In the first episode of the fifth series of Doctor Who, the Eleventh Doctor crash lands in the front yard of a young Amelia Pond, where the curious child shows the Doctor a crack in her bedroom. When they find out what is on the other side of Amelia’s wall, it ignites an adventure that spans fourteen years. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Doctor Who.
With Steven Moffat now at the helm of Doctor Who, I was completely shocked how new all of this felt.
The show looks absolutely gorgeous. GORGEOUS. I know that the specials were filmed in HD, but even streaming them on Netflix wouldn’t do them total justice. This show looks so crisp now, but it’s also not the only thing working in it’s favor. As the reigns have been turned over to Steven Moffat, he’s also created a story and, with director Adam Smith, a visual episode that is quite literally unlike any Doctor Who episode of the past. There are so many new-ish camera angles or technical devices being used for the first time. (The scene where the Doctor “examines” the people in the village green is SO AWESOME.)
I’ll talk more about the story, but the real gem of “The Eleventh Hour” is Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. There has to be an intense period of anxiety when new companions and, most especially, a new Doctor arrive on the show. It took me less than ten minutes to be smiling from ear to ear. Matt Smith is the Doctor, in his own way of course. What I enjoyed most about his introduction is that he’s not so radically different that we’re unaware of his past. There are visual and dialogue cues to a lot of David Tennant’s Doctor, included the already-missed, “WHAT???” that I loved so much.
But Matt Smith is absolutely different. He’s kinder, in a way, and much less prone to bouts of serious rage like Tennant was. His story is different, though, and I think that context is totally important. When Davies left the show, he tied everything up. (Not necessarily well, but I don’t see any of the old companions or the Time Lords coming back.) So, after traveling alone for so long, he’s become much more at peace with himself. He doesn’t have the same burdens he’d been living with for the past four series. In this sense…Matt Smith is very refreshing. It’s a breath of fresh air into a show I already liked.
Knowing that Karen Gillan was going to be Amy Pond for series five, I was completely taken by surprise at the way the next companion was introduced. The Doctor meets her as a child. A CHILD. Which is not only a great way to compose this story, but Caitlin Blackwood totally knocks it out of the park as young Amelia Pond. Amelia’s life is lonely, having to live with her aunt in that giant house, and I imagine she was left on her own often. When the Doctor arrives, perfectly coinciding with her prayer to Santa to have someone help her with the crack in her bedroom, Amelia seems to have no fear when she meets the Doctor, only a puzzled sense of wonder over this frazzled, soaking wet young man. What’s so wonderful about this is that Moffat sets this opening scene in a way to allow us to explore the Doctor’s new body and personality as he is doing the same thing. I imagine that I will revisit the scene where the Doctor tries to figure out what he likes to eat a million times in the future. It is full of silly, goofy joy, and perhaps the best way to introduce this new Doctor that I could think of.
Watching Amy and the Doctor interact was a real treat and I imagine there wasn’t someone in her life that she could trust so intrinsically until the Doctor showed up. Which meant that once the Doctor realized what was going on and that GIGANTIC EYE peered through the crack in time and space, I wondered how the show was going to deal with the fact that Amy is an adult companion. Moffat does so in a painfully heartbreaking way: The Doctor must repair the TARDIS and promises Amy he will return in five minutes to help her out. She excitedly packs her adorable suitcase, throws on her jacket, and plops it down in the yard where the TARDIS once stood, patiently awaiting the Doctor’s return.
He does return to that house in Leadworth, a brand new TARDIS in hand, but it’s twelve years later. TWELVE YEARS. I’m reminded of “Love and Monsters,” which Moffat also wrote, but this episode doesn’t feel as rushed (or problematic) as that story. Still, Amy had a lot of pent-up anger and frustration after people doubted her sanity (and I’m sure she did, too) because the Doctor disappeared for so long. TWELVE YEARS. Holy god, she sat there on her suitcase all night. I JUST WANT TO HUG YOU, AMY POND. As an adult, though, Amy is a take-no-shit kind of companion. Not necessarily in the same vein as Donna Noble, as Donna was far more vocal and abrasive than Amy seems to be, but she’s quick to stand up and assert herself when necessary.
But this wouldn’t a Steven Moffat episode without some sort of childhood horror being exploited for our own personal terror. Prisoner Zero looked a little too computer-generated to me, but the effect was still the same. The creature existing in the corner of their eyes, using perception filters to both hide in someone peripheral vision or to appear out in the open while camouflaging as other beings, is SERIOUSLY CREEPY. Also, when people would open their mouths with Prisoner Zero’s teeth? NO, THANK YOU.
Moffat also does something unexpected here by having the people in Amy’s life recognize the Doctor. Generally, in a situation like this in fiction, the character is forced to suffer through this alone, but I found it touching that Amy’s friends and family recognized the man from Amy’s alleged “stories.” I do get that it was frustrating for Amy, though, because, quite literally, no one believed her. But it also gives us a chance to get to know Rory better as well. I did not think that he was at all connected to Amy and assumed he was just a side character that would probably die in the hospital, but I WAS SO WRONG! I’ll do just like I did with Mickey and BEG FOR MORE RORY. I’m unsure exactly what his relationship with Amy is, but he makes me laugh and I think it would be neat for the Doctor to have two companions again. LOOK IT IS JUST AN IDEA. I can dream, right? (Also, I’d like more of Jeff as well. Thank you.)
The “twenty minutes” that the Doctor has to save the world feels somewhat closer to an hour with as much action that Moffat stuffs into the climax of this story. Still, it’s great to see the Doctor in a frenzied state of purpose so early into series five. I think that, time issues aside, it was smart of Moffat to structure “The Eleventh Hour” in this manner. The first half is much slower, reflexive, and thoughtful, especially as we get used to our new Doctor. But the second half is the Time Lord in action, programming computer viruses, capturing Prisoner Zero, and confronting the Atraxi with a wonderfully emotional set of images from Doctor Who‘s past.
“The Eleventh Hour” ends on a strange note, but still excites me. I wasn’t surprised that the Doctor asked Amy to travel with him on the TARDIS, but seriously…two years??? Two years? Oh my god, I would be PISSED, especially after the last time. But it’s new beginnings for the Doctor, with a new sonic screwdriver and a new TARDIS (THAT IS ABSOLUTELY FUCKING AMAZING ON THE INSIDE), and a new companion. Who he has to get back the next day. Because it’s her wedding. WHAT. Is she marrying Rory?
Oh god, I am so excited for series 5.
THOUGHTS
- Custard and fish sticks. My god. That almost sounds…delicious?
- “Wrong with me? It’s not my fault, why can’t you give me any decent food? You’re Scottish, fry something!”
- “That’s bacon! Are you trying to poison me?”
- “No TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare…Who da man? Alright, I’m never saying that again, fine.”
- “I’m the Doctor, I’m worse than everybody’s aunt!
- “Am I people? Do I even look like people?”
- “Yeah, it’s cool, bow ties are cool.”
- “Did he just bring them back? Did he just save the world from aliens, and then bring all the aliens back again?”
- What the fuck is the Pandorica? It didn’t seem to phase the Doctor. Did he not recognize the term either?
- I love that we get a new TARDIS, a new Doctor, a new companion, and a new sonic screwdriver. This is really all Moffat’s show, now.
- Ok, I totally saw the shape of the crack on that waveform device. WHY WAS THAT THERE. omg i totally saw the clues omg
- Y’all, I am so excited for Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. You were right. It’s hard not to love them after just ONE episode.
There are several lines in this FANTASTIC episode that I remember hearing for the first time and gradually making me fall in love with Matt Smith’s Eleven.
At “Maybe I’m having a craving…That’s new! I’ve never had cravings before” I went from neutral to liking him, but still unsure.
Then the exchange with little Amelia about the swimming pool being in the library made me grin and I decided I definitely did like him.
“You’re Scottish- fry something!” made me laugh out loud. I really like this eleventh doctor! And I’m allowed to laugh at that, cause I’m half Scottish, so it’s fine!
“Am I? Good. Funny’s good” Yes, Doctor it is! Apparently all I need to decide that you’re still the Doctor is a laugh!
Then he said “You know what I think? Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall”. And that was an amazing moment for me. This Doctor is funny and silly…but he’s still adventuring and saving the day and, ack, just still being him!
“You know when grownups tell you ‘everything’s going to be okay’ and *you* think they’re probably lying? … Everythings going to be okay” *raised eyebrows, worried look and hold out his hand*. Eleven was being frank and honest, a grown up, fatherly figure…and yet there was something inherently childish about talking about ‘grownups’ as though he didn’t count as one, and holding out his hand for her. He feels old and young- alien but human…
“Am I people? Do I even look like people? Trust me, I’m the Doctor”. At that point I remember that I sighed and murmured ‘yeah, yeah you ARE the Doctor!’ involuntarily. The sweetness in his voice, he was so caring and fatherly and still so alien. He took the time out of running around to save the TARDIS to get Amelia to trust him. I loved Eleven from that moment on.
And finally- the BAMF moment. From the “I’ve put a lot of work into it” line to the “Are these people a threat?” and “Have these people broken any laws according to the Atraxi?” and then the “Ask yourself- what happened to them?” Matt Smith’s Doctor was a total BAMF. When he stepped through Ten’s face after the previous Doctors montage it really solidified with me that this guy was still the Doctor. Different, but exactly the same, *really*. And he is a brilliant Doctor, too. “Basically…run.” Yeah… this guy will do just fine!
I could talk about Amelia/ Amy (love her with all my heart! What a BAMF!) and Jeff (hahaha! :D:D) and Rory and the old woman and the general plot, but I’ll leave that to everyone else. My opinion on it all- love. Love love love. The new theme- brilliant! It’s the first one I think of when I hum it randomly nowadays. The new TARDIS- Beautiful! So exciting! And the new screwdriver- GREEN! It’s GREEN! 😀 😀
Geronimo! Allons-y! ;P
About the Doctor's BAMF moment… Is it just me or does matt smith come across as way more Bad Ass than Tennant? Certainly a lot more nine than ten about him. Maybe it's the somehow less OTT performance despite being far less slick and, for lack of a better word, coordinated.
It's not just you, Eleven is Da Man, even if he can't deliver that line. 😉
I think when you try to yell alot it takes away from the impact of it. Nine hardly ever yelled but I would want to mess with him the least. Course it might just be that he's a bigger guy, but there's something to staying calm when a giant spaceship that can destroy a whole planet is trying to intimidate you.
Nah, it's not just you.
Oh no. It's definitely not just you. *happy sigh*
Agreed 100%! Eleven's quiet "Basically… run." is somehow much more effected than Ten's OTT, bared-teeth, scenery-chewing righteous anger. There's something in Eleven's eyes (oh God, HIS EYES!!!) that says "this guy is DEAD SERIOUS, even if he's smiling at you".
The thing about Matt Smith, is he manages to make himself look very old. I don't mean physically, but the way he holds himself, and a look in his eyes, it can be more intense than just a 26 year old. Tennant could do scary, as well, but it was rarely a cold fury.
Oh yes, totally! Matt Smith can alternate between a very old ancient alien and an excited six-year-old. 🙂
"this guy is DEAD SERIOUS, even if he's smiling at you
There's another perfect example of this, and I wish I could mention it- but it's from later on.
I think I know what you mean, and yes – it sent shivers down my spine. Awesome subtle acting from Matt.
I'm deleting this just to be on the safe side, sorry.
Ah, yeah- that's okay. I can see your point. ^^
Oh yes… I know what you mean. *shivers happily*
Actually, no. This is my singular problem with Matt Smith.
Just so you know, I specifically upvoted you because I find it bizarre that you'd get down-voted for your opinion.
The Doctor wouldn't approve, y'all.
Thank you! I wish I didn't have to say explicitly that I LOVE MATT SMITH. I just don't think he does quite as graceful a job as Eccleston and Tennant of integrating the Doctor's many contradictory aspects into what feels like an organic whole for me. He's a GREAT actor, and does a smashing job as the Doctor. I just don't feel the scary. Which is probably OK, because I doubt Eleven is meant to be as scary (as others have rightfully commented in response to me elsewhere).
Dammit internets.
I agree with you about everything, except I greatly preferred the old Tenth Doctor theme. But the show? Matt Smith? Karen Gillan? I LOVE THEM ALL.
Since you finally watched a Matt Smith ep, I feel safe not being a spoiler-er by posting this!
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/angelsgirl114/Mark%20Verbs/DoctorsSorted.jpg">
😀
Also, I like the Doctor screwing up trying to come back to Amy. It's like Girl in the Fireplace but happier. (I like it as in I like the story, not as in "I bet that was a really great thing for Amy to deal with as she grew up.")
Eleven as a Hufflepuff?!?! :D:D:D I'm a Hufflepuff (well, as much of a Hufflepuff as a muggle CAN be!) and that would be so cool to have someone so awesome to be accepted as a Hufflepuff 😀
And Rory. Pretty sure Rory is a Hufflepuff, too.
Rory's DEFINITELY a Hufflepuff.
God I love Rory.
He reminds me of my ex fiance. Personality, not looks. And Amy reminds me a bit of me. At least, more than any other companion so far. I'm not going to go into why for spoiler reasons, obviously. Suffice it to say, this season can be uncomfortable for me to watch in places.
Definitely! And a downright adorable Hufflepuff too.
I'm probably going to get ker-pwned into the middle of next week by SOMEONE, but… I like Rory a LOT more than I like Amy. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate her or anything, but there was a lot of "MORE RORY" for me.
That's completely legitimate. I love them both for different reasons, but I'd seriously take Rory home to Mum, if you know what I mean.
I love Rory! I don't know how far you're in series 5 so I won't go into full detail of why. =p
Badgers in the house! Whoo!
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm quite happy to claim Matt Smith's Doctor as a member of the house of Helga. We've known for years that bow ties are cool. 😉
Your comment totally just reminded me of the video of Matt from this past winter where he talks about how much he loves badgers, haha. What a coincidence.
Badger pride! He can borrow my Hufflepuff scarf anytime he pleases! :3
What? Eleven is OBVIOUSLY a quirky Ravenclaw! 😀
And on a similar note, is Karen Gillan not totally Lily Evans?
Well, I say Amy Pond is Ginny Weasley. But Karen herself could be either, I guess.
I agree, Amy has the "no nonsense action girl" quality that was typical of Ginny.
Amy is definitely Ginny in another universe.
Nah, she's way more like Ginny in my head. 😉
Hrarrarmarm, I dunno, I feel like Ten is a lot more Gryffindor than Ravenclaw. Gryffindor or Slytherin, flashy houses them. Haven't the slightest for Nine.
Eleven is the cutest quirkiest Hufflepuff 😀
With Ten's mixed feelings about violence, I doubt he's a Gryff. 😉 I think Ravenclaw is a better fit.
Ya but remember what Jenny said in the Doctor's Daughter about being like a soldier? Ten seems very Gryffindor to me.
If Twelve isn't a Slytherin, I will be really disappointed.
Well failing that Seven makes a good one.
That may be, but it doesn't fit with the whole consecutive order thing they've got going on right now. If Eight had been a Slytherin, though, it would totally work!
There's always the Master and the Valeyard 😉
Ah, but they're not incarnations of the Doctor. ;P
Well… has Mark watched Trial of a Time Lord? Is that safe to discuss?
I think that's part of the reason why we are doing 😉 faces! 😛
Ahhh! Are we sorting the Doctors now? I'd say Smith is deffo Ravenclaw. He's got the clever professor thing going. Tennant's Gryff, – the most idealistic of the three, whereas Eccleston's more of a Hufflepuff. In my opinion!
This counts as expectation spoilers, so I have to delete it, sorry.
Whoops, sorry. :/
I'd argue Ten is one of those rare (mostly good) Slytherins. He's motivated in large part by selfish concerns and often takes an "ends justify the means" approach that hurts quite a few people unnecessarily.
You are so right. Especially with Ten's complicated feelings on weapons (Guns are bad, I'll just blow you to smithereens and call myself moral!) I can't understand him being Gryffindor. I think Nine is, kind of like Lupin.
THIS so much- i can't see how Ten is anything other than a Slytherin. Especially near the end. He's cunning and has an agenda. He knows about how to get his hands dirty. He is incredibly judgmental. He takes care of his own above others. He was always one of those people who says their sorry (so, SO sorry) as if it's a post-hoc absolution of having done something despicable, regardless of whether needs must.
Definitely a Hufflepuff.
<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldy34gNbdq1qd8m2go1_r1_500.gif">
HOW IS HE SO ADORKABLE? IT DEFIES WORDS AND EXPLANATIONS. <3
I just giggled like a maniac… in the library. THANKS FOR THAT GIF, AND THAT I CAN'T RIGHT-CLICK-SAVE IT RIGHT NOW. D:
I love the video that gif is from so much. Matt Smith is just too cute for words.
I hadn't seen the gif or video and had to go find it immediately.
It made me want to watch any and all Doctor Who Confidentials ever. Immediately. There goes my night. Ah well.
It'll take more than a night to watch all Doctor Who Confidentials ever, since there's nearly as many hours of Confidential as there is of new Doctor Who. It's fantastic.
Fair point. But perhaps I'll have a start.
Did I just die of happiness? Someone come check my pulse, I NEED A DOCTOR!!!
Symptoms to check:
– have you recently found yourself afflicted with inexplicable headaches?
– how about blackouts?
– are you glowing?
– can you sense all of time and space in your head?
– can you sense every atom of the existence of your enemies?
– do you now have power over life and death?
If you exhibit 3 of the following 6 symptoms, you may need a Doctor.
You have no idea how much better you have made my afternoon. 'Twas a dreary one before I read this!
YAAAAY!
Now I have this stuck in my head.
I'm going to pretend that flash video has secretly been about HP THIS WHOLE TIME.
You mean like this?
Technically, all the Doctors should be Ravenclaw due to their quick wit and awesome smarts.
But 10 is my Doctor, so I'll happily accept him into my house!
So, Ravenclaws are the only one who are witty and smart? I don't think so! 😉
Well of course not! Just take a look at Hermione. But can you blame me for being selfish and wanting all of them?
Hermione, Lupin, various Weasleys, McGonagall, Dumbledore….. (Nanceoir, you read my mind!)
So THAT'S why I like Tennant so much! 😉 Have always identified with Ravenclaw.
I love Matt too, though, don't get me wrong.
You need to do one with the master in Slytherin
I did not make this, sorry, I thought it had a footer on it saying where it came from but now I see that it does not. It's from here. Adding the Master as a Slytherin would be great!
The good thing about everyone debating which Doctor goes where is that since they're all the same Doctor, all of the debaters are right! Best fandom argument ever?
PS I did not make this, I wouldn't even know how! I thought this had a footer saying where it came from, but it does not. It is from here. I suck at attributions =P
At last, at long last. 😀 This is my favorite series, Doctor, and other favorite companion (tied with Donna), Mark, so prepare for lots of love from me in the days to come. Eleventh Hour is also my favorite series opener, by far. I liked the others a lot too, don't get me wrong, it's just that I love this one so much more.
This is a long one, even more so than my Blink review, so brace yourselves. I love this episode and have watched it a million times and I never get tired of it, so naturally I have a lot of ~thoughts~ and ~feelings~ on it.
This is kind of an unpopular opinion in the fandom, I think, but I actually really like the new opening credits and theme music arrangement. Maybe it's bias because it's my favorite series? Possibly, though I do also like the dark and stormy look of the vortex here, and I'm not convinced that Murray Gold has ever done a bad song, so there is that too.
After Eleven's harrowing flight over London, we cut to a quiet backyard at night, and are introduced to young Amelia Pond. She's praying to Santa, hoping that she didn't wake him, because she figures he hibernates after Christmas. HOW IS SHE SO ADORABLE, I CAN'T EVEN STAND IT. And as if in answer to her prayers, what should come plummeting down from the heavens but a 1960s police box, crashing into her backyard? Naturally, our intrepid heroine must investigate, and investigate she does, arming herself with a flashlight, a coat, and her own bravery.
I love the scene in the garden with them, I really do. Moffat is fantastic at writing kids, and I can see already that Eleven is great with them. His interaction with Amelia here is so freaking cute, they play off each other wonderfully. Additionally, I may have said during TCI that I didn't like the big speech Ten gave on not knowing who he was yet. I'm just not terribly into long speeches like that, YMMV of course. However, I have the opposite reaction to "I don't know yet. I'm still cooking." It's short, simple, gets the point across without dragging it out, and is just made of cute, to boot. Matt Smith's delivery is flawless; I love him as the Doctor. PREPARE TO HEAR THIS A LOT.
The scene that follows, in the kitchen, is hands down one of the funniest scenes on the show IMO. Caitlin Blackwood has some of the best "WTF" expressions I've ever seen, and Matt Smith is just brilliant with the physical comedy. The highlight for me is him throwing the plate of bread and butter out the door and shouting "And stay out!" I lose it, every time. I can empathize with his frustration, too: I've had those times when I was so hungry but absolutely nothing sounded good, and I tend to get cranky when I'm really hungry. Never resorted to fish custard, though (and am unlikely to in future as I'm a vegetarian). It's such a weird choice of food, and yet so Eleven. XD I'm as impressed as he is with Amelia, it really must be a scary crack if she'd rather stay downstairs making various foods for a weirdo like him than go upstairs and show him that thing, despite her having prayed to Santa to send someone to fix it. Also, I love that she is eating ice cream straight out of the carton with a big ice cream scoop. Because that is exactly the kind of thing you do when you're all alone and being naughty and no one's there to see! And she knows the Doctor's not going to get on her case about it. Extra layer of cuteness!
It seems a bit obvious to say so, but this episode was the start of my deep love for Amy Pond. Sometimes companions take a bit of getting used to, but in Amy's case I adored her right away. She's sassy, smart, and brave, but that's not all – underneath is a person who's been hurt, badly enough that they put up walls around themselves for protection. Amy can make me laugh, or make me cry, but I'm never bored watching her.
(cont)
What really sealed it for me, really made me intrigued, was the scene where she has the Doctor handcuffed while she pretends to be someone else, all in order to mess with him as payback for breaking his promise all those years ago. Not only was she quick-thinking enough to use the literal tools of her trade for this performance, but she had the presence of mind to keep up that fake accent until he was freaking out about the shed. Which is well after they started being threatened by Prisoner Zero. Unlike Reinette, who was able to move on with her life in between the Doctor's sporadic visits, Amy has had to deal with serious psychological fallout. While chiding him for being twelve years late, she reveals that she was sent to four psychiatrists after their meeting, all of whom she bit for refusing to believe that he was real, that she really had had that experience that night.
When we first meet the young Amelia Pond, she has already been damaged by the failure of adults in her life to keep their promises: listen to the bitterness in her voice when she says "People always say that" in response to the Doctor's promise of being back in five minutes. Just seven years old and she has already learned the awful lesson that sometimes people just leave, even when they say they'll be back, that even adults can't always be trusted – how sad is that? The Doctor inadvertently makes it worse, of course; believing that he really will be back within five minutes, he attempts to reassure her by asking her if he looks like people, and imploring her to trust him, he's the Doctor. Her little face lights up with a smile that is heartbreaking to see, because we know he's wrong, we know this won't end well, and with a pit in your stomach you watch her run inside to excitedly pack what she thinks she needs for the adventure she's going to embark on. Despite her initial misgivings, she's decided to trust that he'll be right back for her just as he said he would.
