Ninth Doctor/Series 1 Review

Series 1

Ninth Doctor/Series 1

Doctor: The Ninth Doctor

Companions: Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler

The Ninth Doctor’s one season runs remains a masterclass of plotting and character development. The Doctor starts out as a veteran suffering from PTSD from an impossible to imagine war covering it up with mania, and Rose goes from a somewhat dull shop girl to one of the most heroic people in the universe.

The Review

Here’s the scores for the stories

Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways: 10/10

Dalek: 9.5/10

The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances: 9/10

Father’s Day: 9/10

Boom Town: 8/10

The End of the World: 8/10

Rose: 8/10

The Long Game: 7/10

The Unquiet Dead: 6.5/10

Aliens of London/World War Three: 6/10

We will spent a bit more than usual on the season recaps here as this also serves to wrap up the Ninth Doctor era. Christopher Eccleston has been overshadowed by the show finally exploding on the British scene again with David Tennant, then again in America with Matt Smith. One season doesn’t help matters. But the revival may not have worked without him. He brought a sense of modernization and seriousness to the series amongst all of his ridiculous jokes and wildness. The geek chic of Tennant may not have legitimized the series as a tortured Doctor in a leather jacket did. Broadcasting the the Ninth Doctor’s innate happiness (“I’ll hug anybody!”, head bobbing in The End of the World), Eccleston also showed the tortured veteran whose wartime actions severely scarred him. His top 5 scenes:

5. “Run.” The Doctor’s introduction in the new series, his first scene is so much fun as it shows us the Doctor in media res. He is serious and charming, and completely in control.

4. “I watched it happen, I made it happen!” When Eccleston unloads into the Dalek in Dalek, it immediately course-corrects Series 1 on a back half for the ages. The full fury of Eccleston is unleashed against authorial intent to great effect.

3. “Coward every time.” Standing in for most of his final episode in The Parting of the Ways, this moment finally emphasized that the Doctor was never going to sacrifice lives anymore, no matter the benefit.

2. “Just this once Rose, everybody lives!” Finally the Ninth Doctor got to have a good day as finally nobody in the story died. The Doctor is able to heal everybody, and the sheer joy on Eccleston’s joy is amazing.

1. “And then, just to finish you off, I’m going to blow every last stinkin’ Dalek out of the sky!” The speech to the Daleks explaining exactly what he is going to do in Bad Wolf will remain one of Doctor Who‘s greatest moments forever.

As for Series 1, it starts off pretty slow, but when it picks up steam, it really does pick up steam. With Russel T. Davies narrowing the stakes, this series is really about people. Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Captain Jack, they are all memorable after the series. Adam really isn’t, but that’s down to how much The Long Game fails him. The scope of the series starts out incredibly small with a lot of world-building to do, but the finale has truly immersed the show back in the large world of possibilities in Doctor Who. If you’re trying to make somebody a fan, the episode that will definitely hook them isn’t Rose, but if they’re generous enough to give you a thirteen episode trial run…well they’ll be demanding to see Series 2 in a heartbeat.

8.07/10 A smashing debut, especially as it gets going.