Doctor Who 1x04 - "Aliens of London" and 1x05 -- "World War Three"

[butterfly]

Shorter than previously, because I'm getting back into the swing of things.

"Aliens of London"/"World War Three"

written by Russell T Davies
directed by Keith Boak

 

General Thoughts

"Aliens of London"/"World War Three" takes us back to Rose's home, where she and the Doctor must face the combination of his world (aliens and danger) with hers (domestics and personal responsibility). Rose, as we see at the end of the episode, would be happy to combine the two -- the Doctor isn't ready for that yet. This is our baseline check -- the Doctor's default is 'no domestics' and 'no family', something that we will explore more in later episodes.

 

Bechdel Test

Rose and Jackie talk, several times in both episodes, sometimes about the Doctor, primarily about their own relationship and issues.

Rose also speaks with Harriet Jones, though the Doctor is brought into the conversation early on, being an alien expert.

"Aliens of London"/"World War Three" passes the Bechdel test.

 

ClothesWatch

Rose Tyler

Rose starts out in her tEotW outfit but after she's been home with her mother, she changes to a pink and blue shirt (with jeans and trainers). Then, when she leaves, she changes into a red and white jacket -- no blue to be found. She's the one making the choice.

The Doctor

Leather jacket. Blue jumper. Do you think that his clothes (or the TARDIS) have special properties or that he has tons of copies of things? I've seen it done both ways in fanfic.

*feels a sudden and deep longing for ties and button-down shirts*

*looks around awkwardly*

He just... he wears more interesting clothes in the future! That's all.

*looks guilty; hides pictures of the tenth Doctor*

Other Clothing Notes

Jackie wears pink throughout the episode, while Mickey wears a deep red shirt. Until the ending scene, where they both change into blue -- just in time for Rose to leave them behind, with no choice in the matter. I'm thinking that's not a coincidence.

Harriet Jones wears a very pale pink shirt/jacket. It's nice.

Themes and Arcs

The Doctor as Myth (aka 'The Lonely God')

"Is it always this dangerous?" Rose asks in the previouslys. When the Doctor tells her that it is, she smiles.

That's the central question of the episode and of the Doctor. The mothers always worry 'Is my daughter safe?' (note: my mother worries about this, too, I'd like to mention, and I don't even get to travel with the Doctor as compensation).

The thing is that it isn't even the slightest bit safe. And Rose already knows that -- at the top of the episode, she's already nearly died three times while with the Doctor (four, if you count the two Gelth attacks separately). But she knew that going in. She choose that. "I wanted to come," she says in "The Unquiet Dead". And she chooses to stay. It's dangerous, yeah. But that's part of the fun.

This is the part of the Doctor that scares or awes other people and Rose completely embraces it, the way she (eventually) embraces everything else about him. Instead of allowing him to overwhelm her, she either punctures his ego trips and keeps him on the ground with her or she rises to meet him. Every single time, at each point where the choice is available, she chooses him (at the end of the world, who do you go home to?).

Words and Phases of Note

'Bad Wolf' is spray-painted on the side of the TARDIS by a kid in the first part. In the second, the Doctor makes him clean it off. We meet UNIT for the first time in the new series (and find that the Doctor has been avoiding them -- not sure he wants to spend so much time around soldiers after being forced to be one, maybe).

 

Reoccurring Characters

Rose Tyler

Rose comes home and everything has changed. This is what Rose gets early on that the later companions don't -- they come home to find out that they have changed while the world remained the same, but Rose's entire world shifted while she was gone. Her mother is never going to take her for granted again. Her boyfriend was accused of murdering her. The entire street was covered with her picture.

The Doctor

The Doctor gets to do all sorts of things in this episode. We see him interact with UNIT for the first time -- he takes complete control at the first sign of trouble. He's still reflexively a soldier (or even a general)... but he despises it when people shoot without figuring out what's going on. And he doesn't want to be in charge -- he's relieved when Harriet takes over near the end of the episode. He doesn't want to be the man at the top... but everyone else is dead. He may have hated or been disgusted by most of them, but they were the framework that he rebelled against. He's a rudderless man right now, but... he's still fighting to save the Earth and he's found someone that seems to make life worth living again. He's starting to build a new structure and (to completely steal a phrase from the new Dexter episode) he's making Rose the scaffolding while he builds.

Mickey Smith

He's been forced to grow up while Rose has been gone. Twelve months and he's been a suspected murderer, unable to clear his own name because he knew that no one would believe him. All he could do was wait and watch and search. And what he's found out hasn't lightened his heart -- the Doctor is dangerous, so incredibly dangerous. Mickey also has to choose between Rose and the world in this episode and, unlike the Doctor, he can make the choice on his own.

Jackie Tyler

Oh, Jackie. She gets put through the mill in this episode. Our first glimpse of her -- bare face, stunned beyond even relief to see her daughter again -- tells us so much about what has happened. Even before we see the 'missing' poster, it's obvious from Jackie's reaction that Rose has been gone for longer than a night. Jackie tries to take control of the situation several times, but is thwarted each time -- Rose refuses to tell her what happened, calling the hotline gets Rose taken away as well as the Doctor, she can't do anything to help save her daughter or the world, and she can't stop Rose from leaving. She is powerless to keep her daughter safe and all she can do is ask the Doctor to try to do that for her.

We also see her intense worry and fear over where Rose went and what may have happened to her and her pride that Rose helped to save the world.

