I was surprised on rewatch that Mickey wanted to let the Doctor die, after they had both come to rescue him, and Rose heroically saved the Doctors life. Also Mickey was freaked out that The Doctor was an alien, and Rose was moved and fascinated. Explains a lot about his treatment of Mickey later, and his admiration of Rose. Also makes Mickey's redemption in his next appearance interesting, and shows how much he changed in the year they were missing.
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025
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Noel Clarke - scandal noted - is quite good in a pretty thankless role.
Yeah I thought he was good and Mickey was a great character, shame.
Welcome to the regenerated Retrospective Discussions! The idea is simple: we discuss each episode as normal, but there's no need to pretend the subesequent years of stories never happened - feel free to reference later continuity, compare it to future episodes, etc.
As long as the threads are minimally active, I'll post one every Sunday until The War Between the Land and the Sea comes out, at which point we'll shift are attention to that for a few weeks.
As for myself...I haven't rewatched "Rose" yet, and haven't seen it in a few years, so I'll be back after I've rectified that situation.
Okay, rewatch complete.
I do think that anyone who genuinely believes that something like "Space Babies" (which, to be clear, I did not particularly enjoy) was somehow out of line needs to pop back to 2025 and really look at what RTD was doing in his original run. A garbage bin belching after eating Mickey The Idiot kind of says it all.
This episode does a very, very good job of introducing the Doctor, and the basics of what he's all about (no Time Lords or Gallifrey to be mentioned just yet) to a new audience. Rose really was the best idea RTD had, allowing her to serve as the audience proxy moving forward. The focus on Rose's "domestics" was also a very good move, one not really replicated in the following seasons (though RTD certainly tried, and came pretty close with Donna's family).
The Nestene are a bizarre villain to open with - it's like RTD has a thing for smacking new viewers in the face with the goofiest things he can think of, just to set the expectations. Armies of department store mannequins in the streets of London are truly a sight to behold.
The episode isn't shot particularly dynamically, but it gets the job done.
One thing that I absolutely hate is Murray Gold's scoring for this era. The opening music over the montage of Rose's daily routine encapsulates it nicely - that driving percussion over the orchestral stuff just doesn't work for me at all. I'm going to try not to harp on it through the Tennant era, but I think Gold's work improves a lot once Matt Smith takes over. "The Doctor's Theme" is fantastic, though.
no Time Lords or Gallifrey to be mentioned just yet
Technically, when the Nestene are wrestling with the Doctor at about 37:30, the consciousness does growl out "Time Lord!" But if you'e completely new to the show, that's probably not going to bother you.
Wait—who’s the real Doctor here? Rose or the guy with the ears?
I had forgotten that the show was produced in standard definition this far back. I spent the first ten minutes trying to figure out why it looked weird. From a quick Google, the entire RTD era was SD.
This wasn't technically my introduction to Who; I'm pretty sure I had seen some Tom Baker/Fourth Doctor repeats as a small child and I had a figurine of that version. But this was my first time new series were in production during my lifetime and my first time watching at an age where I could form memories. I've never gone back, so I basically only know New Who stuff.
While I wasn't a true novice--I knew the Doctor regenerated and that Daleks existed--I agree with ValueSubtracted that this was a great introduction. Especially the TARDIS reveal is very nicely done. Eccleston's Doctor is fascinatingly rude in a way they haven't really been since, but still the same protector, if a patronizing one. ~~Not sure how he resisted Jackie, though.~~
This wasn’t technically my introduction to Who; I’m pretty sure I had seen some Tom Baker/Fourth Doctor repeats as a small child and I had a figurine of that version. But this was my first time new series were in production during my lifetime and my first time watching at an age where I could form memories.
This is more or less me, as well. I have very fuzzy memories of Classic Who reruns, but really jumped in with the 2005 series (although even then I started in 2007 or so). I have gone back and watched some Classic serials here and there, but my knowledge is far from complete.