| ROSE by Russell T Davies |
| Story 1 Synopsis: At the end of her working day, Rose Tyler is sent down to the basement of the department store where she works. There, she is hassled by walking mannequins, before a stranger saves her, gets her to the life, and then outside, before promising to blow up the building. He gives his name as the Doctor. Later, as she runs away, the building explodes. The next day, Rose is surprised when the Doctor turns up at her house, looking for a signal. He finds a plastic arm, and neutralises it when it tries to throttle Rose. As he leaves, she follows to ask what's happening. He explains the plastic is alive, but insists that it's not her problem. She looks the Doctor up on the Internet, and meets Clive, a man obsessed with tracing sightings of "the Doctor". Whilst there, her boyfriend, Mickey, is replaced by a plastic replica. At a restaurant, "Mickey" asks for information on the Doctor, when the man himself turns up, wrenching the replica's head off. He and Rose leave in a hurry, as the replica tries to catch them. The Doctor runs into a police box, and Rose reluctantly follows. Trying to track the source of the signal that's controlling the plastic, the Doctor moves the box, the TARDIS, to a site near the Thames. Rose helps him find the Nestene transmitter, and then the secret underground base. The Doctor tries to persuade the Nestene Consciousness to leave in peace, but it panics, and tries to kill him. Rose creates a diversion, allowing the Doctor's "anti-plastic" formula to reach the Nestene, stopping its terror signal. The Doctor, Rose and the rescued Mickey escape in the TARDIS. The Doctor offers Rose the chance to come with him, and she eventually accepts. |
| Review:- Earth is in danger once again. But who's this? Slowly, the tension and the mystery builds, as Rose, and the viewers, are led along by the Doctor (and their curiosity) into the heart of adventure. After a gap of almost 9 years, few people could have guessed how a revamp of any form would manage. It seems to have been a success, so far. I suspect the key to this is not to see it as a conventional Doctor Who story, but as a Rose story (it is titled after her, after all). The audience starts off watching Rose, and gets involved as she is first attacked, and then rescued, and slowly drawn into the mystery of a plastic revolution. Although their relationship is uneasy, they soon trust and respect each other, which is handy when there's a world to save. By the end, when he thinks enough of her to invite her aboard, though she turns him down, he ups his offer, and gets the girl. Rose is established as a character with a motivation. Fair enough. The background to the story is pretty interesting. Clive, the not-a-geek-honest, is presented as dedicated, but under no illusions about this mysterious interloper. Hardly campaigning enough, he is nevertheless allowed a moment of glory, when he comes face to face with the truth, just before the danger proves his undoing. At least he could die proven right. Whether his description of the Doctor as a totem of death proves to be defining remains to be seen. As for the others, Rose's mum is at least a normal person, if dull, whereas Mickey is quite arrogant and annoying, although to be fair to both the cast and the writing, that is at least characterisation. Which just leaves the alien nemesis. Although the idea that the Nestene is a danger because of its control of plastic, this is better shown during the Doctor's talks to Rose, than either the eventual Auton attack, or Mickey's restaurant antics, or the wheelie bin. The final facedown in the Nestene's underground chamber suffers from the Doctor's apparent inacapability, and Rose's dramatic and out-of-nowhere saving-of-the-day. Although "anti-plastic" did at least let the casual viewer know what was happening, which is a fault that has been levelled at the show in the past. Which brings me to the Doctor. It is hard to address a character with so much past, and yet paradoxically, his recent past is wholly unknown. Why he looks like that, why he is interfering on Earth, how he has access to alien technology... the viewer has a broad idea, that this is a hero who saves the world, but the how and the why... are not so clear cut. But it doesn't matter. There are brief moments that are there for the interested, but they're superfluous to the story in hand - which is the right mix. Whether we learn more in weeks to come... well, we'll have to tune in and find out. Overall, I enjoyed this, as television. There are questionable moments, but the bottom line in 2005 is - if the viewers don't care this time, this is going to be the end of it. An average of 9.9 million tuned in for this episode, which is not bad for Easter Saturday. Perhaps the incentive to tune in, is that there's more next week. There's something to get interested in. Or be plain excited by. Time will tell how it goes. But it was a good start. |
| Disclaimer: I have watched this story. |