Harriet Jones

One of the things that I like so much about Russell's characters is that they have traits and those traits can lead to either positive or negative events, depending on the situation (someone else mentioned Rose's impulsiveness -- Rose just is impulsive and sometimes it's a good thing and sometimes it's a bad thing). Here, Harriet's personality and her choices happen to align with the Doctor's own -- later, though both she and the Doctor are still being completely themselves, they end up on opposite sides because the situation is different. In both situations, Harriet and the Doctor are acting the way they'd previously been set up to act.

 

Continuing Relationships

Doctor/Rose

He takes her home to see her mother. For all his protests about 'domestics' later on, this point should definitely be made: she wanted to see her mother, so he took her home to do just that.

There are a couple of very important lines in this episode.

a) "He's not my boyfriend. He's better than that. He's much more important than that."

Rather than the denial that they have shared before (with Jabe and in saying that they don't have a sexual relationship, which, of course, they currently don't), she's affirming her connection with the Doctor here. She's only known him 'a few days' but he's better and more important than a boyfriend to her. She also trusts that he wouldn't just leave her behind.

b) "I could save the world but lose you."

This is the Doctor saying something similar about Rose -- there's the world and there's Rose and, right now, he can't pick between them. He literally cannot make the choice to do something that might kill Rose. He's frozen and it takes Rose and Harriet prompting him to make him act.

Rose/Mickey

Mickey has spent a year under suspicion of Rose's murder -- no chance to move on, because he's forced to think about Rose and worry about her. For her part, Rose doesn't mind that he's been waiting for her. They are still very much in a relationship here -- they nearly kiss in the TARDIS and do kiss when Rose says goodbye at the end of the episode.

Rose/Jackie

While Rose says "I can't do that to her again," she also, very obviously, can't choose to give up her life with the Doctor. Rose would give anything to keep her mother from worrying... but she won't stop traveling. And note the dissonance in what she says, "And then I'll come back," but then a moment later, "If you saw it out there, you'd never stay home." (and, of course, the Doctor picks up on the 'Rose will go home to her mother eventually' part while Jackie picks up on the 'Rose wants to travel forever' part).

Doctor/Mickey

Mickey has studied up on the Doctor for the last year and has seen how much death and destruction normally surround him. The Doctor takes every opportunity to twit Mickey (note that, when he's alone in the car with Rose, he has no problem saying 'Mickey') and comes across as such a petty, jealous bastard. But then Mickey impresses him. At the end of the episode, the Doctor invites Mickey along, both because of that and because, I suspect, he wants Rose to be happy. The Doctor is willing to do all manner of things that will make himself miserable if he thinks that it'll make Rose safe or happy (preferably both). Oh, Doctor.

Mickey asks the Doctor the ten-thousand dollar question -- if it's so dangerous out there, in the Doctor's life, why take Rose with? How can he say that he cares so much about her and then put her in danger?

The Doctor doesn't get the chance to answer, but there are several key factors.

a) For the Doctor, keeping Rose out of danger is completely impossible -- she gets all investigative and finds the trouble. All on her own.

b) This is what the Doctor's life is. He can't choose to walk away from it. In order to be with Rose, she has to be in his life because the universe won't let him choose to be in hers instead.

c) Rose thrives on the danger. Like the Doctor, she enjoys it. Even the horrible and awful parts (Donna and Martha do not have a patent on the horrible and awful parts -- I have to say, that's one of the most annoying bits of incorrect fanon floating around out there, along with the claim that Rose 'never stood up to the Doctor' or was 'in awe of him' -- so far, Rose has nearly died four times in fairly icky ways, been spattered with bits of Cassandra, been chloroformed, and watched the Earth be blown to bits... oh, and she just had a missile land on the room she was in during this episode) are better than her old life. She'd rather be in mortal peril than stay at home.

Doctor/Jackie

Jackie gives the Doctor a well-deserved smack, but comes around on him in the end after he saves the world (and Rose doesn't die). She's willing to give him a chance... but he isn't ready to give her one.

Mickey/Jackie

She's spent the last year accusing him of murder, but once the plot of the episode starts up, they have the chance to bond. He saves her life and she trusts his judgment. And they're both left behind, at the end. They only have each other, if they want to talk about where Rose really is.

 

General Squee

Billie Piper

She sells so much in this episode. Very upset with her mother, uncertain with the Doctor and Mickey, but loving the life.

Special Effects

I love the way the Slitheen move -- particularly in this one shot where it's the three of them and they really do look like a pack of hunting animals of some alien nature.

All the Rest

There are some iffy moments in the first part, but once the Doctor, Rose, and Harriet are in the Cabinet Room together, everything is pretty much golden.

We have our Tosh sighting! I have to say, it's a big relief to know that she isn't a medical Doctor. I like to think that Owen could have told the difference between a live pig and a dead one. I wonder if this is her first field op! She seems nervous and everyone starts somewhere. Or maybe she's afraid of screwing up and having Owen lose his job, if she's already crushing on him. I wonder if she ever knew that the random doctor hanging about was The Doctor. She didn't mention, later. Though I believe that Jack probably failed to fill his team in on certain vital elements of the original purpose of Torchwood.

"Aliens of London"/"World War Three" showed us the life that Rose doesn't want to return to -- "Dalek" is going to show us the ghosts in the Doctor's closet.