"Doctor Who"

Doctor Who “The Pandorica Opens” Review

Doctor Who “The Pandorica Opens”

All season long, I’ve had the sense that we weren’t watching 13 different episodes, as much as we were watching one long 13-part episode.  This feeling was born out by this week’s opening segment, as a number of the people the Doctor has met over the course of the year help get a message to the Doctor, via River Song.  The message is, the TARDIS is going to explode, creating the Cracks in Time that have been appearing all season, and it’s happening now!  That, in itself, was pretty entertaining, but that was just the start of the Greatest Reunion in History.

After the Doctor and Amy follow the clues to River’s location, first century Britain, surrounded by Roman Legionnaires, they discover that the Pandorica, the prison cell of the worst, most dangerous creature in the universe is hidden under Stonehenge.  And it’s about to open up.

I have to say, the hints about who and what was actually in the Pandorica were so obvious, I knew it had to be a red-herring in some way.  All signs pointed to it being some future version of the Doctor, finally sealed away by a universe that was sick of him playing God.  So what we had was a series of clues that all implicated the Doctor, but a narrative device that meant it couldn’t possibly be him without being the lamest, most hollow reveal ever.  The brilliance of the true story came from the fact that both theories were correct.

As a counterpoint to the happy cameos from earlier in the episode, it seems that every monster or alien race the Doctor has ever fought arrives to claim the Pandorica for themselves, giving the Doctor the chance to give another “Don’t F**k with me!” speech.  As he did in the Eleventh Hour, Matt Smith delivers a pitch-perfect warning to his enemies, letting his history do the fighting for him.  A lot of references have been made this season to all the past versions of the Doctor, and everything they/he have done.  Now we can see why that’s been.

Another “too obvious” storyline presents itself when Rory, Amy’s time-lost fiancé, arrives, having apparently fallen through the Crack in Time to this era where he’s been living as a Roman soldier.  Ironically, even though he managed to survive the ordeal with his memories intact, Amy was not so lucky, and doesn’t recognize him or remember his existence.  Once again, we seem to be presented with an all-too-typical trope, rendering the character’s death mute, and we fully expect a happy ending as Amy eventually remembers who Rory is, thanks to the “power of love” or something.

And that’s when it all goes to Hell.

Because when River Song tries to move the TARDIS to the Doctor, it mysteriously carries her to Amy’s home in the present.  There, River discovers that the whole scenario of the Roman soldiers and Pandora’s Box have come from Amy’s childhood home.  While at the same time, the Pandorica finally opens, and its true purpose is revealed.

The destruction of the universe is played a little differently than in, say, “The End of Time,” where a bombastic narrator reveals the stakes upfront and we watch everything spiral down into madness.  Here, the situation is played more as a mystery.  We are told there is one problem (or really, several) but by the end, the real nail-biting cliffhanger comes from a scenario no one saw coming.  So the impact is slightly lessened, as we were promised one thing and handed another.  But the actually event was so horrifying, especially for the Doctor, you really don’t even care.

This was the type of cliffhanger that leaves you absolutely clueless about what could happen next.  Indeed, it appears literally nothing COULD happen next.  And yet, we know there is another episode next week.  Smartly, they chose not to include a preview of scenes from the season finale.

This was an exceptionally well-done, balanced episode, where all the characters get their moments to shine in equal measures.  No one character or monster overshadowed the story or anyone else, right down to the final moments, when everyone had their “Oh, s**t!” moments.

Typically, Doctor Who has had a hard time coming back from the first part of their season finales. Typically, everything comes to a head and the world blows up (literally or figuratively) and then the next episode has to put everything back together in a somewhat forced manner to close out the story.  Hopefully, that won’t be the case this time.

Until next week.

Doctor Who “The Lodger” Review

Doctor Who The Lodger

The Doctor has been just about everything.  Explorer, Scientist, Teacher, Lover, Fighter, Grandfather, etc.  And now we can add Wacky Roommate to that list.  In arguably the most Doctor-centric episode since the first of the season, we get to see what it’s like to live with the Doctor.  Or more appropriately, what it’s like for the Doctor to live with you.

