Doctor Who sees off primetime foes in ratings war
- Publication: The Guardian
- Date: 2005-03-28
- Author: Owen Gibson
- Page: 5
- Language: English
Forget the Cybermen and the Daleks. Returning to BBC1 for the first time in 16 years, Doctor Who was on Saturday night vanquishing even more formidable foes — the popular ITV duo Ant and Dec.
The revived drama, starring Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor, and Billie Piper as his sidekick, Rose Tyler, attracted 9.9 million viewers on average throughout the show and seemed certain to get a new generation cowering behind their sofas every Saturday evening.
Despite roping in David Beckham, Mariah Carey and Sir Trevor MacDonald as guests to see off the Time Lord on BBC1, Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway managed only to attract an audience of 7.2 million, according to the unofficial figures.
The new 13-part series of Doctor Who, who first hit the screens in 1963, is fast-paced and comes with hi-tech special effects.
Most newspaper critics welcomed the series' return, praising Eccelston's interpretation of the doctor and concluding that the Queer as Folk writer Russell T Davies had struck the right balance of modernity and reverence.
The audience for Doctor Who peaked at 10.5 million at 7.30pm, when 44% of all those watching television at the time had tuned to BBC1. The audience for Ant and Dec peaked at 8.5 million.
"Obviously we are very pleased that so many people sat down as a family to watch the return of Doctor Who," said a BBC spokeswoman.
The outgoing BBC1 controller, Lorraine Heggessey, will breath a sigh of relief at the successful return of the Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, after battling for four years and investing millions to bring back the series.
Relentless trailers on television, a lavish launch in Cardiff, and thousands of billboard adverts preceded the series for weeks. A leak of the first episode on to the internet served only to increase the publicity.
Doctor Who aficionados have already praised the new version for remaining true to the spirit of previous series. Websites for fans were also positive after seeing Saturday's show.
Sylvester McCoy, the seventh Doctor Who, between 1987 and 1989, also welcomed its return. "Overall I was left feeling very positive about the new series. It had a great pace, it moved really quickly and was witty," he told the BBC.
But the Easter Saturday television audience was less taken with the return to the screen of BBC1's other big signing, Graham Norton. After poaching him from Channel 4 for a reputed £3.5m, the corporation has been criticised for not finding a vehicle for his talents. Norton's first BBC show, Strictly Dance Fever, attracted less than half as many viewers as Doctor Who.
Caption: The first episode of the new Doctor Who series, with Christopher Eccleston, above, as the Time Lord fighting plastic aliens, gained a TV audience that peaked at 10.5 million
'Davies has breathed new life into an old favourite'
I was hooked from the outset. The whole thing thing was stuffed with in-jokes I wasn't sure I was fully getting, but I laughed anyway.
Guardian
After 16 years locked in the warp-shunt fantasies of the plasters-on-specs brigade, Russell T Davies has breathed new life into an old favourite .. Quality. Brilliant.
The current incarnation of the Time Lord has barely moved on and the one thing the future can't afford to be is old-fashioned.
The new Who is poorly cast, badly written. pointlessly northern, relentlessly silly and, fairly crucially, the sci-fi is thoughtless and throwaway.
People
The new Doctor Who succeeded in establishing its own reality: skewed, sprightly and assured, without ever taking its audience's attention, or goodwill, for granted.
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- APA 6th ed.: Gibson, Owen (2005-03-28). Doctor Who sees off primetime foes in ratings war. The Guardian p. 5.
- MLA 7th ed.: Gibson, Owen. "Doctor Who sees off primetime foes in ratings war." The Guardian [add city] 2005-03-28, 5. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Gibson, Owen. "Doctor Who sees off primetime foes in ratings war." The Guardian, edition, sec., 2005-03-28
- Turabian: Gibson, Owen. "Doctor Who sees off primetime foes in ratings war." The Guardian, 2005-03-28, section, 5 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Doctor Who sees off primetime foes in ratings war | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Doctor_Who_sees_off_primetime_foes_in_ratings_war | work=The Guardian | pages=5 | date=2005-03-28 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=22 April 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Doctor Who sees off primetime foes in ratings war | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Doctor_Who_sees_off_primetime_foes_in_ratings_war | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=22 April 2025}}</ref>
