[Well, the new series has started. A new Doctor, a new companion, a new Tardis and a whole new production team. A lot was riding on this 65 minutes of television.]
It was a triumph, basically.
The plot is wafer-thin, but it’s important to bear in mind that a certain segment of the intended audience aren’t even old enough to remember Chris Eccleston as the Doctor, so there’s a certain restatement of key ideas and themes as well as the usual introductions to be done. The plot is only enough to hang these developments on, but the script sparkles - there are some genuinely funny moments - and it wastes barely a second. There’s little of the flabbiness that characterised some of the scripts in the specials. Go The Moff!
Matt Smith inhabits the character completely - he is the Doctor, no question or doubt about his age intrudes here. The fact that he is a genuinely odd looking character helps, but he’s not just goofy, there’s a steel there, and he exudes intelligence. There’s a pleasing sarcastic streak too “Twenty minutes to save the planet and all I’ve got is a Post Office. And it’s shut!”.
Karen Gillan is gorgeous. Her introduction to the Doctor is done very well, the image of the young Amelia Pond sitting on her little suitcase waiting forlornly for the Tardis to return is poignant, and bodes well for her not-entirely-trusting-and-liking-the-Doctor relationship as the grown-up Amy (hopefully). Plus she’s gorgeous. There’s a great moment with an apple, too.
I enjoyed this very much indeed, and can hardly wait for next week. Congratulations to all involved.
I was rushing around trying to find a corkscrew, so I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the titles, but the music was a bit :dubious: . It seemed to take ages for the main theme to kick in. I’ll need to hear it again, but I’m a Delia Derbyshire fundamentalist so I haven’t really liked any of the themes since the comeback.
I have to say the bit I found very cool was When the flashback of all the Doctors was shown and he walked through and said “Hello, I’m the Doctor. Basically … run!” My nerd side went all aquiver. The music for that part was great as well.
No/little plot but a great reboot all the same. He’s great and she’s cute as fuck and funny. Result!
That was a great moment. Having watched again the bit that hit me second time round was the slow pan over Amy’s old dressing table - with her crayon drawings and the little raggedy Doctor dolls. And little raggedy Amy dolls…
I guess I’m alone in not loving it then? I really liked the bit yojimbo mentions, and some bits were funny, but it just seemed a bit too slick and gimmiccky. Some parts were positively slapstick, and I hated the hot and cold taps in the Tardis, they just seemed unnecessarily “wacky”.
Still, I’m trying to reserve judgement, as there were good bits, and see if it grows on me.
Oh, and one completely unfounded piece of speculation from me - Amelia Pond’s unseen, mysterious aunty will turn out to be River Song, if only because it seems too much of a coincidence to have one character with the first name River and the other with the surname Pond and not have them be connected in some way.
Within the first five minutes of the show, I completely bought the new guy as the Doctor. It took me several shows before I really got used to David Tennant, but Matt Smith: Boom, he’s the Doctor. It was great.
I knew the bit yojimbo was referring to before I even clicked the spoiler button.
Here’s a YouTube copy of the theme (music only, no graphics). I am not thrilled by it, but I will get used to it.
But what a wonderful episode this was! I, like many, had grave fears that a new hand would change it too much, and there was indeed some clear changes being set out, but wow, what a thrill ride!
