Maureen Flynn - Author
Well, what can I say? As an angst riddled teen I loved this finale. Then I re-watched in my uni years and found the whole thing irritating melodrama. Then, um, Ben and I re-watched and well, I kind of like, enjoyed this first part of…
This is weird. My memory told me Love and Monsters and this episode were the two worst Doctor Who episodes of the RTD era. My memory has lied in a happy accident. Or maybe it’s just I really am not feeling the Thirteenth Doc so…
Ah, Mark Gatiss. What variable episodes you write. I always like his period piece Who episodes best, and back in the day I loathed The Idiot’s Lantern. Maybe it was just that the previous two-parter was so, so terrible, but this time around I didn’t actually find the episode that bad. More thoughts from Ben and I on Rose and The Doctor visiting the year of the Queen’s coronation below …
Ok, ok, I ship this a little … ok … a lot.
Pre-Title Sequence
Ben: The pre-title sequence was rather long this week! There was a lot of scene setting, a man down on his luck and a family discussing getting a tv. And then bam! Mr Magpie is getting his face sucked into the tv by a strange woman with an evil laugh.
Maureen: I feel like people of my Mum’s generation would relate to this opening. After all, they would have been the kids watching with wide-eyed wonder as their disapproving parents watched on.
Grandma to grandson: TV pulls your brains outta your ears.
Re Mr Magpie, I was all OMG HOW GILLIAN ANDERSON IN AMERICAN GODS. Except this came first. Clearly, the producer was watching đ Also, there was another pre-title audience wink-wink, nudge-nudge moment from the villain of the week.
The Wire: Are you sitting comfortably? Now. We begin.
The Companion
Ben: Rose is looking quite lovely in the beginning of this episode. I can almost forgive her for calling the Doctor âdaddioâ. Even typing the word makes me shudder.
Maureen: Billie is always gorgeous anyway. But also, I liked the ‘daddio.’ Rose minus other companions just works so much better with The Doctor and you can tell Billie Piper is having the time of her acting life.
Ben: I must sound like a broken record by this point, but Rose gets to actually participate in things this episode! At least until she gets her face sucked off. I particularly liked the Union Jack/Flag bit, and not just because that was a piece of trivia I didnât know. And! She gets to do some proper detective work of her own! Beginning with spotting the weird electricity coming from the TV, she traces it back to its source and finds out whatâs happening before The Doctor! She was quite the interrogator, getting in Mr Magpieâs face like that. Itâs a shame that that was the extent of Roseâs contribution until the end of the episode. But on the bright side, her fridging was only temporary?
Maureen: This episode reminded me quite a bit of one of Mark Gatiss’ contributions to Big Finish in the Eighth Doctor range, actually. The 1920s alien invasion story with Orson Welles one. We had detectives, we had interesting companion adventure, we had conspiracy, we had villains manipulating a major human point in history. Compared to previous episodes too, I agree Rose got to do so much more and use her intellect to get to the bottom of the mystery. I didn’t mind the Rose face-wipe as such, though I do think the denouement of the episode was rushed, and the story would have benefited from being a two-parter.
Ben: I wasnât particularly happy with the advice Rose gave to Tommy at the end of the episode either. Years of abuse shouldnât be that easy to forget. But I guess they had to have a happy ending for everyone involved.
Maureen: I get what you mean with this, Ben. It felt contrived after how horrible Tommy’s Dad was painted throughout the episode. Sexist AND violent. What a guy. If anything, the Tommy ending just raised more questions for me. Will Tommy grow up to be like his father, and will sustained contact encourage that negative growth, or is Tommy truly shaped by his adventure with Rose and The Doctor and will forgive his father even as he doesn’t endorse who he is?
