The New Who?

[angelophile]

So yesterday saw the first airing on BBC of the new Doctor Who TV show, a dozen or so years after it disappeared from our screens. The question is, was it any good and was it worth bringing the Doctor back?

The answer is, thankfully, yes to both questions.



Since Doctor Who first appeared on British TV screens in 1963 it's always been something of an institution. Since the writers hit on the ingenious idea of "regeneration", which has seen both the character and the actors vary dramatically through the run, it's a series that could be self-sustaining for time and memoriam. An ever-revolving cast, with the only constants being a craft shaped like a police box and dodgy special effects.

Christopher Eccleston is the latest in a line of Doctors, taking on the mantle previously held by William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, John Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davidson (my first introduction to the series), Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and, briefly, Paul McGann.



So, this ninth Doctor, is he any good?

Well, let's talk about the show first. Instead of the old three or four parters with half hour slots, the new Doctor Who is six 50 minute episodes. The one thing I noticed with this first episode is that this new format didn't really help with the suspense. I can't imagine too many kids were hiding behind sofas, things raced by at a frantic pace that gave little time for any real cliffhangers.

The episode began by zooming into the life of Billie Piper's character Rose before she rushed off to her department store job. Of course, this being Doctor Who, nothing is ever as it seems and soon Rose found herself trapped in the basement of the store with a bunch of shop mannequins who came frighteningly to life. Yes, the first bad guys are the Autons. Old enemies from the 1970s when John Pertwee first encountered this race made of living plastic.

And enter the Doctor.

Chris Eccleston makes an immediate impression, bowling Rose along in his wake with manic energy and brandishing a bomb, saving her life, and going on to blow up the store in spectacular fashion. ("I could die in the process, but don't worry about me. Go home, have some tea. Beans on toast or something".)

And Eccleston's a manic character throughout, he seems to find everything amusing throughout, speaks like he's on speed and runs into danger with obvious gusto, then another second he's serious and intense.

Imagine Tom Baker's intensity, John Pertwee's physicality mixed with Patrick Troughton's impish nature and you're there.

The whole show is incredibly English, perhaps even more so than the original. A lot of the humour probably won't translate that well with international audiences, but there's plenty of humour that will. All delivered with a kind of stupid high camp that Doctor Who's always handed quite delightfully. Yes, there is a scene where the Doctor gets throttled by a disembodied plastic arm, yes, there's a scene where Rose's boyfriend is eaten alive by a plastic wheelie bin. Or where The Doctor pulls off a mannequin's head and his hands suddenly change into hammers, demolishing furniture like some wild cartoon character. And yes, it's as stupid and funny as it sound and very English. Some great lines too - when Rose asks why, if he's an alien, he sounds like he's from the north, he snaps back: “LOTS of planets have a North.”



Anyone expecting a Battlestar Galactica style reimagining is going to be disappointed. The tone is very much Doctor Who as it was - all shaky sets and crappy effects in feel, even of the sets no longer shake and the effects are at least up to Buffy level. In fact, this is a show that may even appeal to the Buffy audience, sharing much of the same humour balanced with suspense, although less in the way of angst.

And yes, the Bryan Hitch designed TARDIS does appear and it looks great, managing to blend many of the original design elements with an organic War of the Worlds type feel. It looks like the TARDIS might look having been mated with the inside of a whale.

All in all a great start for fans of the old series who aren't going to get hung up on the idea that the new Doctor's just a little bit too cool, or the sign on the door of the TARDIS has changed or any other obsessive crap like that. The suspense may have suffered a little because it resolutely refuses to take itself too seriously, but it still has its moments. There's violence and death and carnage balanced with humour and a few nods to the Doctor's past (he's obviously recently regenerated, making a passing remark in the mirror about his ears, while there's also a nice section with a conspiracy theorist who has discovered some of the Doctor's appearances throughout history, including the compulsory J.F.K. connection).

All round, it's Doctor Who as it should be and they've managed to pull it off with surprising aplomb.