The origin of the concept is no different than that of any companion.  People typically meet the Doctor when his world “invades” theirs.  The only difference is that those who choose to live with him for any length of time then have to enter HIS world, and in effect become lodgers in the TARDIS.  The dynamic shifts completely here.  This is almost like “the Doctor on vacation.”

Craig’s reaction to the Doctor is pretty expected.  At first it’s all fun and games with the wacky Doctor, putting on a show and being entertaining.  But don’t you just hate when people come into your life, and out perform you at work, get along better with your friends, and just generally do a better job of living your life than you do.  And the fact that they are so likable that you can’t actively hate them only makes it worse.

In a way, this story reminds me of “Love and Monsters,” only better.  For one thing, the Doctor’s actually in this episode.  But like L&M, this one shows what it’s like to try and be normal in the Doctor Who Universe.  Something that struck me was that throughout Russell T. Davies’ run, the Doctor made several references to his inability to live a normal life, and how that made him feel sad.  But here, we get a Doctor that is not so bogged down in his feelings of isolation, like a little kid standing outside your window in the snow, eternally outside looking in.  None of that, just a good Doctor having fun and kicking butt at being normal.

This was probably Matt Smith’s finest performance since episode 1.  All season long, I’ve regretted that Smith just hasn’t seemed as daffy or assertive as I generally like my Doctors to be.  I like my Doctors to say ridiculous, off the wall stuff that makes perfect sense in retrospect, and I like to see them charging around, getting stuff done.  But Smith has generally been a more passive Doctor.  Perhaps the absence of Amy helps.  Maybe she manages to overshadow the Doctor in some way, with her forceful personality.

Whatever the case, this was a much stronger performance than I’ve come to expect.  I knew that Smith had that zany wackiness inside him this whole time.  Maybe that’s why it’s bugged me that he’s been so average the whole year.

The idea of a busted ship acting as the villain is something we’ve seen before, but it came as a bit of a surprise this time.  As did the all-too familiar design of the console room.  Hopefully we’ll learn more about it later.

This episode did a marvelous job of making the Doctor seem strange and alien again, while at the same time cementing his actions in real world scenarios such as taking a shower and going to work.  A really great Doctor-heavy episode.  Just what we needed.

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Doctor Who “Vincent and the Doctor” Review

Doctor Who Vincent and the Doctor

It’s been said that the best episodes of a TV show are the ones that stray from the typical formula.  “Vincent and the Doctor” follows this line of reasoning, in that this was a very differently structured episode from others of the season.  For one thing, the “monster” was not the main focus.  That’s where the Winston Churchill episode faltered a bit, for me, with all the attention going to the Daleks.  In these famous-people episodes, the fun is seeing the Doctor bounce off history’s greatest players.

Vincent Van Gogh is someone with whom I am not well acquainted.  However, either by virtue of the actor or the writer, I came to like him very much.  As most famous people do on this show, Van Gogh is depicted as someone who sees beyond what normal people see.  Oftentimes this doesn’t go much farther than being able to see past the Psychic Paper, but there is almost always the idea that they see “more.”

I think what makes this episode so haunting is that you know Van Gogh’s fate going in.  Despite all the good moments and the happy state they leave the painter in, I was pretty much expecting what we got.  The tragedy you see coming a mile away is almost always more impacting than the sudden and unexpected, and it stays with you longer.

The idea of a blind monster who is also invisible was an interesting choice for an episode about an artist, where seeing is so important.  This almost felt like one of Steven Moffat’s monsters, like the Angels or the Vashta Nerada, were part of the terror is that you can’t see them coming.

I’ve been surprised with the shear number of references to past Doctors in this season.  Not only the slideshow in the first episode, but the library card that the Doctor flashed to the girl vampires.  Now we get another shot of the first Doctor.  I wonder if there is some point beyond simply tightening the connection between the different series.

