Ten years ago to the day, Doctor Who returned to television screens. It’s been a wild decade so far, and for many fans, this was where their Whovian journey began. But with a show that evolves so quickly and so often, it can be easy to forget what made the world love Who all over again. For many of us, “Rose” was a gateway into the world of the Doctor and his TARDIS.
And what a gateway it was.
Now, there are plenty of “jumping on point” lists for New Who, but I have rarely seen “Rose” make the short list. Everyone wants to impress their friends by slamming them with “Blink” or making them teary with “Vincent and the Doctor.” They want to start with a higher production value and a closed-circuit story, or maybe they just love a specific Doctor and want their friends to start with him. And that’s really too bad, because the pilot of the new series—“Rose”—is still a fantastic (catchphrase intended) introduction to Doctor Who and everything it has to offer a modern day audience.
It’s been torn apart the world over for its camp and plenty of other reasons besides, and I am not going to address any of them. Because the first time I saw this episode, my mind was blown. Because, you know, my life had been filled with stories where weird kids like me were never the focus. I loved Star Wars and Star Trek and Farscape and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and tales that generally fell within that sort of purview on the sci-fi end of things.
And then an alarm clock went off, and this nineteen-year-old shop girl went to her boring slog of a job, and one seemingly-normal day got whisked away by a grouchy, grinning, bossy maniac who just happened to notice that she was special.
I had no idea about the Doctor-companion dynamic that formed the core of the show, but here is what I did know: I was nineteen. I was an only child with a mother who enjoyed conducting my life in a spectacularly Jackie-Tyler-like fashion. I was confused about how life was meant to map out post-high school. I had worked some crap jobs already. And if a mysterious stranger had accidentally introduced me to the existence of time travel and aliens and world-saving shenanigans? It would have taken the invention of an adamantium person-sized lockbox to prevent me from diving through those blue doors.
Was… was this for me?
It was a strange thought, one that I so rarely glimpsed in the stories I loved. And Rose meant that to many people. She felt more real than most characters I knew; dressed like an actual teenager, spending lunch breaks with her goofy boyfriend, ready to mouth off at any explanation that didn’t make sense to her, completely ignorant of her own worth and potential. Someone who had big dreams, but knew better than to leave the ground for too long or reality would snatch her back down. Our generation is a disillusioned one, so it seemed fitting.
And then she met the Doctor.
Christopher Eccleston was a truly special incarnation to serve as an introduction to the character, though it seems he has never enjoyed the magnitude of popularity he rightly deserves. We never got enough of him, and that will always sting, like making a friend only to lose touch too quickly. But he was wonderful, a flurry of extremes. He was funny and frightening, seemingly angry but also afraid. Even with that darkness, there was a perfect enthusiasm to him. And for all that the Ninth Doctor shrouds himself in layers of metaphor and intrigue, his desires are transparent so quickly. From the moment that he grabs Rose’s hand in the basement of the shop where she works, you know he’s searching for someone. That he shouldn’t be alone.
In fact, everything that has been and remains true about the character is put across quite succinctly in this first outing. The Doctor is dramatic. The Doctor needs an audience, even if he doesn’t want to endanger people. The Doctor often does endanger people, and it costs lives. The Doctor is stupendously clever, but frequently cannot see what is directly in front of (or behind) him. The Doctor needs someone to share the journey with him.
The Autons made a great initial villain for a number of reasons, first being that they were an excellent low-threat Classic Series baddie, which assured fans of the show that the original continuity was alive and well. It was a smart way to harken back without tipping their hand on the more dramatic foes that would reappear later on. The second reason why they were a prime pick is because they let the new viewers know, in no uncertain terms, how ridiculous Doctor Who could be. Sure, evil invading forces are a terrifying prospect, but sometimes they will attack in the form of shop window dummies… which is simultaneously creepy as all get-out and totally absurd. The first episode proved that camp and danger could co-exist, a bold attempt for any show at all, much less one in this unique position.
