Rose

Nice to meet you Rose. Run for your life.

I'm going to open this one with the free admission that I am indifferent at best about the character of Rose. Nothing against Billie Piper who seems to be a good actress, but I just didn't care for the character as a whole. There were moments in there where she was enjoyable but there were a lot of other moments where she was whiny and entitled (I'm letting my old man persona leak out).

That being said, I like Rose more than fandom in general I think. I recently rewatched this episode so it's still a bit fresh in my mind. It's actually rather amazing when you contrast the cinematography used in the early seasons of New-Who and that of the Matt Smith/Peter Capaldi eras.

Rose is probably best for what it's job was. It had the dual problem of needing to be a stand alone adventure series while at the same time appealing to the nostalgia of the classic series. In that, it succeeded in my opinion. The Doctor is reintroduced in a quick way and there is never any bother about his background until later. He moves with action, setting up the quicker pace of the new series, while at the same time getting off quips that flash back to previous Doctors. There are slow periods where the characters are developed, the concept of time travel is first broached in a back-handed way and the story comes to a fun (if a little corny) action-y conclusion. Even the threat is a bit of a subtle callback as the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness were the invasion that had to be turned back in the Third Doctor's first story.

Now, there are a few poor moments as well. Some of the acting is poor and there is a strong sense of the actors trying to get a feel for their characters. The CGI is pretty close to terrible by today's standards and I don't think it was top shelf even back in 2006. The fact that the Nestene Consciousness didn't look that far removed from the CGI used by The X-Files in Ice (1993) should tell you a lot. There are also a couple of suspension of disbelief moments, especially with Rose not being able to tell that Mickey has been replaced. Many jokes have been made with regard to the shiny that was Mickey's forehead.

All things considered though, Rose stands up well. It did enough to get a person invested in the characters and the concept. It also had enough of a smell of the classic series that older fans would be willing to follow the trail an episode or two longer. As a stand alone episode itself it has a feel of a Doctor-lite story, but not in a bad way. It's enticing and reasonably engaging.

Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5