the doctor is IN
 Aug 20th, 2008
Advantages:
The best re - invention of a popular sci - fi series that there has ever been . . . . . .
Disadvantages:
None - this is as good as a new DOCTOR WHO show was ever going to get . . . . .
Recommendable:
Yes
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  sparkymarky1973
About me:
Hi I'm Sparkymarky from a small village in Norfolk who loves reading,playing ps2 games and cooking.I...
Member since:23.08.2006
Reviews:47
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Review rated by 3 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
Back when I was a kid DOCTOR WHO was one of those programmes you just had to watch. My era started mid-way through the Tom Baker years and carried on through his next incarnation as Peter Davidson. During the Colin Baker/ Sylvester McCoy years, I strayed from the fold as stories got a little silly and the acting became a little over-the-top. Then The Doctor did what he does best. He disappeared from our screens destined possibly never to return...... The real reason for his programme's demise of course was much more down-to-earth. Aresult of budget cuts, dropping viewing figures and BBC politics. When a plan was announced to bring The Doctor back, with the help of American funding, and featuring Paul McCann in the next regeneration, the idea was met with much anticipation. Unfortunately the Americans never really got Doctor Who and to be fair, the movie pilot wasn't THAT good and so the idea never got recommissioned as more than a one-off.....
Which brings us to 2005..... Russell.T.Davies announced the return of The Doctor as you had never seen him before with Billie Piper (because she wants to, because she wants to?) as his assisstant and with Christopher Eccleston in the starring role. It could have gone either way- thankfully the new, re-imagined series was
an overnight, and rightfully so, success!!! This DVD encompasses the first three episodes, ROSE, THE END OF THE WORLD and THE UNQUIET DEAD and is worth re-watching if only to pick up on all the hints RTD drops throughout the series which all relate to the seasons climatic end, BAD WOLF. Much like in the T.V series LOST, the show is peppered with little clues that only the most avid of fans will have picked up first time around. It is also worth re-watching because the theme of BAD WOLF has recently returned in the latest and fourth season of the show.....
ROSE re-introduced us to The Doctor, as played now by Christopher Eccleston, and also featured the return of an enemy from the original series known as The Autons; not the scariest of enemies but then this is a very light-hearted episode with plenty of humour. Rose Tyler gets caught up in an imminent invasion and finds her life being entangled with that of The Doctor as he attempts to save the earth. Eccleston plays a blinder in a version of The Doctor that no one could have anticipated....from the very beginning you get the sense that this is very much a Doctor for the modern age and that much has happened in the time he has been away from our screens. This is the first time in history too that we have not seen the regeneration that lead to Eccleston's arrival and this first episode sets the scene brilliantly for what is to come.... THE END OF THE WORLD carries on where the first episode leaves off with Rose Tyler deciding to travel with The Doctor and leave her mundane, ordinary life behind her along with her mum and her soppy boyfriend, Mickey. This has as much to do with the sense that The Doctor is obviously very lonely as much as the fact that Rose longs to see different worlds, different cultures, different worlds. For their first excursion, The Doctor takes her to a space station far in the future where alien tourists gather to watch the last days of earth as it is consumed by the sun. All seems very cosy until a plot is revealed to destroy everyone onboard and, as per usual, it falls on The Doctor to save the day... this is the episode that introduces The Face Of Boe to the viewer albeit in the smallest of cameos (he becomes much more important in later shows) and reveals the fate of The Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey. The death of his people and his home-world goes a long way to explaining why The Doctor this regeneration around often seems so cold and so very distant and why he seems to use so much humour almost as a defence mechanism. This is a very moving episode for a number of reasons- the least of which being that the story tries to convey the message that nothing lasts forever and that everything has it's time. We also see a very adult version of Rose as she finally gets the briefest of insights into this stranger she has chosen to travel with and, indeed, put her life in the hands of.
Finally we get THE UNQUIET DEAD which takes us back to 1869, the time of Charles Dickens and the introduction of Cardiff's Rift in the Space/Time continum that features so heavily in spin-off series, TORCHWOOD. As with all historical episodes, this is far from one of the strongest stories and occasionally feels a little strained but Simon Callow as Dickens is an excellent choice and almost serves to outdo the presence of Zoe Wannamaker in the previous episode. Though RTD has often been criticised for the liberties he has taken with DOCTOR WHO as a show, it is perfectly fair to say that without him there would probably never have been a re-launch of this best loved character and with these opening three episodes he has done more for the show than the BBC ever did single-handly in it's absence from our screens!!!
The extras on this DVD collected edition are sadly lacking but if you want to re-visit the opening episodes of what has proven to be one of the best returns of a sci-fi show scince they brought back BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, then it's well worth checking out. Alternatively the whole complete series is now available in a box-set either from Amazon, Ebay or any other DVD stockist all at varying prices. If you've not seen this before, then shame on you- it's HIGH time you took a trip onboard the TARDIS...... Summary: Shop assisstant, Rose Tyler takes a trip on the wild side when she climbs inside a certain blue box
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![Doctor Who: Series 1 - Volume 1 [DVD] [2005]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78509939.jpg)
20.08.2008 13:36
Very well written review. When Sylvester McCoy first took over, I thought it was more of a degeneration - but he did get a lot better as time went by. - Bri