I enjoyed the relationships between the characters immensely in this episode.  While I always liked Rory, he didn’t really fit in well with the others.  But here, you get a real sense that Vincent is a kindred spirit with the Doctor and Amy.  The three of them holding hands under the stars was very strong, and I almost hoped that they would just keep Van Gogh with them.

In the end, I’m glad Vincent’s fate was not regulated by being a fixed point in time, or some other such mumbo jumbo.  It somehow strengthens the inevitability by it not being strictly inevitable.  And it makes it all the sadder, and more real.

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Doctor Who “Cold Blood” Review

Doctor Who Cold Blood

It’s almost difficult for me to judge this episode fairly, as it hits on a number of tropes in fiction which annoy me.  Single-minded military characters, whose answer to everything is to simply kill, even when there is no threat or reason, bother me.  As do humans who panic and ruin a good thing by acting so stupid, even when they know better.  Also, deaths caused by pointlessly sacrificing one’s life to save a character who is about to save themselves.

But beyond that, this was a very exciting episode that had me on the edge of my seat, pardon the cliché.

The Doctor’s explanation about fixed points in time almost had me believing that the Silurians might actually come out of hibernation, especially since the Cracks in Time leave an easy out for erasing the events later if they don’t line up with future episodes.

The fact that the Doctor is a little more proactive in this episode is satisfying.  This season he’s become a bit more of a “reactor” running and escaping as opposed to standing and fighting.  Sure, he does plenty of escaping in this episode, but he also manages to solve all the problems at the end in rapid succession, while still walking away with a vital clue as to the mystery of the Cracks in Time.

The death and/or erasing of Rory was kind of a downer.  If he had to go, I would have preferred a little more emphasis on him this time.  But, again, the nature of the Crack makes me think that he could be brought back in some way later.  But I suppose this way we won’t have to deal with any guilt or sadness from Amy.

The Silurians made for compelling enemies, especially after they introduced a few more characters.  Usually, these types of stories work best when you agree with both sides.  However, the “bad guys” in both groups kind of made it to where I wasn’t rooting for anyone at first.  But the kindly elder of the Silurians, along with Moe and his son’s reactions to Ambrose’s actions salvaged things for me.

The hopeful ending (for humanity and the Silurians at least) helped smooth over the rough patches, while the twist for the Doctor is very intriguing.

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Doctor Who “The Hungry Earth” Review

Doctor Who The Hungry Earth

After last week’s “character heavy” episode, it was nice to have one that focused primarily on the plot.  This one was pretty typical: humans are trying to get someplace they don’t belong, they tick off the natives, and action ensues.  I think what sells this one for me is the strength of the characters involved.

There’s quite a lot of them this time.  The boy, his mom, his lost dad, the old man, and the plucky scientist.  Each one manages to achieve a distinctive personality and a fully fleshed out back-story, without the whole thing being about them.  They fold into the plot nicely, and work well with the Doctor and his companions.

Despite being almost distractingly attractive, this could almost count as an Amy-lite episode, although her absence is what drives the plot for the Doctor and Rory.  I suppose it’s that void that allows the other characters to deepen in a way that other supporting players haven’t this season.  Perhaps that why this season has, at times, felt a little weak, the lack of focus on the native people in each area.  It’s those people that help make the stories real.

We just barely scratch the surface of the main plot (pun unintended), but that really doesn’t matter.  It’s that feeling of dread and the unknown that makes this episode work, and I’m sure the build-up will help make the Silurians seem more dangerous next episode.

I have to admit, I don’t know much about these guys, but having grown up on Edgar Rice Burroughs, I have a great affection for lost civilizations hidden deep underground.  Also, my favorite types of antagonists are those who are not simply evil for the sake of being evil.  The best ‘bad guys’ are simply people whose view-point disagrees with your own, and who are slightly more willing to kill to prove their point.  And even though we haven’t seen much of the Silurians yet, I suspect that’s the type of villains they are going to be.

The best Doctor Who stories I’ve seen manage to combine the large with the small.  A race of reptile-men trying to conquer the planet?  Large.  A family alone in a village trying to survive?  Small.  But each storyline feeds the other so well.  The invasion gives the family’s struggle an epic feel, but it’s the family’s viewpoint that makes the invasion relatable, and moves it beyond just another monster-of-the-week episode.

