The revamp, the relaunch, the rebranding, the return, call it what you will it was the first episode of Doctor Who on the telly box in nine years. It had so much to do, it had to reintroduce the concept of the series (weird guy who wanders through time and space in a blue police box fighting aliens, monsters, saving innocent people and meeting historical figures) as well as introduce the new cast members (Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler) while also not radically disagreeing with the past series, yet being upto date thematically and visually to be attractive to the die hard fans and the casual viewer alike. Rose manages all of this and brings back an old enemy (The Autons were last seen on the telly in 1974!) and it manages to say something new about them too. The slow build up as the layers of the mystery of the Doctor are explored helps draw the audience into the storyline, the simplicity of the character scenes doesn't overwhealm with info dumps of exposition, it's all done masterfully so that by the time the story arrives at the epic confrontation the audience are ready to go with Rose with the Doctor in the TARDIS to new adventures. At the time many thought the story was weak but in hindsight its easy to see that the so-called weakness was not a weakness but a strength, after all if new viewers couldn't get into the series then it would not have become the monster success again that it's always been. Special mention must be made to the fantastic London Eye gag which is my favourite scene.
7 Autons out of 10 :)
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