Small Screen Surfin'
Created | Updated Mar 31, 2005
...with special guest: Awix
I'd love to say that the new Doctor Who is a blessing from the heavens and a sign that Britain will have a thriving sci-fi medium but I can't. At least as a pilot I found it so flawed. Even more annoying is the praise which it seems to have got.
Well, speaking as a fairly hard-core fan of Doctor Who I have to say I’m delighted by the (generally) rave reviews and 9.9 million viewers the new show got, even if I rather hope that not every episode is going to made in quite that style. I never expected it to be the harbinger of a new dawn in UK TV SF simply because even in the old days it was never exactly pure SF… But go on, explain what your problems with it were.
First of all, don't get me wrong, if this sounds bitter and angry.... well that's because I have a lovely pain in my wrist (which I hope is only repetitive strain injury) but this doesn't stop me thinking that as talented as Christopher Eccleston is, this new Who pilot is average at best. I'm the casual viewer in this piece, having seen little of the 'original' Who and even much of that I can't remember beyond trivia. That said, I found myself asking 'why' throughout. If Who 9 (sorry but even Russell T Davies accepts Paul McGann) has recently regenerated as implied by the Doctor's mumblings into a mirror why are there photos of Eccleston Who from different times?
Well, he’s a time traveller, he probably hasn’t had those adventures yet. He could have gone off and had them at the end of the episode before popping back to give Rose a second chance to jump aboard. I’m slightly more intrigued to learn why there were two incarnations of the Doctor at Krakatoa (the third Doctor once mentioned being there).
Why is Rose's boyfriend a better actor when playing a dummy?
Well, Rose’s boyfriend was a fairly thinly written part, I agree. The replica gave Noel Clarke a bit more latitude to work with.
Why is abandoning your mother a better prospect simply because a man in a leather jacket mentions an out of date phone box can travel through time?
You’re being a bit literal minded there I think. You don’t need to be a fan of the classic series to see that the moment the TARDIS dematerialised the first time, Rose regretted not going with the Doctor - given a second chance she would have gone with him whatever he’d said. From all I’ve heard there’s more to come about Rose and Jackie’s relationship.
Even as someone who has barely seen anything Whovian, I thought there were a lot of missed opportunities and worst of all, I think I could write a better pilot.
Well, I agree I’d’ve done stuff differently - instead of making the internet conspiracy theorist a new character, I’d’ve brought someone back from the original series - ideally one of the original companions. It would still have worked for new viewers and killing a popular classic character off would have been an important statement of intent for the new producers. But more importantly - and this is what I hope future episodes fix - I wasn’t impressed by the slightly ropy plot, which had a lot of holes in it and relied on the Doctor having a special magic potion in his pocket to resolve everything. The one thing that could excuse this is the fact that this episode was more about introducing the characters and concept than telling the story of yet another Nestene invasion…
The making of programme said that it was for eight year olds. Fair enough but to me a kids' programme should be treated like any other show with the 'unsuitable for kids' bits taken out1 except pre-school stuff which needs a different approach. Of course that leads to debate on what is suitable for kids but they can tell when characters aren't well... characters. Rose's mother and boyfriend's acting was ridiculous and the makers can't pretend that the legions of Who fans won't be watching and I'm sure they're not eight. Quite frankly at the start I thought the whole attack by the mannequins was some tongue-in-cheek look at the old Who's lack of budget. If it was, great. I'll never forget the green painted bubblewrap slug which sent Who for me into the 'can't watch' category. If it wasn't, oh dear.
We’ve already discussed Mickey and I thought Jackie was really nicely written and played, this isn’t supposed to be kitchen sink realism. You can’t take yourself too seriously when your basic concept is as absurd (and I don’t mean that pejoratively, before my fellow fans lynch me) as Doctor Who’s is. Rusty’s explained why he used the Autons in this first episode: they’re a bit SF, but not so extravagantly weird that casual viewers are going to go ‘Ugh, I don’t like science fiction’ and turn off - this show’s trying to be entertaining drama first and SF second.
(Plus it means that the return of Doctor Who has Robert Holmes’ name in the credit - which, as he was the greatest writer of the old series, just seems so utterly appropriate.)
And I would dispute that it was made for eight year olds. I think they meant eight year olds and older… certainly I know people in their seventies who watched it and loved it. I think they probably rated it more than I do, and - for all my mutterings earlier on - I really, really enjoyed it.
Overall I think it's just a really average pilot verging on patronising its audience yet it looks from previews to get better. Good idea executed badly. If a Mark "League of Gentlemen" Gatiss penned episode is written badly I think I'll lose faith in humanity. Eccleston is good and all but I've been watching the other Russell T Davies programme: Casanova which I really enjoyed and found myself watching the Who pilot and thinking David Tennant (Young Casanova) would be good in this as the Doctor.
Given that i is apparently a massive fan of the show and has appeared in the CD version, I have him pegged to be the tenth or eleventh Doctor…
Then again I almost thought that with Alan Davies 
.
Burn the heretic!
Funnily enough the hype for the new Who seems to have done nothing but good things for the show. Especially when ITV doesn't mention that David Beckham is in Ant and Dec on the other side. Saturdays could be enjoyable again.
I could say more but seriously my wrist is killing me.
Keep Surfin'
News just in! Christopher Eccleston is quitting after just one series. Included in the short list for the next Who is David Tennant.
