Modern Doctor Who Re-watch Thread

[Jonny Axehandle]

Welcome to the thread where we re-watch Modern Doctor Who (ie: Christopher Eccleston through Ncuti Gatwa). We start at Series 1 Episode 1, then the discussion shifts one episode forward every week. There's 169 episodes, 27 specials, for a total of 196 weeks! Hopefully, we'll get the good news that RTD has died in a horrible accident and the show is to be rebooted by then!

Table of Contents

Series 1

1. Rose
2. The End of the World
3. The Unquiet Dead
4. Aliens of London
5. World War Three
6. Dalek
7. The Long Game
8. Father's Day
9. The Empty Child
10. The Doctor Dances
11. Boom Town
12. Bad Wolf
13. The Parting of the Ways

 

[Jonny Axehandle]

Series 1, Episode 1: Rose​

Per Tardis Wiki:

Rose Tyler believes she is living another day of her "ordinary" life, but after being threatened by Autons (living plastic) controlled by the Nestene Consciousness, she meets the Ninth Doctor.

 

[Rosie]

I have seen series 1 so many times I actually don't need to participate in its rewatch, so I'm going to rely on memories until we get to series 2.

This was the first episode of Who I ever saw, not because I was there when the show relaunched, but by complete coincidence on a rerun on a Belgian channel of all things. I think it really holds up; the script isn't bogged down in any continuity porn, it's all kept entirely on the characters of the Doctor and Rose standing on their own merits and having a simple adventure to introduce how things are going to work.

The special effects are pretty bad of course, but much like with the classic series I think it's part of the charm. The evil wheelie bin is just hilarious to me, and Noth still randomly goes "PIZZA..." at me in the plastic Mickey voice sometimes so I think that counts for something.

(side note, fandom sucks so use tardis.wiki instead)

 

[Jonny Axehandle]

I just got done re-watching it myself. XD @ "Lots of planets have a North!" I forgot how much I liked that quip back in the day. Also, first use of "I AM TALKING" unless Classic Who had it.

Yeah those special effects really have that old "TV budget" charm. Hard to imagine how it would evolve into the top-tier BBC export that it becomes later.

 

[Jonny Axehandle]

Series 1, Episode 2​

Per Tardis Wiki:

The Ninth Doctor takes his new companion, Rose Tyler, to the year 5,000,000,000 to see the sun expand and destroy the Earth. The observation deck space station, Platform One, is holding an event with the richest beings of the time observing the Earth's destruction, but mysterious metal spiders gifted by the Adherents of the Repeated Meme to the other guests are secretly infiltrating and sabotaging the station.

 

[Rosie]

I like this one. It's incredibly camp, but the different aliens are fun and Cassandra is pretty legendary. It also does a good job of gradually revealing what exactly happened to the Doctor in-between the old and new series.

I really like the moment where Rose gets hit with the realization that in the time she's traveled to, everything and everyone she knew is long gone, and it's cool of the Doctor to make her phone able to call through time.

 

[Jonny Axehandle]

Loved the moments between Rose and the Doc. But I'm confused as to why they made the tree woman a pseudo-companion for the episode. Makes me wonder how Rose would have handled.

Also, I can't believe I'm just now noticing how Cassandra is an allegory for Earth. Just as she is kept preserved forever, the Earth is being kept from incineration with its continents moved back to their human-era positions.

 

[Jonny Axehandle]

Series 1, Episode 3​

Per Tardis Wiki:

The dead are roaming the streets of Cardiff in 1869 when the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler arrive, just in time for Christmas. Teaming up with Charles Dickens, the TARDIS team encounter the Gelth, creatures sucked through the Cardiff Rift from the other end of the universe, their home lost to war. Surely inhabiting dead bodies is wrong, though! Can both sides be helped, or are these gaseous creatures not to be trusted?

Side note: either I need to stop getting high on the weekends or I gotta train @Alicia to do this

 

[Rosie]

I think this and the two previous episodes form a sort of trilogy that establishes what the series is all about. You've got the introduction to the setting and characters, the episode in the future with aliens and camp, and now the episode set in the past with a historial figure and some spooky shit going on.

Simon Callow delivers a great performance as Charles Dickens, providing a fitting counterpoint to the Doctor's mad energy and the supernatural stuff going on.

The twist with the Gelth turning out to be evil is pretty good in a vacuum, but... it really hasn't aged well, has it?