"You would make a good Dalek" is the single most powerful line their race has ever said. The instant conflict that it gave the Doctor, the realization that hatred is hatred regardless of who it is you hate but it does almost nothing to quench the fire in his belly... absolute cinema. I'm always glad when people notice that they got it right the first time and never quite got it as perfect again

"It didn't feel like these characters exist only for the Doctor"

You hit the nail on the head here. Ever since Amy Pond, there's a template of making the companion this special, magical person that the Doctor needs to solve like a mystery. I don't know if it's misguided attempt at making the companion seem more equal when paired with the immortal, omniscient Time Lord, but it makes them incredibly unrelatable.

I feel like over recent years the writers have just made things bigger and bigger and bigger in a way that even over its decades the classic series didn’t do. Classic Who would have bigger things and add new mythos and lore, sure, but it was few and far between. Most of the time it was just adventures, and that was brilliant. When doctor who came back it was just adventures (albeit with an arc and some new lore), but recently everything has to be this big, groundbreaking, lore shattering thing and it means, one: You’re more likely to introduce things that people don’t like and in a way that makes it hard to ignore (for example if you didn’t like an episode it’s fine, you can just move on - but if you don’t like a new lore shattering revelation it becomes part of the whole story and it’s much harder to ignore.) Two: You write yourself into a corner where it can’t get bigger. Three: Audiences get tired of everything being at this huge level and turn off.

“A PTSD leather jacket Doctor” is the best and most accurate description I’ve ever heard for the 9th Doctor 😅

One of the things that I think really works about this season/series is that it balances the representations of both new fans and old fans in both leads. Rose is obviously the stand-in for new fans, discovering all the wonders and horrors for the first time, but the Doctor's more subtle. Like the old fans, he's been through a lot since the show left the air. He's older, more cynical, and skeptical of what the future holds for him/the show. But as things unfold, Rose/the new fans help him to see the wonder of things again. He starts to believe that the future/the show is worth sticking around for. And maybe he'll change again, but it will be okay.

I was a Tom Baker Doctor for life, until I just got bored and decided to watch the new Who.  The ninth doctor became and still is my favorite even though he had the shortest time.  Unlike Capaldi who was great, but got shortchanged in the writing,   Eccleston had the perfect arc and he was perfect in it.  I wish we'd at least gotten two seasons with him.  Fortunately Eccleston's issues were with the showrunner and producers and not with the show itself and has come back to do some audio stories. You take what you can get.

For so long folks said that this show "Gets good" in S2 because everyone loves Tennant. But in terms of scriptwork, it took a long while for this season to get topped.
RTD genuinely never made a season finale this good again, imo

Can I say Lynda with a Y is one of my FAVORITE one off characters of all time. Her dying has always killed me. And I just wished that she could have lived. And I really love Jackie and Rose.

I also thought the Doctor was always the last time lord. I assumed the Time War happened in classic who. When 9 said "ten million ships on fire" I imagined a bunch of plastic Dalek UFOs in black and white suddenly bursting into flame.

Every single time I go back and watch series 1, I find myself amazed by just how good it is. Aside from the strong characterisation and captivating individual stories, there's so much about it that works so well - the grounded scrappy working class atmosphere; the effortlessly efficient ways of reintroducing elements of the classic mythology; the way every single episode ultimately ties in to the finale; the excellent marriage between old-school silliness and modern gritty drama; the impeccable performances from everyone in the cast (I'm not just talking leads like Chris and Billie, or the more significant supporting cast and guest actors, but even the minor players feel like they're doing so much with their smaller roles). It's honestly a perfect season of television, and I think a large part of that is due to the understanding that, if they messed up, the show would be cancelled and likely never given another chance to come back. RTD and his team knew they had to be on top form in order to make this work, and the end result is a fantastically crafted season of television that Doctor Who has rarely ever topped after this.

