The second part of the two part season finale, The Parting of the Ways, is really excellent in almost every way. The only real downside to it for me is the unlikely plot element when it is revealed the Daleks have been controlling human society via Satellite 5 for many generations to supposedly set up an attack on Earth. In my opinion, that is an extremely convoluted and pretty unconvincing plot when a simple attack could have been simply carried out by a Dalek fleet without all of that effort beforehand. But I don't judge it too harshly for that.
The Doctor, Rose and Jack are on Satellite 5 as the Daleks attack and they all do their part to try to heroically stop the Dalek Emperor and his fleet. The episode has great drama, great action, great effects, great emotion and great script. The acting of the 3 heroes is great with John Barrowman, Billie Piper and Chris Eccleston all at their best. The Daleks are properly formidable and impressive with great voice performance by Nicholas Briggs.
In addition to the great adventure we also get a regeneration! Eccleston is replaced by David Tennant. Obviously the excitement of a regeneration adds to the qualities of the episode.
All of that outweighs the unconvincing part of the central plot and makes it a great finale to the first new series.
My ratings: Bad Wolf - 7.5/10 The Parting of the Ways - 9.5/10 Overall 2-part story - 8.5/10.
Russell T. Davies did a great job bringing Doctor Who back to our screens so successfully and this first series of the returned show was of good quality with some superb stories. A few less impressive episodes mean this series was not amongst the very best 10 or 15 seasons in the show's history for me but it is a very good season of Doctor Who and better than a lot of seasons. Christopher Eccleston was a great actor to bring the series back and portrayed the strength and the edgier, more thoughtful parts of the role really well. He struggled a little with the lighter more comedic aspects which he more recently admits were behind his discomfort that, along with other personal issues, led to him leaving. He looks slightly uncomfortable when acting more humorous scenes.
Series 1 Average Rating (therefore also all Christopher Eccleston episodes average): 8.42/10.
The Doctor, Rose and Jack are on Satellite 5 as the Daleks attack and they all do their part to try to heroically stop the Dalek Emperor and his fleet. The episode has great drama, great action, great effects, great emotion and great script. The acting of the 3 heroes is great with John Barrowman, Billie Piper and Chris Eccleston all at their best. The Daleks are properly formidable and impressive with great voice performance by Nicholas Briggs.
In addition to the great adventure we also get a regeneration! Eccleston is replaced by David Tennant. Obviously the excitement of a regeneration adds to the qualities of the episode.
All of that outweighs the unconvincing part of the central plot and makes it a great finale to the first new series.
My ratings: Bad Wolf - 7.5/10 The Parting of the Ways - 9.5/10 Overall 2-part story - 8.5/10.
Russell T. Davies did a great job bringing Doctor Who back to our screens so successfully and this first series of the returned show was of good quality with some superb stories. A few less impressive episodes mean this series was not amongst the very best 10 or 15 seasons in the show's history for me but it is a very good season of Doctor Who and better than a lot of seasons. Christopher Eccleston was a great actor to bring the series back and portrayed the strength and the edgier, more thoughtful parts of the role really well. He struggled a little with the lighter more comedic aspects which he more recently admits were behind his discomfort that, along with other personal issues, led to him leaving. He looks slightly uncomfortable when acting more humorous scenes.
Series 1 Average Rating (therefore also all Christopher Eccleston episodes average): 8.42/10.