I watched the first episode of the Doctor Who television series we like to call "NuWho" from 2005: "Rose." It's been a good long while since I've seen this one. I know it's a standard middle-aged thing to say, but I remember this being "contemporary." "Wow, Doctor Who is back - in modern times!" And now it is most definitely twenty years old, with the phones everyone is using and Clive's website and the overall style of production.
I don't mean to call it "dated" as in "bad." It's fantastic and I had a great time watching it. What a great kickoff to a restart/regeneration of the series.
Someone once pointed out to me that - at the time - everyone around the show was pretty vague as to whether this was a continuation of the previous series or a full reboot. It was only after a while when a slow trickle of previous Doctor Who concepts entered into the series that it was clear it should be considered a continuation of what came before.
Maybe that's what NuWho needs again. Not that I'd really expect them to confuse or "trick" established viewers of the show, but maybe they need a nice, fresh start season where if you were a new viewer there wouldn't be anything screaming at you that this is actually a show with 60 years of history. And boy does the newer show unnecessarily bog itself down with ages-old Who continuity. Especially for a series where the continuity never really made sense anyway.
I'm getting off-topic here. "Rose" is great. Both the episode and the title character. Christopher Eccleston hits the ground running with a lovable-yet-prickly Doctor performance.
