Rose (TV story)

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Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!The Doctor

Synopsis

When Rose Tyler meets a mysterious stranger called the Doctor, her life will never be the same again. Soon, she realises that her mum, her boyfriend and the whole of planet Earth are in danger. The only hope of salvation lies inside a strange blue box.

Plot

Rose Tyler works in a department store called Henrik's. On this particular day, Rose is asked to give the lottery syndicate to Wilson at the end of her shift. She takes the elevator to the basement of the building. When she gets there, she discovers that Wilson is missing. Shortly after, the piled up shop-window dummies come to life and advance on Rose. Just as she is about to be killed by one, a man in a black leather coat takes her hand and tells her to "run!".

Once they are safely inside the elevator, going up he informs Rose that Wilson is dead. When they arrive at the correct floor, the man points a mysterious metal device at the controls for the lift causing it to short-circuit. He explains that the dummies are simply "living plastic" and that he is called the Doctor before telling her to run for her life. While Rose runs outside, the Doctor runs upstairs and blows up the building using a small bomb. As Rose runs away from the explosion, she passes by a mysterious blue police box.

The next day, the Doctor appears at Rose's front door on the Powell Estate using his metal device to trace the plastic dummies. Rose invites the Doctor inside while looking in a mirror he comments on his new face after a recent regeneration shortly before he and Rose are attacked by the plastic arm that the Doctor ripped off a dummy in the shop the day before. After cutting off the signal controlling the arm, the Doctor leaves.

Rose follows him, and the Doctor eventually explains that the living plastic is trying to overthrow the human race. The Doctor then leaves Rose again and heads towards the blue box which is now in a different location and disappears.

Later, Rose visits her boyfriend and uses his computer to research the Doctor. While doing so, she finds a website made about the Doctor. They go and visit the man behind the website and while Mickey waits outside in the car, Clive invites her inside and shows her photographic evidence of the Doctor appearing at various stages throughout history.

Meanwhile, outside, Mickey is distracted by a moving wheelie bin and while investigating, finds it empty. He then closes the bin to find his hands stuck to the lid, the plastic stretching with his hands, but never letting go. As he proceeds to attempt to pull himself free, the bin suddenly tosses him in the air and swallows him whole ... then burps loudly afterwards. When Rose returns to the car, an Auton Mickey is waiting for her.

Rose and the plastic Mickey go to a pizza restaurant where plastic Mickey starts to grill Rose about the Doctor. The Doctor then appears and, using the gas from a champagne bottle, fires a cork through plastic Mickey's forehead before pulling his head completely off. The headless plastic Mickey pursues Rose and the Doctor, who escape through the back door. The Doctor explains that the mysterious metal device is called a "sonic screwdriver" and he uses it to trap plastic Mickey inside the restaurant. The Doctor then goes inside his blue box, to the bewilderment of Rose, which is now positioned in the back courtyard. Rose quickly follows and discovers that the inside of the box is bigger than the outside. The Doctor then explains that the blue box is called a TARDIS and that it and he are both alien.

The Doctor uses plastic Mickey's head to follow where the signal that is controlling all the plastic is coming from, they leave the TARDIS it is now on the edge of the River Thames. When Rose asks why the Doctor's ship is in the shape of a police box, he replies that it is a disguise. Then, with the help of Rose the Doctor discovers that the Nestene Consciousness must be using the London Eye as a transmitter to control the plastic.

They find the Nestene Consciousness underneath the Eye. The Doctor is captured by the Autons as the Nestene Consciousness detects some superior technology and discovers that the Doctor is carrying some anti-plastic which could kill the Nestene Consciousness. With the Doctor captured, the Nestene Consciousness begins the invasion of earth causing all the shop-window dummies to come to life and to start attacking the humans.

Meanwhile, below the London Eye, the Autons holding the Doctor are slowly pushing him towards the edge of the ledge that they are stood on. Rose, who has found that Mickey is alive, takes an axe and uses it to break free one of the chains on the wall and swings down to the Autons holding the Doctor. She collides with them and the anti-plastic falls down into the Nestene Consciousness killing it and stopping all the dummies from attacking.

