For British audiences, at least, the return of Doctor Who was one of the biggest and most anticipated TV events of 2005. Sixteen years after the last full season – and nine years after the previous attempt to revive the series – UK audiences were incredibly excited to see what a new take on the iconic sci-fi series would be like.
Of course, there was also worry, too. No one knew what to expect, not really. We knew that Russell T Davies – perhaps best known at the time for creating Queer as Folk – was the new showrunner of the series. We also knew that Christopher Eccleston had been cast as the first Doctor with a Northern accent. And of course, former teenage pop star Billie Piper had been cast as his companion, Rose.
But beyond that, we knew so little. How faithful would this new version be to the original series? (Now best known as the Classic Series.) How much would it change? What kind of stories should we expect? And would it still have that iconic theme tune? No, scratch that – we knew it’d keep the theme tune, at least. But would the new variation of it be any good?
Eventually, the New Series began on Mar 26, 2005, and most fans were extremely happy. Not all – after all, Doctor Who fans are never completely happy – but most fans were happy with the new direction of the show. There were many things that remained the same, which I’ll expand on at a later point.
Of course, there were also many changes. Some small, some major. We take a look at the ten most significant changes that the New Series made.