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Doctor Who “Amy’s Choice” Review

Doctor Who Amy’s Choice

The typical problem with this type of episode is that you always know which is the real world and which isn’t.  The real world is obviously the one where the status quo is exactly like the previous episode.  But with a time travel show, you just don’t know.  I wouldn’t have put it past them to make the Pregnant Amy world the real one and actually have it as an “Epitaph One” sort of scenario, like Dollhouse did.  But the actual truth of the matter was even more surprising, but like all good surprises, it makes perfect sense when you retrace your steps.

Each story could have been a separate, if maybe a little dull, episode.  The Doctor, Amy and Rory in their village being attacked by the elderly and the trip trapped in a busted TARDIS.  But putting them together in such a manner elevates what could have been a cliché premise.  And it works that in each world, you get a little info into how the character’s think.

That’s probably the best part of the story; we get into the characters’ heads.  We get a great peak into how the Doctor’s mind works.  Or that is to say, we found out we’ve BEEN getting a great peak this whole time.  I’m definitely going to have to rewatch the episode.

The Dream Lord was a great villain in that regard.  And I hope we get to see more of him.  I, too, thought I recognized him and his style throughout the episode, like the Doctor did, but I just couldn’t figure out why.  I hope he doesn’t go the way of the Head Master from “School Reunion,” never to be seen again.  He just has so much potential.  Of course, they’d have to come up with a different game plan for him next time.

The direction was excellent this time around.  I love how they actually made use of the multileveled TARDIS this time around, when the Dream Lord kept bouncing all over the place.  Rory and Amy looked suitably aged in the one world, while looking a ton younger and more vital in the TARDIS.  Even the Doctor looked a little more shaggy and twitchy in the future world.

For actually getting into the character’s heads, I’m going to say that this is my favorite episode of the season, thus far.

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Doctor Who “The Vampires of Venice” Review

Doctor Who The Vampires of Venice

Probably the thing I liked least about the “Rose Years” of the first few seasons was the sad situation of the character Mickey.  Mickey was Rose’s boyfriend, who was constantly being left behind by Rose as she went off and played with (and eventually fell in love with) the Doctor.  It even got to the point where the characters themselves started actively picking on Mickey and making fun of him.  Now, that’s really only funny when a character is pompous and full of themselves.  How is it funny to mock a guy who already has confidence issues?

When I heard about Rory, Amy’s boyfriend who gets left behind while Amy goes and plays with the Doctor, I got worried.  However, in this episode at least, the whole situation plays out a little better.

I think, for me, it helps that instead of just standing there letting things happen, this time around the Doctor actively refuses to have another busted relationship on his conscience.  And so he takes Amy and Rory on a romantic date, figuring that his companions always lose sight of the real world with him, and so if he takes Rory with them, he and Amy will stay on the same level.

Also, while Rory IS used as comedic relief, WE are the only ones laughing at him, which really helps keep the Doctor and Amy from looking like jerks.  Also, Rory seems to have a bit more backbone, and his accusation that the Doctor’s problem is that he makes people a danger to themselves because they want to impress him and be worthy to travel with him was true.

The Fish-Vampires were good villains, even though I found it a little odd that so many of their quirks matched up with actual Vampire lore, such as the reflections and the sunlight.  Real vampires do exist in the Doctor Who universe, right?

The Silence returns as a theme-concept, connected to, yet possibly distinct from, the Cracks in Time.  Are the Cracks the cause of the Silence (or vice versa) or does the Silence have an independent cause, only using the Cracks as a means to travel?  The concept of the Silence destroying worlds kind of reminds me of when the Daleks were stealing planets, and we kept getting mentions of lost worlds all season.

All in all, that was a satisfying episode.  I’m glad Amy wasn’t oversold as a companion again.  And it’s good that Rory seemed to be included with open arms into the group.  The fact that the Doctor is trying to keep Amy and Rory on track makes him seem like a good guy, as opposed to being indifferent to the “domestics” at best.