But the Doctor doesn't return for twelve years, leaving her once again abandoned, and worse, thought a liar by multiple adults. It's no wonder she takes up that charade when he comes back, no wonder that she's hesitant to call this Rory fellow her boyfriend. If she doesn't let herself call him that, if she keeps herself at an emotional distance, it won't hurt as much if he leaves. To be more accurate, when he leaves. In Amy's mind, it's not a question of if, it's a question of when. Because that's what people do, in her experience. The expression on her face when the TARDIS takes off again following the Doctor's warning to the Atraxi is as heartbreaking to see as Amelia's giddy grin, and it's no surprise to me that when he finally comes back two years later to give her that long-promised trip, he too "looks like people" to her. He didn't mean to, but he proved himself to be just like the people who left her behind, and now he'll have to make up for that and prove that she can trust him.
Also, on the meta level, I love that she is one of us. She made fancomics, did crafts, and even got Rory to cosplay the Doctor. Another lovely, subtle shout out to fandom. 😀
(cont)
Oh, and just as an FYI, I will not tolerate any slut-shaming of Amy due to either her career or clothing choices or whatever else you want to pick at about her. That shit is not cool, not ever, and I am sick of seeing it nearly everywhere else I go in this fandom. Don't bring it here. I don't want to see it and I doubt Mark does either. If you don't care for her character for legit reasons, fine – we're all entitled to our opinions, and I have no problem with that. But making derogatory comments about her wearing short skirts (which was Karen Gillan’s choice, btw), or enjoying watching the Doctor undress, or being a kissogram, etc. ARE NOT legitimate gripes against her as a person. Furthermore, being a kissogram is not the same thing as stripping or sex work, and even then doing those things does not make one a horrible evil person to be demonized. So let's not rag on Amy for these things, all right? I expect better out of you all and hope to not be disappointed.
But I'm getting ahead of myself in the episode flow. To rewind a bit, let's talk about Prisoner Zero. I love the concept here. Not so much the shapeshifting, though that's cool, but in particular the way it hides itself and its "lair", by being just out of sight, in the corner of your eye. The fact that you're only safe if you don't look directly at it: ooh, does that ever tap into my memories. Memories of being a teenager, sitting at the kitchen table in a small apartment at night, all alone because my mother was working late and my sister was at a friend's house… and yet, becoming aware that I was not really alone. That there was someone behind me, just out of sight. I always hesitated a bit before turning around, and when I did, I never saw anyone… but I still felt that presence there. Prisoner Zero is that same kind of thing, hovering just out of your line of sight. You feel so unsettled, and you want to see what's there, but at the same time you don't, not really. Looking at it means knowing what it is, and it could be horrible, and what if not seeing it is all that is keeping you safe? I know that feeling, I've been there. For me, Prisoner Zero isn't just another one of Moffat's “childhood fears made into monsters”, it's an embodiment of very real experiences I've had. I may be an atheist, but I do believe in ghosts, and the way the "monster" in this episode operates reminds me keenly of the things in my life that helped make me believe in them.
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about Eleven, who is the heart of this episode along with Amy. It's impossible to talk about all the reasons he's my Doctor without getting spoilery, but this introductory episode is a pretty good glimpse into why, so I don't mind.
It's significant that we see him still dressed in the tattered remnants of Ten's outfit for most of the episode: it's a visual representation that what he said about still cooking is absolutely true. Similar to TCI, he's not quite ready for all this just after regenerating, he's not fully-formed yet – he says himself that he's not done yet. We can see flashes of the emerging personality – still brilliant and quick-thinking as ever, a bit sarcastic, quirky, perhaps even quirkier and odder, cranky when he's hungry, compassionate, encouraging humans to be their best – but until he chooses his clothes and announces to the Atraxi that he is the Doctor, he hasn't completely stepped into his new self. It's so hectic a first day for him that he has no idea what he even looks like anymore until Prisoner Zero uses the psychic link it's formed with Amy over the past twelve years to copy her and the Doctor – her memory of them on that fateful night.
This will probably sound a little weird, but I love how upset he gets over hearing that Amelia hasn’t lived in that house for six months, over the realization that he broke his promise without meaning to. Eleven is so kind and caring, and it’s so sweet that he really did intend to come back and take her with him. The look on his face when Prisoner Zero taunts him about this failure to keep his word is devastating; you can see the sadness and guilt written all over Matt Smith’s face, he doesn’t need to say a word because it’s all there in his eyes, his expression. This is something I’ll be going back to in future reviews of this series: how much I love Smith’s acting and the way he gets so much emotion across with just a look, and/or through a few words. Some people in the fandom don’t think he’s that great, but I beg to differ. It’s just a different acting style from his predecessors, one that tends to be quieter and more subtle, and it works for me personally much more than the louder, more bombastic style we got with Ten. Obviously, personal preference, but I do think it’s unfair to say that he’s a bad actor. He’s very good indeed, just in a different way from Tennant.
(cont)
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/5pomio.png" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
I don't know what it is about Eleven, whether it's Moffat's writing or Matt Smith's acting or both, but he turns me into such a sap. When he's asking Amy to believe him for twenty minutes, my eyes always well up. I think it's a combination of the dialogue, his delivery, and the music. In that moment, Amy is standing in for all of us – Eleven is asking us all to believe in him for twenty minutes. And you know what? I do, I really do, and for more than just twenty minutes. He has a quality to him that makes me believe, that touches something inside me and inspires me. I love his words to Jeff too, when he tells him to be magnificent. It's hard to put my finger on why it affects me so, but moments like these are why Eleven is the Doctor I'd choose to travel with if I could, more than any other. I know from just listening to him here that I'd believe in him, I'd trust him, that he'd inspire me to be the best I could be and do marvelous things. It sounds so hokey to say, but I fell in love with the Doctor again so many times in this one episode, and these scenes were two of the most significant ones. I love that his eventual clothing choice is that of an old professor, because that's what he feels like to me: a teacher, an old one, in a young (and hot – gotta say it) body. The best one a person could ask for.
We'll never know how he "commandeered" that fire engine, but like the Noodle Incident of Calvin & Hobbes, it's better not to know. 😀 And aaaah, speaking of hotness –
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/o53y86.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/14uf7yv.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
<img src="http://i52.tinypic.com/v5fthd.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
SEXIEST DOCTOR EVER. Of course I was going to post those, how could I not? 😀 😀 😀 I have little in the way of coherent thoughts to share about this scene, because my reaction to Eleven undressing is pretty much exactly like Amy's. Between the two of them, I find it quite easy to get distracted by the pretty when watching this series. Big crushes on both of them. <3 <3 <3 I love how he's annoyed at Rory for being embarrassed, and that Amy just goes ahead and watches. Can't blame her, can't blame her one bit!
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/6og8x2.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
This is my favorite Doctor moment of all, or at least one of them. He's finally got his own outfit together (and yes, bow ties are cool!), he's called back the aliens that threatened to burn the entire planet, and oh so brilliantly told them to get the hell out of here, or they'll meet the same fate all the previous invaders of Earth met at his hands. I love the scroll through all the previous Doctors, culminating in Eleven stepping through the image of Ten and introducing himself: "Hello. I'm the Doctor." The way he sums it all up so simply and perfectly makes me grin too. "Basically… run." Says so much, in just two little words. And it works – the Atraxi can't fly away quickly enough. Yes, Eleven, you are indeed the Doctor. You are my Doctor. <3
I also want to take a moment to once again sing the praises of Murray Gold. Now, I love the music of the previous seasons, but I really think he outdid himself in series five. All through this episode alone, the music has been utterly amazing, with my personal favorite song playing during the scenes I just talked about. It's called "I Am the Doctor", and it is the perfect, perfect theme for Eleven and for this series as a whole too. I cannot get tired of it, and I listen to it at least once every day. It never fails to put a smile on my face.
(cont)
"I grew up."
"Don't worry – I'll soon fix that."
The kind of growing up that the Doctor is talking about here – of losing your ability to believe, your wonder and imagination, the capacity to see the magic in the world, of simply reaching the Age of Not Believing and staying there – it's overrated and to be avoided. Most people will compare Amy leaving in her nightgown to Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and I can't blame them, but for me, the more accurate comparison is the one Moffat makes in the commentary to this episode: Wendy, leaving with Peter Pan in the middle of the night. The Doctor, like Peter Pan, has come to whisk her away from the real world and into a fantastic adventure, to remind her of what it's like to dream, and believe, and wonder. And at the same time, he, and this show, remind us of what that's like. At its best, this show takes me back to those important bits of childhood that you should never lose, and that's why this episode is, IMO, some of the show at its very best.
I love love love the new TARDIS interior. It's bright and colorful and odd and kind of steampunkish, and feels so open, more so than the previous one. It looks like lot of fun to be in and explore. Look at all those stairs and levels, WHERE DO THEY GO? What do all these new thingys on the console do? It's fascinating. Love the new screwdriver too! But there are two things I love even more, if you can believe it: the fact that Eleven and the TARDIS got some privacy (*wink wink* – hey, he did call her "you sexy thing", Doctor/TARDIS IS TOTALLY CANON, PEOPLE) before it was shown onscreen, and that we, the viewers, saw it for the first time with Amy. We saw it through Amy's eyes, and it was worth the wait. It's a truly magical moment, and I feel as wonderfully overwhelmed as she does as we take it all in. The music here is flawless as well, I reiterate that Murray Gold outdid himself this season. This song is called "Amy in the TARDIS" and it beautifully captures that sense of wonder, that magic, and is the scene embodied in a single, perfect song. That it goes into a reprise of "I Am the Doctor" at the end, as they take off on their adventures together at long last, is the cherry on top of this aural sundae.
Hello everything, indeed.
ILU and your feelings! I don't have time to write up a long review, so I'll just say THIS to all of this. <3
I agree with everything. I love reading your comments, they're always so well thought out. Thanks for taking the time to write this all out for us!
Eleven and the TARDIS got some privacy (*wink wink* – hey, he did call her "you sexy thing", Doctor/TARDIS IS TOTALLY CANON, PEOPLE)
Between that and the "Thanks, dear" on receiving the new Sonic Screwdriver? TOTALLY CANON! 😉
All I can say about this comment is that I wish I could give it so many more upvotes. This is what I wanted to say only said far, far better.
haha omg I love that you wrote an entire essay. Upvote upvote upvote!
You articulate all my feelings so well, you're brilliant.
I don't like Amy's miniskirts because it must be really damn hard to run in them but there have been worse outfits in Doctor Who.
See, to me miniskirts, leggings, and some really comfortable boots are like, the ultimate actionwear. Light, legs covered, feet well protected. I'd have chosen the same thing, were I (lucky enough to be) Karen Gillan.
Personally, I would have gone with jeans, sutible trainers and a light t-shirt. You're right, running in short skirts isn't that difficult, but I'd like not to have my legs exposed. Besides, she's not wearing heels like some female companions have.
That's why you need the leggings!
This so much. I run around in the same thing, and I'm set. I've got ankle support, freedom of movement, and the Power of Cute.
I defy anyone not to love teal knit leggings.
I think miniskirts are easier to run in than jeans, because there's nothing like, constricting your legs. I MIGHT BE WRONG THOUGH.
Another thing is that I think comfort is also important if you're doing a lot of running/action-packed adventures, and I definitely think skirts tend to be more comfortable than jeans/pants.
Epic comment. Both in content and in length!
I love you so much sometimes. You expressed everything I feel about his episode a billion times more eloquently than I ever could. <3
I love this comment and do not know why I cannot upvote every piece of it a million times.
Doctor/TARDIS IS TOTALLY CANON, PEOPLE
THE BEST SHIP EVER
hahahaha I see what you did there. 😀
My hand hurts from trying to upvote you a million-billion times. I get really tired of people bashing Amy.
Also: "Haha, Gotcha!"
This post could not be more accurate. Especially the bit about Amy – I LOVE HER so much. I didn't watch the 5th series till about a month ago, and marathoned all the episodes within two days, and I was totally shocked when I came online and found a bunch of people hating on Amy because of how she dressed, or because she was a kiss-o-gram (and other spoilery reasons).
I just find that ridiculously silly. I get it if you don't like a characters personality, but not liking someone because they like to wear skirts is…weird. That's like saying you don't like Eleven because her wears bow-ties.
Anyways, your thoughts are my thoughts (though much less jumbled haha).
This, ALL of this. I love and share your adoration for Eleven =]
I'm basically just repeating everyone above me but I LOVE YOUR COMMENT! Honestly, this is why I spent less time on Amy in mine, I knew you'd have a much better statement about her than I could have managed.
"Doctor/TARDIS IS TOTALLY CANON, PEOPLE"
Hell yeah!
Loving your huge comment right now. I could have written it myself, but not as well, probably. Amy gets so much undeserved hate in fandom, and thankfully I can usually stay away from it. And Eleven is amazing.
I READ ALL OF THIS AND I AGREE WITH ALL OF THIS AND ALL OF THIS MAKES ME HAPPY AND THINGS.
Was excited to see your review. Not disappointed in the least. =D
Thank you for so eloquently putting into words the sheer brilliance and perfection that is this episode, Eleven and especially Amy Pond. I actually teared up when you started talking about how broken she was and how she expected people to leave her.
Repeating what everybody said but REALLY best comment ever. THIS to. everything. LOVE LOVE LOVE ELEVEN <3 Loooove Amy! Doctor/TARDIS of course it's canon! Aaand! The bit about Peter Pan, yes yes yes!
Awesome review there, Karen! *applauds*
Ooops, I meant arctic_hare. What's wrong with me? 😀
LOL. The mantle of essay-length squee-er has officially been passed, I think.
Another brilliant, perfect review – by which of course I mean your opinion co-incides completely with my own. Looking forward to joining you on the Series 5 Matt & Karen cheerleading squad over the next couple of weeks.
YOU ARE AMAZING. I am probably going to end up inadvertently paraphrasing you, just because THIS THIS THIS THIS.
LOL I LOVE YOU ALL <3 <3 <3
Don't mind me, I'm just amused and flattered and happy that all these nice comments are exploding my inbox. 😀 😀 😀 Thank you all so much!
All I can say in response to this epic, brilliant, eloquent, heart-felt comment of yours, arctic_hare: WORD.
Can I just say that I love reading your reviews, and you have a way of saying things how I wish I could say them. <3
P.S. Slutshaming is the awesomest word ever.
Hi, I just wanted to raise my glass to you regarding the non-tolerance of slut shaming.
Now to read to rest of your comments. 🙂
I think she is supposed to be a stripper since a kissogram is something that only happened in the 80s (although her village does have a stuck in the past kind of feel so it may have just been another old fashioned place has old fashioned stuff joke) and they just couldn't say that she's a stripper on a teatime sci fi program thats nominally for children. Which strikes me as silly since they show kids getting eaten and stuff but whatever.
I completely agree about the slut shaming crap though, it's really worthless and tends to flair up all the time from idiots.
I think strippers are probably too exciting for Leadworth. It seems a very PG rated town.
OH MY GOD LET'S BE BEST FRIENDS. I do not have enough GIFS or a font large enough to express how much I agree with everything you have said here.
Memories of being a teenager, sitting at the kitchen table in a small apartment at night, all alone because my mother was working late and my sister was at a friend's house… and yet, becoming aware that I was not really alone. That there was someone behind me, just out of sight. I always hesitated a bit before turning around, and when I did, I never saw anyone… but I still felt that presence there.
At this very minute I am sitting at the kitchen table, my parents out and my sisters asleep upstairs. And I definitely got this feeling as soon as I read this, ha.
"I don't know yet. I'm still cooking."
I didn't know his name was Buffy Summers.
Cookies! XP
I didn't really think about it before I saw this post, but young Amy was totally nailed. I forget how kid's acting is easily either really flat or really overthetop cheesy most of the time and she's totally the reason I forgot it.
Haha I wrote this after the first part of the comment and then I just kept scrolling through everything else. Well done! But yes, agreeing with all of this.
I meant I read all the other comments too, not just scrolled past them if for some reason that wasn't clear, but I'm srsly impressed you wrote all that.
“The Eleventh Hour” Is probably my most watched episode of DW. It was the perfect start for someone who’d only watched a few episodes of Who here and there and since my epic marathon of series 1-4, it’s established itself as my favourite series opener.
And it all begins with Amelia Pond. I knew I would love her the minute I realized she was praying to Santa and she apologized for her timing. When she hears the crash in her back garden, she isn’t scared or intimidated; she takes it all in her stride. Eleven says it best: “…you're not scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of a box, man eats fish custard! And look at you… just sitting there…” It made me think that a child would be the perfect companion for the Doctor; someone who still believes in magic, someone that can be amazed by the wonders of the universe, someone who isn’t remotely fazed by him being so alien.
I was hoping she would actually become the companion. Her excitement at the thought of leaving with the Doctor in his time machine mirrored my own; her eager packing, her waiting in the garden, her reluctant belief that he wouldn’t break his promise, all of that made me love her character. And, boy was I disappointed for her when that clock began spinning. I couldn’t bear the thought of her waiting in vain.
As for Eleven himself…he’s brilliant.
“Early days. Steering’s a bit off.” Almost everything that comes out of his mouth during the whole episode (except maybe the chewed up baked beans :D) is gold and made me insanely excited to have more of Moffat’s writing come in the future.
“I’m the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don’t ask stupid questions and don’t wander off.”
With just that line he seems familiar and yet totally new; he’s the same bossy Doctor we’ve all grown to love but with a twist. And a great sense of humour/comedic timing. “You’re Scottish. Fry something.” Possibly my favourite line ever.
The sequence in the kitchen is also a great way to introduce the Doctor. It had me in stitches. Finally, I love his attitude with Amelia. He seems to act like a kid himself sometimes but when he sees how much the crack in her wall scares her, he becomes protective; holding her hand, shielding her from view. It made him so endearing to me.
12 YEARS LATER…
*continued*
…and the Doctor gets hit by a cricket bat. When the ‘policewoman’ appeared, I was afraid something had happened to Amelia (slow on the uptake? Me? NEVER!). As soon as she let her hair down though, I knew. By the way, I LOVE her hair. Actually, scratch that. Karen . I LOVE Karen.
<img src="http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss111/christyj12/gifs/Amyshairisjustthatawesome.gif" border="0" alt="Amy's hair is just that awesome Pictures, Images and Photos"/>
“WHY DID YOU SAY FIVE MINUTES? ” Her anger and indignation is so justified, I almost cheered her on. So, little Amelia is now Amy, who has been through 4 psychiatrists (whom she kept biting) and works as a kissogram. At this point I was weary that I liked her more as a child than an adult. I was clearly proven wrong when, despite the imminent world ending, she grabs the Doctor by his tie, locks him in the car and demands an explanation. I think I like you, Amy Pond.
It also struck me how utterly innocent and naïve Eleven seems to be. Him being righteously angry at Amy’s career choice ( “You were a little girl five minutes ago!” ), insulting Rory without a second thought ( “Not him. The good-looking one. ”), his shock at whatever was on Jeff’s laptop-gee, I wonder what that was… ( “Blimey. Get a girlfriend, Jeff. ”). So utterly lovable!
Have I said anything about the actual plot yet? No?
Well, for a start, the plot for me was secondary. I was much more interested in being introduced properly to the Doctor and Amy so I didn’t want to be overwhelmed by a complicated story. I did enjoy how subtly creepy it was what with the corner of your eye/mysterious sixth room thing stuff, Amy’s “…and then it must have jumped on the table. ”, the mixed up voices. The only thing I might complain about is the alien itself. I might have preferred it if we never saw its true form.
I suppose the Atraxi weren’t particularly scary either, though the final showdown was pretty epic. The Doctor trying on his new outfit, his speech about planet Earth, the throwback to previous incarnations. And then Eleven appearing:
“Hello. I’m the Doctor.” Yes, you are, Matt Smith. Yes, you are.
2 YEARS LATER…
…well, damn, Doctor, for a Time Lord you seem to be getting the dates seriously messed up. I felt awful watching Amy see the Doctor disappear again. But he made up for it in the last few minutes. Amy, the girl who waited, has waited long enough.
“I grew up.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll soon fix that.”
The Doctor snaps his fingers (yay!) and we go into the TARDIS-which by the way is so freaking pretty now. And a whole new adventure begins. WITH SPECTACULAR MUSIC. THE MUSIC MAY BE MY FAVOURITE THING OF SERIES 5.
Lastly:
“The Universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall.”
Dun, dun, duuuun! Scary statement. But it only made me excited. Bring it on, Moffat. I can’t wait.
<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/2lawy9y.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
I love the cricket bat and I love Amy. <3
Hahahahahahahaha! I laugh EVERY. DAMN. TIME. Why so awesome, Amy?
And thus Amy Pond did pass the Ace test and qualify as a companion before she'd ever been seen on screen as an adult.
Well, merely whacking something with a bat isn't enough to qualify, but I have no doubt that, given the chance, Amy would pass the Ace test with flying colors.
Ah, but think about it, for Amy the Doctor is the literal manifestation of 12 years of psychiatrists and being regarded as odd by everyone around her (not to mention seeing a giant eyeball behind a crack in her wall). When she sees him she doesn't know if he's real and she's vindicated or if she's utterly flipped. And what's her first reaction? Reach for a bat. Granted, cricket bat not baseball but still…for her that's at least as bad as…. uh… oh sod it, slight spoiler ahead, warning, skip the last word of this sentence if you don't want classic series spoilers…. a dalek?
I love you for posting that gif.
See, I love this moment and yet there is a part of me that goes "Wow, if that was a guy doing that to a woman, it would be SO different." And there's also the part of me that thinks "I know you're angry, Amelia. I would be, too. But smacking him over the head with a cricket bat is OVERKILL." I feel the same way about Lilly's revenge for Logan's drunken kiss.
HA, it took me a minute to figure out what you were talking about in the last sentence there. Yeah that was a bad plan.
"Twelve years, and four psychiatrists."
I don't really blame her; I've even read a fic where other Doctors and companions kept turning up in her life and disappearing just as suddenly, making her doubt her sanity even more. (Especially when timey-wimey was involved).
…Link, now. I need that fic like I need air!
Here, found it!http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=37701From: notifications@intensedebatemail.comTo: laurabev233@hotmail.comSubject: ThreeBooks replied to your comment on Mark Watches 'Doctor Who': S05E01 – The Eleventh Hour
This one? http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=37701
I could swear I've read that one. D: It was really cute. But I can't find it in any of my Good Fic lists.
Ohhhhh Amy's hair <3 <3 <3
Amy's hair deserves whole paragraphs and comments devoted to it. The second time I watched this episode I swear I just stared at her hair, moaning over the fact that mine is nothing like hers!
…I may have a tag on my Tumblr simply titled 'Karen Gillan gimme yo hair'.
Because it's a much simpler way to state the obvious, every time I see a picture of her!
Amy gives me ginger envy. <3
"By the way, I LOVE her hair"
Her hair is seriously gorgeous. I vaguely remember deciding I wanted to dye it the same colour when the very first pictures of them filming came in (I didn't, still a brunette, but one day I might get around to it).
Beans are evil! Never eat beans.
This episode is sooooo quotable. Everything that comes out of Eleven's mouth is sheer madness and pure doctor.
Bad, bad beans… Eleven is so freaking adorkable! All the time, everything he says is so cute.
First of all ELEVEN ELEVEN AMY AMY TADRIS SCREWDRIVER ELEVEN AMY RAGGEDY DOCTOR!!!! I love this episode to pieces. Just to pieces. It cheers me up so much! I hadn’t watched it in a bit so rewatching yesterday was so lovely.
Now, an unorganized review!
I actually was not thrilled with the way this episode started. I mean it wasn’t horrible or anything, just… I don’t know. I wish the credits had been staggered a bit later. If there had been a jump cut between the Loud! Out of Control! Wild! TARDIS + Doctor to Amelia praying quietly in her bedroom, it would have been very cool. Then the credits could have been when she goes to check outside, or maybe when Eleven sticks his head out the box. But it’s still pretty fun. The special effects were just a bit silly when Eleven was dangling off the TARDIS over London, idk.
