Doctor Who - The New Series - Vol. 1

Great start to the series, not the best Doctor imo but still very good. Looking forward to the rest of the season.

Re-watching this after a few seasons of the excellent David Tenant as the Dr, and Christopher Eccleston is better than I remember him. He had massive shoes to fill as the returning Dr after a lengthy gap from our screens and he did manage to make the role his own in the first few episodes - giving the character his own quirks.

The scriptwriting is excellent and the stories generally good, though I do think that having to fit an interesting storyline in a 45-50 minute episode is difficult - some of the stories show this, e.g. The Unquiet dead has a very interesting build up and concept, but the end just seemed rushed. Later stories that spanned two episodes were generally better - allowing the scriptwriters more freedom.

Not the best in the series, from what I recall, but a good start.

EXCELLENT SERIES THROUGHOUT HAVE WATCHED THEM ON TV BUT WANTED TO WATCH THEM AGAIN

Perfect early evening viewing, not too deep, serious. Could be silly if it wasn't for the tongue in cheek production and brilliant Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor with a Northern twang.Billie Piper is also superb. Will be renting further episodes

I am hiring the first season again after reaching the end of the Tenant era. Overall this just pips season 4 to the mark as it has superior and darker stories though Tenant is a far better actor. Whether Eccleston decided to have a Northern accent because he can't do much else or the producers did, we shall never know but I personally found it in appropriate, since although the Doctor's personality and physical features might change on regeneration, his language and culture would not. I very much doubt if Tenant would have got away with a Scottish accent.

Anyway back to this particular DVD. It was a totally new style for the series. The old format would never have survived in the new MTV style TV age and the producers have done an excellent job.

'Rose' is all crash, bang, wallop action to introduce the new regular characters. It is not perfect but adequate, though very rushed.

'The End Of the World' opens us up to the world of the Doctor: aliens, planets (well Earth anyway) and time travel. Despite some comments in this section the effects are certainly effective and most of the budget for the series went on this episode. It all works even of the story is rather non eventful though the there is a set up for the end of the series that makes it worth viewing.

'The Unquiet Dead' reverts to classic style - a combination of history and monsters that is quite scary and exciting. The success of these first few stories dictated what was to come and are a landmark to one of the most successful shows on British TV.