Doctor Who Series Review: Series 1 (9th Doctor)

Alright so as we approach the second half of the 7th series, I thought it would be a good idea for me to review  all the episodes of the modern series of Doctor Who that I have yet to do and each review I do will be on one doctor and all his TV adventures as the Doctor. So today we start with Christopher Eccleston's Doctor who was only around for one series that took place in 2005 and he was joined by his companion, retail staff member, Rose Tyler (played by Billie Piper) as well as Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) who we see later on and briefly with the unruly boy genius, Adam Mitchell (Bruno Langley). So without further ado, let's go into series 1 of the reboot of Doctor Who:

Rose

Rose Tyler is a shop assistant in a department store in London who lives with her mother, Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri) and has a boyfriend named Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) who she occasionally sees. One night, she gets trapped in the department store's basement when a group of plastic mannequins come to life. She gets rescued by a man that is known as The Doctor who tells her to run as he is about to blow up the transmitter that is making the plastic come to life, but upon doing so, also causes the shop to be destroyed. Rose, now unemployed spends the rest of the episode, finding out about this "Doctor" which leads to her helping him stop the living plastic and joining the Doctor on his time and space travelling ship, the Tardis. Overall, I felt this was a good start to a new era in the Doctor Who universe which I feel, managed to introduce new viewers to the show, while retaining some of the many elements used in the classic series to make it fresh and new once more. 9/10

The End of the World

The Doctor takes Rose to the year 5 billion to witness the destruction of Earth along with a few guests from across the galaxy, including the last human (or last pure human as it's later explained) which takes place on a space station called Platform One. All is well, until someone among the guests plans to blow the place up with some cleverly disguised robotic spiders which forces The Doctor to save them from the station blowing up. While all this is happening, Rose also tries to come to terms with where she is right now. Overall, I find the acting this time is really good, especially with Rose coming to terms with all these changes in her life. I also find the blowing up scenario to be very clever and is well executed. 9/10

The Unquiet Dead

After a visit to the future, The Doctor and Rose then travel to the past (1869 to be exact) where they enter the Victorian times and meet and team up with legendary author, Charles Dickens when some sort of blue vapour decides to possess the dead and living which could cause a zombie Apocalypse (I could be wrong with that, but it has been a while since I last saw this episode). This one brings back the scariness that the show is known for and it works brilliantly. The acting is once again good and I enjoyed it. 8/10

Aliens in London + World War Three

In this 2 part story, The Doctor brings Rose back to the present and according to him, it's was 12 hours since,  they were both here (although that's later dismissed when The Doctor discovers that she's been missing for a whole year). After a few arguments and upsets with Mickey, Jackie and Rose, both her and The Doctor witness a space ship crash land into Big Ben and then into the River Thames. Because of this, London is then closed to the general public while its residents get excited with the fact that there are aliens now on Earth. As all this is happening, The Doctor goes to investigate with help from the armed forces and a scientist called Dr. Toshiko Sato (who we later see as a regular character in Torchwood, one of the show's spin-offs) and find out that the ship was piloted by an alien modified earth pig. It's later revealed that the real aliens (who are later known as the Slitheen) are in human suits, playing as various members of Parliament and a few other organisations such as the armed forces. Their master plan, to raid the Earth for profit. With the combined forces of Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler and MP for Flydale North (which is fictional by the way) Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton), The Doctor and Rose must now stop these aliens before another world war begins. Overall, I felt that a 2 part story is great and works brilliantly. The Slitheen are very original and are possibly the funniest of all Doctor Who villains to come about and I enjoy every scene with them in it. The character of Harriet Jones can be a bit annoying at times, but is also another funny character. Great stuff so far. 9/10

Dalek

Now having got her long awaited permission from her mother, Rose continues her adventures with The Doctor and the two end up landing in the year 2012 in Utah, when the Tardis gets drawn to a distress signal. They end up in a vault that is owned by the wealthy and greedy, Henry Van Statten who decides to fill it up with alien stuff. One of Van Statten's men, Adam Mitchell decides to give Rose a tour of the facility while Van Statten shows the Doctor the so called pride of his collection, the "Metaltron" and as the Doctor speaks to it, it's then revealed to be one of his greatest enemies, a Dalek. Later on, Rose accidentally sets the creature free and it's then up to The Doctor to stop it from causing any destruction to the vault. Overall, I felt this was a great welcome back for the Daleks and while we only get to see one Dalek in this episode, the episode is packed with a lot of action, references to the classic series and a few scary moments that make up for it. It just gets better and better. 9/10

The Long Game

So in his first (and from the way things go in this episode, last) adventure aboard the Tardis, Adam is bought to Satellite 5, a space station that is orbiting Earth in the year 200,000. Rose gives Adam a tour while The Doctor finds out the station's purpose which according to a female reporter called Cathica, its a giant broadcast tower that transmits news across the globe, using special ports that's installed into an individual's forehead to allow them to facilitate information transfers. The Doctor later finds out that a select few are invited to Floor 500 which is the highest promotion that anybody on the station can get, but the only thing is that whoever goes up there, never comes back. The Doctor and Rose investigate while Adam is free to roam  about the station. The Doctor and Rose meet a man called The Editor who directs control over the station via some dead bodies and serves the editor in chief, an alien who's name is long that I'm not going to bother saying what it's name is, but is given the nickname Max, so I'll use that instead. Anyway, Max is responsible for controlling the humans aboard the station to broadcast terrifying news to Earth to keep the rest of the species in check to which The Doctor refers to as creating an empire where humans are only allowed to live instead of being in control. The Doctor and Rose's identity is then revealed by Adam who has somehow managed to get one of those special ports and it's then up to Cathica to stop his identity from being revealed. And I think I've given away too much of the plot so I'm going to leave it at that. Overall, this was just an OK episode, there isn't a lot of action like before and while there are some funny moments, it doesn't really help get the episode going, so overall, not the greatest episode in the series so far. 7/10