Poor Clyde bites the dust in front of his family, poor Mickey gets eaten by a trashcan, poor Jackie drops her shopping and flees the mall for her life. It may have seemed silly to consider the threat at first, but the consequences were still real. And in the end, the only reason anyone survives at all is because Rose Tyler realizes that she’s more powerful than she feels. That she can do what the Doctor cannot. That is essentially what the show is about, isn’t it? About the Doctor convincing people to discover the extraordinary in themselves. To understand that good test scores and steady employment can never replace sheer nerve and the desire to do good.
When the Doctor offers her a way out of humanity’s grind, Rose almost makes the mistake that most of us might when faced with a string of unknowns. And while you can’t help but feel bad at Mickey and Jackie being left behind, it’s so vindicating to watch her say, forget it. I deserve this. I deserve everything the universe has to offer, and more. It’s a reckless choice, and it’s a real one, born out of fear that there will never be another opportunity to get swept away like this again.
Because at its core, Doctor Who is a story about leaping. With faith or without it, out of curiosity or terror, in the name of knowledge or whimsy or truth. It’s about opening your arms wide to every possibility, the profound ones and the scary ones and the beautiful ones. It’s about how every one of us deserves to do that.
Every important episode of television has a crystalizing moment, it seems, a place where you can see the path stretching out ahead and sprint to catch up to it. For “Rose,” it’s the moment the Doctor takes her hand:
Do you know like we were saying, about the earth revolving? It’s like when you’re a kid, the first time they tell you that the world is turning and you just can’t quite believe it ‘cause everything looks like it’s standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the earth. The ground beneath out feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We’re falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go…. That’s who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home.
In that moment, we have the same choice to make as Rose; we can turn off the television and forget the whole thing, as he suggests. Decide Doctor Who isn’t really for us. But if there’s a forming Whovian lurking somewhere in there… you never had a chance. And he knew it, too. He usually does—those TARDIS keys don’t go to just anyone, after all.
And by the time you get the chance to question what you’ve gotten yourself into, you’ve already had tea with a conspiracy theorist, the shop dummies have devastated several shopping centers, and you’ve killed a living plastic alien that threatened the existence of all life on Earth. It was never meant to be the ultimate crash-bang-shazaam episode, a this-is-the-best-we-can-offer extravaganza—it was meant to be a taste. Here are just a handful of the possibilities that await you. Can you bear to turn down the rest of them?
Whatever Doctor Who has become, whatever it might be in the future, that is where it began (again). With Rose Tyler running onto the TARDIS, grinning and giddy, perpetually inviting us on the adventure of our lives. And ten years later, we’re still along for the ride.
Emmet Asher-Perrin talked about falling in love with the help of the Doctor and Rose in Queers Dig Time Lords as well. You can bug her on Twitter and Tumblr, and read more of her work here and elsewhere.
Miss Perrin, I have to share… I’m going through a bit of a personal rough patch where love is concerned. Milady and I are on the rocks pretty hard, with her doubting whether what she felt for me before everything went crashing down recently was love (my thoughts being that it was, and still is beneath all the gunk that dog-piled it recently).
And what you said about what Doctor Who is about just…. it reminds me of why I feel the way I do about her. Maybe sometime soon, when she’s ready to hear something crazy about us trying again I’ll quote that… because damn if it isn’t exactly everything I want that relationship to be.
And for that, Ma’am, I salute and thank you! (and also because I enjoy your HP reread, but that’s less relevant atm)
“Nice to meet you, Rose. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!”
And that’s when I knew I’d probably like this show. I know for most of us who jumped on at this point, Tennant will always be the favorite for good reason. But I’ll forever be wistful for what might have been, what we could have gotten with a second Eccleston series and more of that chemistry he had with Piper. Particularly if we’d gotten a few more adventures with the two of them and Captain Jack.
Thanks for reminding me why I fell in love with the show, Emily. I was also 19 when it premiered (though I don’t think I watched it until months later). There are layers here I’d felt but I don’t think I’d ever considered and your thoughts brought those out wonderfully.
I have had my share of quibbles with the show over the last ten years, but “Rose” was the episode that made me start actually paying attention. My wife and our housemate had been Classic Who fans for years already, but I’d never really gotten caught by the show…
… but then “Rose” happened. I adored it. The whole season, really. And while Tennant remains my favorite modern-era Doctor, Eccleston is right behind him. He’s the Doctor that made me a Whovian. So he, and Rose, will always have a special place in my heart. <3
Good article! I think you hit on an important reason “Doctor Who” has been so successful for a bit over a half a century (in spite of some rough patches, lousy effects, and, in recent times, too-confusing scripts): it allows the audience to imagine themselves hopping on a time machine in their everyday clothes and having an amazing set of adventures that help them realize their full potential.
Eccleston remains my favorite Doctor of the new series. Which is ironic, because when I saw the publicity stills, I thought, “this guy looks too hip, too cool to play the Doctor!” But I was completely won over by his performance, and by the chemistry between him and Piper. I confess I don’t share the general enthusiasm for the Moffatt era; I enjoyed the stories more when Davies was running the show.
I remain slightly bitter we didn’t get more Eccleston as the Doctor. Which is appropriate, since he was bitter Doctor. He was so much more raw than Ten or Eleven; more comfortable with vengeance and terrified by it. Whereas Ten and Eleven played the role of the Time Lord triumphant in hubris or mania, Nine (as far as he knew) had done so in weariness and pain. He chose to use the Moment not pridefully but regretfully and now had to live with it.
But the OP isn’t about Nine, it’s about Rose. Her problem is what she hasn’t done; her past choices have constrained her future and it’s not looking very appealing. But she she can make new choices, even reckless ones. If she can seize an extraordinary moment and escape the limits of the past, maybe he can too.
I was only a few years older than Rose when I first watched this episode. I got sucked right in to the adventure as well.
I don’t think I noticed until just now how much my life was like Rose’s at the time. I’d had to move back home with my mom, was working a part time retail job. Jackie is everything about my mom that I dislike.
Eccleston will always be my favorite, though I love Tennant, and Smith grew on me in all his awkward manicness. I’m looking forward to catching up to the latest Doctor eventually. I really enjoyed Capaldi in In the Loop.
I was a year younger then Rose when I started watching the series, still in High School. Rose is still my favorite companion of the New Doctor Who
Well, once you grew up, Rose headed into a series you can happily watch as a pervy old man.
I did enjoy Rose as a companion and David as the Doctor, so far it’s been fairly good pairings over all.
Thank you! I’ve spent way too much time and effort defending my love of Rose (both the character and the episode.) Now I can just link to this!
One of the weaker NuWho episodes. But they had to start somewhere. Just a pity they chose a poor director (Keith Boak) to relaunch the series, the episode looks and sounds like a naff CBBC show, and he’s also a major factor in why Eccleston decided to quit the role as soon as he started.
As a Classic Whovian (of the 4th Doctor/Tom Baker era), I really enjoyed the re-boot, particularly with its shout-out to the 3rd Doctor (Jon Pertwee), who also started off with the Autons (twice, even). And where I thought that the 10th Doctor and Rose went a bit far down the path, the 9th Doctor and Rose seemed to hit all the right notes. I hope that someone, someday can fool Chris Eccleston into a Who special or something.
@12 – I hope they can’t. He deserves better.
I find it hard to believe that in only a decade the franchise went from fun and quirky every-age-friendly silly romps fare with the occasional nonsense arc to the young-to-early adult, every episode is a very special episode with profound meaning and character development in service if lifechanging arcs wherein we must make a statement, twaddle we see now.
Just a few years ago, I’d rewatch episodes because of how much fun they were and ended up watching/rewatching every available episode in the history of the series. Now, I can be bothered to check out the last few seasons.
Brava!