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Doctor Who “Flesh and Stone” Review

Doctor Who Flesh and Stone

A few weeks ago I proposed the theory that this season’s “Bad Wolf” would be a countdown.  The first episode of the season was titled The Eleventh Hour, and the second episode featured a character called Liz 10.  But the third episode had a ton of numbers (although a strong reference to the number 8), so I just let it go.  Funnily enough, this episode did use the notion of a countdown, so maybe I was on to something after all?

I think Amy wins the award for “Slowest Companion Ever.”  Did anyone else get annoyed that it took her forever to do anything she was told to do?  Close your eyes, wait here, start walking.  She pretty much fought the Doctor the whole way.  And since the whole point of walking to the Doctor was to trick the Angels into thinking she could see, did it really make sense for her to keeping screaming out that she couldn’t see?  I know she was panicked, but still…

And while I’m sure a number of fans are ticked at all the sexual stuff going on at the end of the episode, I have to say I liked it, mostly because that was the more energy and personality than Amy has had in the last few episodes combined.  And anyway, the Doctor reacted exactly like you’d expect him to.

The story of River Song is getting more and more ominous.  We learn that she was imprisoned for killing “a very good man.  A hero to many,” which seems to imply that she kills the Doctor.  It would make sense if it happens the first time she meets him, as she died when he first met her.  However, I really hope that’s not the case, because while that is an interesting notion, it reminds me too much of Wilf in “The End of Time.”

I will say that Alex Kingston is a great actress for her ability to pull off a “younger” version of River.  When you compare the two versions we’ve seen, this one is a lot less mellow and in control.  The previous (her future) version was much more mature.

The additional information about The Cracks was appreciated, as opposed to waiting all season to find out what they are and what they mean.  It was also good to finally nail down Amy’s timeline, as we learn the night she runs off with the Doctor is this year.  My only problem with that is, with all the time jumping the Doctor did in the first episode, it’s kind of convenient that the “latest” time period was now, with everything else being in the past.

Also with timing issues, the Doctor claims to be 907, and since he’s aged one year for every season of the show, that means we’ve skipped over a few years.  My guess is the time period between when he lost Donna and when he regenerated took up several years, which is cool, since that’s tons of unexploded territory for later Tennant stories to address.

The Weeping Angels seemed to have lost a little something in my mind.  They were scary when we didn’t know much about them, and we only saw them once.  But now that they’ve been taken out of context of the episode “Blink,” they come off as typical monsters.  I think giving them the ability to talk, through any means, humanizes them too much, and makes them less scary.  Also, they changed their M.O. from killing a person by sending them back in time, to just simply breaking necks.

For me, the ending made this episode.  The new bits of River Song’s story were just as intriguing as you’d expect, and Amy’s decision to simply jump the Doctor instead of dancing around the issue was unexpected and refreshing, and the Doctor’s reaction was priceless.

Also, a little thing, but did anyone else find the scene where the Doctor comes back to reassure Amy a little odd?  For one thing, his sleeve seems to be rolled up, despite being down before and after the scene.  Also, his line “You are going to have to START trusting me,” seemed a little pointed.  I’m wondering if maybe that wasn’t some Doctor from the future, coming back to plant seeds that will bear fruit in the final episode.  But I’m just speculating at this point.  Feel free to join in.

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Doctor Who “The Time Of Angels” Review

Doctor Who The Time Of Angels

Last week’s episode concluded the typical Doctor Who New Companion Opening Trilogy, wherein the Doctor meets a new companion in the present, and then takes them on one trip into the past and another into the future. So, by the schedule, this episode should have been about Amy returning home to find out how things have changed in her absence (or how she herself has changed in the Doctor’s presence).

Instead, the new team continues their streak of trying to hit you with everything they’ve got upfront, in hopes of blowing away any naysayers. And it works.

This episode succeeds where the last one didn’t in that everything in this episode is a toy Steven Moffat himself invented, so any changes and additions he pushes can’t really be argued with. Changing up the Daleks last week was an odd move that was clearly meant to tie into something later in the series, so we were left in the lurch as to what comes next.