I know people will make fun of me because I'm "the Dr Who guy" but seriously, this first Series of the revival and everything it introduces (whether you want argue intentionally or unintentionally, I would argue intentionally) is so incredibly genius that it really can't even be put into words. We knew immediately at the time that it was brilliant but the sheer magnitude of that brilliance could only really be understood several years on. You could fill a whole book with the reasons why this series works and maybe we will someday but for now I think this video is a great substitute, thank you for this, really enjoyed it as always

I loved The Long Game because it was the first regular episode of Doctor Who in the revival. Everything else was firsts. First episode! First future story! First historical! First two-parter! First Dalek! The Long Game was the first episode that showed what Doctor Who could be as a regular occurrence - and it was smart and bold and subversive. A personal highlight in a whole series of highlights.

Really glad you brought up the unlikeable aspects of Rose. Perhaps unlikeable is too harsh, the self centred aspect of her personality might be a better description.

I think it is part of what made her so compelling. She wasn’t a saint like some of the companions. But they played it as a double edged sword. Sometimes her wilfulness seemed cruel, other times it was catalyst for major plot developments.

I have heard a lot of people critique the character for this reason. But really; what would fiction be with entirely saintly characters? Bland.

She is just a kid. Remember being a kid? She reminds me of being a kid. I was an azzhole at times, sometimes I was lovely. Sometimes I was capricious, sometimes I was loyal.

You asked what people like about the long game, while I totally agree that it’s not exactly a series highlight, there is something major I appreciate about it and am always happy to see when it happens in other episodes - someone other than the doctor gets to save the day. Cathica is my favorite type of supporting character, just some random person living their life in this place or world we’ve ended up in who gets swept along into the doctors orbit and is changed dramatically or inspired by the journey he takes them on. She was a loyal employee to the company, gunning hard for that promotion, not like suki who was already a rebel and anti the establishment. But her running around with the doctor and rose opens her eyes to the insidious underbelly and she is driven to act, to help and be the hero when the doctor and rose are incapacitated. She also is a fantastic foil to Adam in that regard. Adam should have been the one to be in that position, to be the one to help in that moment, but Adam is too self serving and cowardly, whereas it is Cathica who steps up. Jack is the one who later becomes that character, like Adam in that he joins the TARDIS crew, but more like Cathica in temperament and behavior

Nu Who S1 was everything it needed to be and more. And it's that "more" I think that makes us all come back to it again and again. I loved it back then, and if possible I love it even more now, maybe because it's been a long time since I've felt that same magic from Who, but also on its own merits.

Best episodes in this series were The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances.

If you want to enjoy more recent examples of flawed characters and sometimes awful people played out on TV. I’d highly recommend People just do nothing or Boiling point, both of which don’t have any video essays on yt 👀

Everybody who doesn't skip Nine loves him and his introduction obviously, but I admit Rose has massively grown on me over the years. For me, Rose Tyler is on my Mount Rushmore of female adventure heroes who suffer from a case of Malevolent Spiky Arsehole syndrome, and that's a big part of why she's so great (The other three are Jessica Jones from the Netflix show, Faye Valentine from the original anime Cowboy Bebop, and Cordelia Chase from Buffy). I think a lot of people's favourite Rose moment is in series two when she first meets an Ood. Her first instinct is to be disgusted by the way they look, her second instinct is to assume they're male but then second guesses herself, and her third instinct is asking them if they get paid, and I think that sums her up, she's first judgemental, then she puts her foot in her mouth, and then she's compassionate.

The Long Game is one of my favorite episodes of Series 1 just for the setting! I love how Doctor Who handles the idea of Earth's bad futures. I also love how it shows us what happens when The Doctor isn't careful with his companions. Rose is with the Doctor for the love of the game - travel, helping people, running from problems at home, all things The Doctor does it for too. Adam isn't like that - he's an opportunist, immediately jumping at the idea of stealing future ideas for his own personal gain, running off and getting himself irreparably scarred. He acts how most humans would given the opportunity to time travel, and acts to show why Rose specifically was chosen.

I have a soft spot for Gridlock too for the same reason, BRILLIANT set design despite sort of weak writing. And much like The Long Game, it's made better by being tied to bigger series plot stuff in the form of the "You are not alone" tease and the ending with Martha demanding respect and explanation. (I also think Martha was a poorly chosen companion like Adam, because she was romantically smitten with the Doctor from the start and seemed much less into the travelling aspects, but that may be a comment for that season's video)

I adore RTD1. This season was very good with no episode being any worse than average for a sci fi show.