We realised all of a sudden that while my eldest daughter (Ms10) has watched most of New Who multiple times, my youngest (Ms5) is only really aware of the second half of it. Her first favourite Doctor was Amy Pond, her second Peter Capaldi.
So we put on Rose last night and proceeded to discover that despite the so called funny and campy bits, Autons are actually terrifying to 5 year olds. She squealed and screamed her way through it, burrowed into my lap and worried constantly. The burping wheelie bin didn’t make a dent in her alarm at the show – the only thing that did make her break into giggles was the Doctor himself, with his funny lines.
Watching the (frankly, amazing) scene where the Doctor and Rose are in danger and he strolls into the TARDIS and she doesn’t know it’s a safe place to hide out, took on whole new depths with Ms5. She flinched at every dent the Autons were making in the barred gate and begged Rose to go inside the TARDIS because *she* knew it was safe even as Rose freaked out at the revelation of what was inside the blue box.
She then chanted CLOSE THE DOOR CLOSE THE DOOR until the camera swung around to show that the doors had closed themselves.
Then, in the climactic scene where Rose swings on a rope to kick the anti-plastic into the Nestene vat, Ms5 was captivated. *She* does gymnastics too, and afterwards the thing she remembered most about the episode, and wanted to see over and over again, was Rose saving the day, swinging on a rope.
Now Ms5 wants to know when she will be old enough to learn to swing on a rope. Because survival skills are important when TV is this terrifying.
Nice article, it does a good job capturing the reasons that Rose was so special–initially, an excellent viewpoint character for the audience, and eventually, a quite strong character in her own right.
My own entry into new Who was during its syndication on BBC America, just before the Matt Smith era began. My first show was the one on the bus in the desert, with Lady DeSouza. Not a bad place to start, as it was a pretty self-contained episode. But it was a bit of a shock, after just three more episodes, to be launched back into the 9th Doctor episodes. Which was when I met Rose, who definitely set the tone for the new era.
This episode was my introduction to Dr. Who too.
Thank you, Ms Emily! I am going to quote this at anyone who presumes to complain about Nine OR Rose.
This was the first episode I ever watched. And I can see some of the complaints of “camp” my younger sister was insisting I start with this one, and for perhaps the first five minutes I was complaining about Rose being a “ditz”. But she insisted that “no, no, she’s my favorite, you’ll see” And although for me it is still a tough toss-up, I loved (almost) all the companions, Rose was for me a perfect introduction to the companion role and to the series. She blew in, and once she settled down a little, she was so … wondering, at the whole situation, a mirror to how I felt. Nine was also the best bridge, I thought, to begin the new series. I grew to love the years Tennent had the role, and enjoyed (mostly) Smith’s term, but Eccleston was my introduction, and I really wish he’d been able to stay a bit longer.
@13. Yeah. Unfortunately. Haven;t gotten around to watching the newest ones yet, no offense to Capaldi, he sounds great, just … idk. From what I’ve heard it may be somewhat of a return to the Nine year, but we’ll see. The time Matt Smith had was kind of up and down for me, some lovely episodes but also some dippy ones.
Thank you for a great review and insight into the episode “Rose.” I agree! It was a great introduction as well as a good restart to a long awaited return for Doctor Who which is missed as a good place to for new viewers to start. I like how you pointed out the strengths of the episode as well as its references to the previous years which I can only imagine was a very difficult task for the writers. I really like how you saw Rose as a normal everyday women as well as a very relatable character to the viewers. I often wonder if The Doctor can see the potential in others before they see it in themselves and the people around them. In either case, it was great to be reminded where Rose started given her history and devolvement. I look forward to more of the re-watch and the writing about this season. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this as well as other articles on tor.com despite my lack of adding a comment.
“Rose” is great for the new whovians, but “Sarah Jane Smith” has always been number one.
I really liked Rose, until she turned into creepy stalker chick. She also treated Mickey pretty badly but I cut her some slack on that because feelings do change and it’s nobody’s fault, she could have handled it better though.