I’ve watched through modern Doctor Who a few times, but it’s been a while. I haven’t actually caught the 13th Doctor yet, let alone 14 and 15… Now, with the new ‘reboot’, it’s about time to give it another go. And a good time to review them this time around!

Oh, I love this show. It’s wacky and cheap looking at times. Tonally, we’re all over the place, from farting aliens right up to the borders (if not more so) of horror with The Empty Child. Callbacks to the old show (which I still haven’t watched, one day) and all new friends.

I do wish we’d gotten more of Eccelston, I forgot how much I liked his Doctor. But still, it’s good to have what we have!

Onward.

Episode by episode reviews:

1. Rose

A nice creepy start. Even before they start moving…

And the Doctor’s first word?

The Doctor: Run.

And away we go!

Rose Tyler: If you are an alien how come you sound like you’re from the North?
The Doctor: Lots of planets have a North!

A solid introduction, if certainly a bit dated.

Rose has some growing to do and Mickey is not great even from the start but I do like this Doctor!

2. The End of the World

Rose Tyler: That was five billion years ago. So… my mum’s dead. Five billion years later, and my mum’s dead.
The Doctor: Bundle of laughs, you are.

I suppose that’s far enough for a time machine. For now.

Flirting with Trees! The last human! The Face of Bo! Blue plumbers!

This one has it all. And gives Rose just a bit of time to realize how very off the deep end she leapt…

Jabe: What about your ancestry, Doctor? Perhaps you could tell a story or two. Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble when there’s… nothing else left. I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species. Refused to admit your existence. And even when it named you, I couldn’t believe it. But it was right. I know where you’re from. Forgive me for intruding it’s remarkable that you even exist. I just want to say… how sorry I am.

Other fun (ridiculous) moment?

Cassandra: The planet’s end! Come gather, come gather! Bid farewell to the cradle of civilization! Let us mourn her with a traditional ballad…
[jukebox selects “Toxic” by Britney Spears]

Moxx of Balhoon: This is the Bad Wolf scenario.

3. The Unquiet Dead

Zombies! That walking dead! Certainly a creepy one and tending a bit more towards fantasy, but eventually still with a quasi alien explanation.

Also, historical figures go!

Charles Dickens: What the Shakespeare is going on?

The first of a theme:

Charles Dickens: But you have such knowledge of future times. I don’t wish to impose on you, but I must ask you… My books, Doctor. Do they last?
The Doctor: Oh, yes.
Charles Dickens: How long?
The Doctor: Forever.

Also also.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Torchwood. But Gwyneth being Gwen… was that intentional or just an actor reuse?

Especially with a ‘rift in Cardiff’. 😃

Gwyneth: You're from London. I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about, half naked. For shame. And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past. And the birds in the sky... No, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying. And you, you've flown so far, further than anyone! The things you've seen. The darkness... The Big Bad Wolf.

4. Aliens of London

[to Rose] The Doctor: It’s not twelve hours, it’s twelve months. You’ve been gone a whole year. Sorry.

Just… sorry.

Oops.

Also. Farts. So many farts.

The Doctor: Excuse me, do you mind not farting while I’m saving the world?
Joseph Green: Would you rather silent but deadly?

Oh this show varies widely in tone.

Also also Harriet Jones (MP)!

A boy spray painting the Tardis: BADWOLF.

5. World War Three

Part 2!

It get weirder. And more gaseous.

Slitheen: Aaaaahhh, Excuse me? Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?
The Doctor: Is that what I said?
Slitheen: You’re making it up!
The Doctor: Oh well, nice try. Harriet,
[offers Harriet Jones the decanter]
The Doctor: Have a drink. I think you’re gonna need it.
Harriet Jones: You pass it to the left first.
The Doctor: Sorry.
[hands it to Rose]

6. Dalek

2012 .

Years in the future.

Man it’s been a while.

Also Anna-Louise Plowman. Stargate!

Also…

Henry van Statten: Who exactly are you?
The Doctor: I’m the Doctor and who are you?
Henry van Statten: Like you don’t know. We’re hidden away with the most valuable collection of extraterrestrial artifacts in the world and you just stumbled in by mistake?
The Doctor: Pretty much sums me up, yeah.
Henry van Statten: Question is, how did you get in? Fifty-three floors down, with your little cat-burglar accomplice. Quite a collector yourself. She’s rather pretty.
Rose Tyler: She’s gonna smack you if you keep calling her ‘she’.

Also also, Daleks!

Dalek: Open the bulkhead, or Rose Tyler dies.
The Doctor: You’re alive!
Rose Tyler: Can’t get rid of me.
The Doctor: I thought you were dead.
Dalek: Open the bulkhead!
Rose Tyler: Don’t do it!
[to the Doctor]
Dalek: What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?

Oh Daleks.

7. The Long Game

The peak of human civilization! Gone … wrong? Or at least slightly sideways.

[to the Doctor and Rose]
The Editor: This is fascinating. Satellite Five holds every piece of information within the fourth great and bountiful human empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements. But you two… you don’t exist.
[laughs]
The Editor: Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?

Also a frosty Simon Pegg. That’s a fun role.

8. Father’s Day

A chance to go back to the day her father died.

What could possibly go wrong?

Rose Tyler: Can’t I do anything right?
The Doctor: Since you asked, no.
[loudly]
The Doctor: So don’t touch the baby!
Rose Tyler: I’m not stupid!
The Doctor: Y’could have fooled me!

Time beasts?! Any time you change time? Oh, that will certainly come back again and again in a show about time travel. :)

(I suppose the fact that they visited the same twice does make this different.)

