A new era of
Doctor Who has finally begun. Fans, casual viewers, and critics have all been wondering if
Doctor Who could really carry on after the departure of both its popular lead actor, David Tennant and the showrunner, Russell T Davies. Could the new lead actor, Matt Smith and the new showrunner, Steven Moffat, even begin to fill the shoes of their successful predecessors? On the evidence of The Eleventh Hour, it would seem they are more than adequate replacements.
As if to ease the transition, Steven Moffat has constructed a tale which reuses plot elements from previous successful episodes. The story opens with the Tardis crashing to Earth, much like it did in the Tenth Doctor’s debut episode, The Christmas Invasion. The regenerated Doctor emerges in a back garden in 1996 where he meets his new companion, Amy Pond, when she is still a child, much like how the Tenth Doctor first met Reinette in The Girl in the Fireplace. In order to stabilise the damaged Tardis, the Doctor takes it forward into the year 2008 where he meets the adult Amy Pond, who has grown up resentful toward the Doctor for leaving her behind. The pair is forced to work together in order to stop an alien fugitive, Prisoner Zero, who is being pursued by alien police known as the Atraxi. This is similar to the Series Three opener, Smith and Jones, even down to the fact that the alien fugitives both hide out in hospital. As with the previous adventure, the Doctor manages to trick fugitive into revealing its identity to the alien police, who proceed to terminate their captured felon.
In this instance I can forgive the lack of originality because the point of the episode is to showcase the new Doctor. The familiar elements work as a contrast with the behaviour of the new Doctor so that we can see how he will compare to his predecessors. It’s fitting that the snakelike alien fugitive is called Prisoner Zero, because it has zero personality. It’s purpose in this episode is to be a nice and straightforward threat for the Doctor to defeat. The Atraxi, giant eyeballs built into metallic, star shaped frames, are an amusing looking creation, but it’s hard to imagine they’ll go down in history as the best
Doctor Who monsters.
So what is the new Doctor, played by Matt Smith, like? Is he any good? In this episode alone, I would say he certainly is good. It’s a really likable performance. Matt Smith really sells the humour and the childish side of the Doctor in the post-regenerative moments. He really has good chemistry with the younger Amy, played by Caitlin Blackwood. Matt also demonstrates that he can be a tougher Doctor, such as when he faces Prisoner Zero or when he forces the Atraxi to leave Earth. All those people who doubted Matt Smith’s claim to the leading role have been proved wrong with his performance here. He has all the gravitas that his critics thought he didn’t have. It looks like he’s going to be a superb Doctor, one of the best.
Although the episode is successful in showcasing its new Doctor, it is less successful in introducing its new companion, Amy Pond. Unlike the previous companions in the modern series, Amy seems to have been set up as some kind of enigma. She lives in a strange house with only an Aunt who the audience never meet. Her parents are missing and she has been living with an alien crack in her wall from which Prisoner Zero escaped. Caitlin Blackwood is excellent in playing the younger Amy as a girl unfazed by science fiction elements. She is a rare example of a good child actor, never overplaying or underplaying the role. By contrast, the portrayal of the adult Amy by Karen Gillain feels less interesting. To be fair, it’s a hard character to play as she has to be shown to be partly psychotic due to the departure of her Doctor. Her first instinct when an intruder comes to her house is to knock the intruder out with a cricket bat and pretend to be a policewoman when he wakes up. Might it not have been easier to call the police? She works as a kissogram, a more sexualised job than her predecessors and a bit of a step backwards after companions moved away from being pretty but dim like Jo Grant. Amy is also quite secretive, as shown when she leaves with the Doctor to travel through time and space and we cut back to her house where a wedding dress is hanging up. Even we the audience aren’t quite certain of who she is marrying yet. It feels like we’ve already moved a long way away from the more grounded companions introduced in Russell T Davie’s time. Hopefully the future episodes will broaden the character a little more.
Still, even Amy Pond gets more time than the other supporting characters, a fairly uninteresting bunch. Amy’s boyfriend, Rory, is introduced as a nurse, whose main plot function is to uncover Prisoner Zero’s activities in the hospital. He’s not a particularly exciting character. It’s not clear how he became Amy’s boyfriend as he seems more like her comedy sidekick, given menial tasks like holding her phone for her while she adjusts her hair. Again, I expect he might be back later this series. The other male supporting character, Jeff, is quite funny. He feels like a character from the Russell T Davies’ era, a mere nobody who is given the tools by the Doctor that allow him to be the one to save the world. Annette Crosbie also makes a welcome appearance as Jeff’s Nan, Mrs Angelo. It’s nice to see Nina Wadia, from Goodness Gracious Me, making an appearance in the show but she is somewhat wasted in the small role of Dr Ramsden. She gets angry at Rory and comforts patients but that’s really about it. If it weren’t for the fact that the character has been killed, I would have liked to have seen her return later in the series. Peep Show star, Olivia Coleman, gets to appear in the human guise as Prisoner Zero. It’s not a particularly big role but at least she gets to have some fun playing a Doctor Who monster.
