Doctor Who – Recap & Review – The Eleventh Hour

photo: bbca

Doctor Who
The Eleventh Hour

Original Air Date: Apr 17, 2010

Brittany Frederick – Staff Writer
brittanyfrederick
@thetwocentscorp.com

Here’s the moment Whovians have been waiting for (unless you saw it on an illegally downloaded torrent or happened to be at Wondercon two weeks ago): a new Doctor Who. Not just a new Doctor, but a new companion and a new head writer.

In other words, this is really and completely a brand new Who. Let’s see where it takes us, shall we?

This being Doctor Who, we open with a bang – namely right after the events of The End of Time. The TARDIS is totally out of control, and Eleven is hanging on for dear life. Cue updated title sequence and slightly revamped theme tune that I’m not sure if I like yet. When we come back, he’s crash-landed in Amy Pond’s backyard. Except she’s a kid asking way too many questions. Their first encounter is quite nonsensical, except for when he discovers the crack in her wall actually has a supernatural origin – it’s between dimensions and contains a giant eyeball. Eyeball is looking for someone he calls “Prisoner Zero,” and for an eyeball, is pretty creepy. Witnessing this is enough to convince Amy she wants to run off with him, but the Doctor has already departed, and when he does return it’s much, much later and in an even bigger panic. This is before he gets knocked unconscious, of course.

In a hospital ward, a bunch of coma patients are calling for a doctor, and we all know who they mean. Unfortunately, he’s handcuffed to a radiator by a now very much adult Amy Pond. Seems the sixth room in her house is quite messed up, and it’s hiding said Prisoner Zero, which looks like a big slimy piranha. They make the smart decision to run, during which he finds out he’s “twelve years and four psychiatrists” late, and that the threat isn’t confined to Amy Pond’s house. In fact, Eyeball is after the whole world, and the world will end in 20 minutes unless the Doctor springs into action.

He sees something amiss when he runs into the nurse from the hospital, who is equally confused because he’s just spotted one of said coma patients in the park – the patient is Prisoner Zero. The piranha is taking whatever human forms it can find, namely all the coma patients. The Doctor hijacks a laptop, creates a computer virus, and takes off again all before you can say “TARDIS.” He even steals a fire truck to boot. But he’ll need it, as Amy and her friend are trapped in the hospital with Prisoner Zero wanting to devour them. He turns up to have a nice chat with Prisoner Zero, and imparts to it that the virus is going to help the Eyeball track and apprehend it. True to form, there lands the Eyeball to pick it up. It tries to transform into Amy, but the Doctor helps her break its psychic link, which reveals the piranha’s true form and gets it picked up by the Eyeball. Not only that, but he convinces the Eyeball to never, ever come back to Earth. The Doctor has saved the day again – without his TARDIS, without his Sonic Screwdriver, and on his wits alone. Pretty darned impressive.

It’s back to the TARDIS again, now that it’s repaired, and this time he actually returns for Amy – albeit two years after the fact. He offers her the chance to be his new Companion, in a not so eloquent way, and she’s awestruck by the inside of the TARDIS (of course). Thus begins her adventures – and the Eleventh Doctor’s adventures.

For a first episode, “The Eleventh Hour” isn’t amazing but it’s pretty darn good at laying all the groundwork it needs to and introducing us to everyone we’ll get to know. As Eleven, Matt Smith is something special. He’s pretty close to David Tennant in mannerisms and even voice, so it’s really easy to believe that he’s following in Ten’s footsteps. He’s just as fun and exuberant on screen, and that gives me hope that Doctor Who won’t lose the charisma it had in the Tenth Doctor era. Karen Gillan as Amy Pond is fiesty and certainly matches wits well with Smith, but I’d like to see how she develops beyond the “tough-girl” archetype. I’m certainly excited about the new team. As a fan of Steven Moffat since Coupling, and being reminded that he brought us my favorite character in Captain Jack Harkness, I know he can drive the show to new heights. Now I know he’s picked the right team for the job.

What did you think? Leave your two cents below.

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