First Impressions Of A New World

The Eleventh Hour

By Hayden Gribble

“Geronimo!”

Three months after literally exploding onto our screens, the good Doctor is back for 13 weeks of adventure and if ‘The Eleventh Hour’ is anything to go by, it’s going to be a memorable ride.

After leaving the Doctor in his crashing TARDIS at the climax of ‘The End of Time’, the story opens with yet more fire and explosions as the David Tennant era really is cremated. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, his reign is over and the age of Matt Smith begins with him clinging to the outside of the TARDIS as it crashes lands over London.

First things first, the title sequence is creepy and slightly X-Files, the new theme tune may take some getting used to, but the same definitely cannot be said for the new TARDIS interior, which is vast, expansive and beautifully designed in a way that HG Wells would have been proud of.

Everything is new. New Doctor, new companion played by the gorgeous Karen Gillan, new TARDIS both on the inside and out and new title sequence. And all of those factors are incredibly impressive and Moffat has achieved a new look to be proud of, but how did the story hold up in this brave new world?

The Doctor, still regenerating, is plunged head first into a quintessential little English village and meets Amelia Pond, an orphan girl who has a rather sinister crack in her wall, in which a shape shifter known as Prisoner Zero. For perhaps the first time since the first regeneration in 1966, the Doctor is thrust straight into action, the post regenerative trauma of old now banished.

The scene in which we see the world through the Doctor’s eyes is one of cleverest in Doctor Who’s history. As the camera pans gitterly around the picture-taking residents staring up at the Atraxi’s snowflake spaceships, our world stops and the Doctor’s hurtles around us dissecting every detail looking for a clue, and he finds it in Amy’s friend Rory, who is sure to become a male companion later in the series.

Matt Smith’s performance is one to be proud of. His craving for apples, yoghurt and eventually fish fingers in custard is like that of a pregnant woman, and the charming spark in his relationship with Amy is spot on right from the word “apples!”, onwards, as her development from sweet and innocent little girl to sexy kissagram is guaranteed keep the Dad’s watching.

Gillan is the latest in a long line of attractive assistants and will long in the imaginations of young teenage boys as their first crush, like Leela and Rose before her

As for me, I’m in love already…

The finale in the hospital will trigger the old memories of those who can remember Jon Pertwee’s debut story in 1970’s Spearhead From Space but the episode eclipses that and many more debut stories as the best, and most of that is down to Matt Smith, who mesmerizes throughout.

To put his performance into a musical analogy for the moment, David Tennant was a Doctor for the X-Factor generation, a character who was bright, sometimes cheesy and always larger than life. Think of the transition like The Beatles splitting up and Led Zeppelin becoming the next big group. The more commercial friendly yet occasionally dark model has been replaced by that of a harder, edgier more abstract one, and Matt Smith wields his powers like Jimmy Page launching into Stairway to Heaven.

Of course it is difficult to base where he will pitch the Doctor on one episode alone, but on this evidence he seems to have brought a lot of his own natural character to the screen, much like Tom Baker did when his iconic incarnation graced our screens. His eccentric streak is what will eventually win over the Tennant-ites (what I’m calling hardened fans of Doctor number 10) and the nod to the Doctors of old at the conclusion of the story reassured me that this is the same man as the one we met so long ago now in an old black and white junkyard.

So in conclusion ‘The Eleventh Hour’ is the perfect starting point for a new era of Doctor Who. Great acting and convincing performances from Smith and Gillan builds up one of the most important series in the show’s history and makes for an interesting and creepy adventure and if the coming soon trailer is anything to go by, its one of many that will have us glued to the television screens for weeks to come.

“Who da man!” indeed.

8/10