strange_complex (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strange_complex) wrote2010-04-03 07:38 pm
strange_complex) wrote2010-04-03 07:38 pm
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New Who 5.1: The Eleventh Hour
Knowing I didn't really have time to review this properly, I tried live-blogging it. I don't really want to make that a regular habit, as it meant that I missed quite a lot of what was going on on screen while I was writing down the last thing I'd noticed. But it was nice to have a go at it.
The results follow below:
Response to the earlier era - Moffat has the TARDIS avoid crashing into Big Ben, where RTD made a set-piece of alien ship clipping it in Aliens of London
Opening credits - I like the cloudier time-tunnel. It promises a murky, complex series. Music's not bad, too - emphasises the counter-melody (which I've always loved) and tones down the drums.
Amy first appears saying her prayers - will Christianity remain a serious part of her portrayal? (ETA: no, it won't, because she was actually praying to Santa.) It's a classic child's prayer, though - asking for things, 'back in a mo'.
Oh! Broken TARDIS is quite painful to see!
Starting with Amy as a child = reaching out to the classic target audience? An interest of Moffat's to do this - e.g. child in Silence in the Library.
Child!Amy reminds me of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pickwick - similar hair, Scottish. :-) A natural choice for Moffat to cast a Scottish actress, of course.
He pops an apple in his pocket for later - like Tennant's satsuma in The Christmas Invasion? (Uses it later to prove to Amy that he is the same person, travelling faster through time than her.)
Amelia has no parents, lives with aunt - just like Dodo!
Doc's time-line different from Amelia's - like The Girl in the Fireplace.
Is the hospital where the patients call on the Doctor the same one as used in Jon Pertwee's first story? Certainly looks quite similar.
Interesting that we meet a female Asian doctor and white male nurse in the hospital - looks like an attempt at positive portrayal of racial minorities, though undermined by fact that she is shown as closed-minded (does not believe what he says about patients).
Amy has star stud earrings just like mine!
Love her anger at his broken promise, 12 years of therapy. But do we really want a companion who is (again) on some level hung up on the Doctor, thinks their life is incomplete without him?
"What? what? what?" when he realises Amy is Amelia - but in a very different tone from David Tennant.
He liked the name Amelia - grown-up Amy says it's 'a bit fairytale'. Rejecting her childhood. Grown-up Amy is much more sceptical and cynical than child Amelia.
Rory resents Amy's interest in the Doctor - please don't be Mickey all over again!
Star-like space vehicle (Atraxi) = ref to Racnoss star?
Prisoner Zero melts and goes down drain - definitely a ref to The Three Doctors.
Amy the kiss-o-gram, Jeff looking at porn, Amy not turning back when Doc changes clothes - please let's not have Torchwood-style 'adult' content...
Conferencing on lap-top, refs to Bebo, Twitter - like Ten's 'outer space Facebook'.
Woman with children who turn out to be monsters - like monster-child in The Empty Child.
Doc wants monster to leave, rather than be captured and killed - moral stance.
Is one of the people on the computer conference Peter Capaldi? Surely not - surely he'd be in a bigger role than this? Or maybe he will recur later?
Solution is technology - computer virus and phone signal.
But monster takes Doc's form - evil twin syndrome! Seems to have tapped into Amy's obsession with the Doc to take form of her dreams.
Doc seems to use psychic abilities to turn her dreams to his advantage. So actually solution is partly his technological skill, partly his supernatural abilities. Nice - I like to see those two sides of the Doctor working together.
'Silence will fall' sounds a lot like a prophecy we should be Taking Note Of.
Shadow Proclamation, Earth as Level Five planet - drawing on past ideas about administrative systems of Whoniverse. Good.
Rory's ref to 'aliens of death' - is that a send-up of old-style story titles?
Summons aliens back to warn them off - definitely like Ten and the Sycorax. Sends them away by saying Earth isn't a threat ('mostly harmless'?), but is protected - again, like Ten saying it is defended.
Ooh - montage of past Doctors! So this new era is explicitly proclaiming from the start that it will respect the series' past - not just through oblique references, but direct on-screen visuals. Not that I'd expected anything other than respect for the past, but good to have it confirmed.
St. John's Ambulance sticker on the TARDIS door of course = One. :-)
Amy can't believe he just ran out on her... again. (Which is then reinforced by showing us child!Amy sitting glumly on her suitcase.)
