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“Amy Pond, the girl who waited. You’ve waited long enough.”
Last Saturday at 6.20pm, the moment I’d been longing for ever since Matt Smith and his amazing face had been announced as the next Doctor was finally here. ‘The Eleventh Hour’ was upon us.
I hadn’t realised just how much I’d missed Saturday evenings spent watching Doctor Who until I was sitting there with wide eyes and a cup of tea in my hand. The whole thing felt new and fresh, but also familiar and right. The new theme tune was a bit crap - too self-consciously retro for my liking - but apart from that, ‘The Eleventh Hour’ was really rather fabulous.
The look of the episode is quite different to anything we’ve seen before on New Who, with the whole thing having an almost fairy tale-like quality. There were some nice directorial touches, in particular the scene where the Doctor convinces Amy to believe him for just 20 minutes. The new TARDIS set seems to suit the new Doctor, although I’ll have to wait until I’ve seen it a few more times before I make my mind up.
As Who fans have come to expect with Steven Moffat, the writing was absolutely brilliant. The plot wasn’t the most complex or exciting ever, but it was strong enough considering all the other things that this episode had to do. The gags come thick and fast, particularly in the opening scenes with the newly regenerated Doctor. My favourite is certainly, “You’re Scottish. Fry something” although “I’m the Doctor, I’m worse than everybody’s aunt” comes a close second.
Karen Gillan as Amy Pond was great, but the real draw here was Matt Smith. Would the youngest Doctor ever live up to all the hype? Well, yes, actually, he would, and then some. He looks like an old man in a young man’s body, and he really does have the whole mad professor thing down. Smith feels like the Doctor from the get go, but the moment that this new Doctor really hits his stride is when, having defeated the aliens, he calls them back to make sure they never return. As he stood there, wearing his newly-stolen costume, and simply said, “Hello. I’m the Doctor. Basically...run.” I have to admit to having rather large a nerdy grin on my face. I loved David Tennant, but he really didn’t cross my mind until an image of him popped up on screen. The dynamic between Amy and the Doctor, as he’s the imaginary friend who let her down and then turned out not to be imaginary after all, will be interesting to watch develop over the course of the series.
Above all, it was great for Doctor Who to be just good fun again. I’ll be reviewing every episode of this series, so come back next Tuesday to see if Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and the whole series live up the promise of ‘The Eleventh Hour’.
A nerd as the lead of the BBC’s flagship Saturday night show? It really is so very good to have Doctor Who back.
Catch the new series of Doctor Who Saturdays at 18:15 on BBC1
Interesting take on the first episode of Matt Smith as the Doctor. I certainly agree that Matt Smith is doing well, although, in my opinion, he has a wee bit to go before filling David Tennant's shoes. Can't wait for the next addition to this series of articles!
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