Sunday 15 May, 2005

Three minutes to Earth Death

drwho.jpgI'm seriously loving the new Dr. Who. I watched the first episode Rose months ago when it leaked to the internet and thought it was quite interesting - but only got back to the series this week when I watched the second episode End of the World.

And that one blew me away - the richness of the world, the story, the characters, the costumes, make-up - and the acting, everything was top-notch. At this point I was sure Dragon wanted to see this too so I stopped watching and waited for him to watch rest of the episodes.

Firstly I have to say I absolutely adore Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor - he can be wacky, but also immensly delicately emotional. The relationship he has with Rose has the potential to be one of the best platonic relationships potrayed in TV since... well, probably Kirk and Spock. And yes, I happen to think Billie Piper (yes, the pop princess from 90's) is absolutely perfect as Doctor's assistant.

Someone pointed out that the series should be called "Rose Tyler and her adventures with the Doctor" and for me that's the point. The Doctor is familiar with time travel, he's familiar with the different times and cultures they meet on their adventures - so he needs Rose to experience them anew. And Billie Piper is perfect for this role - which is by the way superbly written - Rose is smart with her feet on the ground, curious, empathic and kind, emotional and loyal.

dr_rose.jpgThe new series keeps very nicely in the tradition and the athmosphere with the previous ones (which I have seen only very occationally I have to admit). But it also looks like they are going to go fairly deeply into the background story - there have been certainly some heavy hints being dropped. We've already heard about the Last Time War that was only experienced by higher beings and went unoticed by (us) lesser beings, the war that destroyed Daleks and Timelords, and the mysterious "Big Bad Wolf" has now been mentioned so many times that it has got to be significant.

Yes, at times it's silly - the pilot Rose is a classic silly Dr. Who episode, the two-parter Aliens of London was silly almost to the point of being ridiculous. But at other times, when it's not silly, it's piece of art like very touching Dalek, or emotionally charged beautiful Father's Day.

If you haven't checked out this series yet, I'd recommend you get downloading. It's fantastic and keeps getting better.

Posted by kolibri at 15 May 21:01, 2005
Comments
# 1 - Orava (on May 16, 2005 12:51 AM):

Yup, I've been watching and liking it too. Hooray for Internet downloads, this will probably take ages to get to Finnish broadcast TV. Haven't seen any of the original Dr. Who:s, and the first episode was quite silly.... but it improved fast and by now I make a point of grabbing each episode as it comes out. And yes, Eccleston is great as the Doctor and the chemistry between the Doctor and Rose works very well.

Good stuff.


# 2 - Dragon (on May 16, 2005 11:46 AM):

It really pays to know the old Dr. Who stuff -the chracter of Docter is quite complex, and seeing his previous incarnations explains a lot of the things he does and says. Despite his appearence, Doctor is really, really alien, with ability to reincarnate, different physiology and senses. The series makes a lot more sense if you know a bit of the background.


# 3 - Chu (on May 17, 2005 05:08 AM):

Hmm, as I just ran out of Carnivāle (and after two seasons they're not making more *sigh*), this might be a good candidate for the next watching project.

Nothing else comes to mind all of a sudden - good entertainment is hard to come by.


# 4 - kolibri [TypeKey Profile Page] (on May 17, 2005 09:09 AM):

You would like this one - I know you would especially love the relationship aspects of it. And you would adore Rose.


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