7. What If Nine Had Adventures Prior To Meeting Rose?
There's a slight discontinuity in 'Rose' that people generally seem to miss. The Ninth Doctor is surprised initially at the size of his ears, as if he's never seen them before; it's almost a parallel to a classic regeneration reaction. But then, there's all those instances of the Ninth Doctor saving families from the Titanic, and watching JFK's assassination. So what's going on? When did the Doctor regenerate? And was there really no mirror in these adventures? What's nice, is that Russell T Davies implies two things; firstly, this is a brand new Doctor. He's not seen himself, because we've not seen him. It's a reaction for both of our sakes. And secondly, he's a legend woven through time. He's new... but he's a new version of that old character. The one your parents watched. Nowadays, it's quite possible to assume that the Doctor was in that much of a hurry saving civilisations, that he didn't have time to stop and look in a mirror; it took Matt Smith over 40 minutes of his first episode, after all. Let's just hope Eccleston mellows in his old age, and decides that some audio stories pre-'Rose' would continue his fine legacy.