Adam Smith provides the episode some really good direction. This is especially evident in the opening scene in Amy’s back garden, with the camera panning through the trees, making her garden seem as spooky and strange as any alien environment. It’s very atmospheric. The Doctor’s mind’s eye view, seeing the village in a freeze frame is also nice if strange. The least successful element comes in the pre-titles sequence when the Tardis crashes to Earth. The Doctor is hanging out of the doors, in what looks like a terrible green screen sequence. There are also two big continuity errors in this sequence. Firstly, the Millennium Dome is visible on the London cityscape, even though this is supposed to be 1996, when Amy was a child. Secondly, the Doctor seems to have lost his pinstripe jacket, even though he was still wearing it at the conclusion of The End of Time. It might have been better if the adventure had just started with the opening titles and from there into Amy’s back garden. This is one link to the previous era that felt entirely unnecessary.
Murray Gold, one of the more renowned remnants of the previous era, has composed a decent score for the new Doctor’s debut. The Eleventh Doctor’s new theme is a masterpiece, at points heavy and bombastic but at other times funny and light, combining trumpets, choirs and pipes. It’s a theme that feels far more suitable for the character of the Doctor than ‘The Doctor Forever’ did. That piece was far too pretentious. Amy’s theme is also a wonderful piece of work, combining piano and choral pieces to create a theme that sounds like it should have come from a fairy-tale. The rest of the music is similar in style to the Russell T Davies era, with a bombastic trumpet piece for the pre-titles sequence and several pieces of music from older episodes of that era, such as the Racnoss approach theme from The Runaway Bride. His new title theme is decent enough, getting away from the more rock heavy piece in the David Tennant years and bringing back some of the strange mystery.
As this adventure is set in contemporary Britain, it is difficult to tell what Ray Holman’s talents are as a costume designer. We’ll probably tell once we get into the more futuristic or historical settings. The look of the Eleventh Doctor is certainly decent. The top half of the costume, with the tweedy jacket and striped shirt, is reminiscent of a Professor. The lower half, with the black jeans and the boots, looks like a punkish student. It shows the two contrasting parts of the Doctor’s personality well. Amy looks like she’ll be wearing a lot of skirts, which suits her role as a kissogram. Hopefully, the sexier aspects of her costume design won’t impinge on practicality. At least those boots should work for running around in.
The new title sequence is alright, though not exceptional. The blue vortex of the past has been replaced by a swirling blue fog. The future red vortex is a blazing tunnel of fire. It’s nice that there’s more texture, but it’s basically just a variation on the previous title sequence than anything original. I think I prefer the ‘sinkhole’ time vortex which was shown in the 3D trailer. The new logo is certainly an improvement on the lozenge shaped logo of the previous era. The colour blue suits Doctor Who more than orange. The only part I don’t like is the ‘DW’ in the centre. It makes it look like the show is called ‘DoctorDWWho’. If they got rid of that part and kept the text then I’d be very happy.
The other notable new thing in this episode is the Tardis. As others have noted, the exterior now resembles the Tardis from the Peter Cushing films, even down to the St John’s Ambulance badge. It looks beautiful. Now we get a chance to see what the inside looks like. It is certainly bigger than the previous one, as the Doctor and Amy now have to climb the stairs to get to the console. The console itself now has switches made from pieces of junk like a typewriter and taps. It’s a nice idea but I’m not so sure about the phallic looking object going up and down inside. It’s also a bit strange seeing the console on the balcony. Let’s hope the ship doesn’t shake too much in flight, otherwise our heroes could fall off the railings and break their heads open. At least, the colour scheme is nice, with oranges, golds and greens, similar to the previous design.
Since the show was revived in 2005, every series has had a story arc which builds towards an exciting series finale. Series 1, 2 and 3 featured recurring phrases, such as Bad Wolf, Torchwood, and Mr Saxon. Series 4 included many threads such as the bees disappearing, Rose’s return and lost planets. This time around we have the mystery of what caused the crack in time found in Amy’s bedroom. Prisoner Zero also dies with the cryptic words ‘Silence will fall’. Time will tell what any of those words are supposed to mean. Hopefully the answers will be seeded across the episode, instead of dumped into the last episode.
Minor gripes aside, this is a solid opening episode for a new era. With a brilliant new Doctor, new companion and new Tardis, it feels like we’re all set for an exciting time. With the promise of returning Daleks, Weeping Angels and River Song, Series Five looks very exciting already. The future of the show looks very bright indeed.
Final Score: 8/10
