Doctor Who - Series 1 Vol.2 (DVD)

...began in episode 1. The Doctor and Rose are ambling along, bored as they imagine they will never find aliens where they are right there and then, when an alien spaceship whooshes past them and flies hazardously around the rooftops of London before smashing into Big Ben and crashing into the Thames. London goes on red alert as important dignitaries are summoned to 10 Downing Street. However, the Prime Minister has vanished, and an alien race known ...
...the Doctor and Rose work out how to save the country and the world from this foreign race before it's too late?

Episode 6 - Dalek

The Doctor and Rose dart forward a couple years in time to 2012, and end up half a mile underground in the alien museum of megalomaniac Henry Van Statten, the owner of the internet! The Doctor winds up being the main attraction of the museum, and tension and panic mount as he finds out that ... more

As I explained in my last review, I only started watching this series, as I was forced to by my wife. However, I was an instant fan, and watched a number of episodes back to back. The first 3 episodes very much set the scene for the introduction of Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, the last of the Time Lord race from a planet far away, and Rose, the Doctor's latest companion on his travels through time.

There are 3 episodes on this, the second DVD of the 1st new series. The first two episodes are one story, with a first part and a second part. The third episode here, episode 6 of the series, sees the return of one of the Doctor's most famous enemies. The episode is entitled Dalek!

Episodes 4 & 5 - Aliens Of London & World War Three

These 2 episodes form just the one story, and it is a change from the last two episodes in that it involves the present day, and is set in London, where the series began in episode 1. The Doctor and Rose are ambling along, bored as they imagine they will never find aliens where they are right there and then, when an alien spaceship whooshes past them and flies hazardously around the rooftops of London before smashing into Big Ben and crashing into the Thames. London goes on red alert as important dignitaries are summoned to 10 Downing Street. However, the Prime Minister has vanished, and an alien race known as the Slitheens seem to have infiltrated our government. Can the Doctor and Rose work out how to save the country and the world from this foreign race before it's too late?

Episode 6 - Dalek

The Doctor and Rose dart forward a couple years in time to 2012, and end up half a mile underground in the alien museum of megalomaniac Henry Van Statten, the owner of the internet! The Doctor winds up being the main attraction of the museum, and tension and panic mount as he finds out that the museum also houses one other live alien - the most vicious and evil of all aliens, one that is programmed for hate and hate alone. How is he going to get out of this one?

The Cast and Performances

Christopher Eccleston grew on me from the very start of the first episode. By the time this episode came along, in my mind Eccleston was well and truly the Doctor. His screen presence is of the highest level, and the only niggling thing I have is the knowledge that he only did the one series, giving way to the excellent David Tennant. I would have liked to have seen Eccleston develop the role a little bit more.

Billie Piper plays Rose, the Doctor's companion. She surprised me at how well she portrayed the 19 year old council estate girl with no direction in life until the Doctor rocked up and whisked her away across the universe. Rose's innocence shines through in Dalek and her caring nature takes over, and Piper switches between this side and the mature acceptance of time travel the character has to face. The actress is very good.

The two recurring characters from the first few episodes are Rose's mum Jackie and her boyfriend Mickey. Jackie is played by Camille Coduri, and she portrays the tracksuit wearing chavvy mum very well. Mickey is played by Noel Clarke, successful actor and screenwriter. Clarke has great screen presence and sparks well with Coduri on screen.

In the first story, episodes 4 & 5, Penelope Wilton appears as Harriet Jones, MP for Ryedale North, as she keeps reminding everyone with a flash of her ID card. She has a main role in the episode and does very well, adding a comic element to what could be a rather scary alien story. Rupert Vansittart, David Verrey and Annette Badland provide some good acting as cabinet members dealing with the crisis as the invasion of farting aliens descends upon London, and Naoko Mori appears as a lab scientist in 10 Downing Street examining an alien. Curiously enough, Mori was to star as one of the Torchwood team, a spinoff from Doctor Who. She was to reprise the role of Dr Sato. In episode 3, The Unquiet Dead, the lead female actress of Torchwood, Eve Myles (as Gwen Cooper in Torchwood) appeared, but as a different character. There is a link here between Doctor Who and Torchwood, which apparently becomes stronger as the series progress, and if you watch Torchwood, references are abundant there, too, as the two are intrinsically linked.

Dalek sees the entrance of Bruno Langley (ex-Corrie) as Adam Mitchell. Adam joins them in the following episode, too, but stars here as a genius employed by Van Staaten (played cheesily American by Corey Johnson). Langley does well, and the remainder of the cast in Dalek support very well, too.

My Opinion

Again, the main element here is the cheesy and tacky special effects. These are the signature of Doctor Who episodes and as such form the perfect drama sci-fi plots. The Slitheen are created very well in episodes 4 & 5, and the explosions are blatantly fake, but again in a special and accepted Doctor Who fashion. The acting is top notch, and the episodes fly by in a wave of enjoyment as the action takes over from any background work involved. The first 3 episodes seemed to explain a lot, leaving these next 3 to gear pure action and entertainment. The plot for the invasion of the Slitheens is a little weak, and perhaps could have done with being left to just the one episode, quite why they made it into two I am not sure, but the cliffhanger at the end of the first part is brilliantly done, and he entirety of the Dalek episode is well written and performed, if a little bit of a cop out at the end.

Overall, I am still thoroughly obsessed with Doctor Who, and will sign off from this review to go in anticipation of some more Doctor Who cheese with the easter special coming up in a few weeks' time.

The DVD is available from amazon.co.uk separately for £6.98, or as part of the whole series, which they are currently selling for £44.98. There are no extras, these are kept for the end of season boxset. 

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