The Eleventh Hour

So we start where #TheEndOfTime left off, with the newly regenerated Doctor hurtling to Earth in the TARDIS.

 

In fact he's worse off than when we last saw him, because now he's hanging out of the door...  

He clambers in but the TARDIS has another jolt and sets off again.
 

50dw50 ‏@50dw50  i wish they production team had stuck the the original idea of having the Doctor first seen popping up in the garden

New title sequence. Looks good, if a bit too cloudy rather than spacey.

 

DDG ‏@dalekdudeguy  It's a Scottish time vortex!

As for the theme, not really my cup of tea. Have never liked that extra choral bit that actually fundamentally alters the theme.

The Space Pirate ‏@Space_Pirate_73  Yeesh. When are they going to replace ol' MG? For the love of GOD

 I actually love most of MG's stuff & this episode in particular has some of my very fave stuff in. But he's never really done a satisfactory version of the theme as far as I'm concerned.

A little girl prays to Santa to send someone to fix the crack in her wall & the TARDIS crashes into her garden shed. 

The new Doctor clambers out of the TARDIS, soaking wet. 

"I was in the swimming pool."
"You said you were in the library."
"So was the swimming pool." 

Smith's brilliant right away, from "Does it scare you?" to "Don't wander off," and "Steering's off. Early days." 

He's Tom Baker style otherworldly eccentric rather than "look at me, I'm wacky" eccentric. 

50dw50 @50dw50 its amazing to see how quickly he got it

Tim @parks8472 Agreed; he needed to comes out of the gate strong to stake his claim to the role and I think he did a great job

The Space Pirate @Space_Pirate_73 and wonderfully, it doesn't FEEL like he is trying too hard. Just seems SO natural for him!

Though arguably after this series writers started to straight-jacket him with the "tawdry quirks".

The Space Pirate @Space_Pirate_73 A lovely actor, though, always made the very best of even the most unimpressive material.


Definitely. I feel sorry for him that things were never quite as uniformly fresh and consistent after this series.

Jason McLaughlin @jangomac72 · Didn't take to Smith when announced but from first few mins of #The11thHour he completely won me over and owned the role!

On the day of his announcement, his name suddenly started cropping up in BBC news reports which was very suspicious but they kept playing a clip from the Ruby in the Smoke (because it featured Billie presumably) in which he seemed to be doing a terrible mockney Tennant inpersonation which filled me with dread. But then when he appeared on the announcement show & did that mad finger waggle thing, I was sold. 

I got a real "as barking as Tom Baker" vibe, so I was more accepting then. The fact *he* chose the bowtie was a good sign, meant he had good instincts as to what was right for him, and right for the role; the best post-regeneration story since Power of the Daleks, easily better than all the other 21stC Doctors got.

Angela @margitan ·  I was instantly sold on Matt Smith within minutes of the opening. Wonderful season starter.

The Doctor connects with the fairytale-named Scottish orphan, Amelia Pond. 

 

Fishfingers & custard. 

"You've had some cowboys in here. Not actual cowboys, though that can happen." A Tennant line into a Smith one.

Love this creepy "corner of your eye" stuff; obviously shades of Blink in that. 

The Doctor opens the crack for a peek at whoever's proclaiming that Prisoner Zero has escaped. It's a giant eyeball!

"Trust me, I'm the Doctor!" We've totally accepted him by this point.

 

The TARDIS is playing up so he just needs to go back in and fix the engines. He'll just be a minute... 

So little Amelia packs up all her stuff and waits in the garden for him to return. And waits... and waits...

But there's someone in the house...

The TARDIS reappears and it's day time. The Doctor runs into the house, having figured something out but he fails to notice the garden has become rather overgrown in "five minutes", and is smacked over the head. 

In the hospital, dopey nurse Rory has clocked that a bunch of coma patients are all mumbling "Doctor"...

The Doctor awakes to find a young policewoman has handcuffed him to a radiator. She says Amelia Pond's not here.

Rory has actually seen the coma patients wandering around the village & has papped them on his phone.
 

He's not as clueless as he seems, but no one will listen to him.

The Doctor makes the policewoman count the doors. There's one her mind doesn't want to see...

She still won't uncuff him, but goes to investigate the mystery room. 

She finds his sonic screwdriver, and a slimy snakey alien lurks behind her.  

50dw50 @50dw50 its quite a creepy scene


The Space Pirate @Space_Pirate_73 Moff brings the terror home again..

"It's a pretend radio, I'm a Kiss-o-gram!" Not your average companion...

Prisoner Zero is a shapeshifter, it seems, and has taken the form of a man & his dog.

The Space Pirate @Space_Pirate_73 Every man and his dog has tried to invade earth....you knew that was coming.

It's a bit thick, though and makes the man bark, then show a row of needle like teeth.

The booming voiced eyeballs are back & threaten to incinerate "the human residence" unless Zero surrenders. 

They rush to the TARDIS, but it's locked, undergoing its own regeneration...

50dw50 @50dw50 the shape shifting seems very random really, it still works though, i quite like this story, its a great start for 11

The Doctor realizes it's been 12 years, not 6 months, and the kiss-o-gram is the same girl...