Father's Day

This episode gives us a bit more of Rose's backstory where we see how she ended up never having a father and the episode basically allows Rose to have some time with her father before he dies which as a result, ends up causing damage to the timeline and no way of leaving without it being fixed which causes creatures known as Reapers, arriving to the area to consume the people and if the timeline isn't repaired, they will continue to do just that (and even more damage can occur if Rose interacts with her infant self). Having being marked as the first appearance of Pete Tyler (Shaun Dingwall), Rose's father, I found this episode to be very informative and shows more character development around Rose and her family. Its a very strong episode with some great acting and some action here and there, throughout. 9/10

The Empty Child + The Doctor Dances

The Tardis begins to chase a giant metal cylinder that's marked as dangerous through the time vortex and both end up in London during the Blitz. The Doctor goes to find a woman called Nancy who is looking after some homeless children in an abandoned home with the owners inside a bomb shelter. He comes across a young boy with a gas mask on who seems to be calling for his mummy. The Doctor later concludes that the boy could be connected with the object that the Tardis was following and goes to investigate a hospital near the crash site where the object is and is being guarded by armed forces. He meets a doctor called Dr Constantine who shows the Doctor some unresponsive patients who seem to have a gas mask fused to their faces with scars on their hands and according to him, they all respond identically and simultaneously to a loud noise, but as he continues to explain, he to gets a mask fused to his head. Meanwhile, Rose has also come across the boy and after trying to follow him, she then gets caught on a rope that's attached to a blimp. But she isn't there for long as Time Agent, Captain Jack Harkness, arrives to save her using his spaceship. He identifies her as a time traveller and after trying to negotiate for a price of an item he has to sell, Rose bluffs and has him take her to The Doctor. For the rest of this 2 part episode, the 3 of them and Nancy do whatever the can to cure the patients and the boy, before anything else occurs which surprisingly ends on a happy note and from that point on, Jack joins Rose and The Doctor for the remaining episodes of the series. I actually like this story as it has the scare factor all around, it's possibly one of the best sci-fi stories every told and gives us a good introduction to Jack. Some of the best work in Doctor Who can be found here. 9/10

Boom Town

Serving as the first of many cheap episodes to follow, The Doctor and Co arrive in present day Cardiff where they surprisingly meet Mickey who is in the area at the time and decide to have a relaxing day. All is well until The Doctor comes across an article in the local newspaper about Margaret Blaine, the last of the Slitheens from the first 2 part story of the series who has somehow become mayor of Cardiff. The 4 of them encounter her and ask her the purpose of this so called nuclear station that she is planning to have built in the area, which The Doctor suspects will open up the rift and cause havoc in the area. In the end, The Doctor chooses to take her back home, but she suspects that she will be executed upon arrival and has the Doctor fulfil a final request for her. Meanwhile, Mickey tells Rose that in her absence, he has been seeing someone else, while Jack decides to do some work in the Tardis. It isn't long before havoc occurs in the area and once again, The Doctor must stop it. Overall, while I did find this episode to be very funny with a few laughs here and there, it's not the strongest. The acting is OK, the story could've been better and do I find it to complete the Slitheen side of things in the show? Well in a way yes, but they do get to make a few reoccurring appearances in The Sarah Jane Adventures, which I guess is OK, but going back here, it's only good for the humour that it has. 7/10

Bad Wolf + The Parting of Ways

In the 2 part finale of not only series 1 but also the adventures of the 9th Doctor, The trio, who left the Slitheen's home planet (I won't say it's name because it's very long) get separated and end up in 3 different reality TV shows which serve as a futuristic counterpart for some of the shows we watch. The Doctor ends up in Big Brother which for every person evicted gets sent to a random part of the galaxy (presumably to die in), Rose ends up in The Weakest Link where each person that's voted as the weakest link, gets the same fate as  those who get evicted in BB and Jack ends up in what seems to be a show starring Trinny and Susannah where instead of transport, the contestant gets brutal cosmetic surgery. Jack and The Doctor (along with Lynda who is a fellow BB contestant) manage to escape and discover that they are in Satellite 5, now being run by the Bad Wolf Corporation (the phrase Bad Wolf, has been referenced in most episodes of the series) and according to Lynda, something happened that caused the broadcasting on S5 to stop and progress on Earth halted as a result. The Doctor realises that he was responsible for this during the events of "The Long Game". He later discovers that there are hundreds of ships containing 400,000 Daleks and are holding Rose hostage after she gets hit by the Anne droid. The Daleks are under the command of the new Dalek Emperor who prepares to invade Earth and S5, presumably to bring an end to The Doctor once and for all and The Doctor replies by saying that he will save Rose and destroy all the Daleks by any means necessary. While this all happens, we also find out what Bad Wolf is all about. Overall, I did feel at times that this was rushed, but despite that, the idea of having reality shows being more physically than mentally deadly to people was a very good and original idea and having an army of Daleks for the series finale was also a very good idea too. 8/10

Overall, I feel that the 9th Doctor could've had more time on the TV, but oh well. The series was for the most part, great and a well deserved reboot of the popular sci-fi show that is a cult classic to the BBC. Thank you Russell T Davis. 9/10