Love the shiny new credits sequence! Love the old ones, too, I just really love analyzing credit sequences and so enjoy it when they evolve. Anyway, I like the lightning and the TARDIS being out of control.
I adored the introduction to little Amelia! She is precious, right? And the actress who plays her is great. I love the way her and Eleven interact. They are very sweet. I wonder how much of the silliness he was displaying was for her? At the end of the episode when he makes the “Mad man with a box” quip and Amy smiles, he seemed so proud of himself. It reminded me of how they were acting when she was little and I like to think that was what he was aiming for. Trying to get her to be less “grown up” so to speak, which sounds a bit creepy out of context sometimes, but really is just about wanting her to see the world fresh and be less cynical.
I love Amy’s home town. It has such a red white and blue color theme! It’s lovely. Seriously, watch for that. Little Amelia wears red and white clothes and a blue overcoat, the door has red/white/blue glass, the house is predominately blue with red accents (such as her flashlight and the red/white pinwheel), the nurse, Rory, wears blue scrubs with blue + red pens in his pocket, the cars are all red, white (or close) and blue, red telephone box, kids wearing red, the Doctor running around in Ten’s old blue suit, red fire truck, Amy’s nails, red/white/blue everywhere! I love it. I don’t know if there is any particular meaning to it, but I like to think it’s Amy’s Hair + TARDIS outside colors. However, the other thing I noticed was that for the majority of the episode Amy’s police uniform meant that she didn’t fit with the color scheme. Neither did Eleven’s new outfit or the TARDIS interior, which is mostly oranges/browns/green lights. So there are also interesting conclusions to draw from that.
Now, Amy herself. I love her to bits! I love how she both tries to take no shit from the Doctor but also obviously has that little girl part of her that wants to believe him. I love how even when she was little, she was both tough and a little bit vulnerable (like when he asked about her parents, and she looked away and then quickly covered it up.) I love that she totally lies to the Doctor when he shows up. Because you know what? He left her for 12 years! I’d be plenty upset and suspicious, too. When she’s sitting outside on her suitcase it was just ENDLESS SADS because I totally guessed he wouldn’t return in time.
I just adore how in control she is, even when she is totally flipping out. She kept biting people for saying the Doctor isn’t real! The moment where she shuts his tie in the car door is awesome. And the car owner’s reaction to it, hee. I get the impression that the entire town thinks of Amy as the “odd one” who goes around doing things like that all the time.
(con'td next comment…)
This episode doesn’t really scare me in a real fright kind of way, but some of the stuff in it is so creepy. The door opening after Amelia goes by 🙁 🙁 🙁 And when Prisoner Zero is talking about how it was in her house for so long and she didn’t even know it was there. HOW COULD YOU LEAVE HER LIKE THAT DOCTOR Oh right, you didn’t mean to.
I loved the actress who played Prisoner Zero with the two little girls… she had amazing expressions that I wish I had gifs of. Though the best expression in the episode is this one:
<img src=http://i.imgur.com/wAMbq.gif>
I was immediately won over by Eleven. It’s strange, I was much more distrustful of Ten for not being Nine, but I accepted Eleven right away. I think it’s because I had seen more of the classic series by this point and so regeneration was less scary for me. Also, I had been completely unspoiled for Nine’s regeneration but already knew Ten’s was coming from way off, so I was so unprepared. But Eleven really is just lovely, isn’t he? A lot of fun. Although he is totally worse than everyone’s aunt. I liked that he is so uncool, like when he said “WHO DA MAN” and it was instantly a flop. Awkwardly uncool Doctors are the best.
<img src=http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/918/doctorshort.gif>
Also, Amy is ridiculously attractive. I don’t really have any point to go along with that, but I just needed to say it.
I could say so much more about this episode but this comment is already so long! Basically I love it to bits <3 And I'm so happy you love it too, Mark!
for the majority of the episode Amy’s police uniform meant that she didn’t fit with the color scheme. Neither did Eleven’s new outfit or the TARDIS interior,
Oh, that is cool. I'll have to watch for that next time I watch it. Color schemes are a wonderfully subtle way to establish scenes and characters.
I've never really noticed the colour scheme- I'll have to check it out the next time I watch it! Your comment about Amy's nails reminded me of my unholy obsession with her nail polish- I'm not a big nail polish fan but I LOOOOOOVE Amy's nails all season
Unpopular/weird opinion time? THIS IS PROBABLY MY FAVORITE THING THAT MOFFAT HAS EVER WRITTEN FOR DOCTOR WHO (with the possible exception of “Blink” but that might have more to do with my creepy stanning of Carey Mulligan). Why? Well I think the structure of this episode forces Moffat to write in a certain way that makes him more palatable for me. My problems with Moffat as a writer (not as a person, I will always want to punch him in the face for being a sexist douchebag of epic proportions) stems from the fact that a) writing for characters is never a priority for him; b) he relies too heavily on the timey wimey ridiculousness that I get tired of so quickly; c) he tries to pack too many concepts into one story and does none of them justice; and d) his go-to scare of using childhood fears and shock factor version of fear gets old after awhile. BUT the necessity of introducing a new Doctor and companion takes up most of the episode, forcing Moffat to streamline the story. That coupled with the fact that the Tardis is out of commission for most of the episode (which meant that the timey wimey nonsense was kept to a minimum) means that for me, this episode is one of the most enjoyable things that Moffat has ever written.
I mean, I do still have some complaints. Like I think that the whole meeting Amy as a kid, saying he’d return soon only to return much later (all the while she’s been obsessing over him) to be very Reinette in The Girl in the Fireplace type thing. And I don’t know how I feel about Amy being a kissogram. If it were another writer, whatever. Maybe he’d be trying to say something about women taking control of their own sexuality. But um. Not with Moffat. Especially not after recent remarks that he’s made about the Comic Relief sketch he wrote. Moffat has a horrible tendency to make female sexuality all about men. So I kind of have to side eye him about that.
In spite of that, I do legitimately like this episode. The plot is pretty straight forward, but not unoriginal. I especially like the bit where the Atraxi screws up which mouth to speak through. I think that’s creepy in a really neat way.
I think that Matt Smith has fabulous chemistry with child actors and his scenes with bb!Amelia are wonderful. Caitlin Blackwood is really a great child actor. Those opening scenes with bb!Amelia are pretty fantastic, and every time I see bb!Amelia sitting on her suitcase, waiting for the Doctor, my heart breaks a little bit. Poor kid.
As for grown up Amy, she’s really difficult for me to parse. She lost her parents at a young age and then that was followed up by being abandoned by the Doctor which would possibly lead to abandonment issues. And then at the end of the episode you see that Amy has all that slightly weird and creepy Doctor and Amy art all over her desk. So even though she says that she’s grown up, it’s hard for me to believe that, and her statement that she’s grown up reads more as the kind of thing a teenager might say, eager to prove that they’re an adult now. And then the Doctor says that he’s going to fix the fact that she’s grown up. SO YEAH. I AM MEGA CONFUSED. She says she’s grown up, but clearly isn’t. But the Doctor doesn’t want her to grow up… which she hasn’t. GAH. IDEK.
Also the other reason I really enjoy this episode? RORY. UNF.
And I LOVE the new Tardis interior. Fabulous set design. I want to run around on it and explore all the buttons.
So even though she says that she’s grown up, it’s hard for me to believe that, and her statement that she’s grown up reads more as the kind of thing a teenager might say, eager to prove that they’re an adult now. And then the Doctor says that he’s going to fix the fact that she’s grown up. SO YEAH. I AM MEGA CONFUSED.
I think that this means a different type of 'grown up.' Not that she's mature, but that she's skeptical and jaded.
Yeah, also while 18 year olds are definitely adults, there's also definitely a difference in the phase you're at in life at 19, 25 and 35.
Why do I agree with you on ALL THE DAYS about ALL THE THINGS.
Just wanted to say, I make a beeline for your comment after every MWDW post. I find that you are critical of what should be criticized but not unduly harsh.
I'm not the world's biggest Moffat fan, but I don't think Amy (maybe possibly) being a sex worker has anything to do with Moffat being a sexist. And I'm just going to put it out there that I am currently a sex worker, I've done several different kinds of sex work, and that the ways being a sex worker plays out against my feminist and my private sexuality is really fucking complicated. But in short form, the work I do—yes, it's for my clients, not me, who are almost all men—doesn't necessarily mean that my sexuality is for men.
My biggest problem is that "Amy is damaged" and "Amy is (maybe possibly) a sex worker." That correlation is a toxic one and again, doesn't speak to the realities, which are complicated, of why women choose sex work. And whether or not Amy (if she is in fact a sex worker) chose her job in relation to her own personal issues is something that we could argue about until the cows come home.
Whether or not Moffat writes Amy in sexist ways is going to remain to be seen, but her line of employment (at one point in her life) is not in and of itself a sexist thing.
I agree about Amy being a kissogram. Moffat is a sexist ass sometimes, but I don't think that him making Amy a sex worker is sexist. I think it's in character for Amy, and I think Amy is in charge of her sexuality. But I can't really discuss it much further without being spoilery.
Mostly I was just really impressed that Amy managed to run around in that short skirt the whole episode. That takes skill, girl.
I'll say it until the cows come home: I firmly believe that skirts are actionwear! (as long as you have comfy shoes.) Think about kilts! And the Roman army! All of Europe was conquered in ACTION SKIRTS!:D
And Jamie! He managed to be one of the most badass companions of all time while proudly wearing a kilt. Amy is merely following in his footsteps.
I don't think a kissogram is a sex worker. She's not a stripper or a prostitute, for heaven's sake!
Well, "kissogram" isn't a term we really have in the US, so I wasn't sure if she danced/stripped or what, I just know she has sexy costumes. Would it matter if she were a stripper or a prostitute?
Kissograms, as far as I'm aware, just kiss people. They're like greeting cards but, you know, people. Kind of like the Valentine's dwarves in the second Harry Potter book, but (hopefully) less grumpy, and with more kissing.
Honestly, I'm pretty sure the term's a little antiquated everywhere? Which sort of works with the quaint-old-English town feel they're going for, I think.
Yeah, you can google the definition of a 'kissogram', and apparently from what I've read- they were popular at some point in the 80's (if I remember correctly).
I assumed it was something close to a singing telegram–which IS still done. I'm on the peripheries of the theater biz, so a lot of the actors and actresses I know make up extra cash by doing singing telegrams. Singing Telegrams are ALSO not as popular as they were in their heyday, but they still exist.
Just because something's heyday is gone, doesn't mean everybody stopped. it just means that it's not a full time job anymore.
To repeat bookling's question, would it matter if she were a stripper or a prostitute?
Sex work is a pretty broad spectrum of jobs involving sexually stimulating other people. Clearly Amy's job involves at the least sexy outfits and very light sexual contact with other people, probably strangers. (It probably also involves the very real danger of sex work that your client will not take your boundaries seriously, and consequently pressure or perhaps incentives to do more than just kiss.) FWIW I'm currently a phone sex operator and camgirl. I very much doubt Amy's job entails some of the things I do for money, but it also probably involves more immediate physical risks.
Is it sex work? Considering that the wikipedia article on kissograms notes that they've mostly been replaced by simply hiring strippers to do the same thing, I don't think it's a completely off-kilter opinion to say kissograms are part of the continuum of sex work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kissogram
I don't think that the fact that Amy is a (possible) sex worker makes Moffat sexist. But in the context of other things that Moffat has said, the decision to make Amy a kissogram makes me raise my eyebrows a bit. But I do agree that the Amy is damaged and thus is a (possible) sex worker could be problematic.
I think having her be a kissogram was most likely an oppourtunity to misdirect the Doctor/audience with the cop disguise-there aren't really a lot of explanations of why someone who isn't a cop would have a cop uniform other than for some kind of role-playing.
But I don't know if it says anything about Amy other than (at this stage in her life at least) she needs to be working service jobs to get by.
A very late additional comment:
I was thinking about that this morning. If they decided they wanted Amy dressed as a cop first (which I think is a possibility, since it proved to be very helpful in the hospital) then, short from being a police woman, what could you do to have her in that outfit? It's a little early for a costume party, so…..I'm not sure my mind would have gone straight to Kiss-O-Gram, but I don't think I would have thought of anything else that made any sense.
ALSO(sorry this is late:) it's visual shorthand to show that she's working/middle class, but without having her life be a copy of Rose's intro(though it's already pretty different since she's got no parents.) it's also an interesting dynamic since Amy is the first companion on new Who that I can think of that is from a small town, and in this case from what we've seen in this episode, it's a small town where everybody seems to know each other and they already seem to know her business and so far I can't think of an example of anyone really looking down on her for it.
Your review, as usual, is quite a good read. 🙂
A quick question, would you mind posting links to some of the interviews with Moffat? I generally stay away from interviews with authors/ series creators/ actors/ musicians as a rule (because I am selfish and immature and don't necessarily want other qualified people's opinions ruining the images/scenarios I have in my head…) unless I really, desperately want the backstory to something…
…but your mentions of Moffat have made me intrigued, and I don't really know where to start looking to find what he's said about his characters/work in general (I have tried basic wikipedia/googling, but it's not been very productive so far.)
Thanks!!
Simply brilliant.
My favourite moment:
<img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_li62swNtbj1qat2lko1_500.jpg">
And I can confirm fish fingers and custard was AMAZING, until I started feeling sick…
"You don't know?" "Busy day." HEE.
I loved that moment. Everyone just looks at him and goes "… you."
My favourite bit as well; must be a bit of a shock to get to see yourself that way.
Not to mention, Rory is probably getting more confused by the second.
Me too.
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/29o1ncx.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"> ‘Hello. I’m the Doctor.’
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/mmg08j.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
‘You know when grownups tell you everything’s going to be okay and you think they’re probably lying to make you feel better?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Everything’s going to be okay.’
And that’s the moment when I think I started to fall in love with Eleven.
With a new everything there’s so much to say that it’s hard to pick anything to focus on. So I apologise that this is a bit more of a mess than usual but I know there are others who are going to do a much better job than me at this.
Series 5 is the first time they released a two disc soundtrack so there’s twice as much music for you to listen to. Firstly is the new theme tune, which is potentially a bit divisive, but I do love it. It feels like a mix between the newer series and the older series theme tunes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYteCmkw2hE
From this episode I love ‘Can I Come With You’ I love how quiet and gentle it starts off and how it builds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSGmqn6RK-o ‘I Am The Doctor’ aka Fuck Yeah Doctor Who! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D-QPDGhCtM ‘The Mad Man With A Box’ which i just plain old love. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g04jyyuXXSg
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/ou5a89.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"> ‘Look at you. Oh you sexy thing. Look at you!’
Say it with me now: Doctor/TARDIS OTP! I mean the TARDIS even gives him a new Sonic Screwdriver. I love the new TARDIS interior. I think the idea of the TARDIS being so much bigger on the inside works better with the new layout and the corridors leading off into different sections. I just feel like there’s more space to explore. I also have a special love for the return of the St. John Ambulance sticker on the front. (used to be a member for a long time.)
(continued)
‘If you’re a doctor why does your box say police?’
I love that our first introduction to the new companion is Amelia praying to Santa for help and then apologising in case she woke him up. I love her logic. I also love how nonplussed she is with the whole experience, just taking the weird things in her stride. ‘People always say that’ breaks my heart a little because it’s clear that she has issues with abandonment and I imagine the Doctor didn’t help with that. Oh Doctor, messing up your timing so badly.
I also love that our first introduction to grown up Amy is that she knocks the Doctor out with a cricket bat and handcuffs him to a radiator. I love how take charge she is doing things like trapping the Doctor’s tie in a car door so he’ll talk to her. It’s also nice that there’s an element of ‘one of us’ about Amy with all her art and games about the Doctor.
On a more shallow note, I want Amy’s hair.
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/2daaqgm.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
We only see a little of them but I like Amy’s town, Leadworth, and the people in it. I really love the fact that they all know who the raggedy Doctor is. I love the Doctor walking in on Jeff on his laptop. I like to think he’s now BFFs with Patrick Moore. He’s also very nice to look at. ‘Your friend, what was his name, not that one, the good looking one.’ ‘Thanks’ ‘Jeff’ ‘Oh thanks.’ Ha, poor Rory. I like Rory as well and the way he focuses on trying to figure out what’s wrong with the coma patients. I love his indignation at the Doctor calling the aliens back and changing into his new outfit. Also I adore Amy for not turning away at that moment.
‘I grew up.’ ‘Don’t worry, I’ll soon fix that.’
Randomly, because I love it, twirly Doctor is twirly
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/i59oc2.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
Love that last gif. I do random spins when I am walking too. It make it more fun.
I love pretty much everything about Amy. Also, I tend to twirl. A lot. And then bump into people, because I am walking backwards/twirling.
I SAY IT WITH YOU PROUDLY! DOCTOR/TARDIS FOREVER.
OTP OTP OTP
‘I Am The Doctor’ aka Fuck Yeah Doctor Who!
They should really just retitle it that.
Doctor/TARDIS OTP!
Doctor/Tardis 4lyfe
Doctor/TARDIS OTP. The only girl in 900 years he hasn't abandoned eventually.
"Say it with me now: Doctor/TARDIS OTP!"
Doctor/TARDIS OTP! Comapnions come and go but the TARDIS is always there for him.
Doctor/TARDIS OTP! The ship to stop all ship wars!
Doctor/TARDIS for all of time and space!
My favorite new Doctor introduction episode. It has a lot to do in forty-five minutes, with not just a new Doctor but a new companion and a somewhat-new tone of the show, and it does it very well.
Check out this scene from the series 5 DVD. It goes in between this episode and the next one. (You might see it referred to as a "deleted scene," but actually it never going to be part of an episode and was always intended for the DVD.) There's another one that goes between episodes 5 and 6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaOPe4emP9Y
I love that deleted scene. It's pretty much exactly how I would react if I were in Amy's position.
Note it's not deleted, but made special for the DVD! Moffat loves us! 😀
Got to love Amy's comments about his hair "Whoa! It just won't stop."
This episode was actually 15 minutes longer than the average episode so it didn't do all that in 45 minutes.
"I’m reminded of “Love and Monsters,” which Moffat also wrote,"
What? Screeching halt there. Girl in the Fireplace, maybe?
Anyway, WE'RE HERE OMG! MATT SMITH! KAREN GILLAN! MOFFAT!
Okay, so the lightning in the new credits is maybe a bit weird, but I love the new logo, and I love the design behind making it look like the TARDIS.
Amelia prays to Santa! Love it forever.
Ugh I love the TARDIS so much, and I really, really want to see more of it's interior outside of the main room.
And I love the whole opening food bit. Just, perfectly silly and endearing to me. And both their faces! Adorable.
At this rate, I'm going to quote from every scene. Okay, so basically, Eleven gets some pretty awesome dialogue and is good with children, and we establish that Amelia/Amy Pond is a BAMF. And that cracks are evil.
And then she packs and waits outside. Just, heartbreaking and I'm glad this is a big part of Amy's character since I really do love how much little Amelia's personality and experiences carry through into Gillan's Amy.
Now, I utterly adore Amy Pond. I love that her instinct is to hit the man she undoubtedly recognizes with a bat and handcuffs him in place. And then she screws with him in the police costume.
And then she picks up the screwdriver sitting in…slime? (what are you doing why aren't you wearing gloves argh you do not touch UNIDENTIFIED CHEMICALS! This reminds me of how lolarious I think the opening of Star Trek's The Naked Time is.) And then she tries to spot the monster! Girl is surprisingly fearless, and I love it.
"Twelve years, and four psychiatrists." And she kept biting them. That actually kind of sums up what I love about Amy. She's not meant to be an "everyday" type of person the way Rose or Martha, and to some extent Donna, were. She's basically kind of fucked up, and has some serious abandonment issues. I love that – I love that we have a companion who is textually supposed to have some pretty deep issues right from the beginning, and that we can see how their actions have been shaped by that in their first episode. Rose ran off with the Doctor and left loved ones behind worrying. Didn't care for it then. But I get why Amy does it, and it makes perfect sense to me, and so there's a level of sympathy I can give to Amy that I never could with Rose even when they both did similar things.
As a character, I feel like I get Amy a lot more than I have with other companions. I can look at her actions and think, yup, totally in character, and even yup, predicted she would react that way.
I also love that she's had some sort of relationship with the Doctor for most of her life now (even if he wasn't around for most of it), and that the Doctor is partly responsible for the person she is now. I mean, she made cartoons of the Doctor! Basically the whole neighborhood knows about her "imaginary friend." She made Rory dress up and had pretend adventures together, I guess. The Doctor's been a huge part of her life, even when he wasn't there. And it's so wibbly-wobbly! Love it. That's an interesting take on a companion and it made me really interested to see how their relationship would progress.
Additionally, I love that Amy is sexual and doesn't mind wearing short skirts and will unashamedly watch the Doctor changing. This is a contentious aspect to her character in online fandom, but I adore it.
I haven't really talked about Eleven much yet. Well, I love him. Firstly, "No TARDIS, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes" – that was super refreshing to me the first time I watched this ep. A lot of stuff gets magically handwaved on this show by relying on the TARDIS or on the sonic screwdriver, so this was a nice little nod to wanting to move away from that sort of easy fix-it. I like when the Doctor has those obvious solutions taken away, as it frequently lets characters shine, not technology.
"I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt!" – I really love that. And I think it's really refreshing after how often Ten seemed to want to amuse people and put on a silly/wacky persona. With Eleven, I truly believe that he's just weird, you know?
And I love the scene with the montage with all the Doctors.
<img src="http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/7940/wwgtg3.gif">
It speaks to all the incarnations of the Doctor, not just this one. It's basically Moffat rebooting the show, saying THIS IS THE DOCTOR, and this is him protecting the world. Plus, AMAZING NEW THEME MUSIC – it's just so perfect and it's one of those times where a new theme feels so perfect and fitting that it's hard to believe it's not already an already established theme to the franchise.
And I love the new TARDIS interior. It's so big and open and there are stairs going places and there's an increased steampunk feel to it that I quite like.
Finally, one of my favorite pieces of dialogue from the show:
Moffat has a knack for doing this sort of quasi-in-joke. It's still funny, but it's also dependent on an implication of something we haven't seen. But it really, really works for me. It harks back to little moments like Other/Proper Dave, and even "you lying cow" in Blink. And maybe includes this moment (okay not quite, but a gif's a gif):
<img src="http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/1622/dw11deleteinternethisto.gif">
(It's Jeff and it's his bedroom, and therefore he saved the world and is the Doctor's best man and became a legend and not even presumable internet porn is gonna ruin that fact omg I love this episode, okay? MOAR JEFF PLZ)
In conclusion, lens flares!
<img src="http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4967/whologoeleven28756475.jpg">
<img src="http://img852.imageshack.us/img852/3558/tumblrlgfvjdyrav1qffe9j.jpg">
<img src="http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9902/stjjlensflare.gif">
I love lensflares
more thanas much as JJ Abrams does.Wait, actually, one more thing: I usually never say this myself, but regarding the cracks and that "the Pandorica will open. Silence will fall" – OMG MARK YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!
No one can love lens flares more than JJ Abrams does just like no one can love drugs as much as Rose.
I love your point about the parallel nature of Rose and Amy. I never had really thought about it, but you're right! They both leave behind their significant other and their family to run off with the Doctor and yet I always found Rose doing it annoying while I love Amy for doing it.
THIS THIS THIS all of this. <3
Haha, I love the addition of JJ in your comment!
"I love lensflares more than as much as JJ Abrams does"
But do you love it as much as Rose loves drugs?
ROSE LOVED DRUGS
Yeah you can love lens flares "as much as" but not more thatn JJ. He's IN love with them. I love that Moff brought the lensflare to Doctor Who!!!
I am LOL so hard over the lens flare. I adored his abundant use of the flare in Star Trek.
