him and not the simple arc word style of arc that will become popular.  Yes, this series does get arc words in the next episode, but they honestly feel more like a late addition just to facilitate the climax of the series finale.  Eccleston’s Doctor being distant also helps preserve the mystery and make each introduction to the world of Doctor Who hit harder, especially reveals like the TARDIS interior and its ability to travel through space and later time.  That isn’t to say the episode is perfect, the realization of the Auton duplicate of Mickey and Mickey’s capture are two sequences that really feel out of place, added for comedic effect in an episode that is genuinely going for a more dramatic, even horrific, tone.  There are also moments where you can tell the episode was made in 2005, Davies script having Rose use genuine slang and language from the time that helps to make her feel real but also reflect oddly on how much the show has changed since the initial revival.

 

Overall, “Rose” may not be a perfect pilot episode, but it is an episode that out of the gate allowed the revival of Doctor Who to be a success.  Eccleston and Piper are the ones to carry the episode with Davies grounding things on Earth which is the correct decision for the first episode in particular.  The character writing is an extension of the growth that the final few years of the original run and spin-off novels throughout the 1990s were done bringing the show into the modern age in a near perfect first episode.  It’s also an episode that is smart in not playing all of its cards at once, allowing new viewers the perfect entry point which is something fans of the show, old and new, have a tendency to forget.  8/10.