Day 697: Rose

Rose is, quite simply, one of the most important episodes in Doctor Who that has ever been produced. It has to re-introduce the entire concept of the series to a brand new audience, but in such a way that it can build on what has come before so it can also attract the attention of people already familiar with the programme. And thankfully, it succeeded in this wholeheartedly.

Regarding the idea of the premise of the series, it introduces everything perfectly. We start by focussing on the life of a perfectly normal young woman, Rose, in a 3 minute long sequence as we look at her perfectly normal life. She then, whilst doing some work in a basement of a department store, encounters the Autons, causing some juxtaposition between the normal and ordinary person to the alien and extraordinary world of the Autons, and then later, the Doctor. This harks back to the first story of the entire series, An Unearthly Child, where the entire focus was on the ordinary schoolteachers discovering the extraordinary world of the Doctor. It worked then because we were able to use the schoolteachers as easy identification figures, and travel along with them as they discovered all about the Universe with the Doctor. One must also remember that it took some time for us to even trust the Doctor when the series originally started, so having an audience identification figure in the form of Rose is a strong move by Russell T Davies, writer of Rose and showrunner of the series from this point onwards.

Regarding new things to reinvigorate people already familiar with the concept, there is of course Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. For 35 minutes or so, he plays the role as if it were a modern version of the Doctor. He's funny and charming, but can also be deadly serious when needs be, such as in the famous 'Turn of the Earth scene". He effortlessly proves himself as the Doctor, and one can easily look forward to his future time on the series. But that's not all. Because towards the end of the episode, we see him being put through pain. And not just any sort of pain, but clear emotional trauma. There was some sort of war that he fought in, and it appears that an awful lot of bad things happened in that war, which the Doctor feels guilty about. It's an interesting tack to go on for the character, and reintroduces much of the mystery that was prevalent within the first few stories with respect to the Doctor. It's enough to keep the audience watching and to keep them entertained for the next series.

And, more than all of that, Rose ensures that, once and for all, Doctor Who is back on our screens and ready to wow a whole new audience.