Additionally, I love that Amy is sexual and doesn't mind wearing short skirts and will unashamedly watch the Doctor changing. This is a contentious aspect to her character in online fandom, but I adore it.
I ADORE IT TOO. Miniskirt lovers, represent!
And frankly if Matt Smith were changing in front of me, I'd react just like Amy does.
That moment where she watches him change says more to me about her as a character than any wardrobe choice could. She's like "whatevs, he's a sexy man and I'm watching him change" without being at all apologetic, and I LOVE that about her.
YES!!! YOU’RE AT SEASON FIVE!!!
This is going to be pretty long, I have 5 A4 pages of notes on this episode, haha. I didn’t comment much on the earlier seasons because I haven’t seen them in a while and when I did I was younger and therefore didn’t pay as much attention to the awesome details that make it worth discussing. I’ve tried to put this in some kind of logical order but I have lots of feelings and they kind of just splurged out.
First of all, let’s get the negatives out of the way. The CGI was shit. Absolutely dreadful even by DW/BBC standards. Took me right out of the episode. Prisoner Zero was far scarier when we couldn’t see him/he was disguised! Also, a minor quibble, but how come a town as small as Leadworth is supposed to be not only has a hospital nearby but a hospital with a coma ward?
OK, bad stuff gone, now I can gush 😀
Absolute best bits:
•FISH CUSTARD!! And the entire food scene. Love forever!
•Doctor stealing clothes – love!
•Jeff being all adorable and kinda dumb looking then looking at naughty stuff on the interwebs then SAVING THE WORLD
•Rory’s car! It’s so amazing, I want it so badly.
•Everything with little Amelia
•“I’m worse than everybody’s aunts. And that is not how I’m introducing myself.”
•Karen Gillan’s hair <3
•The pictures of all the past Doctors then Eleven stepping through Ten – perfect!
•“Who da man?” No. Just no. Glad he realised that before it was too late.
•Everyone recognising ‘the Raggedy Doctor’ – especially Amy making Rory dress up as him when they were kids
•“You’re Scottish, fry something.” Hahaha – can’t resist a Scottish stereotype! Amelia’s a much better Scot than me – I can’t fry anything to save my life 😛
•New TARDIS!!!
•Sorry for being cliché but – pretty much everything in the entire episode.
So now, where do I start?
Story: What a fantastic introduction to the new characters and new showrunner. I loved the opening with the TARDIS hurtling out of control across London, missing Big Ben by an inch – I’m taking this as a reference to RTD and his obsession with London. But now we have Moffat and we’re in a creepy house in the country! Very Moffat. I approve.
It was a great episode to introduce the new Doctor and companion and their relationship. As the Doctor says, no TARDIS, no screwdriver and 20 minutes to save the world (or convince viewers to love you). And with me at least he succeeded.
I enjoyed the idea of the Doctor trying to save the world while stuck in a little nothing village which only has a post office (which is closed – nice reference to the actual closing of post offices across the country). Despite my issues with the CGI I enjoyed Prisoner Zero and the Atraxi, I loved the way they were ‘defeated’. Loved the scheme with the very-important-conference-call and Jeff. Oh Jeff. I do love you so.
Really liked the way Rory was piecing things together by himself. Smart guy, taking pictures of the coma patients. As much as I adore Jeff I did like that it was Rory who was revealed to be the boyfriend/fiancé at the end.
Prisoner Zero was at its best in the woman’s body. Creepy as hell! “The cracks in the skin of the universe? Don’t you know where they came from?” Shivers up my spine at that. Got that a lot this episode.
Onto the DOCTOR!
I had my reservations about Matt Smith, I’ll admit it. I was pretty sure he had to be a great actor – he was chosen for one of the most hotly anticipated roles of the year, and I trusted Moffat enough to not screw *that* up – but Ten was *my* Doctor and I wasn’t sure how anyone could live up. But Eleven, oh he did.
Right from the beginning with his interactions with Little Amelia I loved him. He didn’t talk down to her, which was a huge plus in my book, and he was so delightfully alien that I couldn’t help but fall for his portrayal. The food scene is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I must have seen this episode about fifteen times and it never fails to make me laugh. I love the way he seems to go off on wild tangents that make you forget about the issue at hand but then brings it back suddenly.
"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall.”
Fantastic writing, fantastic acting.
I loved his babbling on about the TARDIS and the swimming pool and the library, and the swimming pool in the library. He is, like he himself says, a madman with a box. I love that description so much!
His surprise at the reveal that Amy was Amelia made it seem real to me. I already knew that Karen Gillan was the new companion so it wasn’t a surprise but Smith really sold it.
Matt Smith is amazing. He plays this goofy, genius alien then suddenly it’s like a switch flips and he’s this terrifying 900 year old alien that sends shivers up my spine.
“Basically, run.”
Is it the delivery? The way his eyes suddenly turn cold? The incongruity of such a fun and funny guy saying something so simple in such a threatening way? Even though Ten had a genocidal streak I never felt scared of him. I feel scared of Eleven. I wasn’t at all surprised that the Atraxi hightailed it out of there. I sure as hell would have.
Another reason I personally felt a connection with Eleven is that he is pretty much the twin of a close friend of mine (coincidentally a massive Who fan). The hair. The clothes, particularly the bow-tie. The manner of speaking. The gestures. Give him a pair of glasses and a Scottish accent and he’s pretty much my friend Gallifrey-ised.
NOW, onto Amy 😀
Amy Amy Amy. Amy Pond. Amelia Pond. The girl who believed in fairytales. The girl who waited. Where do I start? I know she’s somewhat controversial; I’ve heard her described as Mary-Sue, one-dimensional, too risqué for a kids show. I think I’ve been watching a different show from these people.
Why do I love Amy? There are so many reasons it’s difficult to count. The most superficial reasons first: she’s Scottish (me too!), she has gorgeous hair (not like me ïŒ ) and amazing legs (I want!). But you can be as gorgeous and Scottish as you like without being a decent character. Thankfully Amy does not fall into this trap, and for that I thank Karen Gillan.
From the moment she hits Eleven over the head with a cricket bat (I’ll get to Amelia later) she is shown to be independent and resourceful. Crazy man who looks like your childhood imaginary friend shows up in your house, what do you do? I’d hide. Or run screaming. Not Amy. She defends herself and does what she does best and plays a character to try and work out what the hell is going on.
KG’s acting is so subtle. When the Doctor mentions Amelia Pond her expression shifts ever so slightly. And a little touch I adored – just at the moment when she sees the door she loses the fake accent ‘that is not possible’. Then it’s back when she’s managed to pull herself together. Loved that.
She doesn’t listen to the Doctor – or in her mind, the madman who’s broken into her house. She sees something impossible and investigates it. I love that she’s being shown to be so independent so early on; it really establishes that as part of her character.
The reveal that she’s Amelia was great. The sudden break from her role with all her anger bubbling up “Why did you say five minutes?” Perfect! Then the whole exchange “12 years and 4 psychiatrists.” “4?” “I kept biting them. They said you weren’t real.” So well acted by both of them, really believable. I think this also shows an interesting facet of Amy’s personality – she spent at least a few years essentially being told she was crazy but she clung onto her belief. I think by this point in her life she’s probably given it up as an active childhood imagination, which makes it particularly difficult for her now when the Doctor suddenly appears back.
“Hello Amy dear. Are you a policewoman now? I thought you were a nurse.”
“I can be a nurse.”
“Or actually…a nun.”
Love it!
I also loved (man, I’m using this word a lot!) the whole exchange about Amelia being “too fairy tale”. Poor girl, forced to grow up to fast. Lost her parents, aunt didn’t seem to care all that much – who leaves a kid at home alone at night? – and she finally found a friend who abandoned her and who nobody else believed existed. She seems to be drifting through her life a bit. Being a kissogram is “a laugh”. I reckon this sums up Amy. Forced to grow up too fast but clinging to an aspect of her childhood, not moving on. Drifting through life, doing things for a laugh. Even though she never really liked Leadworth she’s stayed around all these years – the girl who waited.
I adored the exchange with the Doctor and Amy running around Leadworth. “Twenty minutes to save the world and I’ve got a POST OFFIVE and it’s SHUT.” “Run to your loved ones and say goodbye or stay and help me.” “No.” “Sorry?” The look on his face when she said no! Priceless! Amy questioning things was perfect – not prepared to just accept whatever the Doctor says. You could see the conflict in KG’s eyes as he was starting to convince her with the apple.
My heart broke with Amy’s when she watched the TARDIS disappear :’(
Now little Amelia. Wow, amazing actress! And Scottish. We iz awesomez. I love that she’s KG’s cousin – and so pleased that the two of them have the same accent! Loved her praying to Santa, same as everyone else. She really sold the fearless side of Amelia which made the fact that she was so scared of the crack in her wall quite terrifying. I loved that she just took the Doctor’s bizarre appearance and outbursts in her stride. And the joy in her face when he said he’d come back and take her for a trip was heart-warming – which made the inevitable heartbreak when he came back too late all the worse.
She was also fantastic at the end when Prisoner Zero was playing her. “What a disappointment you’ve been.” Coming from her it stung all the more. I hope to see more of her, she was absolutely fantastic.
And I loved the end! Doctor coming back (late again, of course) and Amy goes off worried most about her nightgown. Then the camera goes through her room and we see all the Doctor things she made as a child – more heartbreak.
I don’t take her running off the night before her wedding as a sign of her being an awful person like some people seem to. I think she was scared and lost. The mere fact that she had all of her childhood Doctor things out in her room shows that it was playing on her mind. Yes, possibly not the best idea to go running off with another man the night before your wedding, but I think with her history with the Doctor it’s hard to blame her.
Bring on the rest of the season!
Erm, you've got a bit of a spoiler in this comment.
I've read through it several times and I can't find anything. If a mod sees a spoiler, please delete it!
You spoiled who Amy is supposed to be marrying. /drive-by hopefully-helpful comment
Oh, right! Didn't think that was a spoiler, didn't Amy mention that 'the other one' (i.e. not Jeff) was her boyfriend?
Yay, I'm so glad you loved this episode and Matt Smith and Karen Gallant! I have very detailed thoughts written out about this episode (it's probably in the top three of DW episodes I've watched the most) but there at home and I'm still at work so for right now, I'll just say: YAY I LOVE ELEVEN.
Also, I've decided that it's terribly unfair that I'm not Karen Gallant and/or best friends with Matt Smith. I just want to hang out with them all the time, okay?
Okay so I just got home (finally!) and realized that autocorrect on my phone changed Gillan to Gallant. I know Karen's name I swear.
Oh this episode, this series, I LOVE IT SO! I just want to make my comment a whole bunch of <3<3<3 because I love it so much. But I won't, I'll try and put my thoughts into words (this is going to be rambly, sorry).
ELEVEN! My Doctor is finally here! I went into this episode determined not to immediately love him. I wanted to make myself wait until he had a few eisodes under his belt before deciding how I felt about him. Then he threw a piece of bread and butter out of Amelia's front door, told it to stay out and I fell completely in love with him. Matt is absolutely amazing in this episode, especially in his scenes with Amelia. WHY ARE YOU SO GOOD WITH KIDS MATT?! I have to say that, as much as I like the raggedy look on him (because boy does he look good in it) he does look a lot more youthul and non-descript in it. I much prefer his final tweed-braces-and-bowtie look, it makes him stand out.
The "Who Da Man?!", apart from being adorable, almost makes me glad that the series wasn't running in the late 90's/early 00's. You KNOW they'd have run that phrase into the ground a lot earlier if it had been on.
<img src="http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/NB2000/gallery-12208071.jpg">
(cont. below, I may go on for a while).
Oh Amelia, praying to Santa. Caitlin Blackwood (Karen gillan's IRL cousin) is really good in her scenes. I already thought she was amazing but then my best friend pointed out to me that, well…
<img src="http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8/NB2000/PaddingtonPond.jpg">
(yes it's a stamp it's the only picture I could find that really worked)
which just made me love her even more. You KNOW he's not going to make it back in time and it's utterly heartbreaking.
As with Eleven I can pinpoint the exact moment that I started loving the grown Amy "Twelve years, and four psychiatrists." "Four?" "…I kept biting them." <3. She's sassy and driven and I love her so much. I'm sure others will be able to come up with more thought out analyses of her than I can manage. I'll just add "Are you not gonna turn your back?" "Nope" Attagirl.
Does that mean little Amelia has a sandwich hidden in her hat?
Or a little tub of custard.
And Marmalade.
AH! Best comparison EVER!
Amy is sad little Paddington Bear! I LOVED that show as a kid!
OMG YES! Paddington Bear! <3
OMG that's so right, it's creepy!! Little Amelia = <3
Aww, so sweet.
And I love you for posting the Dumbledore picture!
It's been sitting on my computer since the MRHP comments. Once Mark announced he was watching DW I knew I was going to have to include it once he got to this episode.
"The show looks absolutely gorgeous."
IKR?! I seriously love how gorgeous the whole episode is. Everything seems more colourful. The early scenes in the Pond residence are some of my favourite. There's such an atmosphere to them. Part of that is the house itself which I LOVE and want to live in (preferably without the alien fugitive in the back room). It has a really lived-in feel with the overgrown gardens, peeling paint and the sort of unfinished paint job on the stairs. The food scene always makes me extra happy because we have the exact same Willow Pattern plates that the Ponds have.
NEW TARDIS OMG!!11 As nice as the previous version was it always bugged me that they'd talk about there being more to it because the actual set didn't have any sort of place for those areas to be (if that makes sense). Characters would just walk off the side of the set when they were going to other parts. BUT NOW THERE ARE STAIRS AND PLACES TO GO AND OMG I LOVE IT! The glass floor around the console, the big screen by the door (which still has the hatrack by it). The exterior is soooo pretty, that lovely deep blue with the white windows. "You sexy thing" indeed! This will probably sound weird but, I like that the Doctor got to see the interior without us. It's a nice little moment for the characters (yeah you heard me, characters). I feel bad for Amy being left behind AGAIN but it's stilla nice moment for the Doctor.
(I'm going to stop soon I promise)
So, it took six episodes for Christopher Ecclestone to take his shirt off, three series before David Tennant got his kit off, and about 50 minutes before Matt stripped off…not that I pay attention to these sort of things of course *whistles*.
The side characters in Leadworth are all so much fun, Rory, Jeff's Nan, Jeff himself (love Eleven trying to work out how tall he is compared to Jeff). There's a real sense of community from what little we see of them.
"The scene where the Doctor “examines” the people in the village green is SO AWESOME."
Ehh. This is pretty much the ONLY thing I don't like about this episode. I alluded to this back in my Tooth & Claw comment but, that whole sequence just felt out of place. While there are a lot of changes to the look and feel of the show in this episode that was just one too many. It felt too obvious a camera trick, just like the slow-motion wire-work monks back in T&C, and just pulled me out of the moment.
This episode introduces one of my favourite pieces of music from this show, Eleven's Theme. It makes everything feel EPIC!
Oh and, I can finally stop feeling slightly guilty that my avatar is based on the new logo!
Right, must make real effort not to wax lyrical for several pages here…
Short version: Dear god do I love this episode. Easily the best
regeneration story there’s ever been and packs a vast amount into its
hour running time. It’s sort of a lighter take on the idea behind
Midnight, the Doctor is stripped (not like that you pervs) of all his
usual toys and given a problem to solve. Let’s face it, Zero wouldn’t
have been a massive problem under normal circumstances but no TARDIS,
no Screwdriver, no Companion (Amy becomes one through the episode but
he’s having to guide her along where an experienced companion would
get on with it) and, of course, having to do it all when he’d much
rather lie down and finish off the regeneration in peace and quiet.
It’s huge fun, really exciting and has some incredible moments. The
rooftop scene in particular deserves to be on the top 10 list for some
time to come. Most importantly, the whole thing is a great
introduction for new viewers and for those coming from the RTD era
(and beyond) gives a good indication that the show is in good hands.
Talking of which (what a segue!) please welcome Matt Smith, simply
wonderful in every way. Frankly 11 had me at Geronimo but all through
this episode he keeps ramping up the awesome factor and shows a vast
amount of range in the process. More importantly both actor and
character seem to be having an absolute ball and, yes I admit, I was
delighted to see the Doctor remembering how to have fun while being
the hero (just check out the look on his face in the fire engine).
Better still he can easily handle the quieter stuff too, his
interactions with both young Amielia at the start and Amy in the
TARDIS are wonderfully subtle things.
So moving on to Karen Gillan and good lord she’s good. Most companions
take time to grow on me but not Amy. I liked her during her intro
scene, started to fall in love during “12 years!” “Cricket Bat!” “12
years and four psychiatrists!”, went most of the rest of the way with
a wonderful little bit of comedy when she tries to hide the short
skirt from Jeff’s gran and dove off the deep end when she DOESN’T just
take the Doctor’s word for why she should trust him. Oh and just look
at the expression on her face during the rooftop scene, so proud of
her Doctor and excited to finally get to see him kick arse (bear in
mind that giant eyeball must have been haunting her dreams for those
12 years) with a big measure of vindication thrown in. I do kinda wish
we could have seen her freakout just after applying cricket bat to
timelord though, even as a bonus extra that would have been a great
little scene.
Both her and Matt leave a LOT unspoken with a great deal of subtle
body language going on that really rewards multiple viewings and they
have such a good chemistry together (also, best hair couple ever?).
Put it this way… at this moment in time Amy is neck-and-neck with Ace
for my favourite companion ever. Great strong character, genuinely
captivating on-screen, funny, smart and passed the Ace Test (I won’t
spoil exactly what that is but watch Remembrance of the Daleks, you’ll
work it out) by walloping the Doctor with a cricket bat before we even
see her on screen. Plus Karen can rip your heart out so damn easily,
the look on her face when the TARDIS vworps off for another two years
if devastating.
And I can’t finish without mentioning the music, specifically the 11th
Doctor’s theme. Rapidly became one of my favourite bits of music in
ANY format and remains so to this day. Love the new TARDIS too and
11th’s reaction to it is fantastic. Could genuinely bounce about this
story for hours , there’s just SO much good stuff here and Moffat
keeps up his record of genuinely disturbing concepts with both the
crack and the multiform (and the Doctor himself now that I think about
it, way to mess up a young girls life there Doc). You know you're on a
good cast when you're on the first episode and you're already dreading
that horrible day when they move on…
The first thing I thought when I saw little Amelia and Eleven was, "I'm going to make a fool of myself crying when they're gone."
You beautifully expressed my thoughts on this episode. I never fail to get that giddy sense of adventure when I watch this episode. I adore Amy's fire, how Eleven makes me *believe* that he's an old man in a youngster's body, and the fantastic pacing of the episode overall.
Aww, thank you *blush*. And totally agree with the old / young thing… that's something that will be revisited at a later point but I only ever got that from Tennant ONCE, the confrontation with Mr Filch in School Reunion. The delivery on "I'm so old now"… *shivers*. Sadly we never quite seemed to get back there again. Amy is awesome on every single level and actually feels, well, real. She's not the perfect person that companions have been portrayed as too often in Who, she makes mistakes (and not just ones that are central to the plot!), she doesn't always make the right choice, she works as a kissogram (which on the face of it makes little sense in a small village but, let's be honest, she probably takes in roughly 90% of the disposable income of 18 – 30 year old men in that area, and probably a fair few women too)… yet she's someone you'd actually believe would exist in real life and you'd want to know despite (and possibly because of) those flaws.
I think Amy is one of the most relatable characters in Who, whether we admit it or not, but I won't go any further, because…
River Song Voice: "Spoilers." 😉
And yes, I love River Song too, and won't apologise for it!!
"(also, best hair couple ever?)."
Easily. It's completely unfair but so damn pretty that I don't care.
I agree, the music in this episode is absolutely GORGEOUS.
The thing I adore about Eleven is his Old Man Tendency to believe – truly, thoroughly and utterly BELIEVE – that he is much cooler than he is in reality. "Who da man" and bow ties and all.
"I hate yogurt! It's just STUFF with BITS in." AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA.
"Jeff? You're my best man." "What? Oh."
AND AMY! My Amy, The other half of the Ginger Twins (Donna being the first). OH AMY. I love that she's fiesty and adorable with GREAT hair and great legs. YAY AMY.
ANd replying to myself because I thought of something else.
When I first watched this episode, I knew JUST KNEW that the Doctor wasn't coming back as Little Amelia packed her little case (Toothbrush, teddy bear, clean underwear- awesome), and as she's running and the music is getting sadder I'm crying and CRYING because this is just going to end badly that I didn't notice the changing position of the door until THE FOURTH REWATCH.
Also, the actress who played little Amelia? Karen's cousin. 😀
Also love the face Matt pulls when he's explaining that Jeff's….mother? couldn't possibly know him- he's got a new face, see? (I hope someone has a GIF of that.)
GOD I WISH AMY WOULD MEET DONNA! It would be amazing, they could be snarky and awesome together. but… of course that could never happen, lest Donna's brain asplode 🙁
Lucky me, we get my favorite classic serial and my favorite new Who episode right in a row! Random fact of the day: Wendy Padbury, who played Zoe in the 60s, is now Matt Smith’s agent. She got him the role of the Doctor!
First things first, I’ll admit at first I wasn’t too sure about the new titles, but they’ve really grown on me since. The theme has a more echo-y, creepy feel to it that’s very suitable for an era with Moffat as show-runner. I adored the DW TARDIS logo right from the start.
When we first meet Amelia, she’s praying to Santa. At Eastertime. And apologizing for waking him up, as if he hibernates or something. Oh I can tell I’m going to like you Amelia Pond. :3
Matt Smith had me at ‘apple.’ Of course, he’s a bit loopy from regeneration, but that’s reason I enjoy most regeneration stories. Yes, the food scene is goofy, but it still has me giggling on the umpteenth rewatch. Especially, “Carrots? Are you insane?” which I still maintain is a call-back to “Carrot juice? Carrot juice! Carrot juice!” (Poor Six deserved better last words.) Eventually he settles on fish fingers and custard. I’m itching to try it, but I’m going on five years of vegetarianism and I’m not about to ruin it by eating fish sticks dipped in custard, no matter how obsessed with this show I am.
<img src="http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk357/Peter_Rabid/Doctor%20Who%20gifs/fish_custard.gif" border="0" alt="fish fingers,custard,yummy,Eleven">
I love how Amelia just takes everything in stride.
“I’m not scared!”
“Course you're not, you're not scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of a box, man eats fish custard! And look at you… just sitting there.”
Yep, I’m definitely going to like you.
Speed forward five minutes, give or take twelve years, and we meet Amy who’s grown up to quickly for her own good because of the Doctor. All her life, people have told her the Doctor isn’t real and she’s even gone to four psychiatrists (“I kept biting them!” XD) I love that she’s basically a fangirl. She’s written and drawn fancomics, made dolls, even roleplayed with Rory. I’m convinced the roleplaying games is what lead to her becoming a kissogram. Oh, Doctor, you’ve given that girl so many complexes.
I haven’t got much to say about the plot other than Prisoner Zero is suitably creepy and the plot is clever. Really, this episode is all about establishing the Eleventh Doctor and Amy’s characters and I think it does that wonderfully.
How could I get around talking about the scene on the roof? Eleven’s continued the tradition of stealing clothes from hospitals and nonchalantly picks out his outfit as he reprimands the Atraxi, that he brought back to Earth. Hellyeswhatabamfiloveyoueleven. That slide show is truly my favorite Crowning Moment of Awesome in the entire show. Matt Smith had already sold me on his Doctor, but this just took it up to eleven (if you’ll indulge the pun).
<img src="http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk357/Peter_Rabid/Doctor%20Who%20gifs/eleven_is_a_bamf.gif" border="0" alt="Eleven,bamf,cmoa,The Eleventh Hour">
"Basically… run."