9. The Empty Child

Are you my Mummy?

Delightfully creepy.

The Doctor: Ringing? What’s that about? Ringing? You’re not even a real phone and you’re ringing?

The Tardis ringing. Ratcheting up the tension.

And the introduction of Captain Jack Harkness. He’s a fun one. May have to revisit Torchwood. Bummer inducing coming to light that Barrowman has some issues.

But most importantly of all:

The Doctor: D’you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?
Rose Tyler: Five days? Or is that just when we’re out of milk?
The Doctor: All the species in all the universe and it has to come out of a cow!

10. The Doctor Dances

Mask Creatures: [with increasing intensity] Mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy.
The Doctor: Go to your room.
[mask creatures stop]
The Doctor: Go to your room! I mean it. I am very, very angry with you. I’m very, very cross. Go… To… Your… Room!
[mask creatures turn and go back to their beds]
The Doctor: [sighing] I’m really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words.

A lovely mix of terror and humor. Doctor Who does this well.

I did really enjoy the whole titular conversation.

Rose Tyler: Doesn’t the universe implode or something if you dance? The Doctor: Well, I’ve got the moves, but I wouldn’t want to boast.

The whole thing is delightful.

And when you get back down to it?

The Doctor: Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!

In hundreds and hundreds of years… he probably doesn’t actually get that many of those.

11. Boom Town

Mickey, Slitheen, and Cardiff! Oh my!

A story of loose ends … and maybe, just maybe, redemption?

The Doctor: [looking at the project banner] How'd you think of the name?
Margaret Blaine: What? "Blaidd Drwg"? It's Welsh.
The Doctor: I know, but how did you think of it?
Margaret Blaine: Chose it at random, that's all. I don't know, just sounded good. Does it matter?
The Doctor: [turns around] "Blaidd Drwg."
Rose Tyler: What's it mean?
The Doctor: Bad Wolf.
Rose Tyler: [getting it] But... I've heard that before, "Bad Wolf", I've heard that **lots of times**.
The Doctor: Everywhere we go. Two words, following us. "Bad Wolf."
Rose Tyler: How can they be following us?
The Doctor: [concerned pause, then suddenly grins] Nah. Just a coincidence! Like hearing a word on the radio then hearing it all day. Never mind!

12. Bad Wolf

The Anne Droid: You are the weakest link. Goodbye.

That’s 2006 for you…

Rose just not getting it was so hard to watch.

Captain Jack Harkness: What’s a Defabricator?
Captain Jack Harkness: [his clothes get disintegrated]
Captain Jack Harkness: Okay, defabricator, does exactly what it says on the tin. Am I naked in front of millions of viewers?
Zu-Zana, Trine-e: [enthusiastically] Absolutely.
Captain Jack Harkness: Ladies, your viewing figures just went up.

And now I have to wonder… how much of that was Barrowman and how much of that was the script. Bit weird, even for a far future man.

Weird episode.

Excellent ending.

Rose Tyler: Colleen was clever, she banked all our money, why'd you vote for her?
Rodrick: 'Cause I want to keep you in. You're stupid. You don't even know the Princess Vossaheen's surname. When it comes to the final, I want to be up against you. So you get disintegrated and I get a stackload of credits. Courtesy of the Bad Wolf Corporation.
Rose Tyler: What do you mean? Who's Bad Wolf?
Rodrick: They're in charge, they run the game station.
Rose Tyler: What are they called Bad Wolf?
Rodrick: I don't know, it's just a name. It's like an Old Earth nursery rhyme sort of thing.

13. The Parting of the Ways

Rose Tyler: You don’t just give up. You don’t just let things happen. You make a stand. You say “no”! You have the guts to do what’s right when everyone else just runs away!

The end of the first nu Who season. The first regeneration . The end of the beginning.

The Doctor: You know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might have removed all your emotions, but I reckon right down deep in your DNA there’s one little spark left. And that’s fear. Doesn’t it just burn when you face me?

Oh are we in for a ride.

The Doctor: Now you tell me, God-of-all-Daleks - ‘cause there’s one thing I never worked out - the words “Bad Wolf”, spread across time and space, everywhere, drawing me in: how’d you manage that?
Emperor Dalek: I did nothing.
The Doctor: Oh, come on, there’s no secrets now, your worship.
Emperor Dalek: They are not part of my design.
[the Doctor looks skeptical]
Emperor Dalek: This is the truth of God.

And answers.

Of sorts.

Quite an episode. And I wish we had more Eccleston, but Tennant is great too! .

The Doctor: Rose, before I go I just wanna tell you - you were fantastic... absolutely fantastic... and d'you know what?
[Rose shakes her head]
The Doctor: So was I.

Onward!

14. The Christmas Invasion

Just kidding.

Confusing if this should go at the end of season 1 or the beginning of 2, but either way, away we go!

ATTACK OF THE CHRISTMAS TREE!

The Doctor: Now. First thing’s first. Be honest. How do I look?
Rose Tyler: Different.
The Doctor: Good different or bad different?
Rose Tyler: Just different.
The Doctor: Am I… ginger?
Rose Tyler: No, you’re sort of just… brown.
The Doctor: Aww, I wanted to be ginger. I’ve never been ginger! And you, Rose Tyler, fat lot of good you were, you gave up on me. Ooh, that’s rude. Is that all I am now? Rude? Rude and not ginger?

I do so love that ending. The conflict between Harriet Jones and the Doctor.

I have to admit. I’m not even sure she was wrong.