Series 1

Series 1 is either seen as an assured and fresh re-launch even amongst some of Classic fandom, or an instant failure which established the juvenile and immature sensibilities of NuWho all whilst introducing a Doctor with little resemblance to the original character in both mannerisms and superficial appearance, but what is the Hive’s stance on it?

I used to be the former, though while I still enjoy some of it I'm more the latter these days...

Similarly, I used to be quite positive and receptive towards it, but reviewing it made me realise how poor a lot of the content is.
I think it's doubly disappointing that a good actor was cast, but proved to be a poor choice for the role. He's been very good in many other things, but clearly wasn't right for Dr Who.
It could've been so great had it been written and conceived with more gravitas. Those were Eccleston's best moments when he was briefly allowed to do that. What a lost opportunity it was. If only it was treated deadly seriously, and put out on BBC2 to appeal to adults, but RTD's vision of the show was more S24 than S7....

I am similar, in the sense that I used to regard it as being merely average. Upon re-watching it, I could barely stomach most of it, to be honest- Eccleston’s Doctor, as noted by Kaijuko, is essentially the antithesis of what the character of the Doctor should be (what aspects of the classic Doctor can be deciphered in Eccleston’s incarnation? His costume, his manner of speech, his demeanour... none of it remotely resembles the original character), the whole season has a charmless 2000s visual aesthetic and lighting complimented by cheap 2000s CGI (it has frankly dated to a much more pronounced extent than most of TruWho), and the stories are largely lightweight rubbish with only the occasional overrated standout.

Rose is essentially a very poorly produced version of Pertwee’s debut story “Spearhead from Space” (and also looks noticeably cheaper despite the higher production values and budget), rife with tonal inconsistencies (the burping wheelie bin, Eccleston’s frequent gurning and cringeworthy attempts at comedy, the “plastic hand” scene, moonwalking Autons, etc), dreadful direction and music, a complete lack of tension due to the lack of genuine buildup for the Auton menace (something Spearhead and Terror had in abundance), and fucking anti-plastic. Rather shite, I must say.

The End of the World is even worse. The same dated elements that were present in Rose are even more pervasive here- see the insertion of fucking Britney Spears, Eccleston grinning to Tainted Love whilst looking like a gormless idiot after Cassandra declares the song to be amongst the “greatest” (courtesy of RTD’s rubbish taste), and an even more gruelling aesthetic than seen in “Rose”.

The Unquiet Dead is marginally better on the grounds that it has a reasonable atmosphere to it, and the story itself is fine on its own (unsurprisingly, RTD didn’t write this script). Although Eccleston’s complete lack of Doctor-like qualities become immediately apparent within the period setting amongst other well spoken characters, and there is the occasional jab of tone deaf humour that clashes with otherwise well written scenes (“nice bum” being a noticeable example).

Aliens of London, as already outlined by others on this forum, is indeed infantile rubbish, with the Classic Who cliche of shite looking rubber monsters fully emerging in this allegedly updated NuPoo tale (so much for providing the series with credibility and “taking it seriously”) with several potentially decent scenes completely fucked by the inclusion of farting (RTD is most certainly not a master of bathos), and the narrative itself isn’t up to much either (see Diamanda Hagan’s breakdown of why it doesn’t work for a deeper analysis).

Dalek seems beloved by most, although I genuinely cannot decipher why. At best, it’s first 35 minutes are essentially a third-rate hybrid of Jubilee and Power of the Daleks (albeit with none of the political and social subtext of the former, nor the tension of the latter), whilst the last 10 minutes are mawkish shite.

The Long Game is plain dull for most of it, with Eccleston’s colloquialisms rearing their head again (“Oi, Adam, me ol’ mate!”), and with a rather cliquey relationship building between the Doctor and Rose that indeed comes across as patronising.

Father’s Day very much displays the same mawkish qualities present in “Dalek”, only to an even greater extent, which does make for rather sickening viewing on subsequent sittings. It would probably amount to a decent episode of 2000s soap drama, but not that of Doctor Who.

