Doctor Who - "The Eleventh Hour" & "The Beast Below" Reaction Post
So, here's my reaction to the Eleventh Doctor's first two episodes, "The Eleventh Hour" and "The Beast Below".
Of course, spoilers under the cut.
So I'm going to address the new elements of the series first before I do the episodes.
What can I say? I absolutely LOVE 11 and Amy. I think they work so well together and they're absolutely charming. I've fallen for their charms.
Now anybody who knows me at all would know that David Tennant is not exactly my favourite Doctor.
Well, that's a lie.
I know that many people will probably crucify me for it, but I'll admit it: I didn't like Ten! He was angsty and just grated on me. So I was really, really excited for The Eleventh Doctor, even before I knew who he was going to be. When Matt Smith was announced, I was excited and quietly optimistic because I've loved him in his other works.
I think he's absolutely brilliant as the Doctor. He's bright and bubbly and really brings freshness to the role. And he's like a young boy or a little puppy and really brings out my maternal instinct (even though he's quite a bit older than me)...he's just gorgeous! I think it can be best expressed like this: eee!
Amy is wonderful. She's fiery and fiesty and glorious, and that's just her hair (I want it!)...but she is fiery and fiesty and glorious. She's so strong but vulnerable at the same time, and I think Karen Gillan plays her wonderfully.
Their relationship is really nice - they're more like equals, I think, than Time Lord and human.
I know many people hate it, but I actually really like the 'new' theme song. I mean, it's really different, but I think that's good! What I like so much about it is that it's really new and updated, but it's also reminiscent of the Sylvester McCoy theme, I think. The techno and the zap-zap-pow and the wow, I am really eloquent today. So new theme = I love it. It's fresh. It's new. And yet it's old. And that's brilliant.
So: the episodes. I think they were both brilliantly written (but Moffatt episodes always are!). The Eleventh Hour was just the right amount of scary (because I admit that sometimes Moffatt episodes scare me a liiitle too much) and The Beast Below was tense and suspenseful and thankfully not too scary.
The Eleventh Hour was a cracking good start to the season. It was sort of familiar territory thanks to the Earth-bound story, and it was a good story. The thought of Prisoner Zero living in the house for twelve years was just terrifying. That's what Moffatt is really good at - psychological creepy. He doesn't rely on over-the-top special effects or big monsters for effect and that's what I love about his episodes. I think they really bring it back to Classic Who where of course there weren't the type of special effects that writers use now. It's all back to good plot, good writing, great characters.
There were some really great parts in The Beast Below. I LOVED Liz 10. She was brilliant. It was really interesting just hearing her voice - it was so far removed from what we would recognise as a 'queen's voice'. It was (to my fairly untrained Australian ear, at least) very...Cockney? Do correct me if I'm wrong. But the line "I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule." was amazing. Loved loved loved it.
Now, it's been proven time and time again that I am hopeless at reviewing things (unless I do the whole school-English thing and start talking about film techniques and such), so I will leave it as this:
I am deeply enjoying the series so far. I LOVE Eleven, I LOVE Amy, I love everything about the new series. Eleven might just be my new favourite Doctor (but I still miss Nine!). Yeah. I'm in love with Doctor Who all over again.
RDJ thanks you for your time.