Ben: Hmmm, from the get go the family dynamic was weird, and then you discover the Dadâs such a piece of work. Eddie is a slimy abusive son-of-a-bitch. Poor Rita is the down-trodden housewife, and their son Tommy rounds out the family. Tommy is trying to do the best he can, considering the circumstances. The actor who played Eddie was actually very good, from the look he gives when his wife starts opening up to The Doctor, to the overwhelming guilt on his face when Tommy is talking about how the police are showing up to take people away and no one knows how they know. This episode was much subtler than the cybermen episodes before it, where everything was big and loud. The line about beating the mummyâs boy out of Tommy was particularly horrific, though. Anyway, it comes as no surprise that Eddy has been ratting everyone out to maintain his reputation and position. Masculinity can be so fragile. It all happened rather quick with Rita kicking her out, perhaps it would have been better stretched across two episodes. Things get a bit more blunt towards the end with the family, with Rita talking about how the Coronation is just the thing to make you forget all your troubles.
Maureen: I actually think that the family drama was the most interesting part of The Idiot’s Lantern. What a disturbing portrait of misogyny and patriotism and cowardice! I agree with Ben that the guy playing Eddie was phenomenal. The alien story of the week wasn’t that interesting in comparison once The Wire’s real intent was revealed.
The Doctor
Ben: Once again, the Doctor demonstrates he never passed his driving test (you will note he ignores the question when Rose asks him that after their little car chase). Landing in London instead of New York is quite a remarkable miss.
Maureen: I’d forgotten how much The Doctor being a bad driver was an on-going New Who joke. I thought the River comments came from Eleven, but now I can really see how that quip was set-up over time. Ten might be a new version of The Doctor, but some things just never change.
Ben: I did like the Doctorâs immediate assessment and subsequent take down of Eddie. In previous episodes, writers have been quite happy to partake in some bullying, fat shaming, and other general nastiness. Itâs nice to see theyâve drawn the line somewhere. Itâs a shame the Doctorâs bamboozling doesnât last for long, as Eddie is back to his old ways as soon as he sees the power dynamic inside the house shift away from him and retaliates by knocking The Doctor out.
Maureen: I enjoyed that Rose and Ten bounce off each other in their Eddie put-down. They really lull him into a false sense of calm and then let the insults fly!
Eddie: Don’t mind the wife. She rattles a bit.
Ten: Maybe she should rattle more.
Ten: Do you suggest The Queen does the housework?
Eddie: I am talking.
Ten: And I’m not listening.
Ben: At least The Doctor gets a peek at old Gran before he gets knocked out. And then, after a slightly more successful car chase, he finds out thereâs plenty more where Gran came from! The atmosphere in these scenes was spooky, with the faceless people looming ominously around the Doctor. It reminded me a lot of the mannequins from the first episode of New Who.
Maureen: I found it hilarious that The Doctor told Rose to hurry up and follow him, before promptly jumping on his motorbike and leaving her in the dust. My favourite part of the episode was actually Rose telling Eddie, ‘only an idiot hangs a Union Jack upside down,’ before dashing away with a manic grin to have her own adventure. The way The Doctor made zero sense to both Ben and I which did pull the episode’s score quite a way down from what it could have been. A real shame and brings us to …
The Alien of the Week
Ben: An electric alien that can live in tvs and eat peoples faces is a weird concept, thatâs for sure! And The Wire gives a good villain speech too! The name âthe wireâ is a bit dumb, though.
Maureen: I found The Wire to be the weakest part of this episode by far. She transitioned from scary to cheesy quite a few times throughout the episode. For example, the constant ‘feed me’s’ felt OTT, but some of her lines like, ‘goodnight children. Everywhere,’ were genuinely frightening. Then, her back story felt tacked on. I get she was an exile and was trying to win a safe place for herself, but her plan was so villainous I just didn’t sympathize with her at all. The Wire is another reason I think a two-parter would have worked better for this story.
Ben: The reveal of Gran was quite terrifying at least, with faceless Gran bumping around in the attic. I guess this is supposed to be a literal interpretation of the âtv makes you brainlessâ speech Gran gave in the pre-title sequence.
Maureen: Yes, I found the faceless people sub-plot quite touching and sad. Rose mouthing in the TV, helpless, was brutal. It was The Wire herself who didn’t work for me.
