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The Best of Season 1

Poll
Question: Pick your favourite
Rose
The End of the World
The Unquiet Dead
Aliens of London/World War Three
Dalek
The Long Game
Father's Day
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Boom Town
Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways

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Author Topic: The Best of Season 1  (Read 2214 times)
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Vampyros Adric
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« on: July 15, 2012, 01:38:29 pm »

During the late-90s, highly regarded writer, Russell T. Davies, a lifelong Doctor Who fan, lobbied the BBC to revive the show from its hiatus and reached the discussion stages in late 1998 and early 2002. His proposals would update the show to be better suited for a 21st-century audience, including the transition from videotape to film, doubling the length of each episode from twenty-five minutes to fifty, keeping the Doctor primarily on Earth in the style of the Third Doctor UNIT episodes, and removing "excess baggage" such as Gallifrey and the Time Lords. His pitch competed against three others: Dan Freedman's fantasy retelling, Matthew Graham's Gothic-styled pitch, and Mark Gatiss' reboot, which would make the Doctor the audience surrogate character, instead of his companions.

In August 2003, the BBC had resolved the issues regarding production rights that had surfaced as a result of the jointly produced Universal Studios–BBC–Fox 1996 Doctor Who film, leading the Controller of BBC One Lorraine Heggessey and Controller of Drama Commissioning Jane Tranter to approach Gardner and Davies to create a revival of the series to air in a primetime slot on Saturday nights, as part of the BBC's plan to devolve production to its regional bases. By mid-September, they accepted the deal to produce the series alongside Casanova.

The new first series began on 26 March 2005 with the episode "Rose", which marked the end of the 16-year absence from episodic television following its cancellation in 1989, and aired its finale episode "The Parting of the Ways" on 18 June 2005. The show was revived by long time Doctor Who fan Russell T Davies, who had been lobbying the BBC since the late-90s to bring the show back. The first series comprised 13 episodes, eight of which Davies wrote. Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young served as executive producers, Phil Collinson as producer.

This first 'new' series features Christopher Eccleston as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor, marking it his first and only series as the Doctor. Billie Piper as his first and main companion Rose Tyler, whom he plucks from obscurity on the planet Earth and to whom he grows increasingly attached. He also travels briefly with unruly boy-genius Adam Mitchell, played by Bruno Langley, and with 51st-century former 'Time Agent' Captain Jack Harkness, portrayed by John Barrowman. Episodes in series one form a loose story arc formed around the recurring phrase "Bad Wolf", the significance of which goes unexplained until the two-part series finale.

The series premiere was watched by 10.81 million viewers and four days after the premiere aired Doctor Who was renewed for a Christmas Special as well as a second series. Series one was well received by both critics and fans, it won for the first time in Doctor Who's history a prestigious BAFTA Award. Most surprising was the approval from Michael Grade, who had previously forced an 18-month hiatus on the show in 1985, and has postponed Doctor Who out of personal dislike on several occasions. The show's popularity ultimately led to a resurgence in family-oriented Saturday night drama.

But which story did it for you?
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« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2012, 01:49:28 pm »

Choosing an individual story from this season was difficult as, viewed as a whole, it is absolutely superb. Like most fans, a shudder of dread went through my bones when I heard that a children's TV writer had got the rights to the show. The next big announcement was the Billie Piper was going to be in it. "Ha" thought I, "I shan't be watching the BBC desecrate the grave of my all time favourite show. Its going to be a pastiche and i'm going to get annoyed with it."

How wrong could I be? This season was amazing. And i'm going to be bold here - I don't think ANY season of Doctor Who has ever been this good, before or since. This was science fiction as I always wanted it to be: Character driven with interesting themes and complex issues underpinning the central stories. High production values, wonderful acting and superlative writing. This season could have killed the show stone dead but instead it breathed new life into it - and has put Doctor Who at the centre of the BBC's saturday night schedules.

So, to pick a favourite... Not an easy task because each story does a specific job within the season. "Rose" just blew me away when I watched it - and it got the show off to a scintillating start. "End of the World" showed how Doctor Who could 'do Alien and outer space' and "The Unquiet Dead" would not have been out of place in the Hartnell era.

In the end it boiled down to a choice of four for me. "Dalek" - a superb, re-imagining of the Dalek story (and there has not been a better use of the Dalek's since "Genesis". ) "Father's Day" saw the role of the Doctor and companion thrown wonderfully into contrast (with one of the best acting performances I've seen from any Doctor by Chris Ecclestone). "The Parting of the Ways" introduced us to Rusty's taste for epic, over the top finale's and showed how a wonderfully subtle story arc can be so rewarding.

Ultimately (and predictably) I went for one of the best science fiction stories that I have ever seen and needless to say one of the best Doctor Who stories of any era. The Empty Child/Doctor Dances was just amazing. Jaded revisionism might have undermined the impact this story had when it first transmitted but, at the time, this was one of the best stories i'd ever seen - nothing I have seen since changes my mind.