One last thing to mention, the regenerated TARDIS. I LOVE IT. As Eleven said “Oh, you sexy thing.” She is gorgeous and I won’t hear otherwise. Some people prefer the worn, organic feel of Nine and Ten’s TARDIS, which is perfectly fine, but I think this regeneration has really healed the Doctor. He hasn’t forgotten the Time War, but he’s moving on. That change is reflected by his ship, who is no longer ravaged by war and hanging together with bits of string and tape. She’s ready for brand new adventures.
“Amy Pond, there's something you'd better understand about me cause it's important, and one day your life may depend on it: I am definitely a mad man with a box!”
<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_li4t1sdwLK1qgrn8wo1_500.jpg"/>
Vegetarian high-five! 😀
And OMG that last image! Right-click, save! Whole comment is fantastic, too!
Space Gandalf!!! 😀
These GIFs are utterly gorgous, I have declared it thus!
<3<3 For that last image. He looks adorable in the Gandalf hat.
He's probably got a Gandalf outfit somewhere in the TARDIS wardrobe room. He's got a Hogwarts uniform back there, after all.
OMG that last image is win.
I’m convinced the roleplaying games is what lead to her becoming a kissogram.
I've always thought this as well. It makes perfect sense as a progression of her character. Glad I'm not alone in this opinion. 🙂
HOLY WALLS OF TEXT BATMAN!
Well… TRIVIA FOR THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF OUR RAGGEDY DOCTOR!
A. The working title for this episode was The Doctor Returns.
B. Matt Smith revealed that there are five things in this story to look out for over the course of the series. Won’t tell you any of the five.
C. The opening scene, which was released on BBC Red Button, was actually a pick-up. Not originally included in the final shooting script of the episode, it was written months after principal photography had wrapped on the episode. It technically had its own script, subtitled “Opening Sequence”. At least two drafts were written, with the second being dated 17th December 2009. The sequence was in fact its own production. Unlike the episode proper, its producer was Nikki Wilson, its director was Jonny Campbell, and its director of photography was Tony Slater-Ling. Wilson received a credit of “special thanks” in the end credits. The involvement of Campbell and Slater-Ling were established by behind-the-scenes footage of clapperboards.
D. Amy Pond is the first modern Earth companion since the series’ revival to not be from London. In the Confidential for this episode, Steven Moffat says that London-set stories had become a cliché and this was an attempt to avoid it. Oh you genius Scot. Getting a beautiful Scot. 😛
E. Lots of speculation began concerning Rory William’s 1990 badge date and how it conflicted with many things seen and heard on-screen (slim camera-phones, Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, and the very 2000s technology); however, Steven Moffat later confirmed that the badge date was a mistake that went unnoticed until after the episode aired. Fail Scottish man.
F. This episode aired on the same day as the K9 episode, The Korven was first broadcast on Disney XD in Britain. It also aired on the same day that Regeneration was first broadcast on Network Ten in Australia. Coincidence.
Any non-spoilery things?
Um… Caitlin Blackwood (young Amelia) and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) are cousins, but the first time they met was at the readthrough for this episode.
Wow. I EVEN PLANNED to say that one! Why’d I forget?!
Caitlin had also never acted before. Which is just gobsmacking.
MAKE THIS LITTLE GIRLY A STAR!
Wow. Just WOW. I am so impressed! I honestly thought she was a lot more experienced! Someone give this girl a contract!
I already said it in my comment, but I'll add it here. Wendy Padbury, who played the Second Doctor's companion Zoe in Season 6 is now a television agent. In fact, she's Matt Smith's agent! Actually, she didn't get him the role of the Doctor, but still, small world. She talked about how she discovered him at Gallifrey One. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiPv5nYESNE
That is an awesome interview — thank you so much for sharing! <3 <3 <3
There's not a single thing I don't love about this episode, and like you pointed out: it's a breath of fresh air and truly feels like a new beginning. You can feel Moffat grabbing the reigns and going, "This is mine now. Sit back and enjoy the ride." And I do. I enjoy Moffat's Who so much. I was in love with his ownership of the show not even ten minutes into this episode and while I will always love Nine and my first thought when I think of Doctor Who is the credits, TARDIS, screwdriver, and Doctor of Ten's era, Eleven and his green screwdriver and shiny new TARDIS are MY Who.
This! Also, ". . . Delete your internet history."
In this episode I met the love of my life. Forget the Doctor, forget Amy, forget that other guy, I love Jeff!
JEFF! A man who saves the world while looking at internet porn!
JEFF!! A man who makes the Doctor's eyes bug out!
JEFF!!! The good looking one.
When all else fails, you can count on the good looking, porn loving, Jeff!
I'll be your girlfriend Jeff.
Oh, Jeff. Mark is truly not prepared for the pinnacle of awesome this character becomes.
I love Jeff, and the Doctor's totally casual attitude towards internet porn and masturbation. (Why that isn't more scandalous than Amy's job, I'll never know!)
The new credits aren't my favorite but the revamped theme totally and completely rocks my world. I'm not even sure what it is? The ramped up drums? I always feel like I'm marching into battle with it, its so badass.
I realized as I was looking at my boxed set that I have seen every episode of series 5 EXCEPT this one, so that was exciting! Luckily I saw series 5 before 3 and 4, so I already liked Eleven without my current adoration for Ten to get in the way, which made this transition a lot easier than it could have been. I remember how hard it was for me to like Ten after only one season of Nine, so I realize this could have been very difficult for poor Eleven.
So, my first thought is WTF is wrong with Tardis?? Seeing it falling apart like that was TERRIFYING, y/y? But I did love seeing Eleven coming to terms with his new self, and the fish custard was hilarious! Loved little Amelia Pond, since I only knew her as Amy, and I remember thinking, I didn’t know she was a cop? Lol, nevermind, she’s a Kissogram! The monster in this episode was kind of meh, but again with Who, the strength is in the characters, not necessarily the storyline itself. Overall I thought this episode was a good introduction to Eleven, and to a brand new Who without RTD at the helm.
Is it just me or is the review not showing up on the main Watches page?
Ignore this, it's up now.
Oh of my favorite YouTubers, and a huge Doctor Who nerd, actually tried the fish sticks and custard. Apparently its not so bad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8htMWfgl10U
<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhoi6buHlE1qgjcvxo1_500.gif"/>
XP
Oh Charlie, why must you be so loveable.
I'm pretty sure it's better than baby food! 🙂 Charlieeeee <3
Poor Eleven got off to a rocky start, didn’t he? Traumatic regeneration that blows the TARDIS all to hell, apparently then nearly falls out of it while it’s crashing, then does crash in somebody’s garden shed. But then…adorable, unflappable little Scottish girl!
I love wee Amy to pieces. Most kids would be freaked out by a smoking police box crash-landing in their gardens, then a weird guy in soaking wet, tattered clothes coming out of it and demanding food, but she just takes it in stride. The scene where the Doctor is trying new foods is one of my favourite scenes in Doctor Who. It really establishes Eleven’s character well too. The Doctor’s always a bit loopy immediately after regeneration, but it tends to be just an exaggerated version of how that incarnation behaves normally. The food scene gives us an excellent introduction to this version of the Doctor: he’s loony, he’s cheery, he’s completely alien. YES.
<img src=http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/DanaanMI/Gifs/2d15th0.gif>
Wee Amy waiting in the garden for the Doctor just breaks my heart. She’s so used to people leaving, but this time, she really believes that the Doctor will come back for her. He doesn’t. Then she spends twelve years biting psychiatrists because everyone tells her that her Raggedy Doctor isn’t real. She’s starting to believe them when suddenly, he turns up again, mad as ever, and wacky adventures ensue. Just as she’s starting to accept him again, the Doctor damn well flies off again without saying a thing to her. Which just pisses me the hell off. I want to get that cricket bat from Amy and whack him upside the head myself. The first time he left and came back late it wasn’t his fault, but he didn’t have to swan off a second time without saying anything to her. No wonder she’s pissed when he turns up again, two years later.
Welcome to Eleven's era, Mark. I hope you enjoy the ride!
Nope. I will continue to bring up Moffat's sexism when it is relevant to the episode, as it was when I was discussing Amy's job as a kissogram. And if a character acts like an ass, it's ok to call him or her an ass if you back up why you think that's true (e.g. It's not character bashing to call Barney Stinson a sexist asshole because there is plenty of evidence to back that up.) Not character bashing doesn't mean you can't be critical of a character. It's about not being groundless or antagonistic about it. If a character (or in this case person) does or says something problematic, I'm not going to ignore it. It's perfectly reasonable to call a person out on bad behavior and I'm not going to apologize for it.
ETA: Calling him a sexist douchebag was probably not necessary, but I was trying to show the separation between Moffat the Person and Moffat the Writer.
I'm not saying you should apologize for your opinion, it's yours and your as entitled to it as anyone else. However I would suggest you consider one thing: You're basing your opinions on Moffat on single quotes, often in print where inflection is lost and usually taken out of context. There are very few people that can survive that, f'instance RTD once said "you put a man and a woman on screen together and it's a love story". That, to me, isn't particularly enlightened no matter which way you parse it but I'm not going to judge the man based on that quote for that would be silly. Actually, wait, let me throw out another Moffat quote for you to consider about his series Coupling:
"The series involves three super-confident and three super-terrified people. Sue is very confident in the way that Susan is and I'm very crap in the way that Steve is." Susan is his wife btw.
Anyway, just something to think about, not trying to change your mind or anything.
I'm sure that Moffat loves and respects his wife very much. Sexism isn't about how individual men treat individual women.
I have to say that I like reading your perspective. Just so you know 🙂
I don't have TV, and my laptop is now old enough that it doesn't really do streaming video anymore, so in general I wait for the new seasons of Doctor Who to come out on DVD, and then watch them all in one go. Avoiding spoilers can be problematic. Of course I knew that there was a new Doctor, and that Steven Moffat was running the show, but I managed to avoid all mention of new the Doctor's new companion(s). So when I first saw this episode, all I could think upon meeting wee Amelia Pond and hearing about her sad life was, "Doctor, you'd better bloody well get back there and help that poor child!" My heart bled for her. And then I was confused along with the Doctor as to the subsequent passage of time. But I do love the idea of Amy growing up dreaming of the Doctor, and having a history with him that is at once instantaneous and years in the making. They have a relationship and a dynamic that is immediately complex and compelling. Well done, Steven Moffat. I'm not incredibly keen on this season (though I do think Matt Smith is great, and in some ways Amy Pond reminds me of myself, whether or not that is a good thing), but I do wonder if that's because we've been led to have very high expectations of Steven Moffat, and it's difficult for him to consistently deliver on them. Still, this is an excellent series opener.
So glad I get to participate today! Been working 12+ hour days all week so far….
AHHH
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/5uohkz.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
When David announced he was leaving Doctor Who, and then when they cast Matt, there was a huge kerfuffle in the fandom about it, obviously because mostly everyone loved David a lot, and then when Matt got cast as Eleven, he wasn’t exactly who people were expecting. Matt was only 26 at the time, so it was really different. The first promo pictures they took didn’t really do him any favours either, because he hardly looks like himself in them, and he can look kind of weird sometimes. Plus, he hadn’t been in a lot of big things before Doctor Who, so there were only a few clips of him on youtube and pictures on google images. Ahhh, memories…
Through all that going on, I’d decided to save any judgments until I actually saw the show. It ended up being one of the BBC America trailers that really stopped me from being nervous about there being a new Doctor, and made me go ‘Wow…Eleven looks really good!’ And as I expected, all that worrying was for nothing because The Eleventh Hour is a really great episode of Doctor Who, and Eleven is great too.
I remember when this episode first aired (almost a year ago!) and I was just so excited to actually see Eleven, it was crazy. First real series in months, that’s big.
Little fact, this episode was originally called The Doctor Returns. Also, Caitlin and Karen (the Amys) are cousins, but they’d never met before they got on the set to film. More casting trivia, the first time Steven saw Matt was during an audition for Sherlock. When Matt ended up auditioning for the Doctor, Steven and Piers decided that he was the Doctor seconds into the audition. I really wish they’d release it sometime, because they did tape it, and I like watching audition tapes. More trivia, because I am apparently a trivia machine today, Eleven’s outfit was originally planned to be more of a piraty thing, but Matt was just not into it at all and he looked miserable. Once they got him into the tweed jacket and bowtie outfit, he kind of just came alive.
The whole crack in the wall thing came from when Steven’s son Louis’s bedroom wall had a smile-shaped crack in it and, like many things he sees in real life, it inspired him to write the story.
I really loooove this episode. I love Amelia a lot. She’s a smart, independent girl and I think she’s great.
I like Amy a lot too. I was kind of iffy about her at first, I didn’t not like her, I just wanted to see more of her before I decided what I thought. I remember when it first came out that she was a kissogram, there was so much drama, as if something like that was unheard of. There were also theories, before the show started, that Amy was going to either be an alien, or from another decade, like the 80s. That would have been really cool, but I can always hope for next time. And a little bit of shallowness, Karen is really beautiful, I love her hair a lot. And her legs. And I did read in DWM once that Amy was originally going to be wearing pants with her police outfit, but Karen wanted to wear a skirt instead.
Just noticed this when I was rewatching, but in the drawing on the wall, the house looks like it’s on fire! Weirdness.
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/2lsefpj.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
My favourite parts that turned over to Eleven were him frying stuff with Amelia, and the part at the end where he comes out of the Atraxi’s hologram thing all dressed in his new clothes. Love them so much. I love how Eleven can be both silly and serious and he does it so well.
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/2mzbnmg.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
But they aren’t actually fish fingers, they’re coconut sponge cake fingers.
Lots of people actually ate the fish fingers and custard though. So I’ve got to link to Charlie McDonnell eating the fish custard. He’s great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8htMWfgl10U
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/293uaol.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
Jeff! When you look at porn you need a safe window!
More in the reply
Porn? Who said it was porn?
Maybe he was into a really intense game of Tetris.
Or Tetris porn!
Rule 34.
Jeff, get a girlfriend!
Just googled tetris porn, because why not, and came up with 2 fairly funny links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vejqGtiHx88 (visual is pretty much SFW, but the audio is iffy – sex noises, basically)
Also, fanfic: "Four-in-a-Row quivered with anticipation"
So glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought to show Mark Charlie eating fish custard. I won't post it now that you have. I still want to try it, though.
It looks like a giant sun in that drawing and it's just behind the house for some reason. Maybe young Amelia liked to imagine alien worlds with giant suns? That car thing in front of the house actually looks like a spaceship or a helicopter.
"you're worse than my aunt"
"I'm the doctor I'm worse than everybody's aunt"
Please tell me this is a t-shirt.
Also this is really badly paraphrased but: "you brought the aliens back to us. Aliens of death..and you're taking you're clothes off"
I love this episode a lot. It's not remotely close to being my favourite of the season but it does make me happy and christ the season 5 soundtrack is bloody spectacular. I think we've hit the point where it's getting kind of overwhelming to get through all the comments a while back and I think it's only going to get worse but I'll go do my best now.
I can't stick around for long, so I'll have to come back later to what I hope is just an amazing comment thread for this episode. I love this episode so much. Matt Smith is so watchable, he runs the show from the off. To save time, I'll just copy over my comments from my own re-watch of this episode (keeping the spoilery bits out). I would link to it, but even the title of the blog is a spoiler, so here's my thoughts on an episode that means a lot to me:
"An introduction to a new Doctor will always need to make a statement. An introduction to a new Doctor following on from possibly the most popular Doctor Who ever needs to make a big statement. All this from a new show-runner taking over from a hugely succesful predecessor? It’s critical.
What The Eleventh Hour does so well is simultaeneously break away into a signature style while reminding loyal viewers that it’s safe to keep watching now David’s gone. It’s still Doctor Who, but not quite as we know it.
In fact, I would say it sticks mainly to the latter. The episode plays like a greatest hits, full of memorable moments and containing flavours of past Russell T Davies openers (hidden prisoner like in Smith and Jones, the regeneration ‘breath’ of Tennant’s entrance The Christmas Invasion) and, perhaps more importantly, nods to Moffat’s own offerings during RTD’s tenure. We get “wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey” and the “duck!” message straight from Blink, we get the coma patients of An Empty Child/A Doctor Dances, and most overtly we get The Doctor meeting Amelia/Amy across her timeline in the style of The Girl in The Fireplace. Moffat is saying ‘yes, this is the show you’ve all followed for the last 5 years, but remember all those good bits I put in? Expect a whole lot more!’ You may think this is a criticism, but far from it. It’s not derivative, it’s celebratory. A bright start to a brand new era of the show, both old and new.
The opening episode also has to open the show up to a potential new audience, so part of it’s remit is to explain who the hell this man is hanging out of a blue box over London as we begin. I say it does manage this succesfully, mainly because this is the first episode of Doctor Who I sat down and watched fully. It had never interested me before. Yes, I’d caught bits and I knew the gist, I knew the basic history, so that probably helped, but I was hooked to this over my dinner and began following the show soon after, so it definitely did something right. By the end of the episode Moffat has re-established the Doctor as a time-travelling Timelord with a companion and we’re all happy and comfortable.
As a new viewer I therefore didn’t know why Matt Smith was dangling out of the TARDIS at the start of the episode on first viewing. Now of course, I know that it is as a direct result of the regeneration from The End of Time. Not a vitally important piece of knowledge for the casual viewer perhaps, but in retrospect it’s fantastic that the huge emotional turmoil suffered by the Doctor in that episode is immediately contrasted so well with his crash landing in young Amelia’s garden and the brilliantly comedic scene that follows. The emotional shackles are off, new Doctor, new man, and new taste buds.
Within seconds of Matt Smith sparring with Amelia about food he becomes the Doctor. His comic timing is excellent (“Bad Bad Beans!”,”You’re Scottish, fry something!”) and it’s clear that while this new regeneration is working himself out, he’s clearly not weighed down with the emotional baggage of his predecessor. I don’t want to cast judgement on emotional baggage, this IS drama after all, but fresh start, fresh perspective.
Without completely listing everything that happens in this episode, what we get is a fantastic performance from Smith, encompassing the role by both being obviously the Doctor but also completely his own man. He’s nerdy yet charming, self-assured but not completely self-aware, completely the enchanting raggedy Doctor. A very different animal but ultimately recognisable.
The episode’s storyline itself is somewhat forgettable, lots of running around after a shapeshifting alien before tricking it into disguising itself as itself and getting arrested, but it doesn’t really matter. This is about The Doctor and Amy, a new lead character, and a completely different dynamic with a companion he has just met yet already seems to owe so much. He left a little girl waiting for 12 years and then 2 more, and Karen Gillan completely sells the anger and frustration of being let down by her imaginary friend but still finding him impossible to hate.
CUT FOR SPOILERS
By the time Smith has donned his bowtie and walked through the rather cool montage of doctors to firmly introduce himself, I’m sold, and so is Amy Pond, who, despite having to wait ANOTHER two years, agrees to follow the Doctor into the TARDIS, and who can blame her after that introduction?"
Moffat is saying ‘yes, this is the show you’ve all followed for the last 5 years, but remember all those good bits I put in? Expect a whole lot more!’ You may think this is a criticism, but far from it. It’s not derivative, it’s celebratory. A bright start to a brand new era of the show, both old and new.
I really like this way of putting it and totally agree. It's regeneration — I mean, that's the clear theme of the episode, not just the Doctor's regeneration or the TARDIS's or the show's but the regeneration of Amy's hopes and dreams. That beautiful music at the end, so full of wonder and beauty, Amy getting to go off with the madman in the box, who's been the focus of her desires for so long (as the slow pan over the drawings and dolls shows) — it's new life, new hope, adventure and excitement.
I don't think Amy needed the Doctor for adventure and excitement; she's dynamic enough to create her own. But she wanted that, in the deep primal way that children want magic and, yeah, fairy tales. And this episode is all about Santa giving her what she wanted.
THIS SHOW, I WANT TO HUG IT.
This was the first Doctor Who episode that I ever watched. ಠ_à²
Also, I completely agree with you about the kitchen scene. It fills my heart with joy.
ಠ_ಠThis is my judging face.
…No, not really. I just wanted an excuse to use that face.
I JUST WANT TO HUG YOU, AMY POND.
THIS PERFECTLY SUMS UP MY FEELINGS TOWARDS THE WONDERFUL MISS POND, FOREVER AND EVER. <3
Awww, Eleven. He's MY Doctor. :3
I have a problem with the 5th series that probably won't make sense to anyone else, but here it is: I have a hard time listening to some people when they talk, because either their voice or some speech mannerisms just grate on my nerves. It's just one of these things I'm extremely sensitive about.
Unfortunately, Matt Smith is one of these people. Something about the way he talks just… hurts my brain. Which is a shame because he's a great actor and I really like the way his Doctor is written (fish custard FTW!), but I guess I'll never quite love Eleven for that reason.
I don't know why but I'm really bad with hearing and understanding people on television. IRL my hearing is basically perfect, but for some reason with telly having to concentrate on the screen and hear voices that I'm not so familiar with (accents also make it worse but half my family are from Hertfordshire and London so Matt's accent is easy, and the other half are scottish (Edinburgh mostly, if anyone is interested) so Karen's is fine) and with music on top of that means I can miss really quite a lot, every scene.
So if it helps, putting subtitles on is very good- for me, at least. They stay up for those extra few milliseconds if you miss a sentence,and it doesn't take long for them to stop distracting you from watching the action when you do hear okay. The downside is that it does sometimes make pretty scenes quite ugly, and my family and friends hate that I put them on.
But yeah, I definitely recommend subtitles.
"So if it helps, putting subtitles on is very good- for me, at least. They stay up for those extra few milliseconds if you miss a sentence,and it doesn't take long for them to stop distracting you from watching the action when you do hear okay. The downside is that it does sometimes make pretty scenes quite ugly, and my family and friends hate that I put them on."
OMG ARE YOU ME
I have to have the subtitles on or I mishear things atrociously. Also, watching the news with the subtitles on is beyond hilarious, I remember dying forever after seeing "migratory ducks" subtitled as "my gay Tory ducks" and "Nina Nannar" as "Ambulance Siren".
Eleven (and let's be frank, Matt Smith) is so unbelievably charming and childlike, I don't understand how people could not love him. As much as I love Karen Gillan, I almost wish little Amelia could be the companion! That would be so much fun…
And yes, I finally manage to get an account and I have to add numbers because someone took my name first! sad sad day for the throat lozenge that is me.
I don't have the time to say much of substance, aside from I LOVE THIS EPISODE, DOCTOR, COMPANION, TARDIS, ETC- so have some gifs and pictures!
<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/sxokte.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/14uub1d.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/sxokte.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/in6cqr.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/20h1oip.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/18oza1.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
Matt and Caitlin
<img src="http://i52.tinypic.com/2146txx.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
New TARDIS
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/hx0ikm.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
Awwwww, I'd never seen that bit with Matt and Caitlin before. HE IS SO ADORABLE IRL I CAN'T EVEN STAND IT. <3
I know!
Why is he so adorkable?
Oh my god Matt talking to Caitlin is too cute!
<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/2hwz6s.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
The new TARDIS has stairways. Stairways going places. WHERE DO THEY GO??
To places of magic and wonder and WHY DON'T I HAVE MY OWN TARDIS?
They go to the swimming pool and the library, sometimes at the same time!
Oh Matt you're so good with kids <3<3<3
NEW TARDIS! PRETTY! It really freaks my out that the railings are missing from that photo shoot though.
Boo, I double posted. That's what I get for posting and running! Here's what that third gif should have been:
<img src="http://i52.tinypic.com/212tuky.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
Is that 2nd last one Dr. Who Confidential? Amazing!
Brilliant new TARDIS pic from Radio Times.