Ben: I didn’t understand how she was defeated at all. If she feeds on the electrical power of the brain, why steal human faces? Or is that just an unfortunate side effect of the feeding process? Also, are millions and millions of people just going to forget the whole faces being sucked into their tv sets during the coronation? People seemed to brush it off remarkably quickly. I have to say, being taped over as your mode of demise was a pretty fitting end to what was at best, a very one note villain.
Maureen: The last ten minutes were really where the episode came unstuck for me. I can cope with one-note villains when there’s so much character drama to admire, but The Doctor’s solution simply confused me. Mr Magpie and Ten climbing the transmission tower was a rather mad-cap and dangerous solution from The Doctor and I’m not sure how The Wire generated the electricity to kill Magpie. As for the VCR hand-wave … my only comment was, ‘wait. what?’
Final Thoughts
Ben: This episode wasnât amazing, brilliant Doctor Who, but it was better than the Cybermen double feature at least. The episode starts of incredibly strong, and then loses steam as it goes. There were a few wasted scenes, or scenes that went on longer than strictly necessary. But the music was a lot better than last week, and on the whole it was a more enjoyable episode. I just wish Gatiss had had time to flesh everyone out a bit more and then this could have been a good horror themed two-parter. Iâm going to give The Idiotâs Lantern 5/10.
Maureen: I feel kind of bad for our scores always matching up, but we really do view New Who in a similar way most of the time. I second everything you say. A two-parter would have turned this episode from ordinary to extraordinary. A second script look-in re The Wire would have helped too. Still, I enjoyed the character drama a lot. 5/10 inky stars.
Oh, man. Warning to all: I loved this two-parter as a teen when the show first aired, but oh my how the suck fairy visited this two-parter in Ben’s and my re-watch. I was so disappointed by how much I disliked this. On the plus…
Let us launch into the new Doctor’s Series proper with a return of an old foe, an old friend and some ‘interesting’ fan fic style script shenanigans. Again, this is one of those episodes I’ve always remembered from high school. I didn’t like it then…
Strap on your seat belts! It’s finale time! Given how much I disliked Bad Wolf I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Parting of the Ways. Yes, even with the RTD literal deux ex machina and a host of Daleks playing the big bad and not for the last time. We’re skipping right past the opening titles sequence as it was entirely a recap of the previous episode and diving straight in…
The Alien of the Week
Ben: The Daleks! Turns out the Emperor of the Daleks ship survived the Time War, falling through space and time. Which is a neat turn of phrase, if not a slightly lazy way to have some Daleks survive. The true horror comes when we find out theyâve been using the contestants of the games to make more Daleks; breaking them down into the building blocks of life to create new life, new Daleks. But as the Doctor correctly surmises, theyâre not pure Daleks, and Daleks abhor anything that isnât Dalek; they hate their own flesh, their own existence, and itâs driven them insane.
Maureen: The Daleks on New Who have become a bit of a joke, re-occuring too often with sillier and sillier plans to deliver much in the thrills and the scares department. This finale is an exception to the New Who Dalek rule. The Dalek Emperors speech about “the refugees… the displaced… all come to us” and “This is perfection. I have created heaven on earth,” as well as the way we see Lynda, Jack and all of the trapped humans exterminated is truly chilling.
Ben: I did like how the Dalek God cast himself as the creator of life, opposing the Doctor (the destroyer and the oncoming storm). Although once the Daleks board the Game Station we see the Dalekâs arenât exactly the nurturing type, as they go and kill the 100 or so unarmed humans in floor zero. And poor Lynda, Lynda with a Y with her crush on the Doctor gets the worst death of all. For that alone these Daleks deserve their ending, being dissolved into atoms by Rose. It made for a pretty great scene, the Dalek God shrieking that he is immortal, that he cannot die, followed by him dying.
The Companion/s
Maureen: This is such a dark episode, especially for the companions and the humans trapped on Satellite Five. I can see how Torchwood got as dark as it did. Kids show? What kids show?
Ben: Now this is definitely my favourite Rose episode of the season. For the first fifteen minutes she doesnât do much other than blindly believe the Doctor will save the day, that everyone will live and nobody will die (except the Daleks). And then it all goes wrong and The Doctor sends her back home with one final request, to forget him and live her life. Which is really just unrealistic, Doctor. As we see in the scene in the fish and chips shop, Rose has been shown a better life, and she canât go back to the monotony of her old life.
