h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Over the last week, I have been gently introducing the wife and younger two kids to Doctor Who.

Not the older two. It's too geeky for the teens, apparently.

Anyway, controlled exposure of 'Not We' to New Who courtesy of the Season One (Ecclestone) DVDs, and then the Hartnell 'where it all started' collection. The results are in, and it looks something like this:

Christopher Ecclestone is a huge hit. Not only are the wife and kids (all female) captivated by him - and somewhat annoyed that I'm not from the North, now (lots of planets have a South too, ladies). They were really impressed with The End of the World, loved the Slitheen, were really enthused by Boom Town, creeped out by The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances, seemed to have liked The Long Game and The Unqiet Dead - and that one went over really well with the kids. In fact, while they watched the Doctor enthuse at Dickens they asked me whether I had any of his books - and of course I do - so they're currently wondering if they want to read Oliver Twist. Well done, Mr. Gatiss, mission accomplished.

As for the supporting cast...well, Rose didn't go over as well as I'd hoped. Neither did Mickey (too much the wimp) or Jackie (too foreign). Captain Jack, however, was a big hit. Once everyone had worked out that if you locked Captain Jack in a room with a potted plant for an hour they'd be dating when you got back, everyone was cool. No one was upset about Jack kissing the Doctor and everyone was annoyed that the Doctor ditched him at the end of the series. Me pointing out that the Doctor had other things on his mind at the time - like impending death - didn't help matters.

One niggle, which people have pointed out before - the incidental music, when played through Surround Sound, drowns out dialogue. It's good incidental music, but its TOO LOUD.

So...the highlights for the Not We - Dalek. Folks were rather unsettled by the idea that being introduced to honest human emotion made the Dalek want to die. They were also rather disturbed by the Dalek cutting a swathe through the humans. I think this might also have had something to do with those humans being Yanks with Guns, which American TV has shown is usually the solution to monsters rather than a mild inconvienience to monsters. Empty Child/Doctor Dances caused the kids to do what kids do with Doctor Who - use a catchphrase to scare each other silly after the lights go out. So that worked.

No one was happy to see Lynda with a Y die. No one was happy to see the Doctor regenerate and the youngsters have very mixed feelings about David Tennant. One Sprog said "Why did he turn into a teenager?". So now we wait for the all-singing all-dancing Season Two DVD, which had better have the Children In Need bit as a run-up to The Christmas Invasion.

So...Hartnell.

The kids were immediately switched off by the fact its in black and white. They didn't like the cast either. This left the wife and I to watch An Unearthly Child and the trials and tribulations of the cavemen. It has not travelled well since 1963, to be honest. Its an interesting measure of how far we've come since then that the wife was amused that the Doctor and Ian felt the need to protect the women-folk from scary dead animals. There was entirely too much screaming going on. William Hartnell's performance, at least for me, was fascinating. The Wife enjoyed it too. The first appearance of the Daleks was interesting. The pepperpots themselves are a long way away from the deathmachine in 'Dalek', but almost immediately interesting and captivating. Much more so than the Thals in their bondage trousers and cut down bodywarmers. There was much chuckling at the Thals and swamp monsters, and comments that some episodes seemed to go on for hours and others skip by in minutes. So we moved on to The Edge of Destruction, which a lot of people seem to think is a very important story. Watching it for the first time, it looks like hurridly written shash with some interesting amateur dramatics thrown in. Its creepy, but poorly realised and rather rushed. The story belongs entirely to The Doctor, with Hartnell also swiping the acting kudos.

Let's dispense with the pseudoscience. The writers/script editors clearly don't understand the difference between the formation of a universe and a solar system. So let's not worry about it either. Let's get on to the reason for the pseudoscience being there: Hartnell's speech, back to the console and lit like film noir. It's an outstanding moment, and its at this point that the First Doctor (who I've always had a certain amount of respect for) boots his way into my affections. Take that speech, where the Doctor shows utter glee at the thought of being there at the begining of something new and totally forgets that his ship is doomed. Dub in a second's silence at the end and then insert an Ecclestone 'Fantastic!' and you've got The Doctor from '63 to '05. Suddenly, it's the same bloke. Everything about the show has changed *except him*. Now, maybe that's me seeing things that aren't there...and maybe RTD wanted his first season to be a lot like the classic first season, and maybe Christopher Ecclestone did his homework and did far better with the Doctor's character than he reportedly thought he did. Perhaps I'm over analysing in an attempt to understand a flash of inspiration. Suffice it to say Doctor Who is now required viewing for three quarters of the household.

Has this been the experience of others?