After sitting through Series Eleven I thought it was about time for another run at the original episodes.

Learning that some of my friends had never seen the Eccleston and Tennent runs of the show really surprised me. They began the series with Capaldi and Smith, so it was good to get some perspective without any of my own nostalgia getting in the way.

Series One has some of the best episodes we’ve got to date – with just a few generic ones in-between for padding. Great start.

I expected this series to hold up a lot worse than it did. Every episode I braced itself for something ridiculously cringey to happen, but at worse they were a little dull and normally they were charming and fun.

Eccleston is fantastic, although in hindsight we noticed he does have a tendency to murder of use bombs very quickly, maybe making him the most violent Doctor of New-Who, although far from the angriest. He loves every adventure but never messes around, he won’t be doing stupid things with hats and bow ties, but he’s more than happy to have petty competitions with every man who looks Rose’s direction. Even more of a girlfriend stealer than Eleven and Rory, at least Amy goes back to him in the end, however he’s much kinder to Micky than I remembered, mostly doing it on Mickey’s request to keep his reputation.

Rose is much better here than with Tennent, but she’s not amazing. Every episode, Eccleston wanders off with the killable side character of the week, these characters are always so much better than Rose, although I suppose the fact they can die is what adds the excitement, where as Rose is always safe. She seems to somehow acquire random boyfriends each episode, and leads Micky on cruelly every time she’s home. Micky is so much more fun going back, while Jackie seems to be infinitely more annoying. Captain Jack is as fun as ever, his episodes being short lived but very much appreciated.

Top Three Stories

Empty Child & The Doctor Dances (Episode 9 & 10)

Dalek (Episode 6)

Aliens of London & World War Three (Episodes 4 & 5)

I hate to say it but Moffat was the real winner this series, the Empty Child is just excellently creepy, and manages to effectively introduce a new companion after dumping one the episode prior. It shows how important two parters are for their show, giving them time for a slow set up and then ramping into the action in the second episode. Jack was a great example of what an American version of Doctor Who would be, not a Time Lord but a morally loose Time Agent, and I’m willing to bet for most ’98-00’s kids in Britain this was the first exposure to the fact being gay existed back in 2005.

Dalek is a master class in making old enemies scary. The sleek gold look and the sheer amount of murder leading to a great episode, only brought down by the inclusion of Adam. It’s good to see what makes a bad companion, but the downside is that you have to sit through it. Either way the only Dalek killing spree to come close to this was the most recent New Years special, but the end of that episode was terrible so it loses already. Rose and the Dalek have an interesting interaction and it’s nice to see the sad squid in all its glory at the end.

The Slitheen are funny because they are silly. If a ten year old was asked to write The Thick Of It I imagine it would end up like this: the politicians are shown to be fat ugly liars who can’t stop farting while trying to ruin the world, very subtle. But this little set of stories, picked up again in Boom Town and in The Sarah Jane Adventures, show the real fun you can get out of these stupid characters. Harriet Jones is a divisive character, but I’m fond of her, even if she’s a walking joke after this episode, even in her dying breath.

Now I know I should probably say the finale, and I do love it, but it just didn’t feel as much fun as during World War Three’s stupid plot. Jack’s death hits really hard, and the slaughter of all the side characters always stuck with me. It’s definitely one of the best finales, just this series is that strong a competition for the top spot.

Worst Three Stories

The Long Game (Episode 7)

The Unquiet Dead (Episode 3)

The End of the World (Episode 2)

Even the bad episodes of this series tend to be fun, but some I can’t even go that far.



The Unquiet Dead is so boring. The only benefit of watching it is that it starts to set up the Torchwood spin off, but only with information you can guess from what’s given in Torchwood episode one. There is literally nothing of any interest here, the next two “author-episodes” with Tennent are far superior, and none of them hold a candle to the Smith’s artist episode. Watch only if you like Gwen’s actress I guess, but there is much more fun to be found in Torchwood if that’s the case.

I don’t know how but they managed to make a Simon Pegg villain boring and generic. Taking place in a space news station, in The Long Game we get a slow episode that just liked fun at those over reliant on television and a few jabs at the news media. Also Adam is at his most pathetic and annoying this episode. It’s mildly annoying that we get the same set again in the finale, and it’s very similar to parts of episode two. There’s just too many boring space stations, and this ones not even full of Daleks to make up for it.

The End of the World is a really weak episode after Rose. Kicking off episode two of a new Series with a weird alien episode about watching the Earth die and laughing at people who get plastic surgery is a bold move – which, for me, really didn’t pay off. Cassandra is terrible. She’s annoying and snippy, and ruins the second episode of the next Doctor too, I almost expect her every episode two as a running joke. She’s also the only transsexual Doctor Who character I can think of, it’s a shame they never do anything with it, or even mention it again.

Overall a really strong start to the series, who would have thought it’d hold up after all this time. It’s just embarrassing for Series 11 really. While Rose isn’t amazing she forms the base line that you can use to compare all the other companions after her. The wider supporting family are involved just enough to be interesting, but stay well out of their way when the plot needs them too, it’s well balanced.

Onwards into 2006, let’s follow the incredibly thin yet wonderful David Tennant!