Doctor Who: Out of the Wilderness – A Classic Whovian’s perspective on Rose

For fans of the Classic Series, the wait for the new era of Doctor Who had been a long one. Was it worth it?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: BBC Press.)

For many fans, the episode Rose was their introduction to Doctor Who. But how was it for fans of the Classic Series? Here’s one fan’s personal account of how it felt when the series came back.

Today, we celebrate fifteen years of the New Series. A lot has changed over the last one-and-a-half decades. But today is a good day to look back at that fresh start for Doctor Who. No, more than that: it’s a good day to be reminded of how much that opening episode meant to fans of the Classic Series.

I’ve written before about my own personal experience of the Wilderness Years – specifically, how I grew up as a fan of the series during that time. Growing up without an era of your own isn’t exactly the best way to enjoy Doctor Who. But it does make you perhaps more appreciative when a new era does eventually come along.

On the other hand, it also meant that I – and indeed, many other fans – had to endure an agonizing wait after the announcement that it would return. Almost a year and a half. Sometimes, there are gaps between series now that are just as long, at least in terms of actual time. But honestly, I don’t think any gap has or will feel quite as long as the wait for the beginning of the New Series.

The long wait

You see, we didn’t have much of an idea of what to expect. Oh yes, we knew what Doctor Who had been in the past. But what of its future? A series made for the twenty-first century had to be different in some way. It had to update the formula to appeal to a new audience.

But how much would it change? Back in 2003, Battlestar Galactica had a complete reboot and gave us a show that was darker and maturer than its predecessor. It was a radically different show built on the same original ideas.

Would the New Series of Doctor Who be the same? Christopher Eccleston was officially listed as “the Ninth Doctor”, so we knew that it wasn’t going to be a complete reboot. But would it have any of the style or charm of the original series? How much would it appeal to a family audience, something that had (for the most part) been a core part of Doctor Who on television?

Every single day, there was something new to speculate, worry or flat-out panic over. Christopher Eccleston seemed like an unusual choice to play the Doctor, but we kept an open mind. However, what was particularly worrying was when the new companion was announced: Rose Tyler, as played by…Billie Piper. The former teen pop singer.

Honestly, this seemed like a particularly worrying bit of stunt-casting – something that was arguably problematic about much of Eighties Who. Still, we had to wait and see whether the casting would pay off.

2005

Reaching the year 2005 felt exciting in itself. Sci-fi fans had a lot to look forward to that year. The (all-too-brief) return of Firefly, this time on the big screen. The fall of the Jedi and the birth of Darth Vader in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. But for British sci-fi fans, the return of Doctor Who was definitely the most exciting.

However, the wait still dragged out. After waiting for the whole of 2004, we still had to wait almost a quarter of a year longer to see our favorite series return.

March itself was a good month, at least. We saw interviews with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper. We saw brand new trailers – including a particularly exciting one of the Doctor running from an explosion! We even saw billboards! Billboards! For Doctor Who!

Of course, we also had the episode leak early. A copy of Rose – one that wasn’t quite ready and didn’t have composer Murray Gold’s arrangement of the theme tune – was leaked online. A bit of a shame that happened. Yes, the BBC had been making us wait for the series for a long time, but with good reason. It was all about building up the hype and anticipation. The leak went against that, but it certainly didn’t ruin it.

Eventually, March 26th, 2005 finally arrived. All of us old-school Whovians were anticipating what the episode would be like. (Well, those of us who hadn’t watched the leaked copy, at least.) How different would it be? Would it live up to the legacy of the original series? Would we end up hating it?

Broadcast

We all had different experiences watching that episode, so I can’t speak for everyone. But for my own experience? The moment that theme tune kicked in, I knew Doctor Who was back. The new theme – which was basically the original arrangement by Delia Derbyshire, but with an orchestra added – was a perfect blend of old and new.

The episode itself had a similar mix. The plot of Rose was heavily influenced by classic Doctor Who stories. Particularly Spearhead from Space and Terror of the Autons, which featured exactly the same monsters.

But it was a classic Doctor Who monster story seen through the eyes of someone completely ordinary – Rose Tyler, your average Londoner. She was someone who had an ordinary life that we got to see. In that opening episode, we met not just her mother Jackie, but her boyfriend Mickey, too.

These are little things, and yet at the same time, a companion’s life at home had never been explored in such detail before. The closest we had was Ace – the last companion of the Classic Series. But even then, we never met her mother on-screen (well, we did, but not as Ace knew her, shall we say). We only really got to see her home life at all in Survival – ironically, the final story of the Classic Series!

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A fresh perspective

So this was an extremely fresh take that we were seeing. It was Doctor Who, but with the fresh perspective that it needed to find a brand new audience, without losing too much of what made it so popular in the first place. In terms of tone and balance, Russell T Davies pitched it just right. Yes, Rose has its moments of silliness – such as the plastic arm attacking the Doctor, or Mickey getting swallowed by the bin. But it also established exactly what Doctor Who was going to be in the twenty-first century, and it did it in a way that felt true to its roots.

On top of that, we also got strong performances from both Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper. They clearly had a lot of chemistry, and the episode handled their first meeting well. Naturally, we’d get performances even more amazing as the series went on – particularly in the episodes Dalek, Father’s Day and The Parting of the Ways. But the opening episode made it clear that they’d be a strong and effective Doctor/companion pairing.

While I didn’t know that night how successful the New Series would become, or even that it was being watched by almost ten million viewers, I knew that what I was watching was really special. After so much time spent in the Wilderness, Doctor Who was truly back – and it was going to stay.

Were you a fan of the Classic Series when Rose was broadcast? Do you remember your reaction to the episode? Let us know in the comments below.