Why the episode 'Rose' is the best series opener of the revival

[CriticalCarrot]

I've always believed that 'Rose' is without a doubt the best opener to any series on the Doctor Who revival. It has everything that you need for a series opener, it establishes new characters, it shows off the new feel of the series and it offers something really interesting to grab your interest. The best thing about 'Rose' is without a doubt the reestablishment of The Doctor, at this point Doctor Who had been off the air for many years so to get people interested in the series they needed to give The Doctor a modern feel while still maintaining the feel of the classic Doctors and I have to say they did that perfectly.

I also love that to start off the series they brought back a classic monster that hadn't been seen for a while, it was something to make sure that the classic fans were interested and I'm sure that this episode was many people's first time seeing the Autons. The establishment of the character Rose was done really well too, she's really an everyman type of character, she's someone that you can project yourself onto, which is what I feel like Doctor Who companions should be.

If you disagree with any of my opinions here be sure to let me know, also comment what your favourite series opener is for Doctor Who.

 

[Timebender]

What I think is brilliant about "Rose" is how it mixes the genres and dissolves the boundaries. Rose starts out in a sitcom/soap before finding herself in a horror movie when she encounters the Autons, then in surreal comedy when she's rescued by the Doctor, then back in the sitcom/soap again. From there she gets involved in a mystery (trying to find out who the Doctor is) before becoming part of a SF adventure. By the end, she's become fully immersed in the SF and Doctor Who.

 

[AugustusGoldstein]

I have no idea why, but it's a perfect episode! It's no doubt on my all-time top 10 best stories of Doctor Who. After watching it a gazilion times I still don't know why it's one of the best. It just is. It's a magnet that doesn't let go.

 

[CriticalCarrot]

I have no idea why, but it's a perfect episode! It's no doubt on my all-time top 10 best stories of Doctor Who. After watching it a gazilion times I still don't know why it's one of the best. It just is. It's a magnet that doesn't let go.

It's in my top 10 too! It's just one of those episodes that I can never get enough of.

 

[AugustusGoldstein]

It's in my top 10 too! It's just one of those episodes that I can never get enough of.

Same with me. I love Rose. It's the perfect DW episode.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

I was thinking about this the other day. I have a suspicion that Russell T Davis was very aware of the failed 1996 relaunch as an example of how not to win over a new audience. I actually quite like the '96 film, and it apparently had OK ratings in the UK. But it bombed in the USA, thereby losing the co-production deal.

'96 Who: half of the running time was the story of Doc 7 regenerating into Doc 8. Unless you watched him in the '80s, you wouldn't know anything about the 7th Doctor or particularly care about him being replaced. Sylvester McCoy himself thought that in hindsight he shouldn't have been in it. Also, regeneration isn't something everyone knows about, so it's an odd subject to lead with. '80s Who fan that I am, I was on the edge of my seat during the traumatic regeneration, but I was aware that was precisely where they'd have lost much of the target audience.

"Rose": the 9th Doctor is just there, BAM! Right in the thick of things, the moment we first encounter the monsters. The episode defers pretty much all his backstory to a later date- all we get is "he's a mysterious time-travelling dude. From space."

'96 Who: after teasing the Daleks, we get the Master instead. Who, once he's de-gelatinous-snaked, just looks like a bloke. You kind of have to build Holmes up for a bit longer before anyone's too impressed by Moriaty.

"Rose": goes with a classic monster that's visually distinctive and bizarre enough to encourage out-of-the-box plotting. Again, no backstory required - you don't have to watch their '70s stories to understand what the Autons are.

"Rose" is also heavily embedded in Rose's point of view - we learn about the Doctor be seeing only what she sees, which is some excellent "show-don't tell" storytelling. Grace only arrives about 20 minutes into the '96 film, and feels like more of a secondary viewpoint character as a result.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

Knocked into second place by "Love And Monsters".