So this is my introduction to the Doctor Who franchise, and I can already tell that it is deserving of all the fandom and cult status it has. This show is good, and while from what I heard the reboot is more angsty than the early years, I think that a lot of what makes it good was probably there then as well. This is not a show that will blow you away with cool effects. I personally find the 10 year old Buffy effects to be better than those in Series One of Doctor Who, and that's saying something. The writing is comparable in many ways though. In a word, the writing is FUN. I found myself smiling or outright laughing at a lot of the dialogue, and I love that the Doctor's response to outrageous and often terrible situations is just to shout out "fantastic!"
Am I a fan of the relationship between Rose and The Doctor? Absolutely. It's there from the very beginning, and as the series progressed I started to see it as more than just the cliche falling for the cool bad boy. Some of that is there, but instead Rose is slowly falling in love with his passion for life and his outlook on the world. That's a worthy thing to fall in love with, and I'm sort of right there with her. This series has a very positive message if you watch it, and I sort of like that youthful enthusiasm.
By the way. Billie Piper who plays Rose is hot.
Rose herself is sort of a mixed bag as a character. She seems to have sort of ADD when it comes to men, quickly jumping from Mickey to The Doctor, to Adam, to Captain Jack Harkness, and then back to The Doctor again. It keeps up the angst of the show, but it sort of paints her as boy crazy, which is fine I guess. It's not like the Doctor doesn't have a wandering eye. And his kiss with Jack was just as steamy in fairness. The problem is that I don't necessarily buy that she's all that special that The Doctor would fall in love with her of all people to choose from. She's a strong personality, and from the beginning she showed that she had a courageous adventurous side, but I don't get the "she's my soul mate" mentality from him to her. At least not yet. I guess that's what Series Two is for.
Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor was good. I don't have anything to compare him to obviously, since this was the first incarnation of The Doctor that I had ever been introduced to, but I liked him. He was more of a bad ass then I was expecting, and he was also more human than I thought he would be. I always assumed he would have more of a Spock like character. I am happy that I was proven to be wrong. I am going to miss Eccleston, but I am already looking forward to David Tennant's take on the character. I guess the character even changes somewhat between regenerations? That's cool, and it allows for the series to continue to be reinvigorated with new performances while still allowing for the main story to continue.
The whole Bad Wolf phenomenon was disappointing to me. I liked Rose going all super powerful, and The Doctor sacrificing himself to save her, but I wanted those words to have a more specific and significant meaning. They seemed to be rather random.
Worst Episode of Series 1: Episode 3 "The Unquiet Dead" I liked the ending to this episode, but I was not in love with the whole ghost concept. It was cool that they ended up not being ghosts, but gas aliens instead, but it felt off genre to me frankly. Plus if you're going to use all of history, then 1869 seems really random. Charles Dickens isn't the most famous person or most interesting character to use, but this might just be my American bias.
Best Episode of Series 1: Episode 8 "Father's Day" This was by far the best Rose episode, and possibly the only one that really focused on her. It was also the only real time travel story in the series, despite the whole series revolving around the TARDIS. I teared up when Rose's mother was recounting the revised story of her father dying. For an episode that dealt a lot with time traveling paradoxes and what not, this episode dealt an emotional punch.
Thoughts on the First Christmas Special "The Christmas Invasion" These specials are hard to find online. No, but seriously I really liked the special, and I liked that Rose had to deal with the whole plot concept of The Doctor regenerating with new bodies. It's a critical part of the Doctor Who mythology, and I'm glad it wasn't just skipped over. I'm also looking forward to the introduction of Torchwood, and I hope it draws me into watching that series as well, since James Marsters has a role in it. David Tennant is surprisingly an even more bad ass version of The Doctor, and I can't wait to see what conflict he gets himself into in Series Two with his more confrontational nature.
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