The Empty Child is easily the best and most atmospheric story of the season at the best of times, but certainly isn’t without its flaws. The scenes between Rose and Jack are utterly cringeworthy in hindsight and completely distract from the eerie atmosphere the story attempts to create, and too often such tonal inconsistencies jar with the rest of the production. Having said that, the guest cast are all very good, and bar the somewhat rubbish ending followed by the “I can dance” scenes, the story does its job rather well.

Boom Town is just utterly pointless, to the point where I can’t really say much about it. It must be said that Eccleston seems to curiously assert a permanent grin for most of the story coupled with the gurning, but the story is so lightweight and redundant that I can’t say anything about it. It basically has fuck all to it.

Bad Wolf/ Parting of the Ways, bar the involvement of the Daleks, is basically utter crap too. The emphasis on infantile 2000s game shows during the first episode does very little except showcase RTD’s clear love for such variations of trashy television (it’s obviously a homage as opposed to a satire, as apparent once one compares it with Black Mirror), as showcased by the shoehorning of Jack pulling a gun out of his arse after being stripped nude and referring to his erection (again- the tone is supposed to be that of uncertainty for the main characters- why inject this shit in?). Things do improve somewhat once the Daleks massacre people on the station, although the scenes set on Earth featuring Rose, Jackie and Micky just kill any pace the story has, and I won’t even get started on the awful ending, which was, in retrospect, a precursor to the end of Last of the Time Turds.

A generally crap season with only a handful of highlights. I genuinely cannot understand its lofty reputation with fandom in the slightest beyond it being the season that re-launched Who (or at least a distorted version of it), as it has fuck all to offer beyond the occasional decent moment in individual episodes.

I liked it at the time mainly cos I never saw it as an sequel to the original series but more an spinoff/reinterpratation. It was only Series 2 and School Reunion when I discovered it was an sequel series.

Eccleston is a mixed bag for me. Whilst he can do some of the dark scenes well and the odd bit of humor that isn't a fart joke are well handled, for the most part he just looks really uncomfortable and out of his depth with the RTDisms and puerile humor.

Piper was much better than I expected and I actually quite liked Rose this season. It was only in Series 2 when the character became more bitchy and cliquey that soured my view on the character.

The stories themselves are a mixed bag. Dalek despite its dodgy ending stills holds up for the most part today and feels like the only NW story where they are taken seriously and not sent up and played for a joke and I find Fathers Day and the Empty Child remake to have quite a lot of atmospheric moments to them and The Unquiet Dead is perhaps one of the only few NW stories that feels like it's trying to capture the spirit of the original series. Most of the other stuff hasn't aged well and for the most part, the series has this dodgy, plastic, artificial soapy 2000's feel that most productions had then which has aged horrendously.


Series 1 has a lot of stuff that has aged badly and a rather uncomfortable lead performance from an actor that clearly has no idea what to do with the forced humor and inconsistent tone, but at the same time out of all the series, it feels less crap, puerile and dumbed down than what was to come.

C-

Strangely more of season 1 escapes me than seasons 2 or 3, either because I didn't watch all of them on original transmission or because the later seasons had more annoying moments, which remain longer in the memory.

But whilst Billie Piper did all that was expected of her, and Dalek and The Empty Child remain half-decent episodes - I'm particularly a fan of the moment Rose's compassion leads to the subsequent mayhem - they highlight some of the issues that Nu Who never got on top of. As an actor Eccles' finally seemed in his element when threatening the dalek, but it never seemed like the Doctor's character - even Colin Baker's more pugilistic incarnation always seemed alien. Like his villain in Gone In 60 Seconds I can barely think of an actor less suited to the part.

I also think, on the basis of what we saw of Captain Jack here, he would have been better as either recurring light relief or a more toned-down character, and I agree that his involvement here caused a jarring tone which was always an issue with Davies' work in DW. When 'Children Of Earth' gave him more consistent, serious material to work with Barrowman seemed to raise his game.

I'm planning on cleaning the cat box today - what I expect to find there is significantly better than anything in series 1.

An excellent start to the golden age of Doctor Who!