To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the longest-running science-fiction show in the world, I’ll be taking weekly looks at some of my own personal favourite stories and arcs, from the old and new series, with a view to encapsulating the sublime, the clever and the fiendishly odd of the BBC’s Doctor Who.
Bad Wolf originally aired in 2005.
The Dalek stratagem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene.
Oh, really? Why’s that, then?
We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated.
No.
Explain yourself.
I said no.
What is the meaning of this negative?
It means no.
But she will be destroyed.
No! Because this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to rescue her. I’m going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet and then I’m going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I’m going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!
But you have no weapons, no defences, no plan.
Yeah. And doesn’t that scare you to death. Rose?
Yes, Doctor?
I’m coming to get you.
– the Daleks, the Doctor and Rose give the Ninth Doctor perhaps his best moment
Looking back at the first season, I’d argue that it’s the most cohesive run of episodes that Russell T. Davies produced on the dhow. Now because of the whole “bad wolf” thing, as that feels a bit like a clumsy link randomly inserted. Instead, as we watch the final episode, it becomes quite clear what Davies was trying to do with his first year on the show. The patterns, the themes, the subtext, the references – it all becomes quite clear. More than any other season of Davies’ tenure, the first season is really one gigantic story – and not just because the show never leaves Earth or the finalé returns to the setting of The Long Game.
The first season is a bridge. It’s a link between the last years of the classic series into the new and revived show as written by Davies. It’s a moment to gather up the dead, tidy away the loose ends and basically manage the stage so that the show can really come into its own. One of the things I loved about Davies’ Doctor Who was how accessible it all was, but it still had all this continuity ticking away in the background.
This first season finalé feels like it isn’t only a conclusion to Christopher Eccleston’s time in the lead role, it’s also closing the last of the dangling threads from the eras of Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy in the eighties. As soon as David Tennant steps into the lead role, it seems the show is entirely and utterly free of everything that came before. It’s a testament to Davies’ skill that we’re not even sure that he’s doing it.
Come with me if you want to live…
Filed under: Television | Tagged: arts, Bad Wolf, bbc, christopher eccleston, Dalek, Davies, doctor, DoctorWho, Jon Pertwee, Long Game, Philip Hinchcliffe, russell t. davies, science fiction, Sylvester McCoy, tardis, Unearthly Child | Leave a comment »
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