However, when it comes to the character of River Song, we pretty much know going in that we are going to be clueless, so we don’t have to stress about it so much. If Moffat has one easily definable strength, it’s that he is great at coming up with new and clever uses for time travel. Just watch his classic “Time Crash” episode to see how he takes the tropes of genre, and twists them all around. River’s message to the Doctor was brilliant because, really, it didn’t matter WHEN he found it, just so long as he did. And he had all of history to do so.

River Song gets her credit established almost instantly when she shows she knows more about the TARDIS than the Doctor himself does. And her comment about learning from the best “while the Doctor was out,” could be taken as a funny joke, but knowing them, it might be true. She could very well have learned from the Master or anyone else. It’s fun to speculate.

But even when River shows the Doctor up, he still proves that he’s the Doctor when he identifies the planet by sight and smell alone. I’m also noticing a theme in that wherever the Doctor goes this season, people know who he is. Liz 10, Churchill, and the Priest. Oh, and the idea of Clergy as Soldiers was just another pleasantly daft idea that you can only get in Doctor Who.

Also, I’m loving the little ideas Moffat has about the Doctor that he just throws out there. Like that, to the Doctor, no one is really dead, as he can always go see them. And that the Doctor uses museums to keep score of his own record.

We learned a little more about the Weeping Angels this week, and nothing that contradicts what we’ve seen before. We learn how Angels are born and a few more tricks they have. This all helps move them from one-time adversaries into full-fledge monsters with their own mythology.

One problem I’ve always had with two-part episodes is that they always feel a little padded out, like there’s always stuff they could have cut, but not this time. The episode moved so fast, especially the bit in the caves, that I didn’t even realize it was a two-parter until I looked at the clock and said “There’s no way they can wrap this up in under a minute!”

So now we have to wait another week to see what happens next. I suspect we’ll be getting more info as to River’s story, and from the previews, we’ll be getting more about The Cracks. Certainly a step up from last week.

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Doctor Who “Victory of the Daleks” Review

Doctor Who Victory of the Daleks

Kill your enemies with kindness.  One of the most insidious ways a villain can get the job done is by making people believe he is actually the good guy.  The Daleks, among the worst of the worst villains ever, pull this trick out of their hat and send the Doctor a bit off the deep end, making it appear he is the bad guy.

This ranks pretty high on the list of Dalek episodes for being such an atypical one.  This obviously isn’t the first time the Daleks have used subterfuge to get their way, but it was their end goal that made this one different.  Instead of trying to kill everything in sight, they simply wanted to escape, drop back and regroup.  Coupled with the image of a Dalek offering up tea and you’ve got a wild Bizarro episode on your hands, which is exactly what the production team wanted.

However, there are little bits of other stories in here.  Time-displaced Dalek’s rebuilding themselves into a new form is similar to the plot of “Evolution of the Daleks,” the difference being that this time the change is permanent.  Although I have to admit, I found the new “Power Ranger” Daleks a little less than satisfying.  I know, they look like the movie Daleks from the 60’s, and perhaps the different colors denote different areas of specialty or rank.  Still, the Gold Daleks from the last few years will always be my favorite.

Also, the Doctor being put in a situation where he is forced to choose between destroying the Earth and the Daleks in one blow, or letting the Daleks leave, was pretty similar to the dilemma of “Parting of the Ways.”  However, the fact that it wasn’t used as the climax of the episode, simply as a way to get from point A to B in the story, makes it okay.  I still would have liked a reference to it, maybe when the Doctor says the Daleks knew he would choose Earth, have him say “I always choose Earth,” or something.

The missing history of the Daleks was an interesting twist.  A while back, Steven Moffat was asked about reconciling the various histories of the Daleks, pre- and post-Davros, and he said that such a thing was unnecessary, as Doctor Who is a time travel show, so history is constantly changing anyhow.  He probably had this episode in mind when he made that statement.

The Doctor and Winston Churchill made a great pair.  Churchill’s running gag with the TARDIS key was hilarious, and I wish we had seen a little more of them playing off each other.