Aw, but now he's back, and 'sorry about running off earlier'. He's 'run in' the newly-refurbished TARDIS, and she's ready to roll - with Amy on board.
Oops! But he's been gone two years again. Naughty Doc.
"You wanted to come 14 years ago." "I grew up." "Don't worry - I'll soon fix that." Explicit promise of taking us all back to the wonder of childhood.
Lovely play with the 'first time in the TARDIS' trope - Doc has heard it all before. And hooray for repeated refs to wardrobe, swimming pool, library. I love this aspect of the TARDIS, and am dying to see more of it.
Why on earth does she believe he'll get her back in time for 'stuff', given his previous track record?
New TARDIS is kind of H.G. Wells-ish - Victorian mad inventor vibe.
Proclaims, "I'm definitely a mad man with a box" - joy in anarchy. Fantastic.
We see her dolls and drawings - ref to fan-art? But she gets to live it for real. And it's all next to her wedding-dress! Child to adult.
Teasers for upcoming stuff looks fab! Dalek and sand-bags = Genesis of the Daleks ref? And the female Asian doctor returns - good.
In short, definitely looks promising. Moffat is referring to the past, but also positioning himself as having his own new take on the format. And Matt Smith seems just right. It's hard to judge how the adventures will pan out from this - like any opening story, it's really just about introducing the characters. But we've made a decent start.
Click here to view this entry with minimal formatting.
The results follow below:
Response to the earlier era - Moffat has the TARDIS avoid crashing into Big Ben, where RTD made a set-piece of alien ship clipping it in Aliens of London
Opening credits - I like the cloudier time-tunnel. It promises a murky, complex series. Music's not bad, too - emphasises the counter-melody (which I've always loved) and tones down the drums.
Amy first appears saying her prayers - will Christianity remain a serious part of her portrayal? (ETA: no, it won't, because she was actually praying to Santa.) It's a classic child's prayer, though - asking for things, 'back in a mo'.
Oh! Broken TARDIS is quite painful to see!
Starting with Amy as a child = reaching out to the classic target audience? An interest of Moffat's to do this - e.g. child in Silence in the Library.
Child!Amy reminds me of
pickwick - similar hair, Scottish. :-) A natural choice for Moffat to cast a Scottish actress, of course.He pops an apple in his pocket for later - like Tennant's satsuma in The Christmas Invasion? (Uses it later to prove to Amy that he is the same person, travelling faster through time than her.)
Amelia has no parents, lives with aunt - just like Dodo!
Doc's time-line different from Amelia's - like The Girl in the Fireplace.
Is the hospital where the patients call on the Doctor the same one as used in Jon Pertwee's first story? Certainly looks quite similar.
Interesting that we meet a female Asian doctor and white male nurse in the hospital - looks like an attempt at positive portrayal of racial minorities, though undermined by fact that she is shown as closed-minded (does not believe what he says about patients).
Amy has star stud earrings just like mine!
Love her anger at his broken promise, 12 years of therapy. But do we really want a companion who is (again) on some level hung up on the Doctor, thinks their life is incomplete without him?
"What? what? what?" when he realises Amy is Amelia - but in a very different tone from David Tennant.
He liked the name Amelia - grown-up Amy says it's 'a bit fairytale'. Rejecting her childhood. Grown-up Amy is much more sceptical and cynical than child Amelia.
Rory resents Amy's interest in the Doctor - please don't be Mickey all over again!
Star-like space vehicle (Atraxi) = ref to Racnoss star?
Prisoner Zero melts and goes down drain - definitely a ref to The Three Doctors.
Amy the kiss-o-gram, Jeff looking at porn, Amy not turning back when Doc changes clothes - please let's not have Torchwood-style 'adult' content...
Conferencing on lap-top, refs to Bebo, Twitter - like Ten's 'outer space Facebook'.
Woman with children who turn out to be monsters - like monster-child in The Empty Child.
Doc wants monster to leave, rather than be captured and killed - moral stance.
Is one of the people on the computer conference Peter Capaldi? Surely not - surely he'd be in a bigger role than this? Or maybe he will recur later?
Solution is technology - computer virus and phone signal.