What a come back, what a season, what a show!
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« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2012, 12:54:15 am »

Both my shortlist and my choice are the same as VA.
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« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2012, 09:50:31 pm »

Dalek. By a country mile. One of the best Dalek stories ever, imo.
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« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2012, 03:26:41 am »

Aliens of London/World War Three. I know it's not the favorite of most people, but this is the best episode in the season for me. The performance from Eccleston in this was brilliant. The Doctor was so excited at first, so happy to have been here when the first contact happenned, and the change in his mood when he realizes that's it's just a distraction, is a drastic change in mood. There's also the scene where the Doctor tells the Slitheen that he's going to stop them, and they laugh, and then realize he's not joking as the door closes. Brilliant.
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« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2012, 03:00:02 pm »

I have a somewhat more ambivalent attitude towards NuWho (esp. prior to Matt Smith). True, we had got a proper actor to play the Doctor. True, he was given some really good dialogue to work with. True, the production values and supporting cast was all there. But the stories themselves were generally weak. The highlight was The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances -- a great story by any standard. It was genuinely spooky watching those heads morph into gasmasks, it was moving, and in the end optimistic after the darkness (I can just about forgive the shooting those things from his fingers scene.) None of the other stories came close. I know I am in a tiny minority in my loathing for Dalek. I just hated the whole premise. A dalek having an existential crisis? What next? A dalek getting in touch with its feminine side? A gender-confused dalek? There is something very gay about the whole idea. It's like
"Let's get our own back on those nasty alpha-male daleks by making them confront their feelings."
"But they don't have any feelings, they're daleks. The whole point of them is that they don't have feelings."
"Nevermind, we'll think up some excuse why this one has feelings."
I thought the whole Bad Wolf thing highly illogical and never really explained. The game show thing at the end was truly awful. The Slitheen weren't much better. And there are some like The End of the World and Father's Day when the Doctor doesn't really do much.
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« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2012, 06:25:20 pm »

Have you actually watched the episode? From beginning to end? Because it really isn't as though they wheeled out a new breed of Dalek and expected the audience to go along with it. It was one solitary Dalek, in one solitary episode. They weren't trying to rewrite the race or change the basic structure of how the Daleks operate, it was just a 'what if' story. There's lots of them in both classic and new. They had the TARDIS runnning around on two legs in a Victorian dress not too long ago but I don't think it killed anyones idea of what the TARDIS should be or is. "Well this episode is rubbish! Idris doesn't even have a window in her face or a sticker on her ass!" It didn't mean she was going to be suddenly giving the Doctor piggyback rides around the universe just because we had a 'what if' in one episode. The story doesn't have to be to your tastes but the plot does make sense.

Also, your negative use of the word gay is offensive.

And after all that defense of Dalek, I went for Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways. Aren't I fickle! Tongue
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« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2012, 08:13:48 pm »

My favourite episodes from S1 are Rose, The End of the World, Father's Day, Boom Town and Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways. I will quite happily sit there and watch Rose and The End of the World back to back and the final 3 episodes of the series. I love the stories of the majority of the series and I think it was a strong come back for the show.

Although I love Boom Town, I think I'm going to have to go for Father's Day as my favourite. The story is just brilliant and I love how well thought out and personal it is to Rose. It's an episode where I believe you're able to learn so much more about Rose as well as the Doctor, but also the cost of being a time-traveller. It shows how just an ordinary person CAN bring such a huge change to the world. All in all a lovely episode, one which always brings a tear to my eye.
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« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2012, 12:53:52 am »

On the subject of Dalek, the idea of "what if a Dalek acquired feelings" was first explored in 1967 in Evil of the Daleks.  It's not a new concept.  Those Daleks were giving Troughton a ride around for fun, although the issue was explored more deeply later in the story.
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« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2012, 08:48:06 am »

Not only that Nyki, but in the other Troughton story The Invasion the earth baddy who was cooperating with the Cybermen thought he could control them with a machine that gave them feelings. He tried it out on one and drove it mad! That made more sense to me than all this brooding introspection. Similarly with all this vampire stuff we get nowadays. Why are all vampires these days so sulky? You're a vampire, stop whining and get over it! Christopher Lee may have been tormented but he was far too urbane and cultured to go around sulking about it 24/7. David Boreanaz -- all those seasons of Buffy and Angel, even Bones, and he has one expression -- sulky. Maybe its a personal foible but I don't think it makes for good science-fiction.

Apologies if anyone found my usage of the G-word offensive.
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« Reply #10 on: July 21, 2012, 09:12:49 pm »

It's a tough one. There aren't many inbetween stories in this season. I either love them or don't. I've gone with Father's Day
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« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2012, 07:06:43 pm »

My vote goes to Dalek
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« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2012, 09:33:29 pm »

I have gone with The Unquiet Dead. It won't win the poll and it's often overlooked but I love it. Gatiss did something right.
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« Reply #13 on: July 29, 2012, 09:56:35 am »

I went with Dalek.  It's the episode that best fills in the blanks between the pre-revival (before the 9th Doctor) and the post revival.  Also, it updates one of the Doctor's greatest foes.  "Elevate!"  Afro
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« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2012, 05:54:16 pm »

My vote goes to Dalek. I love most of the first series but that one is my favourite.
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« Reply #15 on: August 06, 2012, 01:34:42 pm »

The End of the World for me

Not sure why, but I love this ep and can rewatch it lots.
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« Reply #16 on: April 14, 2015, 03:40:14 pm »

The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances. Just awesome. Although The Unquiet Dead was pretty dang good too.
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