The Randomizer: Rose
Jul. 8th, 2012 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatIt is interesting to go back to Rose. It doesn't really seem like long since the re-invented Doctor Who appeared so it seems odd to realise that it is over 7 years ago now. I still remember my reaction at the time was one of vague disappointment so it is interesting to compare that to my reaction now.
One thing I think I entirely failed to realise at the time was how firmly this episode is focused upon Rose and her journey of discovery. It makes this an excellent introductory episode since the audience is introduced to Who lore as Rose is, but at the time, coming from decades in which Who assumed audience familiarity with the concept and tended to place the Doctor front and centre it was easy to be distracted by the thinness of the Auton plot and not realise that the actual plot was about Rose and her meeting with the Doctor. Given how hugely successful Rose was, I suspect this worked very well for a general audience which had, at best, fuzzy memories of Doctor Who.
At the time I was also pretty unimpressed with Rose herself. In hindsight it is hard to see quite why I felt this. The episode is working hard, especially through contrasting Rose and Mickey, to underline her resourcefulness, determination and strength. However I have now had all of Russel T. Davies' five year stint in which he regularly drove home the point that the ordinary is extraordinary. So it may be easier to see the intent now than it was at the time, again coming from a background in which the better Doctor Who companions tended to be, if not extraordinary from the outset, at least framed in terms of ambitions and careers which Rose explicitly was not.
The acting is variable, though all of it is better than the worst of old Who. Noel Clarke is on record as saying he wasn't treating Doctor Who particularly seriously and it wasn't until he started seeing the rushes that he realised he needed to up his game. Mickey is certainly the weak link among what were to become the recurring cast. Clarke chooses to play the character in a more broadly comic fashion than the others. That said, I think the early NuWho was very much feeling its way in terms of where to pitch its humour. Both here and later in the Slitheen episodes we get humour that is far closer to slapstick is used later. I think it is interesting that the Slitheen were eventually adopted by the Sarah Jane Adventures where they seem to have fitted in far more easily.
I actually think Eccleston is the other weak link here. Or at least I think he is in the first half hour after which he settles into the role. Given Doctor Who is filmed out of sequence it is difficult to account for this but I think Eccleston is far less easy with the manic gabbling stranger aspect of the Doctor (both Tennant and Smith regularly do a mad gabble but I'm not sure Eccleston was ever really convincing on the occasions he was asked to do it). In the first half Eccleston is saddled with this delivery almost constantly presumably, since we view him through Rose's eyes, to underline his strangeness and hint at danger. The turning point is the "Earth rotates" speech which, incidentally, I hated at the time and still loathe. It sounds good but is pretty much devoid of meaning. However it is a long speech that gives Eccleston something to sink his teeth into and also marks a turning point in Rose's relationship with the Doctor as she begins to take him seriously.
I'm quite surprised, in a way, that Rose forms such a strong blueprint for what follows. In particular Davies' emphasis on the extraordinary in the ordinary but also, in general, the tone and style is mostly very similar. I think some of the more obvious nods towards the kids audience were jettisoned and the focus gradually came back onto the Doctor rather than the companion but much of Rose would not have looked out of place in the final year of Davies' tenure, or even in a Moffat season.
One thing I think I entirely failed to realise at the time was how firmly this episode is focused upon Rose and her journey of discovery. It makes this an excellent introductory episode since the audience is introduced to Who lore as Rose is, but at the time, coming from decades in which Who assumed audience familiarity with the concept and tended to place the Doctor front and centre it was easy to be distracted by the thinness of the Auton plot and not realise that the actual plot was about Rose and her meeting with the Doctor. Given how hugely successful Rose was, I suspect this worked very well for a general audience which had, at best, fuzzy memories of Doctor Who.
At the time I was also pretty unimpressed with Rose herself. In hindsight it is hard to see quite why I felt this. The episode is working hard, especially through contrasting Rose and Mickey, to underline her resourcefulness, determination and strength. However I have now had all of Russel T. Davies' five year stint in which he regularly drove home the point that the ordinary is extraordinary. So it may be easier to see the intent now than it was at the time, again coming from a background in which the better Doctor Who companions tended to be, if not extraordinary from the outset, at least framed in terms of ambitions and careers which Rose explicitly was not.
The acting is variable, though all of it is better than the worst of old Who. Noel Clarke is on record as saying he wasn't treating Doctor Who particularly seriously and it wasn't until he started seeing the rushes that he realised he needed to up his game. Mickey is certainly the weak link among what were to become the recurring cast. Clarke chooses to play the character in a more broadly comic fashion than the others. That said, I think the early NuWho was very much feeling its way in terms of where to pitch its humour. Both here and later in the Slitheen episodes we get humour that is far closer to slapstick is used later. I think it is interesting that the Slitheen were eventually adopted by the Sarah Jane Adventures where they seem to have fitted in far more easily.
I actually think Eccleston is the other weak link here. Or at least I think he is in the first half hour after which he settles into the role. Given Doctor Who is filmed out of sequence it is difficult to account for this but I think Eccleston is far less easy with the manic gabbling stranger aspect of the Doctor (both Tennant and Smith regularly do a mad gabble but I'm not sure Eccleston was ever really convincing on the occasions he was asked to do it). In the first half Eccleston is saddled with this delivery almost constantly presumably, since we view him through Rose's eyes, to underline his strangeness and hint at danger. The turning point is the "Earth rotates" speech which, incidentally, I hated at the time and still loathe. It sounds good but is pretty much devoid of meaning. However it is a long speech that gives Eccleston something to sink his teeth into and also marks a turning point in Rose's relationship with the Doctor as she begins to take him seriously.
I'm quite surprised, in a way, that Rose forms such a strong blueprint for what follows. In particular Davies' emphasis on the extraordinary in the ordinary but also, in general, the tone and style is mostly very similar. I think some of the more obvious nods towards the kids audience were jettisoned and the focus gradually came back onto the Doctor rather than the companion but much of Rose would not have looked out of place in the final year of Davies' tenure, or even in a Moffat season.
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