Nick Briggs does brilliant work on the show but it was nice to have a different alien voice for once.

It always seemed pretty obvious to me that "the human residence" meant Earth in general. I've just watched too much #DoctorWho!

"I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt." Great line. 

Seems everyone in the village knows about "the Raggedy Doctor"

So he's got 20 minutes to stop the Earth being incinerated; no TARDIS, a knackered sonic screwdriver...

Or as he puts it "I've got 20 minutes to save the Earth and I've got a post office... and it's shut."

50dw50 @50dw50 she must have bored the arse off the locals with the story

Love "Doctor-vision" when we see the Doctor's recall of everything he's observed.

The Doctor has realised what Rory's doing is the key. Amy says he's a "friend", he says "boyfriend".

MAW Holmes @MAW_H ·At the time, did you expect to see more appearances of Annette Crosbie's character in later episodes…?

It crossed my mind that she might be an older Amy or something, but I don't think I expected her to really recur if not.

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · I suppose that I thought then Leadworth was going to be the new Powell Estate…

The Doctor tries to draw the attention of the eyeballs by zapping all the village's lights with his screwdriver.

But true to form, the screwdriver blows up, so Zero escapes down a drain. The Doctor decides he needs Jeff's laptop.

"Blimey. Get a girlfriend, Jeff." The Doctor can count himself lucky Jeff has his keks on.

 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · Post-watershed "Who Later" - too raunchy for primetime...

The Doctor sets up a video conference with Patrick Moore & pals then leaves Jeff in charge. Is that wise? 

Amy & Rory are at the hospital; the Doctor's on his way. "I've commandeered a vehicle!"

Olivia Coleman's voice comes out of a little girl. "Oh I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I? I'm always doing that." 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H ·  "I'm in everything…!"

The Space Pirate @Space_Pirate_73 

What about the Doctor Who 50th? Nah, couldn't get a look-in

Prisoner Zero watched Amy grow up over 12 years. Creep.
 

Zero knows more about the Doctor than it could do just from Amy, though.

"The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know... The Pandorica will open, and silence will fall..."
 

"Silence will fall" was great in series 5. In series 5.

DDG @dalekdudeguy · It was really interesting but by the end of Smith's era it really had become old.

The Space Pirate 
what's your problem? We only had to wait three years for the resolution!

It was great until Moffat decided what it was then couldn't make it work. The Silent creatures were great but the church etc. were a rubbish idea that never paid off in any satisfying way. Was great as a mystery.

The Doctor's cleverly pointed every electronic device on Earth at Zero's location to bring down the Atraxi. 

Zero copies Amy, with the Doctor holding her hand as default.

Angela @margitan ·  "Well, that's rubbish, who's that supposed to be?" That's you". "Me?! That's what I look like?!  Loved that, lol.

Sometimes it's like Smith gets all the credit for #The11thHour but it's a *brilliant* script from Moff.

The Doctor forces Zero to impersonate itself from Amy's memory & the Atraxi swoop ... 

The Atraxi are en route for a rooftop showdown but the Doctor takes time out to "do a Pertwee" & nick clothes from a hospital.

DDG @dalekdudeguy · He really does have a bad habit of stealing of stealing clothes from hospitals. 3rd, 8th and 11th have done it so far.

"You are not of this world."
"No, but I've put a lot of work into it." 

Great montage of monsters here... then all the previous Doctors. (Well, almost all... but that's another story). 

 

In a lot of ways that Logopolis-style montage is a massive relief, as the "new" show unashamedly embraces the "classic", something it still hadn't fully done until perhaps The Next Doctor with it's showing of classic Doctors confirming that John Smith hadn't just been dreaming in Human Nature. 

James Smith @thejimsmith ·  It's 1st time it's unequivocally shown that Smith is 11 and thus Eck 9 *in his own mind*. Without this War Doctor easier. Odd that Moff's (brilliant) retcon would have fitted more easily in RTD era, main contradictions come from his own work!

The info stamp shows all the previous Doctors, from info nicked from the Daleks - Now he might not have called himself the Doctor, might've shielded his mind in his own flashbacks (this and Nightmare in Silver, for example), but he'd be right there in Dalek records, surely?


James Smith @thejimsmith ·  Maybe no Dalek saw the  War Doctor and lived to tell the tale!



Ha! Neat!

And with the Atraxi sent packing, the new TARDIS is ready... a Willy Wonka vision in orange. 

Not what I'd've personally chosen but seems so right for this series at least. Can't imagine another version fitting series 5.

The TARDIS runs in its new engines, and brings the Doctor back to Amy in the middle of the night... 2 years later. 

Amy's waited long enough & finally she gets to go off in the TARDIS with her Doctor.

She's a little suspicious, though, and he's definitely got one eye on her crack...

So she leaves behind Leadworth... and a wedding dress! Seems in the 2 years since Prisoner Zero she's got engaged. 

Such an enjoyable episode, full of promise and an absolute belter from both Smith & Moffat. I'd imagine if you can't take to Smith then your mileage would vary considerably...

TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... The Hand of Fear