Doctor Who - 'The Eleventh Hour' Review

Synopsis:

Little Amelia Pond has a problem. She hears voices by the crack in her bedroom wall. Thankfully when she asks for help it arrives, in the form of a strange man in a blue box that crashes into her garden shed. He hears the voice as well: 'Prisoner Zero has escaped'. It turns out that his blue box is broken and it's a time machine. He'll be back in five minutes to help. Well, have you hear the one about the Time Lord that couldn't tell time?

Thoughts:

I really wanted this episode to work. It's the beginning of a new Doctor as well as a new production team. If the episode did well, then it was a sign that the show would stay strong after these changes and wasn't a cult of personality around any of the former staff.

Thankfully, I loved it.

The early sequence as I summarized it above, is just darling. Little Amelia is a cutie and sweet and the whole thing could easily be rewritten as a children's book without issue. That's meant as a compliment. Moffat continues in his overall writing theme of the innocent childlike fears being real (the bedroom crack in the wall here, but he's used simple things as shadows, statues, and lost children before) and it roots the weirdness in a reality.

We see the story's timeline from the Doctor's perspective, with even a throwaway line to cover over a possible plot hole. Therefore we learn of the consequences of the delay in his return as he does and sees what affect it has on the 'Raggedy Doctor'. The main story is a relatively simple plot that's there to establish our new characters and new Doctor. It holds together and works.

It's hard to tell how much of Matt Smith's Doctor is on display here. He admits to the fact that the regeneration isn't quite complete ('I'm still cooking' he notes at one point) so some of his actions could be down to post-regenerative mania. If this is a sign of things to come, his Doctor seems energetic, a bit goofy, and a touch distracted. He's trying to focus on a hundred things at once as well as talk to you. He's a bit like one of those kids that does four things while doing their homework only he can actually concentrate on them all at once. Admittedly I've been through the new Doctor process a few times now but as I watched I never doubted he fit in. He locks onto the role immediately. From some angles, his face looks very mature. I think he'll do nicely.

I also found it easy to warm to Amy Pond but admittedly her being a pretty red haired Scottish lass probably had something to do with that. Her life continues to get turned upside down by this man in the blue box and she seems fascinated with it and angry at the same time. It's not all been happiness and joy. She's willing to let him know that and I like that. She also doesn't seem to fancy him like some recent companions have done, although there is a scene that might point otherwise.

The TARDIS, for reasons unexplained, took some damage of late and needs some time to regenerate herself. We don't get to see the new interior until it's done and it looks nice. For whatever people want to say about the 1996 Fox TV movie, it has had a lasting impact on the show in the design of the interior. It's been dark and brown ever since as opposed to the bright and white we had for decades. I want to explore it further but it looks more 1996 TV movie than the coral we've had of late, although the console does retain some of the goofier controls that we've had since 2005.

I'm not sure about the remixed title music but the visual sequence is nice, a bit old school without looking exactly like anything else.

Good start. Can't wait until next week!