eleventh hour
i've watched it a couple of times now, and it's interesting how my opinions of certain things have changed from the first viewing to the second.
here's my overall (groggy because i'm tired and allergy ridden) thoughts:
as a preface, one of the predictions i had made with the end of The End of Time didn't come to pass, as in, the monologue that Matt Smith had made me think that this episode was going to include the Doctor having some sort of amnesia problem as a result of the severity of his regeneration. i'm speculating that maybe that was a possibility, but then they opted to not go with it once the script was in place.
okay. let's first deal with the bits of the episode i could either have done without or ones in which i feel so-so about.
1. I could have done without the whole food bit, really. it didn't *bother* me, per se, but it felt unnecessary, or maybe unnecessarily drawn out. it also didn't make a whole lot of sense to me that the Doctor would have kept the smiley-face apple "for later" if he already determined that he didn't like apples. you could maybe argue that "for later" meant not for eating but rather for something like the purpose it was used for, except that he didn't have an intention of being gone for as long as he did, so he wouldn't have needed it in that regard.
2. not convinced about the new TARDIS interior. mainly the console. the look and feel of it steers the flavor of the series in a different sort of direction, which isn't necessarily bad, but:
3. someone else mentioned in a post that Moffat had talked about how he wanted the new series to have more of a fairy tale like quality to it, and i can see elements of that here. Which is all fine and dandy, but one aspect of it bothers me some, which is the heavy Peter Pan parallel, the idea that Amy traveling with the Doctor is the equivalent of a rebellion against growing up. Amy's "i believed you, then i grew up" is countered by the Doctor's "but it's all true, see? You don't have to grow up." This feels like a striking contrast to the previous companion development, particularly Donna. Donna as a companion was there to be a stubborn voice of human reason to the Doctor, to appreciate the travels and everything involved, but to do it in a context that was still grounded in the Reality of it. i would have much preferred if the beginning of the Amy/Doctor relationship had that sense to it as well, that it was an acknowledgement of the fantastic through realistic and grown up eyes as opposed to going off to neverneverland.
4. a small point, but there's one part of the episode that bothers me in terms of blocking. When prisoner zero is masquerading as PC Thatcher and her two kids they confront Amy and Roy against the window before the Doctor bursts in. The Doctor bursts in at the window directly above Amy and Roy where prisoner zero was looking before, yet in reaction to the window crash, prisoner zero cranes its heads almost 90 degrees to its left. Why did it have to do a head adjustment at all if the Doctor broke the window in the place where it was already looking?
those things said, this episode is probably my favorite opening to a new series since Rose.
i thought that the script writing was fantastic, particularly the interactions between the Doctor and Amy. The two of them together have a particular spark to them that feels like a breath of fresh air to New Who, and there's a lot of embedded depth to Amy's character and her attitude towards the Doctor that follows in the footsteps of Donna pretty well. although the idea of running off to fairytale with the Doctor the day before her wedding day bothers me. we'll see how all of that develops.
The scene with the Doctor's tie in the car door exemplified that. That was a fantastic scene.
food bit notwithstanding, i like what Matt Smith has done with the role of the Doctor so far. He left a strong impression on me that was more akin to when i was introduced to nine, seven, and five that made me instantly like him. Maybe it's an odd number thing. :) I grew to like Tennant well enough, but i feel somewhat iffy about him after watching The Christmas Invasion, and i still liked Eccelson more than Tennant as a Doctor overall. The impression of Matt, on the other hand, is pretty positive. This also could be reflective of Moffat influence vs. Rusty influence.
i'm still holding out on immediate approval of eleven, though, because i haven't seen enough of him. His opening number didn't have a great deal of depth to it when it came to personality layers.
The episode overall felt well balanced. You had the fairy tale girl aspects mixed in with the "corner of your eye" Blink horror technique mixed in with scary-looking humans and aliens mixed in with some wackiness, some great flowing dialogue, all of it. The episode grabbed me from the very beginning with the crack in the wall; a whole episode could have been built around the crack in the wall, but it decided not to linger there for too long and instead veer off in other directions.
some of the predictable elements were a little annoying (even if you didn't know that Amy was going to be the companion, you knew that the Doctor wasn't coming back for many years to come, it was obvious when Amy did the hesitant "nothing... stuff" response that she was getting married), but not in a way that detracted or felt cliché, more like i was able to stay slightly ahead of those elements and get them happily affirmed, which goes to show that predictability isn't always bad if you do it the right way.
and finally, i'm very very happy that a lot of the accompanying music to the episode was in odd time signatures. a lot of 7/8 and 5/8 stuff, and for me as a composer and percussionist, that's my bread and buttah.
looking forward to see how everything develops.