The future's bright…the future's Orange!
Every time I watch this episode I always look at the stuff in Amy's room at both ages. The house on fire is by far the creepiest thing in young Amy's room, but the brief glimpse we get of grown up Amy's room is stuffed with creepy looking Doctor stuff.
Amy's childhood psyche = seriously scary shit.
Well, she did have an entire universe flowing in from that crack. Maybe she heard- saw things- from ends of the universe, through time; things like houses being burnt, and alien races, and all sorts of scary thing. Couple that with not having parents, an aunt that often disappears, and some abandonment issues, and your drawings would be weird too, I bet.
Is it on fire or is that just a really big sun? Like a setting sun? There's no smoke or fire anywhere but behind it and if I'd drawn that as a little kid I would have had flames coming from everywhere.
Did anyone say it was fire?
I don't know if anyone has talked about the stuff inside of Amy's room, but that's just what it looks like.
There is some pretty creepy set dressing throughout Doctor Who if you look carefully enough! It's fun!
Matt Smith, you are awesome forever!
He won me over with his performance as the Doctor in approximately five minutes.
Eleven had me at "Can I have an apple?"
Same here! 😛
This episode was my introduction to Doctor Who! Maybe that's why 11 is my doctor. Maybe that's why I love Series 5 to bits. Maybe that's why Amy is my favorite companion.
OR MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD AWESOME.
So excite!
<img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lg2y9lNbnL1qapmnco1_500.gif">
<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lg0si2gia21qf9wcko1_500.gif">
<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgn5ijkUdP1qbq0hmo1_500.gif">
Hey good to see you commenting!
Aw yay thanks 😀 I'm so sad I missed the end of both DW s4 and Mockingjay, especially the latter because I have A Lot Of Thoughts about the way Hunger Games ends (I haven't even gone and read the posts yet, ack!).
But 11! Yay!!
I just totally posted a comment with a bunch of fanart but it seems to have disappeared. Wah!
Ah surprise Darren! 😀
A Darren Criss gif! YAY!
OHHH MYYY GODDDD MARRKKKKKKK SO MUCH EXCITE SADFKJHSADJFHGSJKHGJKSHDFG
Yeah I had planned to write a deep, sophisticated review of TEH but LOL FUCK THAT
ADSFKJSAHJFKHAGSFDG AMY AND RORY AND ELEVEN OMG. <3
I was sure I would hate Eleven. I loved Tennant too much to let him go. But I felt the same way about Eccles, and now I know I will feel the same way about Smith. And I did hate him. For all of the first episode, actually. And then I rewatched it (several times the next day ¬__¬). AND THEN I FELL IN LOVE.
…with Amy Pond.
BUT, also with Eleven. Becuase you're right, he is a breath of fresh air to the show. He brings something COMPLETELY new, and does it in his own whacky, OTT, goofy, hipsterish way. AndIlovehim <3
Rory/Amy = love
Eleven/Amy = love
Rory/Eleven = love
Rory/Eleven/Amy = ASDGJHFAKJSGHKJHDFKGJHFG love
I SHIP THEM ALL OKAY.
I am a goddamned self-confessed obsessive shipper. Just call me Nepeta and give me a cave, but I. LOVE. TO. SHIP. And series 5 is SO FRAKKING GOOD TO SHIP. PARTICULARLY CRACK!SHIPS.
lol rambling but ANYWAAYYY, yeah, brilliant writing – the plot could have been better, but a great series opener. And SOOO PRETTYYYYYYY <3
Also, KAREN GILLANNNNNNN <3 <3 O__O <3 <3
That is all.
I was scrolling down, looking for any amusing GIFs, and then Nepeta's name appeared to pouncegreet me.
…and yes. Personally, Rory <3 Doctor and Amy <> Donna are my favorites. (I have a headcanon where Donna got therapy because of lingering doctorness giving her psychic headaches and she meets little Amy. Adorable happens.)
YAAAAAY Homestuck <3
Hahaaa, I love your headcanon <3 Not too sure about Donna/Amy (though they could certainly give the Doctor an aneurysm XD) – ohhhh wait, or do you just mean Donna meeting Amelia? Is that what you mean by 'little Amy'? I'm confusing myself >_< But OMG DONNA MEETING AMELIA WOULD BE SO FREAKING ADORABLE <3 … in a non-shippy way though… ¬__¬
But gyaahhh, so many awesome Rory/Doctor 'fics :3 But I love Amy too much, so I think I prefer Rory/Doctor/Amy :3
Yes! I Am The Doctor is my absolute favorite. I just. I can't. It's so awesome.
Someone's probably already posted this, but just in case: Video of Charlieissocoollike eating fish fingers and custard
Awesome episode. I loved Matt Smith just a few seconds after it started. Which makes him the most-quickly adjusted to "new" character so far for me 🙂
He’s kinder, in a way, and much less prone to bouts of serious rage like Tennant was. … So, after traveling alone for so long, he’s become much more at peace with himself. He doesn’t have the same burdens he’d been living with for the past four series.
As You Are Not Alone explained in your "The End of Time, Part Two" review, seeing the Time Lords again makes the Doctor realize that, as terrible as it was to basically kill off his species, it was the right thing to do, which helps him not carry around that particular guilty baggage any more. (I really, really like this interpretation, which is why I'm highlighting it again.)
And I agree, this is a refreshing change in the show, and I too already loved it. To me, this just shows that you can change things up in a show without losing the heart of it.
Oh, and Rory. As I said to my friends when this episode aired, I felt so bad for him! I'm kind of a sucker for underdogs (well, the nice ones, anyway), so I liked Mickey pretty early on (when he wasn't creepy plastic, at any rate), and I had the same sort of feelings for Rory.
I like how you can tell that Matt Smith really plays in the moment. That scene right before the awesome Doctor's eye view? Where he's all, "Wait a minute! I saw something!" and smacks his forehead a couple times? It's totally gotten red from the force of him hitting himself. 😀
Also, I have a confession. Series Four is definitely my favorite RTD-era series, but even there, I can't pick out a favorite episode. In fact, I don't often like picking absolute favorites (partly because of indecision, partly because I don't want to hurt my not-quite-top-favorites' feelings — yes, episodes have feelings, didn't you know?). True story: it wasn't until nearly the end of Season 7 of Buffy that I picked — well, realized I had a favorite character. I won't say who it is or what prompted my realization, because, well, spoilers.
Anyway. Today, last night I realized that this is probably my favorite episode of Doctor Who. It came to me when, after I'd watched the episode to keep up with the blog, I… kind of wanted to rewatch it again immediately. Instead, I held off about an hour and then rewatched it… on my Zen media player, when I should have been sleeping. And then I watched it earlier this afternoon. If that's not favoritism, I'm not sure what is. 😀
As You Are Not Alone explained in your "The End of Time, Part Two" review, seeing the Time Lords again makes the Doctor realize that, as terrible as it was to basically kill off his species, it was the right thing to do, which helps him not carry around that particular guilty baggage any more. (I really, really like this interpretation, which is why I'm highlighting it again.)
I really like it too, so thanks for bringing it to my attention, because I don't think I caught it earlier.
I also think Ten probably got some closure in Journey's End and then EOT-2, seeing all his companions off, realizing they'd be OK, and letting go of his
Rosecompanion-related angst as well.The change in the Doctor's mood along with his regeneration is striking (and I wonder if we'll ever see a moody Doctor under Moffat's reign… ye gods only know he probably still has some things to be moody about), but, I think, necessary.
Thank you for linking to that post. It's an amazing insight into the Doctor's psyche at the time, and makes me feel better about Ten's feelings before his regeneration and it also makes me wish that Nine had been able to experience it.
>…he's all, "Wait a minute! I saw something!" and smacks his forehead a couple times? It's totally gotten red from the force of him hitting himself. 😀
And then you can tell when the scenes were recorded out of sequence because the redness disappears, then comes back, then disappears again, and then comes back faded, etc… 🙂
"Hey, Matt, we're getting ready to shoot. Can you hit yourself a couple of three times on the head again? Brilliant." 😀
I AM SO EXCITE.
This was my 'proper' introduction to Doctor Who. I had seen Aliens of London back in 2006, and one night I came home from theater rehearsal, and my sister told me about an awesome show called Doctor Who. A few days later, I watched the first episode on demand.
Within the first five minutes, I knew I had found magic. I absolutely loved this episode. The moment The Doctor touched down in that little girl's garden, I was amazed. The lighting! The music! Matt Smith touching the crack!
This episode is how I introduce people to Doctor Who.
At the end of the episode, I knew I had found my new favorite show – the concept was all of my favorite things rolled into one, and by the end of the episode, I was fangirling all over Eleven. (Thank you, writers, for the changing scene)
When I watched the Doctor finally come back and let Amy into the TARDIS, I grinned like a seven-year old – I was ecstatic. My inner seven-year old loved that moment, and I can't not smile like an idiot whenever I see it. (The music is great.)
The music is top notch this season, as well.
ELEVEN <3. I hope you love this season as much as I do.
I want to hug and smoosh Eleven and Amy forever and ever. I watched series 5 first, so they will always be my Doctor and Companion.
I am so happy to see Rory love, because Rory is love. I want to hug him too. And also other things.
BTW, favorite line
Doctor: Your friend, what was his name. Not him *points at Rory*, the good looking one.
Rory: Thanks.
Amy: Jeff.
Rory: Oh thanks.
The timing and delivery is just…seriously, makes me giggle like a lunatic every. single. time.
Also, HOW FUCKING EPIC IS THE NEW DOCTOR'S THEME? It never fails to make me want to go on an adventure.
I am so happy to see Rory love, because Rory is love. I want to hug him too. And also other things.
YESSSS. I love Eleven and adore Amy but there is just a very special place in my heart for Rory. Arthur Darvill is GENIUS.
Okay, I am just really really excited for you to be watching series five. The Eleventh Hour was my first episode of Doctor Who, it's what got me hooked. This is my favorite series and my favorite Doctor and I'm so excited for your reactions!
Oops, this should not have been a branch reply. Will repost on its own.
Nobody seems to have posted this yet, but Mark, as you're watching on Netflix you're probably not aware that the DVD box set includes a couple special (canon!) scenes that take place between episodes.
The first of these is between episodes 1 and 2, so should be watched now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ObD6NPNyU
The next is later in the season, I'll make sure you see it at the right time.
I LOVE the deleted scenes!
Actually, they're not deleted scenes, more like "added scenes" – they were filmed specifically for the DVD release.
Actually, Series 5 isn't on Instant yet. I know this because my mom has finally caught up to Series 5 and I had to re-add the DW discs to my DVD queue so she can watch them. Not sure how Mark is watching if he's not getting the DVDs.
I KNEW YOU'D LOVE THIS.
I was giddy with ecitement after this episode. The bit! With the thing! And the Dr walking through the images of his previous selves to that epic music! Yes, we have our Dr again! And he is a different man. Perhaps slightly less troubled, though still sad. It's hard to tell at this point.
Bow ties are cool 😀
Wrong with me? It’s not my fault, why can’t you give me any decent food? You’re Scottish, fry something!”
FRIED STUFF IS DELICIOUS TYVM Steven. AS you well know.
"The show looks absolutely gorgeous. GORGEOUS…. …This show looks so crisp now, but it’s also not the only thing working in it’s favor. As the reigns have been turned over to Steven Moffat, he’s also created a story and, with director Adam Smith, a visual episode that is quite literally unlike any Doctor Who episode of the past. There are so many new-ish camera angles or technical devices being used for the first time."
With the new production team they've changed the whole look and feel of the show. I much prefer the new more cinematic look the show now has. Even Murray Gold went in a completely different direction with the music abandoning the bombastic sounds of old for more lyrical and magical fare. Everything about the show has been changed to suit Moffat's vision of Doctor Who as a dark fairytale.
"He doesn’t have the same burdens he’d been living with for the past four series. In this sense…Matt Smith is very refreshing. It’s a breath of fresh air into a show I already liked."
Yeah the Time-War arc is finally completely over and the Doctor is back to being essentially the same man as before the war. Eleven is a lot more like the Doctors in the classic series.
And now some pictures to close off.
Little Amelia Pond
<img src="http://i694.photobucket.com/albums/vv301/vick1986_album/random%20anime%20screenshot/av4zkh.gif">
Matt Smith
<img src="http://i40.tinypic.com/59sf8j.jpg">
And finally just because Amy and Rory are awesome.
<img src="http://i694.photobucket.com/albums/vv301/vick1986_album/dressingup.png">
Aww! Love the Fullmetal Alchemist pic. The Hughes family are adorable!
Also, the first time I saw Jeff I swear I thought Dermot O'Leary was making a surprise guest appearance on Doctor Who.
First off, nice opening sequence and song:
<img src="http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m593/the_mauve_avenger/EleventhHourOpening.gif">
I really liked this episode and the Amy-Doctor interaction, despite the fact that it's obviously very derivative of "The Girl in the Fireplace" (and even mentions the "cowboys" line from that episode).
Even the TARDIS is more my style:
<img src="http://i43.tinypic.com/mr5z4y.gif">
I thought he'd end up liking pears this time. Apparently not.
<img src="http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m593/the_mauve_avenger/AndStayOut.gif">
Is it weird that as a lactose-intolerant vegetarian, I really love Eleven for liking fish custard? Yeah? Well, good.
<img src="http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m593/the_mauve_avenger/FishCustard.gif">
Bonus points for the throwing the plate out of the door gif.
The new logo seems to fit Doctor Who a LOT better than the ten/nine logo.. 😀 It just seems more.. Who-ish.. almost like the old logos.
Little bit of trivia for the second gif, whenever there's close-ups on Eleven pushing buttons and stuff, it's not Matt! It's someone else's hands, which is why he's got the other jacket on.
Why not his hands? Does he have particularly ugly hands?
I think it's probably something like they did the close-ups at the end of the shoot and couldn't get Matt because he was busy or something. It's mentioned in the DVD commentary for this episode.
Okay, whew. I mean, I was worried that Matt Smith's hands may not be up to snuff, and I was gonna start inspecting them every episode to see what was wrong with them. 😉
But that makes more sense. I don't actually think I've seen the DVD commentaries for these episodes, which is crazy.
New theme/logo, do not want.
Love Matt Smith and Karen Gillan though, lovelovelove! And the "You're Scottish; FRY SOMETHING!" line really made me lol, as the only time I ever went to Scotland, I was fed deep-fried Mars bars (surprisingly delicious).
Also: "Custard and fish sticks. My god. That almost sounds…delicious?"
OH MY GOD NO, MARK, NO. D:
OH AND, I just read in the Radio Times that Matt Smith will be playing Christopher Isherwood on my tellyscreen on Saturday, DO WANT. Nice topless picture in there too *shifty eye*.
THIS IS AN ELEVENTH DOCTOR APPRECIATION POST
I know we've only had one episode with him on here, and it might seem premature to start appreciating, but he is MY DOCTOR and I'm going to squee over him like whoa and NOBODY CAN STOP ME. (I apologize in advance for the capslock abuse.)
LOOK AT THIS SMOOTH MOTHERFUCKER:
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/1zbv3ab.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
Stealing clothes from a hospital and everything.
<img src="http://i53.tinypic.com/xfci0l.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
AHEM.
<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/2dh616o.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
HE JUST REGENERATED AND ALREADY HE'S SAVING THE WORLD
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/2mwyrma.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
HE'S OFF BEFRIENDING LONELY CHILDREN AND FIGURING OUT WHO HE IS NOW
<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/2qd2044.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/20zv9uc.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
BUT ALSO CONTINUING TO SCREW UP AND ACCIDENTALLY BEING 14 YEARS LATE
<img src="http://i52.tinypic.com/208ejkm.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
(Although, honestly, he's not getting any cleverer with these regenerations: Dude, how did you not recognize Amelia Pond as a grownup? Most obvious plot twist ever.)
<img src="http://i53.tinypic.com/ejwvlt.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
I LOVE HIS TEN-ESQUE TRIPLE "WHAT?!?" WHEN HE FIGURES IT OUT THOUGH
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/214us7b.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
But the thing that really gets me about Matt Smith's Doctor is (JUST IN THIS ONE EPISODE), he comes off as an old man on the inside. I mean, dude's got a face like a foot, but HE CAN FUCKING ACT. HE MAKES YOU BELIEVE HE'S A NINE HUNDRED YEAR OLD ALIEN. HE'S GOT ALL THE EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE AND BACKSTORY AND HISTORY, AND ALL THE MOTHERFUCKING BADASSERY THAT ENTAILS.
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/34zzq5l.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
(Yeah, this was a heavy-handed way of showing that Eleven's STILL THE DOCTOR, and Moffat really hit us over the head with it, but I don't even care because this line:
"I'm the Doctor. BASICALLY, RUN."
<3 <3 <3
ALSO: THE BOWTIE
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/z24af.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
AND THE NEW TARDIS
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/2wdd1c8.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
In conclusion:
YOU ARE NOT PREPARED
But the thing that really gets me about Matt Smith's Doctor is (JUST IN THIS ONE EPISODE), he comes off as an old man on the inside. I mean, dude's got a face like a foot, but HE CAN FUCKING ACT. HE MAKES YOU BELIEVE HE'S A NINE HUNDRED YEAR OLD ALIEN. HE'S GOT ALL THE EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE AND BACKSTORY AND HISTORY, AND ALL THE MOTHERFUCKING BADASSERY THAT ENTAILS.
Yes! This is one of the many amazing things about Matt Smith, the fact that he really sells the age of the Doctor, despite being the youngest Doctor ever. He's an out-of-nowhere casting that makes you think, "Where the hell did they find this guy??"
But the thing that really gets me about Matt Smith's Doctor is (JUST IN THIS ONE EPISODE), he comes off as an old man on the inside. I mean, dude's got a face like a foot, but HE CAN FUCKING ACT. HE MAKES YOU BELIEVE HE'S A NINE HUNDRED YEAR OLD ALIEN. HE'S GOT ALL THE EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE AND BACKSTORY AND HISTORY, AND ALL THE MOTHERFUCKING BADASSERY THAT ENTAILS.
Amen! You said it very well. 😀
This episode is so epic omg Matt Smith couldn't have hoped for a better introduction.
ALSO, I don't know why really but I love that little Amelia prays to Santa.
My main comment has to get approved before it will appear (curse you too-many-gifs), so in the meantime:
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/xcta83.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/2h5i4nq.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
Oh god that second one is made of win!
second macro is AWESOME
OH GOD, THAT SECOND ONE. The first one is awesome, but the last panel of the second made me spit all over my laptop.
ewwww /cleans off with skirt
Hmm, seems everyone has already said everything I want to say about this episode.
I'll say these three things: this whole episode was a wonderful experience for me. Every time I felt I couldn't like Matt Smith any more than I already did, he proved me wrong. Karen Gillan is brilliant as the bruised, abrasive but deeply vulnerable Amelia "Amy" Pond.
Do not underestimate Rory. This is the guy who was photographing a man with a dog when the world was about to end. Why? Because he's a guy who focuses on the details. And it was his phone that helped the Doctor save the world.
Fish custard and bow ties. God, I was in love with Eleven already and this was only the first episode.
Here's a vid I made about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ82ZlTXIYI
"Do I just have a face that nobody listens to?!…Again."
Totally a shout out to the Fifth Doctor lol
DEFINITELY, I think Steven has a particular affection for Five. 😀
Yup he wrote an article in the Doctor Who magazine years ago about why Five was his favourite Doctor. I wish I could find it again, I did read it on the web…
Maybe the use of a cricket bat was too? Five liked his cricket.
Oooh, and Mark, you MUST watch the "Meanwhile in the TARDIS" videos – they're specially filmed little extras for the DVD release, and the first one takes place between "The Eleventh Hour" and the second episode. Here it is available on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaOPe4emP9Y
I actually wish they could have somehow got little Amelia and Amy as companions, with Davros or the Master taking up the Doctors offer from the last couple finales it would be like a weird Final Fantasy party with time travel shenanigans. How adorable was Amelia packing her teddy bear and a toothbrush? That's how you go time travelling Rose.
Was in love with Matt Smith from the start, alot of my friends who only got into it with Tennant were expecting him to torpedo the show with his "easter island statue face" (their words) and were shut up about ten minutes in.
There's a spoiler in your post, so I'm deleting it. The rest of the comment is fine, though, if you want to remove it for reposting.
??? What spoiler?
And thanks a bunch, you could've at least given me a warning first, so that I could save my post, now I have to type it up again… 🙁
Isn't your post in the e-mail notification you received?
As for giving warning, mods need to remove spoilers ASAP!
It wasn't a spoiler. It was a logical (and very obvious) conclusion of what was presented in the episode. But never mind.
I reported the comment because you're not supposed to confirm or deny anything that hasn't been covered on the show yet, even if you think it's obvious or logical.
I don't think you're doing yourself any favors by protesting the delete – I thought it was spoilery, and arctic_hare apparently did too.
No longer spoiling!
Every Doctor Who Theme song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J_3rsEwYVE
I've watched this video so many times and it never gets old. 🙂
It's gonna be another long one from me, so you might want to sit down with a cuppa. 🙂
What can I say about The Eleventh Hour, beyond simply unmitigated brilliance from start to finish? So much so that when I come to the end, I have to resist the urge to simply watch it all again.
The show suddenly looks and feels very different. New Doctor, New Companion, New TARDIS inside and out, new HD cameras, new director…everything about The Eleventh hour says New, New, New! And yet at the same time, Steven Moffat's script goes out of its way to reassure the audience that this is absolutely the same show and the same man that just saved the Earth from the Time Lords a few minutes ago. Even the pre-titles sequence, which was a late addition to the script, reinforces this idea. Not only does this scene follow on immediately from the final scene of The End of Time, but also the close encounter with Big Ben is bound to make `long time` viewers think of `Aliens of London`. So we have a clear connection with the Ninth Doctor as well as the Tenth…and the story hasn't even started yet!
There's an expression that a lot of people used when this episode was first aired, to express their reaction to the new Doctor: `He had me at "hello"!` which of course means Matt Smith was brilliant from the very moment first we see him. However, while agreeing 100% with the sentiment, one of the interesting things about this new man is that in the literal sense, he doesn't actually say, "Hello". (In fact, we don't get a "Hello" until right near the end when he confronts the Atraxi on the roof.)
The scenes with little Amelia are a joy. Whatever the differences, the Doctor is still the Doctor and is of course a natural with children. He doesn’t talk down to her and he doesn't dismiss her fears over the crack in her wall. On the contrary, he recognises that no matter how weird his sudden appearance and behaviour are, she takes it all in her stride, which means…"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall!"
Fast forward 12 years to grown up Amy. One of my favourite Amy moments is what seems to be a small thing – trapping the Doctor's tie in that bloke's car door.
It's strong and assertive, both in terms of standing up to the Doctor to make him explain himself, and towards the bloke whose car it was. (If he was named I can't remember it.) And it's also cunningly resourceful, and demonstrated quick thinking. I love the way she just seems to do it in one fluid movement: see car pull up, grab tie, drag Doctor over to car, demand keys, tie in car door, lock car, tell bloke to go have coffee, make Doctor explain.
I think that moment gives us a good little snapshot of what we can expect from Amy.
Now, just to prevent this review from being a *complete* gush, I have to admit that the first time I saw this episode, I wasn't keen on the `snapshots` scene where the Doctor realises he's seen something important but isn't sure what. Maybe I haven’t seen enough television (although I usually think the reverse is true) but I've never seen anything like that before, or indeed since. I'm still not completely sure I like it, but I do admire it for being bold and different and – here's that word again – New!
And now it's back to the gushing: Using the old sonic to try and attract attention (and singularly failing to do so) including making a fire engine drive itself…a vehicle that becomes very important later on, as the Doctor races to the rescue. And loving every minute of the awesomeness of driving a fire engine!