Later, the Doctor invites Rose to join him on his adventures after she comments that he would be dead if it was not for her. After initially turning the offer down, she agrees when the Doctor explains that the TARDIS can also travel in time.

Cast

Crew

References

  • The sonic screwdriver makes an appearance and is once again a major all-purpose tool.
  • Clive Finch suggests that the title "Doctor" is passed down from father to son, and points to his website saying to Rose Tyler "that's your Doctor there, isn't it". This would seem to suggest he has information on the Doctor's other incarnations.

Story Notes

  • First Story of the First Series of the new Doctor Who
  • This is the first story featuring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor.
  • This is the first story featuring new companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper).
  • This is the first story featuring the new TARDIS console room, which has a far more organic appearance than its predecessors. Initially questioned by fans, the later mini-episode Time Crash would confirm this as a new "desktop theme" for the TARDIS interior called "coral".
  • This was the first Doctor Who episode to be produced in a widescreen picture format. Discounting the 1996 telefilm, it is also the first episode to have a shot-on-film appearance since 1985's Revelation of the Daleks and the first episode to be completely filmed since Spearhead from Space in 1970. However, the show is in fact videotaped, as it has been since 1986, with the footage subsequently processed to look like film. This production style continued into 2009 when the series began production in high definition.
  • The story itself a sequel to Spearhead from Space, and has thematic similarities to the earlier story, as both feature a new Doctor, a new companion, and the Auton threat.
  • A copy of this story was available to download on the Internet on various p2p networks several weeks before it was released. The preview version was essentially the broadcast version; however it did not contain the new credits and had the original series theme music as opposed to the new version.
  • The word Auton is not used in the dialogue of the story but is used in the episode credits.
  • In Rose's flat, the Doctor leafs through a copy of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones. He is shown flicking through the book very quickly and commenting, "Sad ending." He also looks at a woman's magazine and comments on one of the articles, saying, "Well, that'll never work. He's gay and she's an alien."
  • The surname Finch was used for Clive and his wife in the production notes but not in the on-screen version.
  • The episode, like the 1996 Doctor Who: The TV Movie, breaks with what had become the tradition of including the Doctor's image in the title sequence.
  • For this, the first episode, the opening credits follow the UK standard of title sequence then program, the rest of the season (other than the first episode) would include a 'teaser' before the main title sequence.
  • There were problems during the first broadcast of this episode in the UK which meant that sound from a BBC Three program, Strictly Dance Fever hosted by Graham Norton, was heard over the scene in which Rose first encounters the Autons.
  • As part of the launch of the new series the BBC screened the documentary Doctor Who: A New Dimension on BBC1.
  • Following this episode, Doctor Who Confidential: Episode 1 was broadcast on BBC 3.
  • When searching for the Doctor on the Internet Rose uses search-wise. This is an actual web page with the same logo as on the show, but it is not actually a search engine: instead, it is a web page created by a company called Compuhire, designed for use in television and film when a search engine is required to be seen on-screen. (See their disclaimer.)
  • The reference to the Doctor having a Northern accent relates to the media attention that has been generated around Christopher Eccleston not conforming to people's perception of what the Doctor should be like.
  • In the scene where the Doctor is in Rose's flat, the original script called for the Doctor to stick his entire head in the cat flap. But when they got it, it was far too small.
  • Rose's comment about the Doctor sounding like he was from the north marks the second time Earth geography has been applied to the Doctor's demeanour (previously, he was referred to as being from England in the TV movie). The Doctor's retort, "lots of planets have a north" is a possibly unintended reference to DW: The Ribos Operation, in which being "from the north" was a major character point.
  • Similarly, Rose and the Doctor's exchange regarding his accent also echoes a similar discussion between the Fourth Doctor and fellow Time Lord Drax in DW: The Armageddon Factor regarding the latter's affected accent.
  • A special effects milestone occurs when the Doctor is shown standing in the door of the TARDIS and the interior is clearly visible behind him. In the original series, the interior of the TARDIS was usually shown as a dark void whenever a head-on view of the open doors (a rarity) occurred. For the first time, elements of the exterior of the TARDIS -- specifically the inside of the doors and the POLICE BOX lettering along the roofline -- are visible from the console room.
  • Between the final scene and the closing credits, the episode incorporates a "Next Time..." trailer for the next episode. This is the first time this device has been used in Doctor Who. This becomes a regular feature, omitted only on rare occasions, or occasionally moved to the end of the closing credits.
  • Actor Nicholas Briggs makes his debut on the revived series, providing the voice of the Nestene Consciousness. He would go to be the show's designated voice actor, vocalizing the Daleks and Cybermen over the next few seasons. Rose is far from Briggs' first Doctor Who-related work, as he had been an active participant in independent, unofficial, and licensed spin-off productions dating back to the 1980s, most notably his work hosting the Myth Makers interview video series, writing and directing films for BBV Productions and Reeltime Pictures, and as producer of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas, a project that had its roots in Audio Visuals, a series of fan-made Doctor Who audio adventures in which Briggs himself played the Doctor.
  • Russell T Davies becomes the first author of original Doctor Who spin-off fiction to write for the official TV series. A decade earlier, he wrote the Seventh Doctor novel Damaged Goods for the Virgin New Adventures line of novels. Numerous other writers of licensed spin-off fiction and Big Finish audio dramas would go on to write for the revival, including Paul Cornell, Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat (who would ultimately succeed Davies as lead writer in 2009), Robert Shearman, and Gareth Roberts.
  • This is the first and, to date, only episode of Doctor Who to use the name of a companion in its title (it would be followed by two episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures featuring Sarah Jane Smith's name). There was an episode of the 1960s serial The Daleks' Master Plan entitled "The Feast of Steven", after companion Steven Taylor, but it wasn't a title applied to a complete storyline, unlike Rose. Later, series 3 would begin with Smith and Jones, named after soon-to-be companion Martha Jones and the Doctor's occasional alias.

