From the moment “Rose” started up, something seemed amiss. Eventually I hit upon what it was: somehow Sci-Fi had got ahold of the wrong edit of episode one. They showed the rough version leaked to the Internet last year instead of the final edit aired in Britain. Having watched the latter version many times over, I was startled by how much the rough edit continues to plod — especially toward the end. I’m reminded of how much I cringed during the climax, the first time I saw the leaked version. I had completely forgotten about that, as I haven’t felt it in over a year.

End of the World was just fine, though. I was impressed by how well the pacing lent itself to interruption, and by (in general) what good choices Sci-Fi made for breaks — usually right after one of the Doctor’s quips about a new situation he found himself in. One break even resumed with the “Bad Wolf” line, bringing more attention to it than you’d normally have. Eventually, after the new trailer Sci-Fi knocked up for “Unquiet Dead” (hey, they really are putting some work into this), I realized what had happened with Rose. Going by the end credits, these must be the Canadian prints. Sci-Fi must have gotten them from the CBC, rather than directly from the BBC. Aha! Hah! Ho. How odd, though.

As I brushed past a moment ago, at the end of the episode they just cut the “next time” trailer, then run a clean set of credits “crushed” to the left with a brand-new trailer (using Sci-Fi’s custom Doctor Who logo) on the right. It works well, and the new trailers aren’t bad (at least, the two I’ve seen). They work on a different level from the original ones, though. Rather than have an abstract “narrative” of sorts, they’re just a bunch of cool scenes with a voiceover outlining the plot. Less quirky-n-British, though — again — effective.

Which segues into another strange thing: these episodes never seemed so British before. Watching them on their own, I just accepted them on their own merits. Now, sandwiched between two “people in military suits standing around with bored expressions, waiting to deliver their next line of exposision” shows, everything about the show sticks out like a rock star’s errection. It feels like I’m watching A&E or Masterpiece Theater or something.

Anyway. Yeah. This looks like it’ll work well. The only snafu so far seems like it wasn’t anyone’s fault, really (except whoever sent the wrong master to Canada over a year ago). And in general I’m impressed with the care and interest Sci-Fi’s showing toward the series. It’s encouraging. The only question is, did people actually watch?

EDIT: Of course, Sci-Fi did program an entire four-hour block around the show — so if anyone flipped to Sci-Fi at all during the evening, they probably caught part of it.