Maureen: What I found interesting about the fish and chip shop scene was how phenomenal an actress Billie was in it. She totally sold me on playing a nineteen year old, prone to emotional outbursts and temper tantrums. I might not like Rose much, but her behavior in these scenes at least felt believable.
Ben: In that fish and chip shop Rose mourns returning to a life absent from The Doctor, a life where she doesnât stand up for whatâs right when no one else will.
Maureen: This bit bugged me a little. There’s nothing stopping Rose from getting involved in politics (Harriet Jones style) or charity and living a life The Doctor would be proud of. But nineteen years old…
Rose: Catch the bus, go to work, eat chips… is that all there is? The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life.
Oh, use some imagination and initiative Rose. The Doctor literally told you the below and you still don’t get it:
Nine: Let the TARDIS die. Let it gather dust… if you want to remember me do one thing… have a good life… do that for me… have a fabulous life.
Ben: Yes, what she does instead is tell Mickey thereâs nothing on earth left for her. Even the scene between her and Jackie was cruel, telling Jackie she was the one who was there as her father died, that he would want her to keep fighting. This Rose I donât like, the Rose that will do anything, hurt anyone to get back to The Doctor. I get that she loves him, but thatâs just harsh. It was nice that Mickey and Jackie came together to help her in the end, but she really didnât deserve their help.
Maureen: I agree re Rose, but I like what Mickey’s response showed us about him. For the first time, I felt that Mickey cared about Rose, genuinely cared in a way that went beyond surface level. Take this exchange:
Rose: There’s nothing for me here.
Mickey: Nothing?
Rose: Nothing.
Mickey: Right. If that’s what you think…
And you know what he does? He damn well helps her anyway, and not only that, he stops her from giving up! For once Mickey added to, rather than detracted from, an episode!
Ben: I’ve got more to say about Rose. I mean we need to talk about the fact that Rose looks into the heart of the TARDIS and becomes a literal Deus ex Machina! This is peak Doctor Who and I just love it so much. For some reason, âI am the Bad Wolf. I create myself,â is a line that has stuck with me from the first time I watched this episode. BadWolf Rose just has so many iconic lines in this one sequence of genocide. And then we get the cheesiest line of all space and time, as the Doctor says âI think you need a Doctorâ before kissing her, pulling the time vortex out of her head and into himself. Itâs probably for the best she doesnât remember any of it, living with committing genocide and also that level of cheesiness canât be good for you.
Maureen: I agree that this bit was classic Who. It was outrageous. So outrageous it shouldn’t have worked, yet it does and RTD never figures out how to get it right again. Bad Wolf Rose is also my favourite version of Rose (it’s why I could stand her in the 50th anniversary). I agree with Ben that she has some truly astonishing lines.
Bad Wolf Rose: Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends… I can see everything. All that is. All that could be.
Ben: Jack, on the other hand, had less of a fun time. On one hand, he gets a kiss out of both Rose and The Doctor. On the other hand, he sends a bunch of people to their deaths facing off the Daleks, including himself. It was definitely a dick move to lie to the volunteers, telling them the guns will work on the Daleks, that the forcefield will weaken the Daleks attacks, but someone had to slow the Daleks down while the Doctor worked on the Delta wave.
Maureen: I didn’t think that was a dick move on Jack’s part. I thought it was a way to keep panic at bay. What good would Jack telling humanity the truth about the Daleks have done? They had no way out.
Ben: I guess so. On the bright side, Rose brings Jack back! Yay!
Maureen: Yes! Long may Captain Jack reign. Neither Ben or I remember when Jack next turns up and how and both look forward to a reappearance.
The Doctor
Ben: The Doctor has finally learnt how to drive the TARDIS with some finesse! Apparating the TARDIS around Rose was a nice bit of magic.
Maureen: Yeah, to be honest, that was one of the only parts of the episode that made no sense to me.
