Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour
David who?
Matt Smith: wonderful. A greater Doctor than Tennant or even Eccleston, on tonight's evidence. Whether he can beat Baker T or the mighty Bill Hartnell remains to be seen, but it's obvious why Moffat and Wenger cast him with such confidence.
Karen Gillan: a splendid performance, and the relationship between Amy and the Doctor seems well-pitched, with just enough spikiness to stop it all getting too cosy.
Caitlin Blackwood also deserves a mention. Wasn't she great? Part of me wishes she had been the companion. The part above the waist, admittedly.
Olivia Colman as a Doctor Who villain! Hooray!
The story... ah, the story. Lots of good bits, but somehow it didn't seem to take off. In Confidential, Moffat talks about Amy growing up obsessed with this imaginary friend, then suddenly he turns out to be real. That sounds like a good story - I would have liked to have seen that. To do so, the episode would have to have been much more from Amy's point of view, but instead it mostly adopts the Doctor's point of view, and that made it all seem a bit underwhelming. The aliens never seemed like a terrible threat, there wasn't any strong logic underlying their actions, and they weren't terribly good fun. Maybe if they'd killed off a few people they would have seemed like a bigger foe. Doctor Who is usually best liberally seasoned with the deaths of innocents: Moffat has delighted in being the exception to this in his stories for Russell T Davies, but I think we need a bit more of a bodycount now.
In the ranks of season openers, it comes below Rose, Smith and Jones, and Partners in Crime. It's better than New Earth, but then so are most things.
Still, the new cast are great, the new look is great, and there's clearly no shortage of ambition in the creative team. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.
Matt Smith: wonderful. A greater Doctor than Tennant or even Eccleston, on tonight's evidence. Whether he can beat Baker T or the mighty Bill Hartnell remains to be seen, but it's obvious why Moffat and Wenger cast him with such confidence.
Karen Gillan: a splendid performance, and the relationship between Amy and the Doctor seems well-pitched, with just enough spikiness to stop it all getting too cosy.
Caitlin Blackwood also deserves a mention. Wasn't she great? Part of me wishes she had been the companion. The part above the waist, admittedly.
Olivia Colman as a Doctor Who villain! Hooray!
The story... ah, the story. Lots of good bits, but somehow it didn't seem to take off. In Confidential, Moffat talks about Amy growing up obsessed with this imaginary friend, then suddenly he turns out to be real. That sounds like a good story - I would have liked to have seen that. To do so, the episode would have to have been much more from Amy's point of view, but instead it mostly adopts the Doctor's point of view, and that made it all seem a bit underwhelming. The aliens never seemed like a terrible threat, there wasn't any strong logic underlying their actions, and they weren't terribly good fun. Maybe if they'd killed off a few people they would have seemed like a bigger foe. Doctor Who is usually best liberally seasoned with the deaths of innocents: Moffat has delighted in being the exception to this in his stories for Russell T Davies, but I think we need a bit more of a bodycount now.
In the ranks of season openers, it comes below Rose, Smith and Jones, and Partners in Crime. It's better than New Earth, but then so are most things.
Still, the new cast are great, the new look is great, and there's clearly no shortage of ambition in the creative team. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.