Doctor Who: Series 1, Episode 1 – “Rose” (2005)

This is it: the episode that (re)started it all. It was my official introduction into Doctor Who, kicking off the start of a beautiful special interest that multiple six-foot-high bookcases in my bedroom can attest to. This is “Rose.”

Rose Tyler, a young Londoner living in a council estate and working in a shop, has her life turned upside down when the shop dummies come to life and a mysterious person saves her from them before blowing up the shop. This is how she encounters the Doctor—the Ninth Doctor to be precise. Rose can’t begin to understand his comments about an invasion of living plastic, but as the strange Doctor keeps turning up in her life, she knows she has to help him.

As is evident from that summary (and, well, the episode title,) this episode is definitely more about Rose than it is the Doctor. To put it in grammatical terms, Rose is the subject of the sentence while the Doctor is the object—she’s the character whose perspective we follow, while he’s the surprising element that’s just been introduced to her life. This might seem like an odd tactic for a show called Doctor Who to take, but it draws on precedent going all the way back to the start of the classic series. After all, Ian and Barbara are clearly the main characters of “An Unearthly Child.” In opening the new series from Rose’s point of view, RTD, was following what came before while also establishing a formula that would carry through much of the new series.

Is “Rose” the best episode around? No—the Mickey stuff gets embarrassing, and the resolution to the Auton threat is kind of goofy. As a sci-fi romp, it can be a bit shaky. But as an introduction to Rose and Nine, it does a bang-up job. Rose is a charming and grounded everywoman, an ordinary human just going about her unremarkable life when a giant bundle of astounding suddenly plops down right in front of her. We meet her opinionated, nagging mom Jackie and her fine but basic boyfriend Mickey (Noel Clarke warning, ugh,) and we see the seeds of why she’s going to make a good companion: her curiosity, her determination, and her compassion.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is part lightly dashing hero (his meeting with Rose is just *chef’s kiss*), part fabulously quirky weirdo, part fascinating and remote alien, and all wonderful. I love to watch him moving around Rose and Jackie’s flat like a whirlwind, the “turn of the Earth” speech is excellent, and that smile? That’s so quintessentially Doctor you could bottle it.

So, while the series doesn’t hit a home run straight out of the gate, it still has important good points to recommend it. You can see its potential even through the iffiness, and the dynamic between the characters is strong enough that its faults are ultimately secondary.