Ben: Mmmm, I found the shot of the Doctor with his head to the door of the TARDIS as he hears the Dalekâs futile attempts to exterminate to be incredibly powerful. All this season weâve been getting drip fed bits of information about the Time War, and the PTSD the Doctor suffers from his involvement in it. I canât even begin to imagine whatâs going through the Doctorâs head in that moment.
Maureen: Christopher Eccleston was seriously good this episode, and made me yearn for more Nine. He portrays The Doctor’s sadness, pain and rage, as well as his innate alien nature so well.
Rose: I knew you would come.
Nine: Good. I didn’t.
Nine: Don’t stand around chin-wagging… human beings, always standing around gossiping.
We also see more of why Nine cares for Rose in a romantic sense.
Nine: The TARDIS could leave and let history take its course.
Rose: You couldn’t do that.
Nine: You wouldn’t ask.
I’ve never bought Rose/Nine or even Rose/Ten and always felt that The Doctor would have grown bored of Rose eventually, but I did feel Rose was right for Nine in the situation he was in and where he was placed emotionally.
Ben: And then we get to the good stuff after The Doctor tricks Rose into the TARDIS and sends her back home through the magic of Emergency Program 1. We find out through the Dalek God (formerly known as the Dalek Emperor) that the delta wave canât be refined, that it will kill Daleks and humans indiscriminately. A complete rehash of the Time War. The Doctor might not be able to bring about an end where everyone lives and nobody dies, but at least he can save Rose. In the end he canât go through with activating the Delta wave, which is probably for the best. I donât think the Doctor could live with becoming the Great Exterminator.
Maureen: What I like about Nine though is that there was always a suggestion that it wouldn’t take much to tip him over the edge. RTD also chips away at the perennial who is The Doctor question by having the Dalek Emperor mirror The Doctor. The exchange below reveals a lot about The Doctor:
Dalek Emperor: I want to see you become like me… all hail The Doctor. What are you? Coward or killer?
Nine: Coward any day.
I’ve always hated The Doctor as hero trope, the lonely God figure, so it’s nice to have a grand finale that bucks the trend. And then there’s the first New Who regeneration sequence…
Ben: Yes, the episode ends with this wondrously emotional scene between Rose and The Doctor. Iâm not one for quoting the episode in big chunks, but that whole scene is just magic. I will agree with The Doctor when, in his final lines as the Ninth Doctor, he says he was fantastic. He really, really was.
Maureen: God, I still miss Nine. Unlike Ben, I am one for quoting chunks of episode. The Doctor’s regeneration speech is a good one. He says he can’t go to Barcelona and Rose asks why not. This is his wonderful response:
Nine: You can. You will. Maybe I will too. But not like this… Time Lords have a way of cheating death… before I go I just want to tell you you were fantastic. And you know what? So was I.
Ten is one of my least favourite of all The Doctor’s, but his opening lines were also… well… fantastic.
Ten: Where was I? That’s right. Barcelona!
Final Thoughts
Ben: This episode was peak Doctor Who and I loved it from start to end. I donât really know what else to say. I give it a 10/10 and an âallons-y!â
Maureen: I too, thoroughly enjoyed The Parting of the Ways, literal deux ex machina and all. 10/10 inky stars
This is one of the RTD era who two-parters that everyone talks about. Actress Nicola Walker once said this was amongst her favourite of all New Who. Hers and many others, including best of lists. I hadn’t re-watched this one in years and had forgotten…
This is one of the episodes I haven’t re-watched in years. I knew it involved Simon Pegg, an alien in a ceiling, and very little else. I thought I liked it quite a bit. Whoops. Maybe I did back in the day, but this re-watch……
I shouted out to my Facebook to find out whether or not people wanted me to go back to the start of New Who and reveal my thoughts on RTD era Who. Enough people said yes that here I am. Joining me in my re-watch-a-long is friend and fellow Whovian, Ben.
Rose jump started the show back into gear and back onto screens after a long hiatus. Both Ben and I were in high school when the episode came out and share a lot of nostalgic love for Rose. But how did the episode hold up?
