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“Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour” — A Slice of SciFi Review

“Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour” — A Slice of SciFi Review

April 5, 2010 By Michael Hickerson 13 Comments

eleventh_hourThe first story by any new Doctor is one that fills fans with anticipation and trepidation.  Get it right and you launch the new era with style, grace and winning over the idle fan who may be tuning in to see what this new Doctor is like. Do it wrong and you risk alienating now only the casual fan but also your core audience.

Add to it the pressures of introducing a new producer after the commercially successful run of Russell T. Davies at the helm and you’ve got a lot of pressure for a single one-hour episode of “Doctor Who.”

Thankfully, “The Eleventh Hour” is more than up to the task of transitioning to two new eras for the world’s longest running science-fiction series.

Producer and writer Steven Moffat wisely doesn’t keep the new Doctor on the sidelines for his first story, allowing viewers a chance to get to know Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor and to learn a bit about his character.  In the spirit of some of the earliest post-regeneration stories, the new Doctor still feels some after effects of the change that has just taken place but they don’t overwhelm him, putting him on the sidelines for large periods of time.

Smith effortless slips into the role of the 11th Doctor, creating a fascinating persona for the Doctor that is equal parts mysterious and familiar and compellingly watchable.  Any fears that most fans have in the wake of David Tennant’s departure from four years of successful work on the show will be quickly dissipated.  Watching Smith work here, it’s easy to see why Moffat and the BBC chose him for the role.

Equally good is Karen Gilliam as new companion Amy Pond.  Moffat takes an interesting twist in introducing us to Amy, allowing the story to be just as much about Amy as it is about the new Doctor.  It’s not quite as companion centric as “Rose” was five years ago, but the storyline works well enough so that by the end of the hour viewers will have an idea of just who these character are and be eager to travel with them through time and space for the next several months.

Moffat’s scripts have always been less bursting at the seams that Davies and that new sensibility shows here.  The story begins with the new Doctor meeting a young Amy Pond and trying to determine why she’s so afraid of a crack in the wall of her bedroom.   She’s also hearing noises about the escape of prisoner zero.

Forced back to the TARDIS, the Doctor promises to return quickly, only to not turn up again for a dozen years.  Prisoner Zero is still a problem and one that will soon threaten the entire world.  A fleet of alien ships from the prison world show up, demanding the prisoner’s surrender or return within 20 minutes or they’ll destroy the Earth.  The Doctor decides he can’t allow this to happen even though he’s only got his wits to save the planet since the TARDIS is repairing itself and the sonic screwdriver got destroyed.

The tension builds slowly over the course of the hour and there are some genuinely suspenseful, creepy moments in the course of the show.   Moffat’s script walks a deft balance and does it well.   One of my fears with Moffat taking over it that it’s easy to deliver one killer script a year for the show, but not that he’s the main guy, can he deliver the goods consistently.  So far, his era is off to a fine start, though the jury is still out on the long-term impact.

For now, “The Eleventh Hour” is a solid first story that does everything it needs to do and does it well.  After a year of over the top, event stories with the specials, it’s nice to get back to a straight-forward and entertaining story that kicks off the start of a new era.

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Filed Under: TV Reviews Tagged With: Doctor Who

About Michael Hickerson

Michael was a contributor to Slice of SciFi, as both a news curator and assistant editor, under the tutelage of former News Director Sam Sloan.

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Comments

  1. TallGrrl says

    April 5, 2010 at 6:41 pm

    Got my ticket for BT Airlines and I’ll be “going to the UK” after work tonight to watch!!
    ; )

  2. Kevin Bachelder says

    April 5, 2010 at 7:04 pm

    I’ll admit that I was concerned that Doctor Who was “going young” based on how the new actors looked. However, I was very pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this episode and how natural they were in their roles. Really looking forward to where we go from here.

  3. K9 says

    April 5, 2010 at 9:42 pm

    Where did you see the episode @Kevin?

  4. babylonlurker says

    April 5, 2010 at 10:03 pm

    I watched it ‘live’ here in The Netherlands and enjoyed it very much.

    Looking forward to the rest of the season, even if I may miss some ‘live’ viewings due to travel.

    Jan from Denmark

  5. KevinH says

    April 5, 2010 at 10:06 pm

    I am not sure about the new Doctor. My wife and I both thought that his new companion overshadows him in the show. I will have to admit that after watching every Doctor it is great to actually see someone bring back the idea of the many rooms in the Tardis. Yes, many of them were ejected to escape some peril many Doctors ago, but not all. I look forward to more of the Tardis.

    KevinH

  6. D. C. says

    April 6, 2010 at 1:16 am

    Anyone know when it’s going to air on BBC America?

  7. DA says

    April 6, 2010 at 2:19 am

    It’ll be on BBCA within the couple of weeks. Thank gods for modern communication technology.

    I feared the worst like most people, I’m guessing, but was pleasantly so overwhelmed I watched it again the next night. Clever dialog, nice pace and the little girl almost stole the show. Nice corner of the eye thing, too. And so nice to get away from the bombastic, end of the world overkill of the latter days of RTD.

    Also loved the man barking, the quirky boyfriend,the cameos and Amy Pond – meow!

    Basically…run!

  8. Bronzethumb says

    April 6, 2010 at 4:07 am

    They certainly hit the ground running.
    I loved the episode, it was single-handedly better than all the Doctor Who we got in 2009–including End Of Time, which may have been 1/10th pure concentrated awesome but was still 9/10ths pure concentrated polar bear dung.

  9. Morbius says

    April 6, 2010 at 2:30 pm

    My wife said it all. “I want to see it again and it is only half over.”

  10. Kevin Bachelder says

    April 6, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    @K9 – I used the official Slice of Scifi BT airlines to fly to the UK for the weekend. 😉

    @D.C. – The US premiere on BBCA is Sat 4/17 at 9pm Eastern. They are showing a 70 minute time block for this episode. It was 65 minutes when it aired in the UK. There is also a special on just before at 8pm titled “The Ultimate Guide: The Doctor, his universe and the mythology of the series.”

  11. Kevin Bachelder says

    April 6, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    The first 9 minutes of this episode are available for free on iTunes…

    http://bit.ly/doctorwhopreview

  12. David says

    April 7, 2010 at 11:06 pm

    One thing I like about this Dr Who, they are going back to the Tardis being a big multi-room vechichle instead of just seeing one room (control room).

  13. fred says

    April 12, 2010 at 11:44 am

    I thought the show did a great job of introducing the new companion. The backstory for Prisoner Zero was laid on a bit thick, but it did serve its purpose well.

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