The Eleventh Hour

Amelia Pond has a crack in her wall, It's a fracture of sorts, not the kind when you fall, there's a prisoner too, secreted inside a room, that's perceptively hidden, slimy, damp and in gloom.

There's a raggedy man with a battered old box, has a sonic device that can unpick most locks, the oncoming storm, the Doctor, our hero, now on the scent of Atraxi Prisoner Zero.

But the convict can shift, take another disguise, avoiding the stalk in the sky with one eye, let battle commence, the Time Lord is back, will we soon find out more, of this ominous crack.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Welcome to the new Dr Who, Matt Smith. His first episode was reminiscent of the first Jon Pertwee episode, Spearhead from Space, though with a different monster. Not the first part of the show, with a rather creepy scene where the Dr talks to a young girl. But later, he comes back, Amy has grown into a kiss-o-gram! She is in a sexy police uniform and chains him to a radiator.

Towards the conclusion the Dr visits a hospital that is a bit familiar, he changes from his ragged clothes into something he finds in the hospital (Spearhead). The Doctorr is still getting into his new regeneration, and strangely, so is the Tardis!

Pervious Doctors first episodes have had a difficult time, portraying him as a bit crazy. Matt Smith does a good job, but it isn't an exceptional episode. It has some chases, flashes of brilliance and fun with Patrick Moore. He tries out some catchphrases that are a disaster, but done with humour.

Karen Gillan is the new companion, and she is good. A Scottish accent that reminds you of the 10th Dr, an independent spirit that all modern companions have. She has friends in her village but no family, and jumps at the chance to join the new Doctor.

The combination of a new Doctor, companion and Tardis promise some exciting new adventures.

I really enjoyed this, definitely one of the better introductions to a New Doctor, but not the best. I particularly enjoyed when the Atraxi eye thing scanned The Doctor and we get to see all the previous incarnations but unfortunately blink and you will miss it.

The trying new food thing went on a bit too long and was a bit over the top but besides that this was a solid episode worthy of re-watching many times.

There have been change of production teams before in Doctor Who. The eleventh doctor era was a huge regeneration for the show.

Steven Moffat was the new head writer and showrunner. He heralded a brand new production team and handpicked Matt Smith as his Doctor.

Adam Smith was chosen as director for the opening episode and he brought in a fairy tale mini movie aesthetic.

The newly generated Doctor is zooming past London landmarks as the damaged Tardis crash lands in the garden of young Amelia Pond. She is afraid of the crack in her wall.

The Doctor still cooking after his change realises that little Amelia has good reason to be afraid. An alien known as Prisoner Zero has escaped from and is hiding in Amelia's house.

However he pops into the Tardis and promises to be back in a few minutes. Little Amelia waits for him, he does show up what he thinks is the next day. Only it is 12 years later. Little Amelia is now Amy Pond (Karen Gillan.) A kissogram girl with a troubled history. No one believed her story of the raggedy Doctor who showed up one night.

However Prisoner Zero is still in the house and his captors, the Atraxi threaten to burn the planet if Prisoner Zero is not returned.

Just as with RTD's opener Rose. The inspiration for the Eleventh Hour is Jon Pertwee's introduction in Spearhead of Space.

Now London is no longer the base. Amy lives in a village which is 30 minutes drive away from Gloucester. The Doctor gets his clothes from a hospital locker, the same as McGann's Doctor as well.

Moffatt has clearly spent a lot of time in the opener. There are some sly call backs to previous Doctor Who episodes from the RTD era. Fleshing out the characters of Amy and her nerdy boyfriend Rory. Also seeding the arc story for the season.

There were some bonuses, a cameo from Olivia Colman. Or as Moffat said, if he had known that she would one day win an Oscar, she would had got more lines.

The real plus was Matt Smith who hits the ground running. Too many times the Doctor is incapacitated after regeneration, here Smith very much hits the ground running. Even Tennant was bedridden for his introductory episode.

The secret of Doctor Who's longevity is his ability to regenerate. It's also the secret of the programme's longevity. Every few years there's the chance to reset everything, tweak the format, fix what needs fixing. The challenge for the production team is not to lose what was working.

So. With "The Eleventh Hour", Steven Moffat takes over as show-runner, and with it comes a new Doctor, new companion, new TARDIS, even a new arrangement of the theme tune. At the same time, he's inherited a show that's in pretty good shape, despite a few obvious flaws.

Russell T. Davies resurrected a cult programme, made it essential family viewing, and attracted top quality production and performing talent. But his version was a bit prone to grandstanding when understatement would have been better (let's face it, all his dials went up to 11, and most of them only went down to 8); it was good at setup but more interested in the character relationships than resolving its plots in a coherent manner; and the attempts at setting up a series-long story arc were pretty ham-fisted. Oh, and the arrangement of the theme music lacked otherworldliness. It may sound like a small point, but Dr Who has one of the great TV themes and it deserves to be handled properly.

So as an episode, this one has a lot to do, and for the most part it delivers.

The plot, without giving too much away, isn't up there with Moffat's (and by extension, Who's) best like "Blink", but provides a strong enough framework for everything else that needs to happen. The basic premise is creepy, and opens up to provide both small scale and large scale jeopardy for the Doctor and Earth. More importantly, it packs a lot of character development into a single episode in an unforced manner and tees up a lot of layers to explore in the rest of the series. The way the Doctor overcomes the threat is tidy and functional. One element requires a little suspension of disbelief but there was a sense of logic and conviction that a lot of RTD-era episodes lacked. We also got some hints as to the plot arc for the series, properly built into the script and not tacked on as, say, random Ood prophecies.

It's very early days for Matt Smith, but the Doctor's Gallifreyan mantle sits easily on his shoulders and he delivered his lines with a confidence that belies both his age and his experience in the role. Actually, delivered is a bit harsh. Nailed would be more like it. You knew by the end of "The Christmas Invasion" that David Tennant would make a good Doctor. It took Smith perhaps two scenes. Encouragingly, his instinct seems to be to underplay when the easy option would be to go loud. The role would appear to be in good hands.

Karen Gillan had less scope in her first episode as new companion Amy Pond, but there was enough there to suggest that both the actress and the character will be able to keep pace with Smith. The plot neatly sets up a lot of questions about how the Doctor affects the lives of the people he meets, which will no doubt be a big source of character drama later in the season. And she looks great.

The script was another cause for encouragement. In previous seasons, the dialogue has delivered the character beats, but often relied on the acting talent to carry them off. Moffat is an accomplished sitcom writer (the original, UK version of Coupling was a real gem), and it shows here. The dialogue is sharp and witty, and the quality and quantity of good lines seems to help the cast to handle them deftly.

Overall, the changes were subtle, but almost all in the right direction. An opening episode has a lot to do, and this one made good use of its hour without quite being top drawer. But it feels like there's a lot of powder being kept dry for the rest of the season, and the fuse has been lit.

I have only one gripe: the remix of the theme tune. When will someone see sense and ask Radiohead to do a proper job?