We start the episode meeting Rose and her partner, Mickey. Rose is a London chav down on her luck, and Mickey isn’t the most attentive boyfriend. Her mother is also a genuine nightmare (what was with RTD and nasty Mum’s?) Her regular working day is put into jeopardy as she meets The Doctor and walking plastic mannequins. When The Doctor tries to disappear from her life, events keep casting them together, and the two find themselves working together to stop an alien invasion.
The Title Sequence
Maureen: I was struck by the difference in TV graphics quality between 2005, when the season came out, and now. I don’t know about Ben, but I also started bopping along to the theme tune. It too, fills me with nostalgia. I also felt irrationally happy at Billie Piper’s name coming up on the screen. I didn’t particularly love the way the Rose character was written, but I’ve always rated Billie as a much better actress than pop-star. Ben?
Ben: I was definitely feeling the nostalgia with the theme song, travelling with TARDIS through space and time only to be immediately brought down to earth by way of 2005 graphics and picture quality. It really has not aged gracefully! Now, full disclosure: I was introduced to Dr Who by some friends who were up to David Tennant’s first season, so I’m pretty sure I rushed through Eccleston’s season over a weekend in order to catch up. It’s going to be interesting to see how much I remember of this season!
Which brings us to…
The Companion
Maureen: I quite liked Rose and Mickey in their first scenes together and I bought them as a couple. The montage of Rose’s regular day paints her as a regular working class poorer gal and I think at the time that made her pretty relatable, especially for the teens and young people in the viewing audience who were working casual jobs and dreaming of a Doctor to take them on an adventure. It might not be the world’s most original companion story arc, but it seems to work every time the showrunners use it.
I’m not so sure about the strange special effects! Billie had a weird back light behind her the whole time that made her look like she was in some kind of advert. I’m not sure what they were showing off… the bleached blonde hair and the baggy clothes?
From the first time Rose meets Nine, there is great chemistry between the two and it makes me wonder about the need for Mickey at all. There isn’t much chemistry between Billie and the actor playing Mickey and it doesn’t help that both characters are written in this episode to appear inconsistent and rather self-absorbed! It was especially noticeable in the contrast between self-absorbed Rose failing to notice Mickey as Nestine in the car and then restaurant vs. Rose appearing genuinely upset about Mickey dying and The Doctor failing to care towards the end of the episode.
I think the idea is meant to be that Rose has nothing to stay for at the end of the episode; that Mickey is selfish (highlighted in the scene where he chooses the pub and a match over taking care of his in shock girlfriend and his over protective manner when Rose goes to see Clive) and Rose’s Mum is no better… nattering on about compensation, that Rose has aged from the department store explosion and taking every opportunity to remind her that she needs to get back into the rat race with another job. I’m not sure RTD quite pulls this off given how selfish and self-absorbed Rose can come across in this episode.
Ben: You’ve summed things up pretty nicely here, I don’t know what more I can add! The montage was effective in showing us a day in the life of Rose, and in making her easy to identify with. And the clothes! The hair! The mid 2000’s were a dark time…
What I found confusing was how different Mickey was in each scene he was in, it’s like they were still writing the script as they were shooting and hadn’t settled on his characterisation. There’s not much in the way of a spark in their relationship, which to me really emphasised how much of a rut Rose was stuck in. And then there’s her mum, whoâs basically just an amalgamation of tropes and stereotypes. It’s no wonder she leapt at the chance to go adventuring with The Doctor!
Also odd was the incredulity Clive’s partner expressed at Rose being interested in The Doctor because she was a girl! It’s 2005 here, come on people. And Mickey being concerned about her meeting Clive? Not a cute look. The final thing I would point out is how quickly Rose went from crying with worry over Mickey to quite happily running away with The Doctor after they survived their brush with death. It would make more sense for Mickey to have been a good friend than a boyfriend, I think.
The Doctor
Maureen: By far the best aspect of Rose is The Doctor. From the second big eared, wide grinning Chris Eccleston shows up in The Department Store we know we’re in for a rollicking good time. He simultaneously gives off the appearance of being utterly mad and more than a little damaged too. (random aside: I never knew the Matt Smith AKA Eleven ‘I am talking’ moment was originally a Nine moment!)
