Inspirations - Rose

 

Rose was the story which brought Doctor Who back to TV screens as part of an on-going series, after a 16 year break. It had two important parts to play - to reconnect with existing fans, who had remained loyal to the show during that lengthy break; and to grab new viewers, who either knew of the show only vaguely, or didn't know it at all. Of the latter group, it was hoped that the entire family might be interested - especially the youngsters.

TV drama had moved on since 1989. In fact, had Doctor Who only stayed on air a little longer it might have benefited greatly from the new 45 minute self-contained stories, and more affordable computer effects. Doctor Who had tried 45 minute episodes, but only as part of a longer narrative. The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the various Star Trek series all used 45 minutes to tell a self-contained story.

Show-runner Russell T Davies made no secret of his love for Buffy, and how it inspired his vision for the new version of Doctor Who, not just its structure but the prominence of a strong young female heroic character.

The whole idea of a show-runner was new - coming from American series like those mentioned above.

In the past Doctor Who had mainly been the product of its producer / script editor partnerships. The series would still have a producer, but their role had changed to more of a budgeting / logistics one. The creative side of things now lay with the show-runner.

A number of earlier Doctor Who stories act as inspiration for Rose.

The first we'll mention is Doctor Who - The Movie, in that it showed Davies and his colleagues how not to reboot the series. 

The movie had relied too much on continuity, and had not introduced the new Doctor until about a third of the way in - when a lot of non-fan viewers might have already switched channels.

Rather than introduce a new Doctor from the beginning of his incarnation through having a regeneration, the Ninth Doctor already exists. There is a nod to him being new, in that he appears to be just noticing aspects of his appearance in a mirror for the first time, but otherwise he is already up and running. (This mirror scene was inspired by a similar scene in Robot).

It is significant that Eccleston is the Ninth Doctor - so they haven't gone for a total reboot. This is a continuation.

A previous reboot is also referenced - Spearhead from Space. Some would argue that the first time the series had a soft reboot was Tomb of the Cybermen (just look at that opening TARDIS scene, which is unnecessary to the rest of the plot).

Spearhead from Space was the first time that the series had opened a new series with a complete change of personnel from the end of the previous one. There is a new Doctor and companion, whilst earlier and later regenerations would see continuity with the companions. It even looked quite different, due to the move to colour and the use of 16mm film throughout - the result of industrial action preventing studio video-taping.

With Spearhead, the only continuity is provided by the Brigadier and UNIT, who had only featured in one previous story just over a year before. Wendy Padbury had been invited to stay on and help bridge the transition, but elected to leave with her two co-stars.

Spearhead also connects directly with Rose through the return of the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness. There had been plans to bring the Autons back twice during the 1980's - as part of The Five Doctors, and as part of the aborted version of Season 23. In Spearhead we had seen the Auton shop window mannequins breaking out of a department store's windows in Ealing High Street - one of the classic images of the programme which even non fans could remember. At least we heard them smash the windows - the budget didn't stretch to a replacement plate glass window, so only a sound effect was employed. In Rose, the show could now easily afford to do the window smashing for real.

Interestingly, the word "Auton" is never used in Rose. It does feature in the end credits.

The second Auton story a year later - Terror of the Autons - concentrated more on how the Nestenes could animate any item of plastic and make it deadly. This was the inspiration for the wheelie-bin sequence with Mickey - an everyday plastic item any child would see on a daily basis becoming a threat.

There is a reference to a Tom Baker story in that the Doctor is seen to speed-read. He had done this previously in City of Death, where Romana suggested it was a common Time Lord skill.

The last classic era story we should acknowledge as a direct inspiration is the very last one - Survival.

A feisty young female companion from present day London, who can look after herself (doesn't scream or need rescuing every five minutes. Ace acts as a sort of template for Rose - albeit a far more realistic interpretation of a young working class woman.

Survival had been a rare venture to contemporary suburban London, whereas this, and the inner city, would become frequent locations for the new series.

As well as these nods to the past, Rose also had to set up the new series.

Alongside the concept of the show-runner, and 45 minute self-contained stories, popular drama had now embraced the story arc. This season long, underlying story structure helped get over the fact that the 45 minute individual episodes weren't long enough to tell bigger stories.

Rose gives us the first mention of the Time War. This won't be the main story arc for Series - that won't appear for the first time until the next episode - but the Time War will underpin the Doctor's personas for the next 8 years.

Next Time: after a relatively conventional start in contemporary London, the new series sets out its stall and really stretches itself, as far as aliens and VFX are concerned...