There's something of the Five about him

[wendymr]

So I got to see The Eleventh Hour at some ridiculous time last night; internet connection is as slow as treacle up here in Barrie (it's wireless anyway, which is always going to be slower, but this was ridiculous). And...

Spoilers below cut!

Comments

[kalleah]

Agreed on much of this - Eleven still seems far too much like Ten without the depth to me, but it's not really fair to assess his character based on one episode. They not only had to introduce the new Doctor, but also a new companion, and I think they did a far better job with her than they did with him, actually.

[wendymr]

Yes, they definitely did do a much better job with Amy. It's a difficult balance to get right, of course, and it was much easier introducing Ten because we had Rose and Jackie and Mickey around to give continuity and make things easier on the audience - hey, they accept him as the Doctor, so of course he's the Doctor. But then I think back to Rose, in which we were also being introduced to a prospective companion and her life and family at the same time as the Doctor, and that worked

[penfold_x]

Just watched. Hoping that this episode is something like The Christmas Invasion where you don't really get too much of a sense of the Doctor's personality, later inconsistencies can be blamed on regeneration sickness, and there's some room to grow. I had my fingers crossed for a more mature Doctor, and it looks like we're not going to get that, but there's not a lot I didn't like about him (except the thing on the lawn which, when you described it to me, made me realize what was off in that scene--the Doctor was being a dick to someone who didn't deserve it, perhaps only because after 12 long years there was a man in Amy's life that wasn't the Doctor), and I really like Amy, so I'm tentatively hopeful.

[wendymr]

Yes, it may well be all down to 'stranger in the role, not settled in yet, and after a few episodes I may be fine with him. I do know, though, that he already has habits that will grate - snapping fingers, Geronimo, how he treated Rory (which, on reflection, was a lot worse than Nine treated Mickey). Give it a few more episodes and we'll see.

[tardis_stowaway]

Please no more snapping fingers to open the TARDIS door, though!

YES! I think I said "Argh!" aloud when he did that. The snapping to open thing is like Eleven's "who da man?": he thinks he's being cool, but it's actually a dumb, pointless bit of posing. One of my new series resolutions is to try not to approach the reappearance of River Song with hostility, but the reminder of one of the other things I disliked in SitL/FotD is not helping.

[wendymr]

Yes, it did feel a bit like Moffat was saying 'I'm here now and whether you like it or not this is how my Doctor is' with the snapping-fingers, and with River Song so prominent in the trailer. I am doing my best to keep an open mind regardless of how much I disliked Moffat's writing in S2-4 (after all, I LOVED EC/TDD), but the snapping-fingers and Geronimo! will niggle.

And I will just have to grit my teeth and bear River Song - and hope that Moffat will have enough pride in his ownership not to sideline the companion he created in the Song episode the way he did with Donna.

[nina_ds]

I think as a piece of sheer writing, it's probably the best of the season openers, but in context, it's only my second favourite. Too many boxes ticked off too obviously, and, most importantly, the characters aren't as engaging as Nine and Rose. I liked Amelia, but she's more a "grower"; still not sure about Eleven, but of course, personally, I'm relieved.

Re: the rudeness, it's really funny, Nine being rude to Mickey didn't register for me that much the first time around because Mickey was such a twit in "Rose", and then five hours later (for me, since I marathoned S1), he had redeemed himself and the Doctor was offering him a place on the TARDIS, so in context, the relationship had to have room to grow; and then, in Boom Town, both Jack and Rose were so much worse, it was hard to note Nine being especially rude to him. I actually find Ten's treatment of Mickey worse than Nine's, because he did know Mickey wasn't entirely useless

[wendymr]

I didn't find the writing that impressive (though clearly good), because there were too many places where it was derivative (and some scenes which others found funny, such as the food one, were OTT for me).

Re. Mickey, the more I think about it the more Eleven's treatment of Rory is far, far worse. Yes, Mickey was an idiot and a coward in Rose, which coloured Nine's view - and then he clung to Rose when she would have said yes. He was quite nasty to Mickey in AoL/WWIII until Mickey showed his worth - and, yes, he retracted his earlier view. But in Boom Town all three of them put Mickey down, even if we take the Bosphorous restaurant scene to show that much of that was in fun and Mickey was being treated as part of the team - until Mickey messed up again with Blon Fel Fotch.

Ten started off on an okay footing with Mickey, hugging him in TCI, but it was definitely clear by School Reunion that he was back to thinking of Mickey as an irritant - and he really was horrible to him in the first Cyber episode. That was the beginning of the

[nina_ds]

I was thinking about the writing as being that purely in the episode - it was the box ticking/derivative quality that brought it down, but if you didn't know where a lot of it was coming from, I think it does structurally beat "Rose"; on character development, though, particularly Rose and Jackie and the Rose-(/)Doctor dynamic, in the writing, "Rose" was better, I think. The food scene was way too OTT, but some of that could be in direction. It did need cutting or better pacing, or better, just being eliminated altogether. It wasn't cute and it wasn't clever.

The opening of the Cyber episodes was the moment where I came to well and truly HATE Rose and Ten. I know you don't feel that way, but man, I really, really hated them at that point, and I don't know that they ever really learned their lesson. Even some of the comments in School Reunion were too much, given that the Doctor should know better about Mickey. Eleven has no frame of reference regarding Rory, and therefore it's way worse than Nine and MIckey. Plus, to be honest, I

[digitalada]

Still have to get around to watching this episode. I'm glad that Amy seems to be a badass companion though. I just hope that not all of the episodes are overly scary. I do like the scary ones sometimes, but you need to mix in normal or fun ones in every now and then. But the weeping angels are coming back, so yeah.

Also, I heard that River Song is coming back. I hope they write her a lot better this season. I also really, really hope that she turns out to be Jack Harkness in drag who was messing with the Doctor because he still had abandonment issues or something. Or she turns out to be a fraud because she doesn't know about a certain special crack setting on the sonic screwdriver. :)

[wendymr]

I rarely find episodes scary, but then I don't watch for the monsters. I watch for the characters, and the monsters and aliens are really just background stuff to me. I didn't find the Weeping Angels particularly frightening, for example.

Amy is good, so far, and I like her boyfriend Rory too. Definitely a good start to the season, companion-wise.

As for River Song... well, let's hope she's written a bit more convincingly, and with a bit more believable characterisation, this time.