Twenty years ago today marked one of the most important days on any Doctor Who fan’s personal calendar. Rose and nu-Who began and, fortunately for all of us, continues to this very day. There’s not a lot new to add to what we’ve written before to say about Rose, and so we won’t.
In fact, the 20th Anniversary of the ‘leak’ of Rose just passed on or around March 5. Where did the time go? Fortunately, the answer is into lots and lots of Doctor Who. What’s important to remember we surmise in all of this is the delicious feeling of anticipation all of us who were around then. Images and chatter and trepidations were flying fast and furious and it all added to the pile. This was different from 1996, almost by necessity. Doctor Who was back home, wholly British, and hopefully something to be proud of.
On this day 20 years ago Rose kicked off this era of new Doctor Who … and in style. Although we have said this, perhaps to and through the point of annoyance, anniversaries bear unusual importance in the long life of Doctor Who, and have done because it was acknowledged, and even venerated from relatively early on. And apart from November 23rd and Christmas Day, March 26 holds a particular place on the calendar.
And the best part of all is that it all worked. Of course, there would be missteps along the way, and the pauses in production as things changed behind the scenes luckily ended up being more like extended vacations than that dreaded 80’s echo, a hiatus.
We should never take for granted what we have here in this twenty-year-old entity. Even as much of a money-spinner as Doctor Who has become (and it should be mentioned for those of us who were around in the 80’s, was even then), nothing lasts forever or should be considered wholly safe. Regimes within the BBC change, ones which aren’t beholden to the decisions made more than a decade ago. It has happened before after all.