This speech personifies Nine in a nutshell:
Nine: Rose: Really though, Doctor. Tell me. Who are you?
The Doctor: Do you know like we were saying? About the Earth revolving? Itâs like when youâre a kid. The first time they tell you that the worldâs turning and you just canât quite believe it because everything looks like itâs standing still. I can feel it. {he grabs her hand} The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. And the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour and I can feel it. Weâre falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world and if we let go⌠{he drops her hand}. Thatâs who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home.
Back in high school, when I first saw the episode, I loved the little nuggets RTD dropped about The Time War and I still think now it is one of the most intriguing parts of the episode. The mystery about the nature of The Doctor explored via Clive was also interesting. One of my favorite exchanges in the whole episode was between Clive and Rose:
Clive: The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, heâs there. He brings a storm in his wake. And his one constant companion.
Rose: Whoâs that?
Clive: Death.
And certainly there is an element of danger throughout the episode. Mickey almost dies without The Doctor noticing or caring. This Doctor is no Eight. He is rude and callous and alien. He tells Rose he isn’t bringing Mickey along in the TARDIS and is smug in his knowledge Rose will follow him into the TARDIS. I do love the way Rose looks back as the TARDIS re-materilises and runs for the TARDIS,the huge smile on her face surely reflecting what the audience felt.
Ben: First of all, I’m 99% sure The Doctor would be a member of the forum Clive runs, much like how the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork is a member of all the groups organised to depose him. He’s great from the get go; a disarming mix of humour, ears, and darkness, with more than a little damage. My favourite quotes include:
The Doctor: Nice to meet you Rose, run for your life!
The Doctor: It’ll never work, he’s gay and she’s an alien.
The scene in Rose’s apartment with the hand was pretty ridiculous (in particular, the exchange between The Doctor and Rose’s mum), but it did do a good job of fleshing out The Doctor. Things like him reading a book in an instant and seemingly assessing his appearance for the first time give us definite clues to his non-human qualities, which the speech Maureen details in the next scene builds upon dramatically.
I similarly loved the hints of the Time War and the things haunting The Doctor, but what I was shocked by was how callous The Doctor was about saving everyone! Considering how much later Doctors wax lyrical about the wonders that are humans, this came as a surprise. His line to Rose telling her to go home and enjoy her beans on toast was condescending, and I get the feeling he didnât exactly check to see if the building was empty of humans before blowing it up. And yet the confrontation with the Nestine Consciousness would have ended in a very different way was it not for the assistance of Rose.
The alien of the week
Maureen: Old fashioned special effects aside, I quite liked The Nestine and the first mention of the good old Shadow Proclamation. The plastic mannequin’s first appearance in the deserted store is still scary and even the plastic garbage bin sticking to Mickey is quite freaky. I’m not so sold on the Nestine Consciousness, but hey, it was 2005.
Ben: I do love when Doctor Who leans into horror with its alien plots of the week, so despite the special poor special effects I quite enjoyed the Nestine. Mannequins coming to life is something of a trope, but they found a new angle here with the central consciousness and the mimicry of Mickey. The Nestine Consciousness definitely reminded me of the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin, which was amusing. Additionally, the talk of starvation and wars makes it clear there’s more to this invasion than a simple land grab; this isn’t black and white. Overall, a solid effort. Who knew late night shopping could be so dangerous?
All in all Ben and I agree Rose was a rough pilot which showed a lot of potential. Our scores?
Maureen (AKA Inkashlings): 6 out of 10 inky stars. I’d have gone higher if the story hadn’t contained the Rose/Mickey sub-plot. I don’t think it works now or at any other point in the show.
Ben: I find myself agreeing with Maureen also with 6 out of 10 stars.
Next Sunday we re-watch The End of the World which has a lot of memorable characters, spear-headed by skin-lady Cassandra. Gosh we’re both excited!
Wow, two episodes into the new series, and I’m already a blog post behind… AGAIN. This is what happens when I go to Conflux. Anyway, the follow up to The Magician’s Apprentice is even better than its first act. Who doesn’t love a Clara/Missy double…