There you have it. The little blue police box. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. TARDIS, for all us fun folk. The first episode of the first season since, well... a while. The episode opens with a little fast-forward of a typical day in the life of Rose.
Wake up at 7:30 in the morning, go to work, have lunch with the boyfriend, Mickey, and get attacked by a bunch of living plastic window dummies. Wait- That part wasn't supposed to be under the "typical" category.
When I first watched this episode, I thought it was the weirdest thing ever. It took until the appearance of the Doctor to convince me that the episode was even worth finishing.
To me, the Doctor was just the most amazing character ever. He obviously knew exactly what was going on the second he came onto the screen, which was a relief for both Rose and whoever happened to be watching (if they were confused as I was). Suddenly, we understood what was happening...sort of. At the very least, it wasn't as creepy as we thought, because hey, killer manikins can't be so bad if there's this smiling "northern" man treating them like the final boss of a videogame he all but programmed. He knew what was happening, how it was happening, and how it would end. The only thing left he had to do was compile the code. First, though, he had to rescue the princess.
"...I'm gonna go upstairs and blow it up. And I might well die in the process. But don't worry about me, no. You go home, go on! Go and have your lovely beans on toast! And don't tell anyone about this 'cos if you do, you'll get them killed. "
He slams the door shut...and then opens it again.
"I'm The Doctor, by the way. What's your name?"
"Rose."
"Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!"
And the epicness doesn't end there. There's a clearly animated explosion to follow, just as promised. Lucky for Rose, she manages to get across the street just in time. Dazed, and still clutching the arm of a dummy that tried to kill her, she runs home.
Sadly, I couldn't get a decent screen capture of the Doctor peering into Rose's house through the catflap the day after they met. I compensated with the picture that goes nicely with one of my favorite quotes from the episode. While Rose is bantering on, rightfully of course, about going to the police and whatnot, the Doctor takes the chance to wander the apartment. He shuffles some cards (badly), reads a book by fanning though it, looks in the mirror to check out the damage of his latest regeneration, and reads through
a magazine. Mind you, all this only takes a few seconds. It's clear, though, that the Doctor is completely nonchalant. In fact, he doesn't seem to care in the least about what Rose is saying. He's more interested in the relationship featured in the magazine."Well that won't last. He's gay and she's an alien."
Hey. Sounds interesting to me. It might take more than couple's counseling to work that one out.
Now here's what I think is the best part of this episode. Rose is still stalking when the Doctor hears this noise from behind the couch. When he looks behind it, the arm of that dummy attacks him. He's being strangled by a manikin's arm while Rose is making coffee. She walks right by him. She doesn't notice it until the hand latches onto her face instead. NomNomNom.The Doctor saves her, of course, and then proceeds to leave. Turns out that the hand was just what he was looking for.
Rose follows the Doctor out of the building and all the way to the TARDIS. In that time, he explains about the living plastic, which leads to another one of my favorite parts of the episode, though this is on another spectrum. (And I'm going to leach this directly from wikiquotes.)
Rose: Who are you?
The Doctor: [turns around] Do you know like I was sayin' about the Earth revolving? [walks toward Rose] It's like when you're a kid. The first time they tell you that the Earth's turnin' and you just can't quite believe it cause everythin' looks like it's standin' still. [looks at Rose] I can feel it. [takes Rose's hand] The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinnin' at 1,000 miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtlin' 'round the Sun at 67,000 miles an hour and
I can feel it. We're fallin' through space, you and me, clingin to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go... [let's go of Rose's hand] ...That's who I am.That's the sort of thing that keeps people watching. It's the mysterious and obvious dramatic around the Doctor. It's like Edward Cullen from Twilight, minus the ~*perfectness*~...and the sparkles. Seriously, if the series were more popular here in America, he would have some serious fans. Not that he doesn't have them already.
But moving on.
The Doctor leaves, Rose goes home to research him on the internet, Mickey gets eaten by a garbage can... typical Doctor Who stuff.
So, eventually, the Doctor saves Rose from a rampaging, plastic Mickey copy and they end up in the center of London. They have a little spat about what is and isn't important (the Doctor tends to forget about Mickey, and that bothers Rose...y'know, since she just watched a plastic version of his head melt). The Doctor, being the wonderful manly man that he is, crosses his arms and pouts like a toddler until Rose can't hold back her curiosity anymore and changes the subject back to the plastic.It's actually pretty remarkable. Think about it. This girl just went from an ordinary life to...exploding jobs, strange men that pulls limbs and heads off of killer manikins, loses her
boyfriend to living plastic, and is transported across the city in a little blue box that's bigger on the inside. And what does she do? She asks about the plastic. She's even sane enough to make a crack about other plastic things coming to life besides the shop dummies. Namely, the breast implants. I can't speak for anyone else, but I think I would be busy crying in some corner by then, not thinking about... uh, that, as scary as it is.So, after some...discussion, the Doctor and Rose find the evil alien's transmitter:
The Doctor: How can you hi
de something that big in a city this small?Rose: Hold on... hide what?
The Doctor: The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal.
Rose: What's it look like?
The Doctor: Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London. A huge circular metal structure-like a dish-like a wheel. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible.
Can you find it?
It's never too heavy for too long in this show~!
It doesn't take long to switch back to epicness, though. Basically, Mickey is alive, the Consiousness is killed (though it was a last resort) with anti-plastic, and Rose saves the day! Good thing all those window shop dummies didn't have enough time to cause too much damage. Can't say the same thing for poor Mickey's mental stability, though...
All in all, the world is saved. The doctor gets ready to leave, but...he doesn't want to go alone. He invites Rose to travel with him, but she declines. That is, until the Doctor mentions that the TARDIS not only goes from place to place, anywhere in the universe, but travels through time as well. Now that, she decides, is too much to pass up. With excitement practically radiating off her, she runs into the TARDIS to join the Doctor in his travels.
...
Annnd, that's it. In a nutshell. Kind of. A bit picture heavy? Yeah, I guess, but I really do love taking screencaps. Didn't really say anything revolutionary, but y'know what? My inner fangirl is content. And when she is content, I am content.
I'll try to make the post for episode 2 more exciting. We wouldn't want to disappoint Cassandra, now would we?
To days to come,
~Melissa