Steven Moffat has this layering style, always dropping in clues and threads, ready to be tied up at the climax. The quantum fast, thanks to Jeff and his team, acting as a great big beacon: `Prisoner Zero is Here!` Traced back to Rory's phone containing all the pictures of the alien's forms. That's new. Never saved the Earth with a mobile before.
Twenty minutes to save the world. No TARDIS, no sonic. 2 minutes to spare. Who da man!?
Nope, never saying that again.
t's brilliant when, with a last trick up its sleeve (if it had sleeves) it takes on the form of the Doctor – or more accurately Amelia and her memory of the Doctor.
THE DOCTOR: Well that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?
RORY: That's you.
THE DOCTOR: Oh is that what I look like?
RORY: You don't know?"
THE DOCTOR: Busy day.
He hadn't even had time to get to know himself yet, but here he is, saving the earth. Again. He gets Amy to dream of Prisoner Zero's true form, the Atraxi finally grab her/it and that's it, they're off…except…
RORY: Did he just save the Earth from aliens of death, and now he's bringing them back?
THE DOCTOR: Leaving is good. Never coming back is better.
The Doctor invokes Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation, giving us another link to the past, having `recently` seen the Shadow Proclamation in 4.12 The Stolen Earth, and of course bringing to mind Nine's, "Article 15" when confronting the Nestene Consciousness in 1.1 Rose.
But the strongest link to the past is still to come, because after picking up some new clothes (with an impressed Amy looking on with wide eyes and a crooked smile) the Doctor confronts the Atraxi.
THE DOCTOR: Is the world a threat to the Atraxi?
THE ATRAXI: No.
THE DOCTOR: Are the people of this world guilty of any crimes by the laws of the Atraxi?
THE ATRAXI: No.
THE DOCTOR: One more question. Just one. Is this world protected?
And then while the new Doctor does up his new tie, we are treated to a series of images of all the previous Doctors, looming large in what I'm calling the Atraxi bubble-cam, culminating in Ten's serious-looking face, through which steps Eleven, complete with bow tie. The regeneration is over. The new Doctor is here. But yet he's absolutely the same man.
THE DOCTOR: Hello. I'm the Doctor. And, basically…run!
Memories of the Library 2 parter and River telling us, "I've seen whole armies turn and run away…
And a little while later – or 2 years, depending on your perspective – we see the end of that quote play out before us. The Doctor returns for Amy, asks her to go with him…
…and opens the TARDIS doors with a snap of his fingers.
When Amy steps inside the gorgeous blue box, restored to its former glory, that is the only time I've ever wanted to yell and Karen to get her head out of the bloody way of the camera. But when she does, it was so worth the wait. The new TARDIS interior, inspired by Jules Verne, is bright and beautiful, warm and inviting…and is goes on forever! The old classic hum is back, which is somehow reassuring. Speaking of sound, the new sonic is ready!
THE DOCTOR: <whispers> Thanks, dear.
Oh, how I love that!
And off they go into brand new adventures
The Doctor… [and Amy…] in the TARDIS… next stop: everywhere!
THIS to your whole comment.
Thanks, dear.
I had the biggest grin on my face at that moment.
This whole comment is awesome! 😀 😀 😀
You know Mark, I have to confess that I was a little worried that, with all the love and hugs you gave Ten, that you wouldn't give Eleven a chance. I'd seen so many people in the run up to the new series talking about how much Matt was going to suck and that they planned on dropping Doctor Who unless David came back, and I was afraid you might fall into that.
I should have had more faith.
Dear Eleven: Please crash in my back garden then rummage through my pantry. I'll fry something, I promise!
Also: Another reason Caitlin Blackwood is epic? Because we share a name and IT'S SPELLED THE ORIGINAL WAY! Sorry, so many years of people spelling my name wrong no matter how many times I tell them. When I tell them it's the original Gaelic spelling they say, "What? I thought it was a Southern thing, sticking Kate and Lynn together!"
I can't squee enough over this episode. Up until this point Nine was My Doctor, but then Eleven came. Finally, I believed this was a geeky old man in a young man's body, and that he was an Alien! Hurray!
One bit I'm a little iffy on: Um, I'm pretty sure if Rory had been female we wouldn't be laughing about him not being "the good-looking one". Just saying.
Girl, come over to the UK, we nearly always spell it 'Caitlin'. 😀
That's it, I'm emigrating! In fact, I'm going to pack my wee suitcase, put on my red wellies, and wait for the Tardis to take me there.
"One bit I'm a little iffy on: Um, I'm pretty sure if Rory had been female we wouldn't be laughing about him not being "the good-looking one". Just saying."
Really good point. I don't think that even the Doctor would be socially unaware enough to say that to a woman.
Now I feel a little guilty for laughing at that line, but Rory's reaction was just precious. For the record, I think he's adorable.
Rory is indeed adorable. I just love him having the sense to use his cell phone to take pictures of the patients around the village. Clever, clever boy!
I don't know if someone mentioned this and I don't want to seem like a jerk for the correction, but I did want to get clarification.
"He does return to that house in Leadworth, a brand new TARDIS in hand, but it’s twelve years later. TWELVE YEARS. I’m reminded of “Love and Monsters,” which Moffat also wrote, but this episode doesn’t feel as rushed (or problematic) as that story."
Do you mean Girl In The Fireplace? Moffat did not write Love and Monsters.
In isolation, I like this episode very much. I have (many) problems with how this season plays out, but this episode is not one of them. Karen and Matt are completely and totally wonderful, for starters, which is always good. No matter what's going on, writing-wise, I always love them.
My favorite thing, though, is the idea of Amy. (Execution is of course a different thing, but it's the first episode. All characters are ideas in their first episode.) There's a quote from Donna Tartt's Secret History that I really like and Amy made me think of: "I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell." She goes through the Companion cycle so fast and so young that she never recovers; she's still stuck in that garden, waiting. Even her job is like this twisted reflection of the Doctor: promise more and walk away. It's not a police box, but it'll do. A little "girls with daddy issues grow up to be strippers," but complex and totally heartbreaking. I also love how it radicalizes the Doctor-Companion relationship, making it the Doctor helping a shattered Companion instead of the other way around.
And in this episode, Moffat really does the brilliance of that story justice. My two favorite moments are A) when she screams "Why did you say five minutes?" in that scary, painful voice and B) when the Doctor asks her what happened to Amelia and she looks at him with a face like stone and says: "Bit fairytale." That right there is the moment I fell in love with Amy Pond. It's precisely the worst thing she could say to him and she knows it. You can see exactly how fucked up she is, and it's brilliant. The broken girl and the boy who did it, and the ways in which they try to make it okay: for this episode, at least, that's our story, and it's brilliant.
I have to share this with you guys:
"You made me dress up as him…"
<img src="http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/Tauriel/art/Lil_Amy_and_Rory.jpg">
Aw so cute. I can't draw to safe my life so I just photoshopped Rory's head on the Doctor's body
(re-post:)
<img src="http://i694.photobucket.com/albums/vv301/vick1986_album/dressingup.png">
Oh, so many things. LIST TIME.
1) He calls the TARDIS "sexy"! And when it/she gives him the new screwdriver, he says, "Thanks, dear!" SO CUTE.
2) Young Amelia Pond is just one of my favorite people in Doctor Who ever. And she's Karen Gillan's cousin, so the resemblance makes sense.
3) WHO DA MAN? You da man, Doctor! <3
4) Matt Smith! <3 <3 <3 From what I know of him, I love him as a person. He IS me. Updates as series progresses.
5) "Are you not going to turn your back?" "NOPE."
6) So interested to see what you think of Amy Pond as the series progresses.
7) This series has a lot of little hints, more so than the previous ones. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION. When you finish the series, I will list them all and point them out episode by episode. Because that's how I roll.
8) I think I've watched this episode at least six times by now, and some parts 10 or 12.
9) I'm so glad you like the new Doctor and the new Companion! I like how alien Matt Smith is in a way; maybe it's the shape of his face, maybe it's the way he carries himself, I don't know, but he is TOTALLY AWESOME. There are times when I watch when I think he's my Doctor, then I watch Tennant and he is my Doctor again, back and forth. No matter what, they're both awesome.
The Pandorica is basically a great big outerspace radio that, though SCIENCE, can automatically detect which type of music from anywhere in the galaxy the person listening would like the most.
Unfortunately, you can only got there for forty hours in a week unless you pay, and it compensates playing free music with a shitload of adverts.
But where else can you create an entire station of Vogon poetry with which to torment your horrible coworkers? That makes the ads worth it, I think.
But can it pick up the Music of the Spheres?
Oh, phew, found my post. (For the record, arctic_hare, it wasn't really a spoiler, it was an obvious logical conclusion… but for your peace of mind I'll remove it)
WOOOOOOOOOOOOO, SERIES 5!!! Love it, love it, love it. The Eleventh Hour is my favourite series opener – it introduces a new Doctor, it introduces a new companion, it introduces a new TARDIS (and sonic screwdriver!), it (re)introduces the concept of regeneration, it shows how time travel can be unpredictable, and does it all in a wonderfully imaginative way.
Matt Smith was friggin' BORN for the role of the Doctor. He had me at "Can I have an apple?" In a way, he's more Doctorish and alien than Chris and David ever were (as much as I love them). I love how he (intentionally) resembles Ten – the triple "WHAT?!", the way he says "Amelia Ponnnnd. Like a name in a fairy tale."… Also, the clothes-stealing scene is quite possibly a nod towards the Eighth Doctor, who also stole clothes from a hospital locker room after his regeneration. 😉
Little Amelia is ADORABLE and I wonder how interesting the series could've been if the Doctor actually travelled with her instead of her adult version. I'd love to see that. Also, the scene where she sits on her tiny little suitcase, waiting for the Doctor all night, is PURE HEARTBREAK.
Amy = awesomeness with an attitude and a cricket bat. 😀
Rory = LOVE. First he might seem like a "funny loser of a boyfriend" like Mickey in "Rose", but he's actually pretty clever in his own way – he had enough common sense to take pictures of Prisoner Zero disguised as coma patients, which proved to be a crucial element in the Doctor's plan (he even said it was his favourite part!). RORY IS AWESOME!!
Best scene: Easily the food-tasting scene. Brilliant in every aspect. I can watch it over and over and it never gets boring.
<img src="http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/Tauriel/andstayout.gif">
I can't even begin to post my favourite quotes from this episode, because I'd probably end up posting the entire transcript! 😀 It's EXTREMELY QUOTABLE. 😉
But just one interesting thing that made me laugh (as a former maths and physics student):
"Fermat's Theorem, the proof, and I mean the real one. Never been seen before. Poor Fermat, got killed in a duel before he could write it down. My fault, I slept in…"
LOL, actually, it was NOT Pierre de Fermat who got killed in a duel, it was Évariste Galois, who laid the foundations of the group theory in linear algebra. But still, the reference made me grin. 😀
For the record, arctic_hare, it wasn't really a spoiler, it was an obvious logical conclusion
Heh, it's so hard to deal with these, honestly. I've had to keep myself from saying things that seem like logical conclusions because I know they are actually true, and I don't want to influence anyone's thinking. Because Doctor Who does not necessarily have to follow logic! Usually, when I want to say something, I make it a point to say that I am giving my thoughts at the time of the episode, whether or not they turned out to be correct or not.
I have no words to describe the sheer mass and density of the love I have for Rory, and for the Doctor+Amy+Rory dynamic. I've tried. I've thrown bucketfuls of ten-dollar words at them and nothing stuck properly. I love them so, so much.
Especially Rory.
Did I mention Rory. I love him.
You can never mention Rory enough times. I adore him too. We need a Rory fanclub banner. Anyone?
The press statement, announcing the casting of Karen gillan makes interesting reading.
`Gillan beat off dozens of hopefuls to land one of television's most coveted roles.`
The scene with the ice cream van always reminds me of a BBCHD ident in use at the time of transmission:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhKckYEUCFc
And the Atraxi remind me of the logo used by UK sattelite TV channel, Watch:
<img src="http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff199/elf_maid/20101018140840Watch_UKTV_logo.png" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
So, I have actual comments to make but first: I always fancy people I shouldn't *cough*harrypotterfilms*cough* and I have a huge crush on Matt Smith. He looks really weird, but he's SO ADORABLE.
Anyway.
Eleven is *my* Doctor. Four was always my favourite, with Ten a close second, but now it's definitely Eleven. He's so quirky and sweet and silly, but you know that if you piss him off, you're in huge trouble. To me, that's exactly what the Doctor should be. He's both innocent and terrifying. And he has a bowtie. Bowties are cool.
Also: Karen Gillan. When she was cast as Amy I thought she was absolutely beautiful, but I also worried that she would just be there to look pretty and that I would be disappointed with her acting, especially since Moffatt is, um, not so lady-friendly. I was totally wrong. She is AMAZING and I LOVE HER FOREVER. The character of Amy is an absolute gift too- we can see right from the start that she hasn't dealt with her Doctor-related experience very well, but it doesn't define her completely. Amy is a well-rounded character, and you get the feeling right from the start that there is more to her than just being a kissogram in a tiny little village.
On that note: I am so, so pleased that I've only seen praise or legitimate criticism of Amy in these comments. As other people have said, the fandom in general tends to have this massive issue with her. On the one hand, people love to objectify her, but when they realise that there's more to her than just a body to drool over they freak out and start slut-shaming her. Quite honestly, I like the fact that Amy is outspoken and honest about what she does for a living and how she feels about, well, everything. It's like people are intimidated by her because even though she's not real, she has such a big personality that you cannot possibly treat her like a piece of meat- you have to see her as a whole person, and some people sadly can't handle that when said whole person is also nice to look at.
But yeah, whatever, I should shut up now. Mark, I'm glad series 5 got off to a good start!
Gembird, where have you BEEN? (That's my Howler)
I agree with you about Amy. At first I didn't know what to make of her, because I was worried that her sexy was only for the benefit of the fellas, but she proved me wrong at every turn. I think we love Amy because we all know the pain of being disappointed, and wishing someone would whisk us away for adventures beyond our mundane life.
I will shamelessly admit, I love Donna and Amy because I understand Donna's feelings of worthlessness, and Amy's fear of being let down.
LOL HAI
I think you're right about the companions. It's easier to empathise when you have something specific in common with them. I find Amy especially easy to identify with because of my own abandonment issues. This is the first time I've spoken about that at all online (I think) and I won't say much else, but I know how Amy feels about being left behind.
Also: Tumblr has taken over my life, I'm surprised I have time for any other internets at all.
Oh, Moffat is lady-friendly. He just has this strange notion that just because HE has a thing for bossy women, it reflects ALL heterosexual relationships. Which is a stupid worldview but leads to loads of characters I love, so I'm not complaining.
Yeah I pretty much instantly loved Matt Smith as the Doctor after this episode. I definitely had the BUT DAVID TENNANT WAAAAAAH doubts going into it, but then I got to see this and I was like, "Okay, Doctor Who, we're cool, we're cool."
The Eleventh Hour- definitely one of the best openers for any Nu-Who season yet. It’s really amazing, considering everything that the show had to deal with; new Doctor and companion, complete change in show-runner and behind-the-scenes team, and a reduced budget. But I think it can be said without doubt that this episode delivers.
I’ll be going through my personal opinions after first watching the episode, along with how I feel they’ve changed with time.
1) …why are there clouds and lightning in the time-vortex?!? That makes no sense. Random swirls and stars I can deal with, but it’s a bit silly to think that the vortex has an atmosphere. (This opinion was partly caused by ‘ACK NEW’, but with time I agree that it looks very cool, but it still isn’t logical.)
2) Love the new logo. It’s a little more bulky and less elegant than the old one, but it’s incredibly cool when it turns into the TARDIS.
3) High Definition! Awesome cinematography. Something about the blue tint to the episode and the camera work makes this episode seem much more like a feature film. Loved it then, and loved it now.
4) Matt Smith! I don’t think I was quite as against and judging of Matt Smith as other viewers might have been at the time, because I had just gotten into Doctor Who, and as far as I was concerned, Smith was the Doctor. He didn’t need to prove himself to me. Still, I was judging his performance, and while I found it a bit strange and different, I enjoyed it. There is this moment of oddity, though, when you realize this is the same character…such a funny feeling.
5) Fish fingers and custard! Comedic gold.
6) Totally called the fact that the Doctor would be late by more than five minutes- I didn’t realize a whole twelve years had passed though, until the Doctor worked it out. (I did realize she wasn’t a police woman, though. That outfit would be completely ridiculous in that job). I was also surprised by the final time-skip.
7) I definitely enjoyed Amy in her first appearance- both as a little one and as an adult. She was fierce and willing to stand up to the Doctor, just like Donna. Of course, I felt like screaming at her when she went into that room alone. That is how characters are killed in horror movies, silly girl! You’ll need to learn before becoming a full-fledged companion.
8) Amy’s boyfriend- Rory. My interest was immediately piqued. I get drawn to these ‘everyday’ kind of characters, and I loved seeing him react to the crazy around him. But Jeff- now Jeff is awesome. Mark, you are not remotely prepared for the awesomeness that is Jeff.
9) On that same point- the running gag of everyone recognizing the Doctor was brilliant. Although, it’s pretty clear that Amy’s gotten some abandonment issues now.
10) “Oh, that’s rubbish. Who’s that meant to be?” “That’s you.” “That’s me?” “You don’t know what you look like?!?”
11) The Doctor’s speech to the Atraxi is amazing. One of the most bad-ass speeches in television; he boldly speaks them down, and proudly states ‘I’m the Doctor’. Its everything I love about Doctor Who- epic, cool and silly at the same time.
12) And good lord, the music. Murray Gold has really proven himself with the Doctor’s new theme (‘Every Star, Every Planet’). It’s so versatile that it can manage to be funny a quirky, sad, and eventually pure awesome. There is nothing you can’t add that song to and not make its cool-ness factor be increased.
13) “Thanks, dear.” “Oh, you sexy thing.” Doctor/TARDIS is totally cannon!
14) Speaking of the TARDIS…isn’t it beautiful? I was a bit leery of it at first, because I loved the graceful, organic look of Nine and Ten’s, but it’s grown on me. It’s very bright and playful.
In regards to your first point, the vortex hasn't really been consistently portrayed over the years, and even had asteroids in it in the movie (which is a bit weird as asteroids don't have inherent time travel abilities).
I'm kind of with you on the clouds. I know there's no right way for it to look because what the hell would a "time vortex" look like? But the clouds bug me. I preferred the weird lightshow that was the old time vortex. However, I prefer the new logo to the last one.
I like the logo but I want to kill that font. IT IS TOTALLY ILLEGIBLE and screams "THIS IS A SCIENCE FICTION SHOW!" in a totally cheesy pseudo-star-trek way. (I loves me some Next Generation, but OMG FONT CHOICES PEOPLE FONT CHOICES!)
New theme is win though. Murray Gold can basically do no wrong in my eyes.
I had a hard time with the Doctor actually believing she WAS a policewoman. Really? Really, Doctor? That's an easy one. Use your eyes.
Given that Eleven doesn't seem to have a lot of hangups around modesty, I can't imagine that the short skirt would register with him as "off."
FFF- I totally had a comment prepared and everything, and then I had to leave.
First off- macros:
Fun fact: From what I've heard- Steven Moffat got inspiration for the intro scenes between Amelia and the Doctor from Winnie the Pooh.
Found from: This macro.
I've heard that, and I love it. 😀
That is a magnificent macro!
Amazing! Somehow that manages to make the whole thing even more heartwarming. Thanks for sharing that fun fact. = )
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v51/SwimmingTrunks/The_More_You_Know.jpg">
THAT is brilliant. I had never heard of that before OR read that before, but I think that is amazing.
oh my god I am just sitting here grinning hilariously.
TIME TO REWATCH SEASON FIVE. you have no idea how happy I am that you've finally reached it. ELEVEN AND AMYYYYY. *claps hands over mouth, doesn't spoil*
I AM SO EXCITE.
also, DONNA IS SO FUTURE!AMY.
also.
I feel so sad that the old is all gone, but the new things are all so… shiny!
Actual comment:
I LOVE EVERYTHING THAT THIS EPISODE CHOOSES TO BE. Except for the part where the Doctor doesn't come back in 5 minutes since that pretty much leaves Amy with abandonment issues galore, and most likely afraid that if she ever lets anyone get too close to her-they'll leave her too. 🙁
Caitlin Blackwood (Karen's cousin): Just about the most adorable kid ever:
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/2q2onzl.jpg">
And then there's these two:
<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/6quq09.jpg">
Karen interviewing Matt.
NOTE: To avoid anything that could be seen as a spoiler in this one: skip over the section from 2:56 to 3:44. Oh, and don't read the comments, Mark!
Matt interviews Karen.
NOTE: To keep from spoiling you, skip sections 2:10 – 2:42- since the question that Matt asks Karen is what's been her favorite part of filming.
Rant time:
For people who want to argue that Amy wearing short-skirts is sexist (here's my two cents):
Karen Gillan has said herself that she took part in the costuming process for Amy, and felt that since Amy had a 'sexy-side' to her- she'd wear short-skirts.
And the camera panning up Amy's legs- someone, I remember, made a great point: The panning-up could easily be seen as the Doctor's POV from when he's just waking back up from being knocked out with the cricket bat.
Also on the kissogram: That's not a sneaky way of being a stripper:
"A kissogram or kissagram is a message delivered along with a kiss usually arranged as a fun surprise for a person for a special occasion. Message deliverers can be hired either by themselves, or as part of an agency."
/rant over
Back to these delightful people:
<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/erzu4z.jpg">
Arthur says hi too:
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/2i7moll.jpg">
(I love whoever made this gif. It's just so out there I can't even.)
I can't stop laughing at that second gif, WHAT IS IT FROM?
I think it's from some movie where Arthur played a small part in called 'Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll'. At least I think that's what it's called.
First thought: The presence of "drugs" in the title explains a lot.
Second thought: It must be one of Rose's favorite movies.
It must be one of Rose's favorite movies.
Whoever created the meme of Rose loving drugs is awesome for continuing to make me laugh so hard.
And for some reason I'm suddenly having the mental image of Ten crying into a tub of icecream while he watches this movie going "Rose loved those things."
XD
ROSE LOVED THOSE THINGS. WAAAAH.
I now have a mental comic in my head, I just wish I could draw it!
Note: I have no idea what color Cherry Garcia ice cream is. And I drew this with a mouse.
<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/2h84w0o.jpg">
That second gif is fabulous!
Are those two dating yet? Or married? ARE THEY HAVING KIDS YET?
I have never seen two people flirt with such reckless abandon.
Well, Matt's dating a model named Daisy, and I remember hearing somewhere that Karen's dating a guy she's known since childhood.
Mmmmmmhm. It's totally a front. 😉
Seriously, I would be a wary person if I saw my guy acting like that with another girl. That is flirting to the extreme. Way into each other's personal space constantly. Just about playing footsie in the video posted. I swear I am not trying to read anything into this, but MAN. All the signals.
I guess if they're actually not interested in one another, they have become extremely close friends. Because you have to be incredibly comfortable with someone to act like that all the time. It's not even for the cameras. Not to mention the LOOKS that Matt gives her. Just adoration! It's ridiculous.
I'm rooting for them like I'm rooting for Castle and Beckett.
YOU ARE WRITING DOWN MY THOUGHTS. ARE YOU ME WHEN I'M ASLEEP OR SOMETHING?
except the Castle and Beckett thing, i dunno what that is.
I SWEAR, THESE ARE THE ONLY TWO PEOPLE IRL THAT I HAVE EVER SHIPPED TOGETHER. They need to date each other at some point.