Amy and the Doctor split up again, which was used to great effect.  Once again its Amy’s human side that sees something the Doctor doesn’t, allowing her to save the day.

I was surprised to again see the Doctor lose his cool, as he did last week.  If they aren’t careful, Smith is going to be known as the “freakin’ist out” Doctor of them all.

And seriously, a World War II plane fighting a Dalek ship in outerspace?  It’s just this kind of crazy imagery that you can’t get anywhere else but Doctor Who.

But, everyone loves a good Dalek episode, and this certainly was a good Dalek episode.  Amy learns that the Doctor has arch-enemies, and that it won’t be all fun and games traveling with him.  I like this running theme of Amy learning something new about the Doctor in every episode.  Goes well with the overall theme of the season.

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Doctor Who “The Beast Below” Review

Doctor Who The Beast Below

Amy’s first trip with the Doctor carries them both to a massive spaceship that carries all of England through space, but the thing that lives below raises some very difficult questions about how far one is willing to go to survive.

The Doctor is a maniac.  One thing that’s been different so far about the Eleventh Doctor is that he’s once again this unknown element.  You never know what he’s going to say or do next, and he talks so fast it’s a wonder anyone can keep up with him.  The way he wrings his hands when he’s presenting their new location to Amy makes him seem like some mad scientist.  The fact that he has so many different things running through his head at the same time is believably displayed as he plays hopscotch with about four ideas in one conversation, constantly jumping back and forth between them.

Once again, Amy is able to prove how important it is for the Doctor to have a companion.  Luckily, this comes off differently than it has before, as when the Doctor rains hell and fire on his enemies and someone has to rein him in.  This time there were no real enemies, just a difficult choice to make, with the Doctor being blind to the best answer because he chose to see the worst in everyone.

The whole episode had a very realistic feeling, despite being set on a starship in the future.  That’s probably the biggest difference between this series and the last.  I think when the show came back from “hiatus” a few years back, a lot of emphasis was placed on the “normal” that existed in the weird situations the Doctor found himself in.  That’s why they always spent so much time on the companions’ home lives, or showing that no matter where you go, people still deal with the same stuff.  I think the emphasis was to show that Doctor Who wasn’t just for “geeky fanboys.”  And now that they’ve done that successfully, the show can open up and be a little weirder and return focus more to the fantastic and bizarre, those really wild ideas that make Doctor Who so astounding.

Little stuff:  I like that, when Amy says the Doctor looks human, he responds “No, you look Time Lord.  We came first.”  That ties into fan-cannon which holds that the evolution of the Doctor’s race, the Time Lords, effected many others, explaining why so many races in the universe look human.  They actually look Time Lord.

The character of Liz 10 was entertaining and not at all what I was expecting.  I love it when important people know who the Doctor is, and actually want his help.

I also thought the TARDIS looked a little better this time.  Maybe it was that they didn’t focus on the little stuff like the typewriter and hot-and-cold pipes that bugged me last week.  From the wide-view, it was much easier to appreciate how impressive the new control room is.

I like that Amy is still running around in her nightgown, like Wendy in Peter Pan, continuing the fairy tale theme from last week.  Also, Arthur Dent from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy spent the first three books journeying through space and time in his pajamas and bathrobe.

Did anyone else notice the beginnings of a countdown to something?  The last episode was titled the “Eleventh Hour,” and this episode had a new character named Liz 10.  Also, both episodes featured the number zero prominently, with Prisoner Zero in the last one and the young boy’s grade of Zero in this one.  I might be reading too much into that, and will probably have to wait to see if a Nine and a Zero show up in the next episode before going all “conspiracy theory.”

This started out as a typical adventure, but got pretty freaking dark and tense there at the end.  I was kind of surprised they went that way so soon in Smith’s run.  I would have figured it would be a while before they had him freak out on anyone.  But then, I would have thought it would be a while before the Doctor’s worst enemies, the Daleks, showed up and apparently they’ll be on the next episode.  I suppose they are trying to get as much good stuff as they can up front to keep people interested long enough to accept Smith if they haven’t already.  Still, it was surprising to see the “goofy” new Doctor display so much anger and disappointment.  But it was still great TV.