But monster takes Doc's form - evil twin syndrome! Seems to have tapped into Amy's obsession with the Doc to take form of her dreams.
Doc seems to use psychic abilities to turn her dreams to his advantage. So actually solution is partly his technological skill, partly his supernatural abilities. Nice - I like to see those two sides of the Doctor working together.
'Silence will fall' sounds a lot like a prophecy we should be Taking Note Of.
Shadow Proclamation, Earth as Level Five planet - drawing on past ideas about administrative systems of Whoniverse. Good.
Rory's ref to 'aliens of death' - is that a send-up of old-style story titles?
Summons aliens back to warn them off - definitely like Ten and the Sycorax. Sends them away by saying Earth isn't a threat ('mostly harmless'?), but is protected - again, like Ten saying it is defended.
Ooh - montage of past Doctors! So this new era is explicitly proclaiming from the start that it will respect the series' past - not just through oblique references, but direct on-screen visuals. Not that I'd expected anything other than respect for the past, but good to have it confirmed.
St. John's Ambulance sticker on the TARDIS door of course = One. :-)
Amy can't believe he just ran out on her... again. (Which is then reinforced by showing us child!Amy sitting glumly on her suitcase.)
Aw, but now he's back, and 'sorry about running off earlier'. He's 'run in' the newly-refurbished TARDIS, and she's ready to roll - with Amy on board.
Oops! But he's been gone two years again. Naughty Doc.
"You wanted to come 14 years ago." "I grew up." "Don't worry - I'll soon fix that." Explicit promise of taking us all back to the wonder of childhood.
Lovely play with the 'first time in the TARDIS' trope - Doc has heard it all before. And hooray for repeated refs to wardrobe, swimming pool, library. I love this aspect of the TARDIS, and am dying to see more of it.
Why on earth does she believe he'll get her back in time for 'stuff', given his previous track record?
New TARDIS is kind of H.G. Wells-ish - Victorian mad inventor vibe.
Proclaims, "I'm definitely a mad man with a box" - joy in anarchy. Fantastic.
We see her dolls and drawings - ref to fan-art? But she gets to live it for real. And it's all next to her wedding-dress! Child to adult.
Teasers for upcoming stuff looks fab! Dalek and sand-bags = Genesis of the Daleks ref? And the female Asian doctor returns - good.
In short, definitely looks promising. Moffat is referring to the past, but also positioning himself as having his own new take on the format. And Matt Smith seems just right. It's hard to judge how the adventures will pan out from this - like any opening story, it's really just about introducing the characters. But we've made a decent start.
Click here to view this entry with minimal formatting.
no subject
I actually found the story because I was trying to divine the significance of the St. John's Ambulance logo. Thanks for letting me know it was a reference to a previous incarnation.
Regarding Rory... I think it's (Unfortunately) inevitable that any man romantically involved with a Companion is going to be jealous when the Doctor turns up. He's just impossible to compete with. About the only thing the Doctor doesn't have going for him is a six-figure income and huge muscles and any girl who is after a man for those things probably isn't going to be the sort of girl the Doctor finds intriguing.
The Daleks... From what I've picked up in little hints and screen-grabs, they're going to be in an episode called "Victory of the Daleks" in which they ally with the British in WW2. I saw something that looked like Spitfires in Space and the Daleks were all sporting British 40s pattern Olive webbing and Union-Jacks. Very odd. Then again, Churchill was something of an odd duck without the Doctor getting involved.
Anyway, thanks for the review/live-blog! Fingers crossed you enjoy the rest of the stories!
no subject
Yes, Hartnell's TARDIS had a quite distinct St. John's Ambulance logo - you can see it in this picture (http://johnniecraig.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/hartnell.jpg), for instance. Mind you, I've also just dragged up this page (http://www.themindrobber.co.uk/tardis-police-box.html), which suggests that real police boxes had them too. So maybe it is more about getting right back to the original item that the TARDIS was based on, rather than One's TARDIS specifically?
What you say about the Daleks would explain why there have been screen-caps around today from the teaser trailer, showing Daleks with Union Jack flags on them - I missed that bit myself, as I was typing up other things at the time! Sounds like an intriguing story-line, and good to see that this season must have more than one historical story, then (given that there's also a Van Gogh one). Historicals are a special interest of mine, so I'm very keen to see those.