Ratings

  • 9.94 million (43.2% audience share)
  • Repeat - 0.48 million (3.5% audience share)

Myths and rumours

  • It is often speculated that the Nestene Consciousness can be heard to utter the words "Bad Wolf".
  • Due to the widescreen format introduced with this episode, it was often erroneously stated that this episode and those that followed were filmed in high-definition. In fact, the first high-definition Doctor Who episode wasn't produced until Planet of the Dead in 2009.

Filming Locations

Mostly filmed in Cardiff, but with some location filming in London:

  • The scenes in which Rose is at work were filmed in Howells in the centre of Cardiff.
  • The scene in which the Autons attack people in a shopping centre was filmed in The Queens Arcade.
  • The scene in which Rose agrees to go travelling with the Doctor was filmed at Cardiff's outdoor market.
  • The Yard where the TARDIS is parked was filmed at the back of the Cardiff Royal Infirmary.
  • The Nestene Consciousness' lair was filmed in a disused paper mill in Cardiff.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • When Rose is attacked by the plastic arm, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to cancel the signal. While he is doing this, Jackie is drying her hair in the other room. Firstly, wouldn't she hear Rose crashing through the table? Secondly, in Forest of the Dead the Doctor says that hairdryers interfere with his sonic screwdriver. So, shouldn't he be unable to use it against the arm? Firstly the Doctor said some hairdryers and secondly, he had to buzz it a few times for it to work. Besides, the hairdryer might not be close enough. Also if you look back Jackie puts on the hairdryer on before Rose falls through the table, she may not have heard it or did not assume it was anything major.
  • When Rose is making coffee for the Doctor, she picks up the milk bottle with her right hand, then it cuts to the Doctor shuffling the cards, then it cuts back and very briefly you can see that she's got a teaspoon in her right hand instead. Then it's back to the Doctor trying again to shuffle the cards, finally back to Rose with the milk in her right hand once again. It's possible that she could be picking things up and putting things down between shots.
  • When Mickey opens the wheelie bin, it is almost empty. Why would someone put out an empty rubbish bin? Maybe the bin ate the rubbish or has been emptied and hasn't been put back yet. Perhaps it was the bin day and he just put it out for the sake of getting rib of the little rubbish he had.
  • If the Doctor is newly-regenerated, then how are there photos of him on the day before the Titanic set sail, at the assassination of John F. Kennedy and when Krakatoa erupted without Rose?The Doctor may have gone to those time periods when he left Rose and Mickey after defeating the Nestene Consciousness, Rose was somewhere else at the time of those photos, or he went there before he met Rose. Alternatively, he could have had his memory somehow wiped. Also there is nothing on screen to indicate that the Doctor is newly regenerated, other than a vague self-reference to his appearance; he could have just as easily been referring to the outcome of a recent haircut as a regeneration or he may not have looked in a mirror.
  • When Mickey closes the wheelie bin lid, he then finds the plastic stuck to his hands, he lifts his hands up and the plastic stretches like tar. If you look closely when he lifts his hands up for the first time, you'll see that a shadow of one of his hands is cast clearly on his shirt, yet there is no shadow of the strands of plastic stuck to his fingers. Weird.
  • When the three bride Autons attack Jackie, and they open their hands one at a time, it is clear that when the second Auton opens its hand, all three are already open. After it cuts to Rose, and back to Jackie again, the third one opens (even though we just saw it already open!)
  • How does the rubbish bin burp? It doesn't seem to have any reason to. It does not seem to be releasing gas, nor does it have any such parts that could make the noise. It was most likely just for comedic effect.; The burp seals in the freshness. Besides it could be the plastic's movements or releasing gas as it takes in Mickey.
  • Obviously this was intended, but it seems a little strange and pointless to show the Doctor in the photos of the Titanic etc, to be in exactly the same position each time.

