5.01 The Eleventh Hour
Loved it.
Had a moment of horror when I thought the theme tune had been replaced but when the ooo-eee-ooo bit kicked in I relaxed. Have listened to the full one minute version on the BBC website a few times round and feel acclimatised to it now; love the full version's middle eight, shame it doesn't make it one screen. Not sure about "Doctor DW Who" though, looks worse in the titles than on the cover of DWM.
Minor quibble, mind. Matt Smith utterly failed to be "too young" which I was bit worried about, he pulled off being the Doctor fantastically. I didn't even object to the spitting out of food (mostly due to the plate frisbee which for some reason really tickled me).
Little Amelia was very good and I'm really sorry that the companion name was part of the press build up because it would have been nice to be as surprised by Amy's appearance as the Doctor was. And then kick myself because that really wasn't a copper's skirt!
Difficult to say too much about the charaterisation being a double introductory (triple counting Rory), I'll just say that I finished up feeling that I wanted to see lots more from both of them. I like the dynamic of child + imaginary friend as a difference in tone from the romantic entanglements of RTD; there are only so many ways to approach a Doctor + Companion relationship, it's nice to try something different.
Good old foreshadowing is back with a vengeance though. Olivia Coleman's character and her ominous "The Pandorical(Pandoracle?) will open, silence will fall" and the crack in the TARDIS monitor echoing the crack in Amelia's wall. The Doctor and Amy are already keeping secrets from ech other (the monitor crack and the wedding) so it feels that there should be lots of compelling interaction between the two as they get to know each other.
Love the TARDIS too. Want to see more! It seems curiously smaller and bigger, which I suppose is fitting. I think that's the console a BLue Peter competition winner designed and I like the feel that the TARDIS has sort of mended itself from stuff that it had lying around. MAgpie electricals - Idiot's Lantern, I wonder whether that's a clue to something bigger?
The aliens were not that impressive but they weren't the point of the story so it didn't matter. I'm n too minds about the Doctor calling them back though. One the one hand the classic clips, the costume, the "I am the Doctor" was excelent, but it was soooooo similar to The Christmas Invasion... I guess the kids and casual viewers don't remember that far back! Oddly I did like the fact he stole clothes from the hospital like Three and Eight before him.
What else... Three great supporting actors (Annette Crosbie, Nine Wadia and Olivia Coleman) and yet none of them have a very big part. Is it because they're names in a way that Gillan and Smith aren't (yet), or does every actor in Britain want a part so badly they can afford to give them two scenes each?
All in all I thought it was a very promising start. I'm really looking forward to more.
Had a moment of horror when I thought the theme tune had been replaced but when the ooo-eee-ooo bit kicked in I relaxed. Have listened to the full one minute version on the BBC website a few times round and feel acclimatised to it now; love the full version's middle eight, shame it doesn't make it one screen. Not sure about "Doctor DW Who" though, looks worse in the titles than on the cover of DWM.
Minor quibble, mind. Matt Smith utterly failed to be "too young" which I was bit worried about, he pulled off being the Doctor fantastically. I didn't even object to the spitting out of food (mostly due to the plate frisbee which for some reason really tickled me).
Little Amelia was very good and I'm really sorry that the companion name was part of the press build up because it would have been nice to be as surprised by Amy's appearance as the Doctor was. And then kick myself because that really wasn't a copper's skirt!
Difficult to say too much about the charaterisation being a double introductory (triple counting Rory), I'll just say that I finished up feeling that I wanted to see lots more from both of them. I like the dynamic of child + imaginary friend as a difference in tone from the romantic entanglements of RTD; there are only so many ways to approach a Doctor + Companion relationship, it's nice to try something different.
Good old foreshadowing is back with a vengeance though. Olivia Coleman's character and her ominous "The Pandorical(Pandoracle?) will open, silence will fall" and the crack in the TARDIS monitor echoing the crack in Amelia's wall. The Doctor and Amy are already keeping secrets from ech other (the monitor crack and the wedding) so it feels that there should be lots of compelling interaction between the two as they get to know each other.
Love the TARDIS too. Want to see more! It seems curiously smaller and bigger, which I suppose is fitting. I think that's the console a BLue Peter competition winner designed and I like the feel that the TARDIS has sort of mended itself from stuff that it had lying around. MAgpie electricals - Idiot's Lantern, I wonder whether that's a clue to something bigger?
The aliens were not that impressive but they weren't the point of the story so it didn't matter. I'm n too minds about the Doctor calling them back though. One the one hand the classic clips, the costume, the "I am the Doctor" was excelent, but it was soooooo similar to The Christmas Invasion... I guess the kids and casual viewers don't remember that far back! Oddly I did like the fact he stole clothes from the hospital like Three and Eight before him.
What else... Three great supporting actors (Annette Crosbie, Nine Wadia and Olivia Coleman) and yet none of them have a very big part. Is it because they're names in a way that Gillan and Smith aren't (yet), or does every actor in Britain want a part so badly they can afford to give them two scenes each?
All in all I thought it was a very promising start. I'm really looking forward to more.