What the Doctor ordered (2005)
- Publication: The Daily Telegraph
- Date: 2005-03-28
- Author: James Walton
- Page: 25
- Language: English
You may not have noticed this, but Doctor Who's back. At which point I should probably reminisce about how it was my favourite childhood programme - and, of course, how I used to watch it from behind the sofa. Unfortunately I seem to be the only journalist in Britain for whom neither of these things is true. The best I can manage is to say that I remember it quite fondly.
Still, now it has showed up again, I'm happy to report that BBC 1 is doing it properly. The new writer, Russell T Davies, is clearly a fan of the original - but he hasn't allowed nostalgia to cloud his judgement. Instead, he avoids both tiresomely knowing irony and excessive reverence.
The resulting balance between old and new was established immediately on Saturday. After the familiar theme tune, the scene cut to a determinedly modern London. Rose (Billie Piper) awoke in the small house she shared with her mother, went to work in a clothes shop and had a perfectly ordinary day - right until some storeroom dummies tried to kill her. She was rescued by a Northern bloke in a leather jacket who gave his name only as "The Doctor".
Inevitably, it soon turned out that the entire world was in danger. Less inevitably, the baddie was an enormous protean blob called the Nestene Consciousness, which used the London Eye to transmit a ray that made plastic objects come alive and kill people. Meanwhile, we received the reassuring knowledge that the Doctor still travels the galaxy in a 1950s police phone box, and still thinks it's inconspicuous on the streets of London.
The programme performed other impressive feats of balance too. The monsters were likely to scare youngsters, but not to traumatise them. The special effects were obviously better than in the 1970s, but never allowed to steal the show. The occasional in-jokes worked well, but never undermined the adventure story.
Such careful trade-offs did mean the whole thing sometimes felt rather calculated. Admittedly, its calculations generally came up with the right answers. Nonetheless, the new Doctor Who might benefit from relaxing and unbuttoning a bit more in future episodes.
The same goes for the new Doctor Who. At the moment Christopher Eccleston is so studiedly unmannered that he ends up seeming mannered. Fortunately, there's no denying he has presence - and Billie Piper confirms again that just because she's a celebrity doesn't mean she isn't a talented actress. Thanks to her sisterly likeability, this time round the programme might even appeal equally to girls.
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- APA 6th ed.: Walton, James (2005-03-28). What the Doctor ordered (2005). The Daily Telegraph p. 25.
- MLA 7th ed.: Walton, James. "What the Doctor ordered (2005)." The Daily Telegraph [add city] 2005-03-28, 25. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Walton, James. "What the Doctor ordered (2005)." The Daily Telegraph, edition, sec., 2005-03-28
- Turabian: Walton, James. "What the Doctor ordered (2005)." The Daily Telegraph, 2005-03-28, section, 25 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=What the Doctor ordered (2005) | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/What_the_Doctor_ordered_(2005) | work=The Daily Telegraph | pages=25 | date=2005-03-28 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=27 May 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=What the Doctor ordered (2005) | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/What_the_Doctor_ordered_(2005) | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=27 May 2025}}</ref>
