New Who 5.1: The Eleventh Hour

[strange_complex]

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 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.

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Comments

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

I might need an Amelie icon, hee!

Was Amelie "praying" to Santa? I thought she was!

Hitch-hikers reference! Oddly, I didn't think of it when you did, but it did occur to me earlier, at the "hello, we're demolishing your planet" bit.

Eleven totally is the mad Victorian inventor type. He reminded me of the Professor Branestawm books, somehow.

[tsdt.livejournal.com]

...and you don't disappoint - I think this has to be the Quickest Review Ever!

Happy to say that I'm right, and that Matt Smith is most definitely doing a good job so far. Glad to see that he's moved away from the trendy/attractive Who ('well-fitted' suit, good hair) of Ten and is heading a bit more towards the zany. Love the bow tie!

However, like you, I was worried about the companion-loving-the-doctor thing. Donna was a refreshing difference to that, and if we're going back to Rose and Martha, it's going to get a bit boring.

My fabourite theme by far, though, was the imaginary play mate being real. Now there's something we can all relate to and get excited about. I'm now waiting for my own personal TARDIS...

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Yes, too early to tell whether "Silence Will Fall" is the season's Bad-Wolf scenario, or whether Moffatt will be different and is just teasing us.

I wasn't especially taken with the "adult" aspects either, though they seemed more Carry-On than Torchwood to me.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I liked lots of it though David Tenant was better dressed and had better hair Matt Smith was very charismatic and makes the role different without being too "mental" especially for a regeneration episode (Peter Davidson, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy were all in different ways, pretty damn whacko or out of it post regeneration).

There were a three or four moments where I was ahead of the plot and that's super rare for me since I tend to not bother to try to think ahead so I guess there's a lot of very obvious clueing (the "that's the little girl", "that's not a real policeman", "it also knows how to look like the doctor" moments at least I think there were a couple more too).

[xipuloxx.livejournal.com]

I wanted to post myself before reading anyone else's comments. Yours were the first I read. You've clearly thought about it much more intellectually than I have as of yet, I was too busy enjoying the ride.

Though there obviously are a lot of references to previous stories, I think some of the similarities you spotted are just coincidence -- but you may well be right about the Three Doctors one, which didn't occur to me at all!

"Music's not bad, too - emphasises the counter-melody (which I've always loved) and tones down the drums."

I thought the drums were pounding louder than ever, actually! I found them really quite distracting. Other than that I liked it.

"please let's not have Torchwood-style 'adult' content..."

Not a chance. All of it in this episode is deliberately written to seem fairly innocent to kids; we can guess Jeff's been looking at porn, but it's never explicit. A kissogram is explained as someone who dresses up and kisses people for a living (which, to a child, is undoubtedly just one among many strange things adults do). And as for Amy not looking away -- again, adults see that as sexual, whereas children will just see her being a bit naughty! It all works on both levels, and utterly lacks the sniggering, adolescent crassness that marred Torchwood's "adult" content. Thank goodness.

"A natural choice for Moffat to cast a Scottish actress, of course."

Apparently she's actually Karen Gillan's cousin. Makes sense!

"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)."

Or, alternatively, she's just cast in the standard "overly-sensible adult who refuses to believe the child's 'crazy' story" role -- I know Rory isn't a child, but that's how their relationship resonates for me. And of course, what he's telling her turns out to be one and the same as Amy's childhood story which no-one believed.

"Why on earth does she believe he'll get her back in time for 'stuff', given his previous track record?"

Because she wants to believe that. She really wants to go with him, just like she did as a child. But now, as an adult, she can't just pack a case and go; she has responsibilities. But if she has plausible deniability; if she can say "well, he promised..." than it's okay. Rory may be quite cross when she returns. :^D

[primitivepeople.livejournal.com]

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...

Very much my own thoughts. I was particularly disappointed in Amy's career depiction here - it would have been so much better, and so much more positive, to have her portrayed as something much more intelligent, strong and mature - although we still don't know much about what's going on. Extra income to fund studies, perhaps? I don't know, but I hope it's not all there is to her.

[(Anonymous)]

"Prisoner Zero melts and goes down drain - definitely a ref to The Three Doctors."

Or a reference to the Master's form early in the movie (8th doctor)? The snake-like creature is similar too.

A couple of other old series references:

The Doctor's grabbing of clothes in a changing room is exactly what the 3rd Doctor did, as I recall.

Did you see, amongst all the New Series monsters in the monsters montage, a shot of a Sea Devil?

[hexapuma.livejournal.com]

Thanks for doing this review! I always find it amusing when people write their thoughts down as the show's going on.

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!

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Was I wrong, or did the Doctor's ID have a picture of Hartnell?

I really enjoyed it - it seemed to me that 11 combines some of the best features of 9 and 10.

Liked Amelia, and think the choice of Kiss-o-Gram girl spoke more to her doing what it takes to make ends meet than otherwise -- another Plucky one.

Re the Asian doctor: I think it's a tough call. if she had listened to Rory, then the dynamic becomes "woman doctor's professional opinion swayed by male nurse" or worse, "Asian woman doctor's opinion swayed by white male nurse."