Continuity

  • The sonic screwdriver makes a reappearance (first introduced in DW: Fury from the Deep and destroyed in DW: The Visitation, it made a reappearance in DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie before its reappearance (in a new shape but the same noise).
  • People similar to Clive who are obsessed with the Doctor were depicted in NA: Return of the Living Dad. Clive is clearly corresponding by e-mail with others like himself and refers to the Doctor appearing in numerous conspiracy theories (possibly an early reference to LINDA DW: Love & Monsters.
  • It is implied but never stated that the Doctor has just regenerated. When he is in Rose's flat he checks his appearance in the mirror as if he is unused to it. He also notes the way in which his ears stick out. This is similar to a scene in the first episode of Tom Baker's debut story, DW: Robot.
  • The Autons and the Nestene have previously featured DW: Spearhead from Space and DW: Terror of the Autons, both of which were Third Doctor stories. The Nestenes also feature in the PDA: Business Unusual and Synthespians™ which are both Sixth Doctor stories. The Autons also reappear in NSA Autonomy.
  • The Doctor has at some time in his past been involved in a war which led to the destruction of the Nestene Homeworld. This war is also referenced in PDA: Synthespians™.
  • The Doctor speed reads a book as he did in DW: City of Death.
  • Rose returns to London in DW: Aliens of London.
  • The Auton invasion is referenced in DW: Love & Monsters.
  • The Doctor indicates that an unnamed but presumably well-known celebrity is actually an alien in disguise. He doesn't seem too concerned, suggesting a Men in Black scenario exists in the Doctor Who universe where human-disguised or human-like aliens live peacefully on Earth in the present day. (This is later supported by the decision by Bayldon Copper, who is not from Earth, to stay on the planet after the events of DW: Voyage of the Damned.)
  • Clive's website, Who is Doctor Who? marks the first time a character has directly referred to the Doctor by the name "Doctor Who" on screen since WOTAN in DW: The War Machines. Unlike WOTAN's use, which is considered a continuity error, Clive's use is clearly meant in the form of a question, with "Doctor Who" being more or less a nickname.
  • Rose tells the Doctor she had a cat. This is confirmed in The Cat Came Back.

DVD and Other Releases

File:Bbcdvd-s1-v1.gif
Series 1 Volume 1: Rose - The End of the World - The Unquiet Dead DVD Cover
  • This was released on a DVD along with The End of the World and The Unquiet Dead. Doctor Who - Series 1 Volume One.
  • This was also released as part of the series 1 DVD boxset. Doctor Who - The Complete First Series.
  • This was also released with Issue 1 of the Doctor Who DVD Files.

See also

External Links

Template:Series 1

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