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Doctor Who “The Eleventh Hour” Review

Doctor Who The Eleventh Hour

The Doctor is dead.  Long live the Doctor!

Matt Smith, officially listed as the Eleventh Doctor, crash lands on Earth shortly after his violent regeneration, and into the backyard of Amelia Pond, a young Scottish orphan living in an English village, who just happens to have a crack in her wall that leads to an alien prison.  After going through some post-regeneration wackiness, the Doctor helps Amelia seal up the crack, but not before a shape-shifting monster known as Prisoner Zero sneaks into her house.  The Doctor hops into the TARDIS to stabilize its engines, promising to return in five minutes time, but accidentally arriving 12 years later, to find an adult and very ticked off Amelia waiting for him!

If you’ve seen Doctor Who before, especially any episodes written by Steven Moffat, you might recognize a few classic tropes.  Moffat, this episode’s writer and the new executive producer, reuses the set-up from his classic episode “The Girl in the Fireplace,” which shows the Doctor time-traveling to various points in a woman’s life, first as an imaginary friend when she’s a child, and then again to save her life as an adult.  There’s also a little bit of “Smith and Jones,” the first Martha Jones story, which has a group of alien police arriving on Earth to catch an escaped criminal, only to end up being more dangerous than the criminal itself.  The thing that elevates this episode beyond cliché is that these story lines are not treated as interesting in-and-of themselves, but only as ways to show off the main characters.

Amy, the grown-up version of Amelia, has the potential to be the most interesting companion ever.  The fact that she’s known the Doctor her whole life, constantly dreaming that he’d return for her, gives her an edge no other companion has had.  Traveling with the Doctor is something Amy has literally waited for her whole life.  Plus it gives her a connection to other fans out there, who have probably spent chunks of their own childhood wishing the Doctor would land in their backyard and take them on an adventure.

Her dynamic with the Doctor is interesting because she is almost the dominate one in the relationship, or at least she tries to be.  The Eleventh Doctor drops the previous version’s geek chic look for pure geek, even going so far as to wear a bow-tie.  He projects this attitude of being a silly nerd who would be easily run over by a woman like Amy, only to prove that in his world, when the aliens invade, he is in charge.

I think some of the silliness and borderline immaturity of the new Doctor will wear off soon enough.  In the meantime, it is great to see a Doctor who again enjoys himself, and doesn’t seem to be hiding a deep sadness all the time.  That was getting pretty old.

Also, it was Moffat who introduced the idea of a future Super-Doctor in his “Silence in the Library” episode.  This leads me to believe that he’s made his Doctor take a step backwards on purpose, so that when he eventually does grow into the Super-Doctor, the change will be even more dramatic.  We get a shot of this when the Doctor finally confronts the Atraxi, the violent alien police, in the episode’s climax.  Smith’s whole demeanor changes on a dime, and gone is the silly nerd, replaced by a dangerous and uber-confident Doctor.

The only part of the episode that let me down was the redesign for the TARDIS interior.  Whereas the last version looked like some kind of cool alien cathedral, this new control room looks like the inside of a video arcade to me.  I liked that the older TARDIS console had lots of random crap lying on top of it, making it look lived in, but now that the random crap is PART of the machinery, the whole effect makes it look a little childish.  I suppose one could reason that the TARDIS was so badly damaged it had to incorporate all that random stuff as spare parts, but still…

This was probably my favorite episode of Doctor Who in a long time.  I think the best word is “refreshing.”  New Doctor, new companion, new style, everything was new and exciting, with the focus entirely on the Doctor and the adventure, as opposed to spending lots of time establishing the companion’s home life, as has been the norm of late.  Smith’s Doctor shows all the potential to be the most shocking and entertaining Doctor ever, and this new era for the show is a great chance for fans to jump on board and see why Doctor Who is one of the most popular and longest-running sci-fi series in history.

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