Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour

[Adrian Bamforth]

Watched it this evening, and the world can breathe a sigh of relief when I declare it was excellent. The 'prisoner' plot was as thin as it needed to be to get on with the character stuff, though I loved the montage of Doctors at the end.

As a Moffat aficionado since Press Gang times, I've noticed how Moffat seems obsessed with phone technology/answer machines and writes them into every show, though it's probably the weakest part of the show here (it amused me how back in The Empty Child in the first 5 minutes he actually puts a phone in the Police Box: Genius!)

Anyway, to demonstrate my approval, and for the sake of smugness), I'll re-post here the 8 things I posted way back in the early RTD days I would have done differently to bring the show back - some can now be ticked off and others will surely follow soon, except perhaps establishing some time travel rules)

1: Start again with "An Unearthly Child"
The Eleventh Hour seemed to have allusions toward it with the young Amy plus fixing the Tardis/Tardis being made of scrapyard junk.

2: Give The Doctor an actual motivation or purpose

3: Give The Doctor an Earth connection

4: Give a proper the Time Lords a proper role

5: Establish some time travel rules

6: Keep The Tardis a bit wierd:
Constantly changing rooms and labyrinths

7: Stick close to its HG Wells roots:
Steampunk Tardis

8: Give the companion a reason to be there (Rather than just going along for the ride):
Amy already has a Doctor 'history' and unresolved issues with The Doctor.

[House of Usher]

Dodgy science update:

Mechanical clocks being reset by a computer virus? Very clever indeed.

Having watched the show a second time, I can confirm that the Doctor says the virus will affect all the clocks in the world, 'anything with a chip.' That's just not possible. I think he meant anything with a chip which is also networked to a system with an internet connection. So not the radio alarm clock on the bedside table.

[The Legendary Shark]

But he is using highly advanced code (presumably), which would allow any infected device with a transmitter (such as a satellite) to beam instructions to any chip on Earth. Maybe. Or, as he's a Time Lord, maybe the computer virus he wrote was transmitted back in time as well so that all chips are constructed to re-set on this particular date.

Or perhaps it's magic...

[Richmond Clements]

That's just not possible.

You do know he's a 900 year old alien with a Time Machine?
I think if we can accept that, then him being able to influence micro chip technology isn't too big a leap!

[House of Usher]

You do know he's a 900 year old alien with a Time Machine?
I think if we can accept that, then him being able to influence micro chip technology isn't too big a leap!

Or perhaps it's magic...

I think it's nice when fans independently come to the same conclusion.  

[TordelBack]

You do know he's a 900 year old alien with a Time Machine?
I think if we can accept that, then him being able to influence micro chip technology isn't too big a leap!

Or perhaps it's magic...

I think it's nice when fans independently come to the same conclusion.  

Unless I missed the point of all this, the virus was supposed to make everything terrestrial read 'zero' so that Prisoner Zero was the only 'non-zero' data point on the planet.  Thus 'zeroing' anything that the warders could scan from afar was the objective - and if their electronic state could be read by the bad guys, it follows they could be reset by the good guys.  After all people, Patrick Moore was in on it.  Anyone who can play the xylophone should have no trouble resetting microchips.

[House of Usher]

Unless I missed the point of all this, the virus was supposed to make everything terrestrial read 'zero' so that Prisoner Zero was the only 'non-zero' data point on the planet.

Nope. It was more mundane than that. The virus was intended to broadcast 'zero,' by means of resetting every clock to zero, to the aliens, who could then trace the origin of the virus back to the Doctor's mobile phone, whereupon Prisoner Zero would be nearby. The aliens were not capable of pinpointing Prisoner Zero as an entity at all.

[Paul faplad Finch]

Thank god for that.  What Ush said was what I thought but when Tordelback posted and no-one rushed to contradict him I was starting to think I'd completely missed the point of the whole thing. Was feeling a trifle daft.

[TordelBack]

The virus was intended to broadcast 'zero,' by means of resetting every clock to zero, to the aliens, who could then trace the origin of the virus back to the Doctor's mobile phone, whereupon Prisoner Zero would be nearby. The aliens were not capable of pinpointing Prisoner Zero as an entity at all.

Ah yes, cheers Usher, that does make a lot more sense.   Relatively speaking.

Fear not Fappers, I'm the duffer.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

I meant everybody else in the world that knows about the Doctor because he waves at them from the Titanic as it's about to crash into Buckingham Palace etc.  I thought everybody on Earth knew we had The Doctor as a Protector and prayed to him every night etc. because, you know, he can be a bit like Jesus.

Maybe everyone on Earth got tired of shouting at the telly every week that they just stopped watching like Stevie did.

Bloodnut booty in bobby's breeches?


Best.


Companion.


Introduction.


EVAH.


A crack in a child's wall reveals a flaw in the Universe? That's so high concept that Stevie's ears popped typing the preceding sentence.

& whilst we're still on the subject of breath-taking (although this post has sustained a certain state of heightened excitement from the get go) we need to address the new control room, pausing on the threshold with,

"Well I grew up."

"That can be fixed."

Now that's not only a statement of intent on Moffatt's part, but he's engaging in dialogue with C.S. Lewis there isn't he? (Cheat sheet: Susan is lost to Narnia when she becomes interested in lipstick.) Amy's "stuff" that she needs to be back for in the morning has is so obviosuly her wedding day takes the Doctor-companion relationship in whole new direction which will surely end in tears. 

Then blushing we are ushered inside &...

Previous sets have tried to embody the futuristic & the alien with varying degrees of success. Was Peter Davidson's console that appeared to be none so much as the bastard offspring of West German artist Otto Hajek's 1977 environmental sculpture from outside the Adelaide Festival Centre & Milton Bradley's Simon?**.

Moffat on the other hand seems to have taken a shin so to speak from that alluring glimpse from that alluring glimpse of that vintage control room in The Masque of Mandragora. He not so much as pushes the aesthetic in the opposite direction as toboggans it from the summit of Mt Everest with the entire Chinese population riding piggyback.


This reef of technological detritus of the Industrial Age evokes the junkyard from the opening shot of An Unearthly Child (which features another Susan)


Or, in other words, the heart of the time machine is anachronism.


Oh boy it honestly doesn't get any better than that. Other than the randy redhead chrono-crumpet in the copper clobber but you get my drift.


All & all, it felt as if  Moffat had been rummaging around in my head then sticking what he came up with on the screen with a wink & a coy, "This may be of interest."****


Stevie feels violated.


But in a nice way.


Immaculately so even.


[/rambling]


* This Acronym Really Does Invoke Sauciness. Please do keep up down in the (ahem) front please.


**On reflection this may have been a genuine design conceit to allow a child to conceivably construct their own replica from Lego. Provided that one is able to cajole Mum & Dad, Nana & Pop, aunts & uncles, etc to buy enough bricks.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

AND WHICH ONE IS SHE [spoiler]MARRYING[/spoiler] EH?

Stevie's money is on [spoiler]Geoff on having taken the Doctor's advice.[/spoiler]

(We've only seen the first two episode here in Auxtralia)