angelophile | Review: Doctor Who - The Eleventh Hour (Reply)

I'm fashionably late to the party, but here's my thoughts on the first episode of the new Doctor Who series:

WHOOHOO!

Now, somewhere more coherently and spoilery under the cut.

Firstly, we have to talk about Matt Smith. He had uneviable task of stepping into David Tennant's shoes. A tough job, since Doctor Who suddenly went global, found a new audience in the US and beyond and became the gem in BBC's output, instead of that long-running TV show that the BBC wanted shot of, as it was in Sylvester McCoy's time. Chris Eccleston arguably didn't have time to be missed - everyone knew he was leaving by the time the second episode aired. Tennant, however, stuck around long enough to make an impression and, for many new viewers, he became THE Doctor.

Which was always going to make him a tough act to follow. Given Moffat's love story to the Davison era Doctor in the Children in Need special, it seemed unlikely that he was going to break the mold with Matt Smith's portrayal. I was, however, expecting some personality change. So far, the transition into a new Doctor's being eased by not making him a new Doctor at all. Matt Smith's dialogue in its entirety could have been performed by David Tennant and no one wold have raised an eyebrow at anything new. In effect, they're the same personality as well as character, going by last night's episode. I hope that in later episodes Matt Smith's Doctor's defined a little more uniquely.

That said, Smith grabbed the role with a natural enthusiasm that suggests that he'll bed into the role as quickly as Tennant did. By the end of the episode he WAS the Doctor, delightfully demonstrated by his literally stepping out of Tennant's shadow when the montage of the past Doctors was flashed up. Was he an instant, flawless fit? No, there's definitely some rough edges to be smoothed off performance-wise, but certainly no more so than Tennant demonstrated. Even when given weak material - the extended food=tasting sequence that got old extremely quickly - Smith managed to make it work just by sheer youthful vitality and effervescence. His enthusiasm is clearly infectious.

Likewise new companion Karen Gillan beds in remarkably quickly, no doubt aided by the quickly established back-story which links her life to the Doctor's. It's not a new conceit - Moffat used it once already in The Girl in the Fireplace - but it quickly ensured a tie between the Doctor and his new companion and a reason for her to steer clear of wide-eyed idol worship. So far Smith's Doctor is fallible and hopefully that sticks - I've had way too much of the "lonely god" schtick. Establishing a companion who can, and will, call the Doctor on his BS is always welcomed. Moffat makes a point of having the Doctor mention that Amelia Pond sounds like a character from a fairy tale and it's fun that he then plays with that idea - the orphaned Amelia, with a wicked and neglectful aunt, left alone in a house with a monster, waiting to be saved by the mad magician, the raggedy Doctor. There's even a magic apple.

Karen Gillan clearly has fun with the role, has genuine chemistry with Smith and has a patented fearful expression down pat. And the moment of unashamed perving was brilliantly played. (Although, hopefully that's the end of that. I'm glad Amy enjoys a good perv, but the Doctor being the magical, if flawed, figure from her childhood who's taking her on adventures is much more compelling than yet another "companion fancies the Doctor" arc.) Also, frankly, she's kicked off a whole new crush on Scottish redheads.

The little touches are what makes the episode and Moffat does appear to have been trying to ease the transition into a new Doctor by retaining those Tennant mannerisms and RTD daftness early on, but thankfully that settles down after a while to a more even tone and we have the deft touches and the gratuitous Patrick Moore cameo to enjoy. The plot itself is, frankly, rather daft, outside of the time jumping, and the stupid flying TARDIS pre-credit sequence, bland villain, over-the-top fire engine finale and solution plucked from nowhere to save the day are hallmarks of nu-Who. However, unlike a lot of RTD scripts, they're not intrusive enough to be a problem. The episode was more about the characters and, in that respect, it worked admirably.

And so, the new Who's arrived and anyone thinking they had anything to fear from Tennant's departure should now be able to rest easy. The episode proved that Moffat had no intention of throwing out the tone of the RTD era, but, hopefully, polishing it.

By the way, did anyone else think the voice of the Atraxi sounded a lot like that of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz?