I had once set out to write reviews for every episode of New Who. Since I haven’t made much progress with the classic series, I decided to rewrite them a bit and share them here.

Given the number of times I tried to watch the series before finally finishing it last year, this must be the episode I’ve rewatched the most, and each time I’m impressed by how much of a success it is in every aspect.

This episode had the daunting task of reintroducing the Doctor to a new audience, 16 years after the last televised episode, and it accomplishes this brilliantly. In just a few scenes, we come to understand who the Ninth Doctor is, what his stakes are, and how he got to this point. Eccleston is the perfect actor for the role of a Doctor traumatized by the Time War, barely able to understand who he is, filled with the emptiness, resentment, and sadness of being the last survivor of his entire species. I’m particularly struck by his monologue about the movement of the Earth, which I found very poignant and which immediately immerses us in his psyche:

"I can feel it... the turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our 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..."

The episode also introduces us to Rose, an ordinary young woman stuck in a mundane life. While she isn’t exceptional in herself, we can already see elements that set up her character arc, particularly her relationship with Mickey, which is doomed to fail progressively as she grows more attached to the Doctor. I think it’s a great idea to introduce an ordinary companion for the series’ reintroduction: this way, she can be developed gradually as the season progresses, allowing us to follow the impact the Doctor has on her and her evolution, which will climax in the Season 1 finale, all brilliantly portrayed by Billie Piper.

What makes "Rose" special as an episode is that, despite some truly poignant emotional moments, it manages to stay balanced by alternating between more emotional and serious moments with excellent humor (I’m thinking particularly of the entire scene between Jackie and the Doctor, as well as other comedic moments due to the contrast between the Doctor’s existence and human life). The episode maintains a balance, never sinking into emotional heaviness or becoming embarrassingly unserious, and it does so with brilliance.

There are, however, a few moments I find less successful. The sequence with Mickey turned into a plastic mannequin is really kitschy, and while I think it has some charm, today it mostly feels ridiculous. Although the pacing is excellent throughout, toward the end it becomes less consistent and more rushed, particularly the moment with the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness, which feels expedited and gives the impression it was included simply because they needed a villain in the episode.

However, these few flaws are largely overshadowed by the episode’s strengths: the chemistry between Eccleston and Billie Piper is excellent, and the Autons, though underdeveloped and rushed in my opinion, remain a credible threat. This is nothing compared to the achievement of this episode, which is a superb reintroduction and arguably the most important episode of the RTD1 era.

In conclusion, "Rose" is an excellent reintroduction to the modern series. It succeeds in being both a convincing continuation of the classics and a solid reintroduction for a new audience. It’s an episode that already showcases the qualities of the season to come, driven by excellent writing and outstanding acting.

// Old Review

This is probably the nu-who episode I re-watched the most and I realize how much it successfully pulled off everything it attempted. The episode works perfectly as a re-introduction of the Doctor as a character while also introducing his character arc of a Doctor traumatized by the time war and trying to come to terms with himself and in only a handful of really well written interactions we instantly get the stakes of the character, his mysterious lore and heavier backstory with a lot of emotional impact (I especially really like Eccleston's monologue comparing himself to how the earth is spinning). What I think is great is also how everything is balanced with a lot of comedic bits to avoid making an episode who is too heavy or too dark emotionally (I really like all the Jackie bits) and while I think some moments are definitely too cheesy for their own good (The plastic mickey bit especially) or that the pacing is a bit weird at times, I still think it's overally well executed and that the highlights overshadow easily those flaws.

Overall a great introduction and a stellar first episode for one of the best new who seasons.