Wasn’t Series 4 also on BBCA? It was the first one I actually watched on TV, as I recall–the others I had to catch up on with Netflix–and I was pretty sure it was on BBC America.
It looks like BBC-A will keep posting at least an abridged Confidential after the episodes air, though. Hopefully they’ll kick it up to the full episode going forward.
Here’s my awful, terrible guess about the meaning of “silence will fall”: At some point, the Doctor and Amy are going to meet up with one Mr. Lentz. His first name is Cyrus, but all of his friends call him Cy. Because Amy’s so stunning, he’s going to fall for her. And the Doctor has to split them up because Cyrus and Amy would go on to have a child who destroys the universe.
It was on BBCA but SciFi had it first.
This. That was a great line. And Amy - aside from being smokin’ hot (albeit in that pasty British haven’t-seen-the-sun-in-six-months way) seems like a great companion in the Sarah Jane Smith/Leela tradition - tough, intelligent, and not especially intimidated by the Doctor.
One thing confused me, though - the Doctor’s use of cellphones and computers. Now, the last time I regularly watched Doctor Who was back in the late eighties, so I’m only familar with Tom Baker, Peter Davison, and Colin Baker; but I don’t remember the Doc being so au courant with Earth technology. Hacking into a satellite call, creating a virus, and running it on Twitter, Facebook, etc. seemed somehow nonDoctorish. (Even making a joke about Internet porn, fer crissakes!) I didn’t dislike it, but it seemed odd.
Good episode, though, especially when you consider that every first episode of a new Doctor is essentially a pilot.
He’s the Doctor. He’s master of all technology, and what he doesn’t know he can figure out in just a couple of minutes.
Just don’t’ Blink.
Huge Tennant fan here. He’s what got us hooked on Doctor Who and since first seeing him, we’ve gone back and watched every episode since the “reboot.” We were very skeptical of the new Doctor. However after watching the first episode, I am a fan. I like Smith better when he’s acting as the Doctor than when they interview him as himself.
Also enjoyed the new companion Amy Pond. Her hair color and the fact that it appears she too is a Runaway Bride reminds me very much of younger Donna Noble. I’m sure as the series continues that comparison will diminish.
My favorite companion was Martha Jones. I think part of that of that attraction is not only to her looks but also because I felt sorry for her because of the unrequited feelings she had for The Doctor.
It’s one thing to be able to figure out a cellphone or a laptop; it’s another to be aware of the existence of Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. Like I said, it didn’t bother me - it just seemed novel.
Bearing in mind that I’ve missed every Doctor between Colin Baker and the last three episodes of David Tennant. There is quite a lot of the Whoniverse I’m not familar with.
I don’t remember Eccleston’s or Tennant’s Doctor getting into social media, but that just means he learned it in-between episodes 
I suppose any of the Doctors could have spend some time in 2010, as long as it didn’t cross another Doctor.
The Doctors have crossed themselves before. Actually, I’d love an episode with Davison, McCoy, Baker (Collin, I doubt Tom would want to reprise his role), and Eccleston all together.
Okay - I loved Matt Smith as the doctor. By now, I guess I should stop being nervous about ‘the new guy’, as they all seem to be terrific in totally different ways. The ‘do what I tell you, don’t run off’ stuff was hilarious - has he ever told a companion those things quite so early before? And I loved the way he was constantly reacting to his regeneration.
Oh, and the food sequence at the start was hilarious, especially ending up with the fish fingers and custard, and how it led into the line about ‘that must be a very scary crack in your wall.’
Young Abigail Pond was very charming, and of course it was easy to see how they were leading up to a time jump where he’d accidentally jump forward in her life, (which reminded me of ‘the girl in the fireplace.’) Meeting Amy in the policewoman’s getup was very nicely done too, I think - I actually believed that she was a constable, though the outfit should have been a clue, and loved the reveal with ‘I’m a kissogram!’
I think I do agree that Amy seems so far to be a mix of Donna’s independent spirit with a dash of Rose’s sweeter personality. Loved the bit with her locking the Doctor’s tie in the car door to get answers out of him, and it was very cool to be meeting a regenerated Doctor and a new companion at the same time - the first time that’s happened since Eccleston and Piper. Actually, that moment with the car seemed oddly like the ‘feel the Earth turning’ scene between Eccleston and Piper, though with more of an element of danger and urgency mixed in.
