So even though the pilot isn't (as far as I know) scheduled to air until late March, a copy of the pilot was leaked out onto the lovely, blessed Internet, and i have now seen it.
As a fairly big Who fan, I was pleased with the how it turned out over all - I'll have to get over things like seeing computer animation in a dr. who episode, (and 1996-level animation at that), but Rose seems to be more than acceptable as a companion. Â Her screams aren't quite up to par, so she's obviously going to be more of an Ace, and less of, say, a Sarah Jane. Â She'll make Mary Sue's out of all of us blonde twenty-somethings who'd love an invitation to roam around the galaxy with the Doctor. Â
I think Christopher Eccleston will do ok, but I've always had a problem looking at his face. Â There just looks like there should be something wrong with it, like he has angles in the wrong places or something.
There's a little confusion on parts of the backstory to this - and there are some rumors that the leaked copy isn't the final version that they'll be airing, so maybe those will clear up. Â For example, when he's in the apartment, the Doctor looks in the mirror and implies (by making comments about his reflection) that he's very very recently regenerated. But then later on in the episode, it's implied that he's spent quite a few adventures in his present shape.
The Doctor has some great Doctor-ish lines, and the TARDIS got a remodeling job (which saddens me), but hopefully we will avoid some of the horrific cannon pitfalls that occured with the 90's tv movie - like making the Eighth Doctor proclaim that he was half-human, the Tardis interior into a faux-cathedral that contains the Eye of Harmony (which is nuts since in the series it was on Gallifrey), and if the Master shows up again, hopefully he'll live up to series standards.