Sorry. Is a show called Castle with Nathan Fillion and it's sort of like Bones (if you've seen that) because the two main characters Castle (Nathan) and Beckett are sort of will they/won't they and flirt all the time and constantly make eyes at each other and I ship them too.
MATT AND KAREN NEED TO DATE. I agree. They need to date and ONLY when they have dated and not married and had lots of sexy hipster babies will I stop shipping the two of them.
ETA: I have decided that they have seen each other naked. If anything, that's how they act. They're so completely comfortable with each other's space, I just can't make any other conclusion. Even if they aren't dating!
This LJ post may be relevant to your interests (warning S5 spoilers)
OH MY.
See, looking at that…
Okay I have decided that I totally ship Matt/Karen. All the way. I am a shipper.
I can't say I entirely agree with you, but better safe than sorry.
*Straightens her bow tie* Bow ties are cool.
"Who da woman?!"…………………yeah, that doesn't really work either does it?
Series fnarg: BRING IT BITCH!
It's taken me ages to write all this mainly because i keep watching the episode instead of writing! Curse Matt Smith and his beautiful cheekbones and ruffable hair for being so distracting!
I love love love love this episode! It's a perfect introduction to the eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, Moffat's untethered writing and his vision for Doctor Who.
Doctor Who confidential made a special episode just for Matt Smith's announcement. I sat there watching it thinking, 'hurry up and tell me who the Doctor is arrrhhhhh *rage*.' Then near the end of the episode Matt Smith came on the screen with the words "The Eleventh Doctor" underneath him and I shouted "WHO THE HELL IS HE?" He started talking about being the new Doctor and I was sitting there thinking 'that is not the Doctor. He's too young. What have you done? What is this? WHYYYYY????? Go die in some fires!' BUT, then they played some clips of Matt acting in other TV shows and it was like i was watching a completely different man. He seemed to come alive when he was playing someone else. He was mesmerising and fascinating and i just couldn't take my eyes of him! From that moment onwards, for me, Matt Smith was the Doctor, the future of Doctor Who was safe and Moffat was a clever git for picking him! So yeah, i fell in love with Matt before i'd even seem him as the Doctor, there was no convincing necessary.
I love little Amelia, she's adorable with her smiley face apples, her suitcase, her pjamas with tiny teacups on them and that little wooly hat she wears in the garden. Caitlin (who is Karen's cousin) did a fantastic job, it was her first acting job but she was so believable in everything she did and said, she's got a natural talent for acting. It makes me wonder how many other fantastic actors Karen's got stashed away in her family!
I love how much energy eleven/Matt has. God bless you David Tennant, but towards the end of his time as the Doctor I felt he lacked some of the energy he had when he started, which is understandable, Doctor Who must be knackering to make! Seeing eleven burst on to the screen with the energy of a five year old, running around like a loony, on fire with so much life is infectious! It's so exciting, I love it!
Moffat does use the same story for Amelia as he did with Reinette, they meet the Doctor when they're young, he promises he'll be right back, then doesn't return for years. But i think it works so much better with Amelia, she's instantly loveable, and we get to see how having the Doctor in her life for just a few hours when she was a child and him not coming back for years has affected her.
I love Rory! I love that Amelia made him dress up as the raggedy Doctor when they were kids. 🙂 And those little dolls at the end are so cute!
I love the lensflare when Amy finally believes the Doctor. It gives that moment so much more weight and importance. And it looks beautiful of course!
The effects of the Atraxi and Prisioner Zero are a bit naff, i think they could have done a bit better with them, but everything else looks gorgeous! It seems to have a different colouring used on it, compared to previous series, it looks so bright and shiny!
HD loves Doctor Who! (unfortunately my laptop doesn't, i'm running out of space, but i keep buying DW in HD i can't seem to stop myself, sorry laptop.)
"Blimey! Get a gilfriend Jeff!" "Oh, and delete your internet history." Tehehehe. Naughty Jeff, I like you! 😀
I love the theme music for eleven. It reminds me a bit of Indiana Jones. It's fast, exciting, fun, adventurous and full of life and energy, just like eleven.
Last year i was watching this episode and i'd just got the bit where the woman in a coma/Prisioner Zero opens her/it's mouth to reveal those horrible teeth and my dad knocked on the door to give me a cup of tea, i paused the episode right on the mouth bit, my dad took one look at my computer screen and said, "you must be watching Doctor Who." Hahahaha, oh Doctor Who you're so daft and obvious! ilu.
I love the new TARDIS! It looks like a fairground ride or one of those funhouse things. It think it really suits eleven. It's bonkers, strange, loud, full of weird gadgets and gizmos and staircases that seem to go nowhere or take you round and round in circles. It feels like it's got a new personality of it's own that's affected it's design. It's regenerated too and it's better than ever!
I like Amy Pond, she's great fun! I didn't fall in love with her based on this episode, but i never do that anyway, it takes me a couple of episodes to fall in love with a character. But i definitely saw that Amy Pond had potential to make me fall in love with her.
The only things i really don't like about this episode is that Amy Pond's a kissogram and getting married at the age of 21! I find the kissogram thing such a weird profession to give her, Moffat seems to be trying to overly sexualise her. It annoys me that out of all the jobs he could have given her, a Doctor, teacher, lawyer, scientist, journalist (ETC), he went for a job that requires no level of intelligence (i'm not saying Amy isn't intelligent), just a hot body, some sexy outfits and a pair of lips! That infuriates me! And Amy Pond's getting married. Yeah, because that's what every 21 year old woman wants, to be a wife! Please Moff, think before you write! But everything else is LOVE.
I ADORE the clips of old Doctor's! And the way Matt walks through David's image, it's like he's saying 'step aside David, this is my time to shine.' LOVE.
In conclusion: Bow ties are cool. Fish custard is not. Matt Smith is da man. Apples are rubbish. The Doctor is definitely a mad man with a box. Don't mess with Amy Pond when she's holding a cricket bat. GERONIMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
"Goodbye Leadworth, hello everything!"
Martha was training to be a doctor so they may not have wanted to double up on that and most of those other things are proper careers that people would usually be hesitant to leave to go on death defying adventures or are unrealistic for a 21 year old to be doing. Also I think were supposed to feel like she is wasting her potential due to issues with the whole invisible friend she talks about alot and all that. Since it doesn't get mentioned ever again and doesn't really inform her character I don't know why they didn't just have her be a student or something.
The marriage thing just seems like your personal hangup not a problem with Moffats writing, sure not every woman wants to be a wife but surely it isn't inconceivable that a woman might possibly want to get married in the two years after we saw her to a good guy?
"he went for a job that requires no level of intelligence (i'm not saying Amy isn't intelligent), just a hot body, some sexy outfits and a pair of lips!"
I would imagine part of the skill-set would be being good with people, and some acting/roleplaying ability. I imagine there being more to the job than simple physical presence.
"And Amy Pond's getting married. Yeah, because that's what every 21 year old woman wants, to be a wife!"
Given that Amy's basically running away the night before her wedding, and has first-hand experience about the TARDIS being unreliable about landing at the right time and thus she knows she might not be brought back in time, I don't think you can really say that Amy "wants" to be a wife, and in fact perhaps wants the opposite.
That's always been my headcanon, anyway.
"All I've got is a Post Office and IT'S CLOSED!" Ha ha! Yes. Welcome Eleven! So pleased Big Ben didn't quite remove your knackers.
So hello Amy Pond, the companion who met the Doctor as a child and everybody thought as a result that she was a bit bonkers. Basically the Doctor has already ruined her life! Somehow I don't think that Amy only got Rory to dress up that way when they were kids. Got a bit more recent vibe.
And Jeff, he was in the room when the Doctor mentioned that they only had a fixed amount of time to save the Earth. Speaks volumes that he immediatley retreated to his bedroom to look at porn.
Great idea for a monster, Moffat, THE CRACK IN YOUR SON'S BEDROOM WALL! Er please tell me that you got it fixed before transmitting the idea that this is the scariest thing ever?
"Go on, say it, I've heard it all".
"I'm in my nightie!" – Maybe the Doctor hasn't heard it all yet!
Oh god, I AM SO EXCITE for you to start season five! I didn't think anyone would surpass Tennant for me, but Matt Smith is MY Doctor. I just love his Doctor unequivocally.
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_3lVOb8wvDlE/TRqIxHNfhGI/AAAAAAAAA2M/y8yoe_Aqd88/bbamypon.gif">
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_3lVOb8wvDlE/TWH91NxeG5I/AAAAAAAABTg/_JB916PIfQA/amypond.gif">
And Amy, oh. Amelia Pond, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
1. Girl has a FANTASTIC eyeroll.
2. She's a kiss-o-gram and she's not ashamed. She's just awesome.
3. She doesn't let people tell her what to do. Does she listen when the Doctor tells her not to go into the room where Patient Zero is hiding? Nope. Does she listen when the Doctor's undressing and Rory asks if she's going to avert her eyes? Nope.
<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_3lVOb8wvDlE/TWnv7zt0ZCI/AAAAAAAABb0/tt_afsNuNXU/vlcsnap-2011-02-27-00h35m26s128.png">
Rory: You just saved the world from aliens. Actual aliens. Deadly aliens. Aliens of death. And now you’re taking your clothes off. Amy, he’s taking his clothes off.
The Doctor: Turn your back if it embarrasses you!
I just. I especially love the sequence where the Doctor is trying to find new clothes, and marching outside, and the NEW THEME (OMG OMG LOVE) is swelling, and then he confronts the Atraxi and is like, "Bitches, I'm the Doctor. Run."
YES YES OMG YES.
Oh, alsoooo:
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_3lVOb8wvDlE/TWnv78WiEeI/AAAAAAAABb0/4ZmbWCZkKzI/vlcsnap-2011-02-27-00h37m26s131.png">
OMG THE CRACK IN THE WALL WHAT IS THAT. I KNOW BUT I CAN'T TELL YOU OBVIOUSLY. BUT I AM IMPRESSED THAT YOU NOTICED IT ALREADY.
Love the Aliens of Death line. It's sounds like a bad title for an old doctor who serial.
I am so glad you are so excited about this! It is the best introductory episode ever, and I am completely in love with Matt Smith!Doctor, for many of the reasons you discussed and for more you get to discover as things continue. I am also completely in love with Amy and Rory and think Jeff is quite attractive.
Err… since when did Moffat write "Love and Monsters"? Sorry, Mark, but you are no attributing what I see as the WORST EPISODE EVER to my absolute favorite "Who" writer of all time. Just… no.
With that out of the way…. I adore this episode. I like to claim that I have no particular attachment to any one incarnation of the Doctor, but I do have a bit of a soft spot for Eleven just the same. I can't wait for you experience the rest of this series.
The New TARDIS gives me a good excuse to post these:
<img src="http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff199/elf_maid/TARDIS1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
<img src="http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff199/elf_maid/TARDIS2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
<img src="http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff199/elf_maid/TARDIS3-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
<img src="http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff199/elf_maid/TARDIS4.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
<img src="http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff199/elf_maid/TARDIS5-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
<img src="http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff199/elf_maid/TARDIS6.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
<img src="http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff199/elf_maid/TARDIS7.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
<img src="http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff199/elf_maid/TARDIS8.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">
Awesome!
I’m reminded of “Love and Monsters,” which Moffat also wrote, but this episode doesn’t feel as rushed (or problematic) as that story.
OMG Mark I think you mean GIRL IN THE FIREPLACE. DIFFERENT KIND OF PROBLEMATIC!
This is quite possibly my favorite episode of Doctor Who yet. No, not quite possibly. IS. I've rewatched this episode more times than any other episode, closer together than any other episode, and I have yet to grow sick of it. WELCOME TO MY DOCTOR! WELCOME TO MY WHO! I HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR STAY.
It’s a breath of fresh air into a show I already liked.
I want to start out properly with this line of your review, because THIS. A lot of my love for this episode comes from my experience with the specials, and my experience from this point onward. I know I was kind of curmudgeonly about the specials, and they still aren't my favorite things in the world. I like them well enough, but for Tennant's last five appearances as the Doctor, I don't think they did him or the show justice. So I was frustrated, but I still loved the show. And then I watched the Eleventh Hour, and the show just took hold of my heart in a way I'm not sure any other show has before. The Eleventh hour is a great big breath of fresh air, and in being so is a representation of how amazing this show is. It can completely reinvent itself- new showrunner, new Doctor, new companion, new TARDIS, new screwdriver, new artistic direction- and somehow still be the same thing. Kind of like the Doctor himself, there's just something at the core of it that stays the same no matter how you approach it. Sometimes you'll like the changes, sometimes you won't, but you'll always love the show itself. For me, all these changes were in the right direction.
Matt Smith portrays just the sort of Doctor we'd need after Ten. I wonder, do you see some Two in him? Ten was like a teenager or a midlife crisis or something- not saying that's a bad thing, just that he was all energy and pop culture and emotion and hormones in comparison to many of his other incarnations. (Ten, I believe, was only the third Doctor to ever full on kiss anyone. Though they way he kept locking lips with companions I think he was making up for all his more celibate selves!) He was dealing with a lot of shit, and is anyone really going to disagree that he didn't necessarily deal with it in the most mature manner?
Eleven, on the other hand, is a much more mature, parental figure. Maybe it's the situation he was put in while he was "cooking"- watching over a small, frightened child, he became who he needed to be- a parent. He speaks much more softly but with authority, is definitely much more kinder and caring. He's also the Doctor, so he's silly and distracted by constant, constant thinking, but he does it in a way that's less flippant and blase, and almost performing for the comfort and attention of his ignored audience. If any of you know people who are really good with children, they have mastered the art of redirection and distraction, and I read a lot of that here.
(cont'd)
This episode, I think, is probably the best introduction to the show one could have. It's paced really well as you've said, and perfectly crafted to ease you into a new Doctor. Through the scenes of literal and figurative cooking, all of us- Amelia, the Doctor, and the audience are going through the same experience to learn who exactly this new, strange man is. We learn to trust him through Amelia's eyes, and he sells this trust to us quickly. At the same time, we align ourselves with the companion as audience stand-in. While Amy is certainly not as "everyman" as companions have been in the past, the way we are guided to see ourselves in her is kind of brilliantly different: instead of depending on us relating to aspects of her life, we are along for the ride in one of the most crucial, traumatic formative moments in her life before she travels with the Doctor. By seeing her as a child and an adult, we see how the experience has shaped her, and though we don't have to wait like she did, we can understand what she went through by the experience it all stems from. As arctic_hare pointed out, Amy is a Whovian, complete with fanworks and cosplay. I think it's brilliant that we're being given a key to relating to a character we might not otherwise relate to at all, and the approach is, once again, a breath of fresh air from the old pattern.
Other things:
Ugh, I am bursting with a miscellany of stuff to squee about but I am going to limit it to the items below.
-Interesting that Moffat thought Smith and Jones was such a good episode. Both that and this not only feature hospitals, but also an authoritarian alien policing force that is overzealous in searching out a fugitive, taking a larger human population hostage in order to find said fugitive. Borrow on, Moff, if it makes episodes like this!
-Rory, for me initially, was kind of an unwanted retread of Mickey- the boyfriend who isn't quite up to speed- but he redeemed himself by the end. "Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?!!!" LOL. I wouldn't mind seeing him again either.
-"The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall." This seemed to me to be too familiar to "there's something on your back" and "he will knock four times," but upon review, it seems more like Prisoner Zero knows about whatever the Pandorica is from more intimate knowledge, and isn't just making a prophecy or a prediction. I love the delivery here too, when Prisoner Zero is shaped like the woman and her two daughters, the voice switching is extra creepy and that actress is playing the part awesomely smug. The actress who played little Amelia (Karen Gillian's real-life cousin, btw!) also did a great job delivering the menacing in her scene as Prisoner Zero.
-Leading to "Well, that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?" Sooooo many good lines in here. I could quote this for ages, but YOU JUST WATCHED THE WHOLE THING SO WHY DO I NEED TO I WON'T.
-As others have said, the scene on the rooftop (while there's some shoddy editing there, to nitpick) is completely BADASS AND AWESOME. What better way to crown the new Doctor than to give him a speech like that and combine it with those visuals! For all the damage "I don't want to go!" might have done Matt Smith, I think this scene took serious steps toward healing that wound. But that's only speculation, Eleven had me nearly from the second he popped up out of the toppled over Tardis.
-Oooo, and the new Tardis! I am a huge fan. It is so shiny, so pretty, so warm and fun! Sexy indeed, Doctor. Sexy indeed.
-BTW this:
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/2cyqohs.gif">
This is the exact moment I realized that Matt Smith reminds me of Simon Tam. Just try to unsee it. You're welcome.
<img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/2n8u14p.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"> Now I want to see Matt/Eleven shirtless on the show like Simon was in 'Objects in Space'. (Middle of the chest up in the this episode isn't good enough)
Also all the +1s for your comment.
Eerily similar mannerisms ahoy!
<img src=http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/DanaanMI/Gifs/tumblr_lgl7niST6V1qakvjqo1_500.gif>
This is an awesome set of comments and you are awesome. <3
CANNOT UNSEE
I wish you could see me right now, smiling, and nodding and saying YES! THIS, YES, YES! to pretty much everything you said here.
I refrained from posting this earlier because of the spoileresque shot at the end. It's a live performance of This Is Galifrey and Vale Decem, with video accompaniment of all the previous regenerations. For those of us who have been with the show for a while, its really quite emotional. DON't click any of the other links as there are series five spoilers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZaVlwEvcUQ&fe…
Like most people, I was prepared to give Matt Smith a whole season in which to win me over. It took slightly less that 10 minutes for me to be convinced, by the time we'd got to "And the word is ZERO" I was enchanted, and when "Hallo, I'm the Doctor" rolled around I was thinking "David who?"
Imagine the time and money that could be saved on complex and painful interrogation techniques by threatening criminals with being stared at disapprovingly by Caitlin Blackwood.
Someone once wrote that playing "I Am The Doctor" instantly makes whatever it is your doing more epic. I have to agree. Altogether now..
Dun dun, da-da-da, dun dun dun, da-dun…
And finally a quote from Stephen Moffat, where he taunts all of fandom with just how unbelievably unprepared we all are…
“You’ve seen more than you think. The Doctor has noticed what you have not,” says Moffat. “And when the biggest jaw-dropping twist finally comes – well, the second one – you’ll realise you’ve known about it from the very beginning…”
Mummy!
Ohh, I hate Moffat's taunts and teases! It reminds me how long we still have to wait for the new series! Gah! 😀
Wow, I just watched that video, and I had no idea the primary vocalist for "Vale Decem" was a countertenor! Amazing.
FNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG! 😀
Series Fnarg: best series name y/y? 😀
Murray Gold just keeps getting better and better, doesn't he? My love for him as a composer is only rivalled by my love for Nobuo Uematsu (who did the Final Fantasy soundtracks).
This might have been mentioned already but the actor that plays Jeff said that he and Matt decided that Jeff was watching some hard-core animal porn and that's why the Doctor was so scandalised XD
*cannot stop laughing* *upvotes forever!!*
Is it wrong that that's pretty much what I imagined? As I've said on here before, I have a very wrong brain. It's nice to know that Jeff's and the Doctor's actors also have wrong brains.
Oof, in that case a girlfriend wouldn't help much, eh?
Also, anyone notice that Rory is driving an original Mini? And there's no way he earns enough as a nurse to buy one, so in conclusion, the guy is seriously loaded.
I didn't think I could like any companion more than Donna and THEN THERE WAS AMY. ILU AMY, SO MUCH.
Also Rory. So awesome.
Fun trivia from the Confidential episode-
The scene you mentioned with Eleven 'inspecting' the frozen villagers was shot as still images by a normal camera and then they animated them all together. Cool!
The actresses who play young Amy and old Amy are actually cousins, but they'd never met before they were cast and the episode started shooting.
SO EXCITED FOR SEASON 5. :DDD
Late to party again. Darn work.
This is hands down my favorite New Doctor Who episode. I've seen it several times already but rewatched it again just last night and you pretty much nailed it: it's a breath of fresh air into an already awesome show.
Other fav quotes: "Beans are evil. Bad bad beans."
Doctor: Well that's rubbish, who's that supposed to be?
Rory: That's you.
Doctor: Really? Is that what I look like?
Rory: You don't know what you look like?
Doctor: Busy day.
I am so stoked you are finally onto Season 5, because I am one of the few people who did not enjoy Tennant's run at all (save for the Donna episodes) and didn't watch any of the specials, so I've been waiting impatiently for this!
All I can say is…
YOU ARE NOT PREPARED. EVER.
There's probably yawning plot holes in this episode and I would never, ever, notice. Because even after seeing it at least half a dozen times, I STILL get excited by it. Everything is new and shiny but still Doctor Who and really, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan (and yup, young Caitlin!) just charmed their way into my hearts immediately.
'Get a girlfriend, Jeff!'
Some tidbits from the DWM Special #26, which has over 20 pages of behind-the-scenes information about each episode:
-At this time this episode was written in 2008, Moffat wasn't sure if Tennant was going to be staying or not. It was written with the Tenth Doctor in mind, and was later extensively revised for Matt's Doctor.
-Cut line: "Fish custard! This is mine — I invented this!"
-Cut between Jeff and the Doctor when he busts in to use his laptop.
Gran: Jeff, is he your gay friend?
Jeff: Gran, I'm NOT gay.
Doctor: He's not, you know. (after seeing what was on Jeff's laptop — ie straight porn)
I'm not sure if anyone's posted this yet, but here is the Doctor Who Confidential episode when Matt Smith was (eventually, they dragged it out for AGES!) announced as the Doctor (it contains clips of previous Doctors, so, *SPOILERS* for Doctors 1-8):
Part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuNcCwXMgZU
Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_GQEGce3zQ
Part three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOv3Wq96vSA
Part four (last part): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqpmKrGpviw
Matt's look to the camera at the end *dies*
I love Matt in this. He is adorable.
<img src="http://i53.tinypic.com/23mq2yd.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/1zbat75.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/2cqfuh0.gif" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
Oh. my god. The memory of watching this! I haven't seen it since the day it was on!
I was sat about 4 feet from the telly, my family on the sofa behind me, in absolute silence because I didn't want to miss a word! Plus they knew how important it was- not just to me, but, to the whole country I spose.And it went on for ages too! I was fidgeting and getting so antsy in expectation!
And then suddenly all the excitement! A thousand thoughts running through my mind, once it clicked that the random guy talking was the next Doctor!
"weird eyebrows!"
"nerdily attractive!"
"not hot like david!"
"so young!"
"this is the doctor!"
"ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod!" … that one formed the majority of what was going on in my mind anyway!
Thanks for linking to that!!
"so young!"
LOL, that was my primary thought. "He's my age. The Doctor. Is my age. There's something very wrong with this picture."
I remember watching that Confidential and thinking "I love his hands, the way he gestures and wriggles his fingers". And then of course there was that line at the end of The End Of Time: "Oooh, fingers… lots of fingers…" 😀
Thank you for this!
I find I am constantly thanking the Mark Watchers for linking extremely relevant and known/seen videos that I have missed!
WIGGLY FINGERS! CRAZY HAIR! Matt<3<3<3
FINALLY!!! I'm so excited for this season and I'm glad you like Matt! I was a bit skeptical of him at first but he had me at fish custard <3
The one thing I HAAAAAATED about this episode, though, was the door that could only be seen from the corner of the eye because of the perception filter. I wish when they filmed it, when the camera was facing the door straight on it couldn't be seen, but then when the Doctor pointed it out and they did the whole corner of the eye scene it would appear. I was COMPLETELY lost the first time I saw this episode. The door! It's always been there! Sure it looks weird and cramped, but I can SEE it! Even though I've seen this episode many times since it aired, I still can't get over how annoying that "secret" door is and how confused I was at first.