The Eleventh Hour Is Here…
The Doctor has regenerated and crashed in the backyard of a little girl’s house. The girl, Amelia, has a dimensional crack in her wall that the Doctor tried to seal. However, a prisoner from that other dimension escaped into our world. The Doctor then has to rush off before the TARDIS blows itself up, promising Amelia he’d be back in five minutes. Amelia, convinced she’s going to travel with the Doctor, packs a suitcase and then heads back outside to wait for him. When the TARDIS re-materializes, it is now daytime. He goes back inside the house where he’s knocked unconscious and handcuffed by a mini-skirt wearing WPC. The Doctor realizes that there’s an extra room that no one knew about. The “cop” goes to investigate only to discover the escaped prisoner from the other dimension. The Doctor and Amy manage to escape from the prisoner when a transmission starts being broadcast all over the world from the prisoner’s jailers. The Doctor finds out that the jailers, Atraxi, plan to incinerate the planet in order to prevent the prisoner from escapiing again. So the Doctor only has twenty minutes to save the planet and he’s lost the use of the TARDIS and his sonic screwdriver.
Ok, I’ll admit this: I’ve watched this episode about four times now. Heck I had to be the Easter Bunny yesterday and had my iPod rigged inside the head so I was watching this as kids were getting their pictures taken! I just thought it was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. For those of you who were worried about Matt Smith filling David Tennant’s Chuck Taylor’s, all I have to say is Matt Smith IS the Doctor! Right out of the gate, he gets it! When he tells the Atraxi to run, you believe it.
And new companion, Amy Pond, well let’s get this part over with: DAMN! SHE’S HOT!! Okay, sorry about that, but I do happen to have a thing for tall, redheaded women with accents. And to all those complaining about her mini-skirt “tramping up the show”, I got a few words to say to you: Jo, Peri, Zoe, Leela, Romana I, Jack, do I need to go on? Okay. Amy has trust issues. Understandable seeing as she had her heart broken at an early age. And speaking of young Amy, Caitlan Blackwood gave such a charming performance as little Amy (or Amelia as she was known then). She wasn’t written as a smart-alecky, too-clever-for-their-age types that you normally see nowadays. She really seemed to be a child. My favorite scene had to be the one where she’s trying to make the Doctor something to eat but he finds everything horrible. “You’re Scottish, fry something!” As a southerner here in the States, I agree! Blackwood also happens to be Karen Gillan’s cousin, so there is a passing resemblance between the two.
And what about the new console room, huh? I loved it! It kind of looked like Pee-Wee Herman got a hold of it and redecorated. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of the TARDIS interior as well, but I’m not holding my breath on that. The effects on this episode were probably the only things I felt a bit disappointed about. It seemed like they were using the technology available from back in the mid-90s. But then again, when was Who ever known to have spectacular effects? Anyway, what did you guys think?
10 responses so far ↓
1 Shawn Craver // Apr 5, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Awesome first outing for Matt Smith. I admit I wasn’t sold on him as The Doctor at first, but by the end, when he puts the Atraxi in their place? I was completely sold by then.
2 Drudatz // Apr 5, 2010 at 5:44 pm
I totally have to agree the new doctor is AWSOMENESS!
And i find his companion a hotty too
(okay i have a thing for red-hairded-scottish girls ^^)!
Matt does an rly good job as the new doctor lets see if they can keep it up cant wait to see next episode
3 Peekaboo // Apr 5, 2010 at 10:10 pm
The jury is out on Matt Smith. I like him a lot so far. But Amy Pond is just hot. So really, the new Doctor could be a bag of grain with Tom Baker’s face stapled on it and I would still watch for Amy Pond.
4 Tokrath // Apr 8, 2010 at 4:46 am
I was willing to give the new doctor a chance even if I didn’t want to like him because I felt he wasn’t going to be MY doctor. I felt I owed him a few episodes as well as having faith in Moffit because he was just amazing.
Watching this I was reserved for about 10 minutes after that I was overwhelmed by it. Moffit wrote an amazing episode that had both is level of intensity and at the same time was fairly light and fun. Smith was the doctor from the first second and never let us down.
What I thought would take a few episodes for me to get into it took one and I am already drooling wishing the next one was out.
5 sammy_p // Apr 8, 2010 at 6:05 am
Well I watch this episode determined to be biased because I David Tennant is my favourite doctor, but as the episode went on the more I liked Matt Smith. I think it’s still going to need a few more episode before I am completely sold on the whole Matt Smith idea but I do think he has alot of potential there and I’m looking forward to seeing what he and the writers can do together.
6 Jorn the Younger // Apr 10, 2010 at 8:08 am
I was not bowled over by the episode (and I may be I’m in the minority, but I’m not gaga for Karen Gillan either. I’m not anti or anything, just not in the omgshessohot camp)
I quite enjoyed the scene with the food- quite fun, but the episode as a whole left me feeling rather ‘meh’
Now, I did have some exposure to the original Who, as it was on MPT after Red Dwarf on saturday nights, so I know that the regeneration transition can be a little iffy as the new actor finds his feet, as it were, and I know we’ve got new leads in other positions behind the cameras, so I’m not trying to get all downer. I don’t know, I just didn’t find myself caring- there was no sense of tension. It almost felt like it was “20 minutes to save the world. No TARDIS, no screwdriver, no worries”
Admittedly, I have only seen the ep the once, and my watching partner may have been a bit of a downer, so that could have skewed my perspective somewhat. I think I may re-watch it solo tonight before I leave for work, see if my opinion changes
7 Richard Kirsch // Apr 10, 2010 at 9:00 am
For me, the only thing I think I could complain about it that there were some lines that when I thought of them later, I pictured David Tennant saying them. For example, “I’m the Doctor. I’m worse than everyone’s aunt.” That seemed to be something the Tenth Doctor would say.
8 Ewingo401 // Apr 11, 2010 at 9:48 am
@Richard…One thing I and a lot of other fans took away from the episode is that Smith started off very “Tennant”, and seemed to find his way to his own style as the episode (and his regeneration) progressed. Assuming that was intentional (and it probably was) it’s a brilliant piece of writing.
9 Jorn the Younger // Apr 12, 2010 at 7:56 am
Ok, so on the second watching of the episode I enjoyed it much more. I hardly even mind the new logo at this point.
I think it helped that I already knew the plot of the episode, so I was able to pay more attention to individual scenes, and appreciate them more. I still didn’t feel much tension from the situation, but the second time through I realized why- this new Doctor is a much younger incarnation of the Doctor, and he wasn’t worried because he has the confidence of youth.
I have some thoughts on The Beast Below, which I watched yesterday morning after I got home from work, but I’ll wait till there’s a review of that one up to share them
10 doctorcute13 // Apr 19, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Matt Smith is a great doctor and this was a fantastic way to kick of the new season!
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