Better late than never.
Seeing as i missed out on the live broadcast last week, was busy and was out (things doing) anyways after checking this episode out. Seems this? is the new guy, the 11th Doctor. Well the episode starts off alright, and is as always setting up a mystery even with the regular subplot of the new recently regenerated Doctor discovering himself and combatting an all-new menace once more.
Problem is, kinda think the pace was off and we've come to except the fact, as an sci-fi adventure/action show they'll be all kinds of quick action and humor shoved in there while moving the plot around. Although i've always said once some liberities are taken you kind of go huh? I mean, i absolutely loved the Christmas Invasion storyline of 2005 with Tennant playing the doctor at the beginning and end, and he needed to overcome his back then recent-*regeneration* and the episode allowed his companions the space to grow and be more independent and self-reliant etc.
Matt Smith's doctor is dangling off the Tardis door within moments of the opening sceonds and is flying all over London. Er..whatever happened to the weakend Timelord who body needs to recover from as Colin Baker's Doctor described regeneration as a
'volcanic euruption' of the cells etc. should've just crashed and have him muttering some previous doctor's thoughts in his head coming out, mind you with the need to setup the story as well underway at the same time, i kinda figured it'll be one of those times where they thought; it been done better in the past, we'll gloss over it this time as we've got a season ahead where the audiences will figure him out anyways?
Storyarc..
Regeneration out of the way. The Atraxi, hmmm looking for a convict (Prisoner Zero) who takes human form cos of the ability to morph into what ever shape it desires. Although not speech patterns of whatever 'form', so well?! Even though it escape, and comes to Earth in Amy Pond's house (and creates this Crack/Fissure in the 'wall') ties into the history and life of the Doctor's next companion. Gotta say its a first that a companion's story ties into the Doctor himself and she attached due to his earlier appearence in her life. Its felt forced and kinda clumsy to be fairly honest, but there's is enough decent comedy to be had in how she responce to a guy who throughout the story is in his post-regeneration and he isn't all there in the head. Best points about The Eleventh Hour is the fact the Doctor's mistakes can be attributed to his mind not firing on all '
thrusters' as it were, and the weird and bizarre timejumps with the Tardis (in self-repair mode?) and his forgetting certain important factors in his tracking down of this foe, leads one to say if he wasn't in post-regeration phase, would he have beaten and tracked down this 'Prisoner Zero' in half the time alotted?
Hmmmm
Basically this whole business of tracking Prisoner Zero down, as almost like the game of *kiss chase* with the Doctor and Amy Pond always one step behind it. And tell me something, is it even remotely possible and believable that Prisoner Zero would've kept Amy around that long when the Doctor was away for so long from child to adult and she didn't suspect the alien was in her house (hiding behind a door it created and the 'crack' in her house?) sorry no (*shakes head*) not going to happen unless saying outright what happens to kids when an intruder is in your house, is blatantly too much for even Dr Who to reference out loud before 9pm.
For an extended episode its also quite heavily flawed, and while i can see why after a year out since 2008's Journey's End season final. Any Who fan's gonna support the long awaited return of the series. And perhaps i'm kinda cynical of TV as i get older, but lets be real honest here, it was way too rushed to be an all-time great episode and its got many flaws to boot. Fro preivous Post-Regeneration Dr Who episodes in the past like; The Christmas Invasion, Robot, Castrovalva and even the Dr Who movie the story had several subplots but they were all balanced out with the new doctor, except Christmas Invasion kept the Doctor out of the picture in a believable way and yet his presence is felt, none the less. Cluttering the story with pale references to the doctor previous incarnations is neat but also a bit too much fanservice even for me, surely all the minor video clips of the old doctors is a bit
old hat. When fans cried out for more than just clips or nods etc, Davis hated the idea of more than one Doctor tagging up with another in his revived Dr Who series, yet the clips don't do much either after a long while.
Figured if the new assistant/companion was going to be introduced ala Rose, she get more than just a few comical bits as well. *sigh* early days as of yet though.
Pros.
* New clean outside Tardis look at the end!
* Doctor's confronting the Atraxi. Despite the cheesy clips, loved the putdown the doctor give out, Smith's Doctor has a bit of Tennant's pissed off but smarmy Doctor in there still, lol.
* Line of "silence will fall", setting up the season throughout and no doubt this season's final. Of what though "?"
Cons.
* 11th Doctor or Amy Pond story? The revived series started out with 'Rose'. which was clearly her story, the doctor although re-introduced to us was practically secondary and we found out about him much later; ie. The Timewar, him being the last of the Time Lords etc. The Eleventh Hour seems to be a genuine attempt at introducing a companion in unique way, but its muddled with the Doctor's new incarnation, the Prisoner Zero main plot etc. So we can't really tell if this is Amy's or his story. Would've worked much better as a two parter instead.
Part one on Young Amy/Amy and the Doctor and the mistake of the timejumps via the damaged Tardis and part 2 on the threat of Prisoner Zero and the overzelous Atraxi space police! alas no though.
* Timejumps with the Tardis? This and his Post-Regeneration self, making huge mistakes in logic. Not good, even storywise, he should've known better.
* Silence Will Fall. WTF? Not so clear or easy to pick up on, surely the threat should've been made much clearer if its to be a running theme throughout this season?
* Humorous bits. Overkill! Especially with the threat of Earth being destroyed in 20 minutes or so.
* Post-Regeneration Doctor. Not so well handled. Best thing about a new guy in the role, is figuring him out properly as the story progresses etc. And its only going to be done twice more in the future before the last Doctor's around?
KJ
KJ's Dr Who Season 5 "The Eleventh Hour" Review
