Monday 5 April 2010

DW 501: The Eleventh Hour

Boo-yah! Now that's an opening episode! Go Matt Smith! Some Moffatisms we could have avoided... but, it's back!

Lots of wonderful moments here. We saw that Amy Pool will be a police officer... but the expectation is turned on its head! Not a standard companion introduction, but did we ONCE AGAIN need to have the Doctor visit a young girl and then come back into her life while she's fetishised him during the intervening time? At least she didn't stick her tongue down her throat, but from the looks of some of the trailers that isn't far off.

Amy Pool is a good companion, willing to stand for herself and take charge, even if she isn't a police officer (I'm sure I'm not the only who wanted to see her in the other outfits she had). On the other hand, the men in her life seem rather wet, so being the dominant one wouldn't have been hard. As for who she was marrying... hopefully someone else as the obvious choice of Rory is just a depressing nobody of a person.

The plot wasn't that substantial, but it didn't need to be, this was all about the Doctor and Amy. Lots of action, running around, simple monster to battle against, and the Doctor is being too new to properly function. (Not sure how much I want to see that "focus... focus... focus..." sequence again.) And yet, notice that no-one died? Most unusual. Oh, and we have an arc! Definitely want to see what happens with that!

Still, Matt Smith, instantly wonderful. So easily able to accept him as the Doctor, he just takes the lead in any scene he is in. There's still some gelling to his character to come, but I like what I saw and want to see more. However, I do see Moffat making him more god-like, as feared by Lawrence Miles. He's already got the door clicker installed.

Things that will be mocked: The colonoscopey time tunnel and the dildo time rotor.

Verdict: Brilliant!


Coming up: Lots and lots of good stuff! I haven't examined the episode order, so next week... no specific idea!

[END]

5 comments:

fantomas said...

My mini,non spoiler review - http://gibberingfantomas.blogspot.com/2010/04/doctor-who-mini-review-no-spoilers.html
(I sort of accepted your challenge re reviewing the films :P)

Paul Scoones said...

Amy Pool? Were we watching the same episode...? :)

fantomas said...

Only when she's in the library.

Jamas Enright said...

That's what happens when you post in excitement. ;)
Speaking of her, who thinks the text message should have been "Duck Pond!"?

Foo said...

Thoroughly enjoyed the episode, strong start start and end, although it moved at such a break neck pace I didn't really have time to think about what was going on.

The CGI wasn't the best but still a long way improved on what we got back in 2005.

Definitely noticed the slight change in tone with the absence of RTD - less soapy, more quirky.