Now, somehow I managed to miss the fact that like all DW season premieres, this was more than an hour long, and only set the DVR for 9-10 on saturday night. (As well as the ‘complete guide to doctor who’ special or whatever, which I haven’t seen yet.) So it cut off right about when Amy and her boyfriend were figuring out that the woman and girls in the hospital were the shifter. I managed to find the rest of the episode on a streaming site that would let a Canadian boy watch it, (spacecast.com,) but it was a bit annoying going back to streaming-video quality from the tv dvr. Oh well. Serves me right for not checking the running time!
There seems to be a tradition developing that each new Doctor has to save the planet Earth in a particularly kick-ass way before we can see much of his more sensitive side - Eccleston kicked plastic mannequin butt and took names, Tennant dueled with swords and grew a fightin’ hand on a spaceship hovering over London, and now we have Smith - creating a computer virus that the aliens are supposed to trace back to their source, tricking the shape-shifter into imitating its own natural form, and then getting the alien prison guards to run from planet Earth in terror - all in twenty minutes, with no screwdriver and no TARDIS. Mighty impressive.
I’ll definitely be tuning in this weekend!
Just watched The Beast Below. I cried. Over an imaginary space whale. I mean, I sobbed. Both when it looked like the Doctor was going to kill it, and (with joy) when Amy figured out how to save it. God, I am such a sap. Need I say that I loved this episode?
Thought the Doctor was a touch dense not to figure “Liz 10” out sooner than he did, though. “I’m the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule.”
Curious about that little crack in the hull, though. And, now that I think of it, when did Amy record that message to herself? And for that matter, why? From some… alternative timeline where she didn’t figure out how to save the creature, was dropped off back home the next day, and recorded the message to herself then? Very interesting…
Thought The Beast Below was interesting. Not great, but interesting.
Is the crack the same as the one in the wall?
A companion’s friend, with instructions from Nine, once hacked into a Royal Navy submarine to fire a missile at the Monster of the Week.
Yep. Looks like it’s a seasonal theme, along with “silence falls”.
Right before she hit the “forget” button she hit the “record” button. They didn’t show it for the same reason they didn’t show what she saw, to create suspense and mystery until later.
I thought for sure her mask would mean she was somebody we already knew. I was convinced it would be River Song. But nope…
I’m still working on getting used to this Doctor; I think he is too, though.
I love Amy. I even prefer her to Rose; she’s up there with Leela and Romana II IMO.
And Moffat is so much better than Davies it ain’t funny. Again, IMO; no flames please.
Yeah - something about the way that was filmed was jarring to me, though - the way it was fastforwarded through gave me the impression that all of the details were imprinted into her head with futuristic tech and she hit the ‘forget’ button in a moment of panicked overload, not that she watched it and had time to make a recording to herself.
On the other hand - if citizens are routinely allowed to record messages to themselves after they ‘vote’ - are the messages censored to make sure that they don’t leave clues for themselves? I mean, the dichotomous choice indicates to me that they don’t want the non-protesters to remember, not just that they assume any who tolerate the status quo won’t want to remember.
I actually spoiled myself somewhat by peeking into this thread and reading the first reply, but I enjoyed the episode enormously anyway. Still not quite sure how the seasonal theme is going to shape up.
One interesting little observation - is the reason the computer couldn’t tell Amy her marital status because it would be a paradox? (Since in her timeline, she hasn’t made the choice yet.) So there’s a convenient bad sector in the thousand-year old records, to save the integrity of the time-space continuum.
And how great that Amy’s intuitive mind was able to save the Doctor from becoming the lesser of three evils - by recognizing that the space whale was the same as him, deep down.
Question - has any other incarnation of the Doctor ever ever claimed that he ‘just watches and doesn’t interfere’?
I can’t wait to get back to writing my Doctor Who crossover fanfic once Script Frenzy ends. (And I’m a little disappointed now that I set it with D10/Rose - it would be an interesting fit with D11/Amy - except that I’m not as comfortable with their voices yet.)
I took it in the same spirit as “I’ll do what I always do: Stay out of trouble… badly.”
Well, the first Doctor did say that “You can’t change history, not even one line!” As he must have known that you can in fact change history in the show, he must have meant that time-travelers shouldn’t intervene in others’ affairs when time-traveling. One way or another this didn’t last long.